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Writing a setup package?

...then why don't you go with the flow and name it SETUP.EXE just like everyone else?

Seriously, it seems as though every team on GDN firmly believes that their project is the first and only application that I will ever need to download.  Why invest 10 seconds renaming it to something meanful when that time could be spent doing something truly profound such as posting off-topic weblog rants? ;)

Added:  Clemens, if your SETUP.EXE is inside an APPNAME.ZIP archive, it gets my personal stamp of naming approval, which is accepted almost everywhere American Express is. Almost.

Published Saturday, October 25, 2003 1:51 PM by Addys
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Comments

# re: Writing a setup package?

Saturday, October 25, 2003 2:40 PM by Scott Galloway
Possibly a little harsh; you are getting it for free after all...and you do of course have the option of just saving it with a different name.

# re: Writing a setup package?

Saturday, October 25, 2003 2:58 PM by Thomas Tomiczek
Fully agreed upon. Careless developers.

And you can just rename the name in the settings once.

But for this, you would have to care.

# re: Writing a setup package?

Saturday, October 25, 2003 3:10 PM by Clemens Vasters
What is it you want me to do? My stuff is in a .zip and contains a .msi -- appropriately named.

# re: Writing a setup package?

Saturday, October 25, 2003 3:30 PM by Derek Stone
If you have a product named "Foobar" it isn't too much of a stretch to name the setup application "Foobar.v1.2.exe". Installations that are aptly named are much easier to find in the user's downloads directory/drive and in addition it is easier to store multiple versions of an installation without confusion as to which one is which.

# re: Writing a setup package?

Saturday, October 25, 2003 10:12 PM by Doug Ferguson
I read somewhere in MSDN a few years ago that Windows watches for programs called Setup.exe or Install.exe and does soemthing special with the dlls that you install onto the system. I think that the section even recommended that all setups should be called Setup.exe or Install.exe. It does seem prudent to put your Setup.exe file in a well named zip file for download.

# re: Writing a setup package?

Sunday, October 26, 2003 6:16 AM by Frans Bouma
Naming a setup of an application 'Setup.exe' is IMHO stupid. Today we have .msi files. Distribute the .msi, like MyApp.msi. That's all there is to know. Doubleclick the msi file and the installer starts. No extra files necessary PLUS the installer package has the name of the app, so you can store more than 1 in 1 directory. :)
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