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View Full Version : (Your) New Year's Resolution - Integrity!



NewsArchive
01-08-2010, 03:02 AM
Like a typical member of a certain political party (I'll leave it to your
own prejudices to project which one <g>) I'm going to suggest to you a
resolution for the new year so that you will become a better person.

Not a resolution for moi, of course... as it's something I've been doing
for several years (sounds of back being patted).

The Internet is a wonderful thing (thank you, Al Gore!). But it has its
moments of caprice. And during one of those, something downloaded may go
slightly awry.

Somebody downloading your installer may experience a hiccup during download.
If he does, your installer will likely choke when he goes to run it on his
system.

Yes, if he thinks to look at the digital signature before running your
installer, he'll be able to tell there's a problem with the installer.

But how many people do that? (I purchased and downloaded an SB-installed
product some time back onto an XP machine. The download was corrupt.
Because it was XP, I didn't get an "unsigned" Vista/Win7 UAC warning screen.
I tried installing the product. It got part way through the installation
before it crashed. After I figured out what was happening and re-downloaded
the product, I couldn't install it because the crashed first attempt had
written a license file that was no longer valid. I had to contact the
vendor for help getting things sorted out.)

In that corrupt downloads will only happen to certain people under certain
circumstances, you can have just occasional customer support issues that are
hard to explain (scan back through the past year or two of such messages on
this NG for some examples). You may also have customers who try your
download as a demo, have a problem, and then just reject the product
outright.

SetupBuilder can save you these aggravations. But only if you tell it to.

I'm referring, of course, to the "Enable Installer Integrity Check" option.

The documentation says "You should use this option only when your setup will
be downloaded and run from an unreliable source such as the Internet. There
is no need to use this option for floppy or CD-ROM installs. "
Nonsense! Use it All The Time! (Have you never burned a faulty CD???)
It will slightly slow down the loading of your installer, because the
installer needs to scan itself and make sure it's intact.
(But your installer will still load 92,332.55 times faster than an MSI!!)

Over the past years, I've gotten questions every few months from somebody
saying one of my installers said its integrity check failed. It's so
convenient to know what the problem is and just to tell him to download it
again, rather than wasting time chasing phantoms.

I wish this were turned on by default in SB, but it isn't. So I suggest you
make it a habit to turn it on each time you create a new project.

So be good, and maintain your integrity ;-)

Jane

NewsArchive
01-08-2010, 03:05 AM
Jane,

> So be good, and maintain your integrity ;-)

Personally I'd cast a ballot to turn it on by default.

I just verified the status in my recent product installs and it's on
in all of them. I doubt I even read the docs... the option name
sounded like a good thing so I went with it!<g>

--
Lee White

Enroll Today at http://CWaddons.com

Reports....: http://www.cwaddons.com/products/rpm/
Free Review: http://www.clarionmag.com/cmag/v11/v11n06rpm.html
Faxing.....: http://www.cwaddons.com/products/afe/

NewsArchive
01-08-2010, 03:06 AM
Its one of those options which might be best switched on by default when
ever you start a new project as it would save alot of aggro in some cases
for some.

Maybe Friedrich can change this for us in a future release?<g>

Richard Rose

NewsArchive
01-08-2010, 03:06 AM
I too always try to remember to set it.
Much less Support work.

Edvard Korsbæk

NewsArchive
01-09-2010, 03:14 AM
I have always turned verification ON with all of my installs. I
believe I suggested to Friedrich quite some time ago that he should
always have this turned on by default, but not sure if this is the
case in the current release.

Friedrich, are you listening to this thread???
-- Roger Due

NewsArchive
01-11-2010, 02:10 AM
Roger,

> I have always turned verification ON with all of my installs. I
> believe I suggested to Friedrich quite some time ago that he should
> always have this turned on by default, but not sure if this is the
> case in the current release.
>
> Friedrich, are you listening to this thread???

Yes, I am listening :)

I have added a new option to the Tools | Options | Preferences in SB71. If
it is marked, the "Enable Installer Integrity Check" option is enabled by
default for new projects.

Thanks,
Friedrich

--
Friedrich Linder
Lindersoft
www.lindersoft.com
+1.954.252.3910

SetupBuilder is Windows 7 installation -- "point. click. ship"

-- Official Comodo Code Signing and SSL Certificate Partner

NewsArchive
01-11-2010, 02:11 AM
Friedrich,

> I have added a new option to the Tools | Options | Preferences in SB71. If
> it is marked, the "Enable Installer Integrity Check" option is enabled by
> default for new projects.

And it didn't hurt much at all, did it?!<g>

Thank you.

--
Lee White

Enroll Today at http://CWaddons.com

Reports....: http://www.cwaddons.com/products/rpm/
Free Review: http://www.clarionmag.com/cmag/v11/v11n06rpm.html
Faxing.....: http://www.cwaddons.com/products/afe/

NewsArchive
01-11-2010, 02:11 AM
Lee,

>
> And it didn't hurt much at all, did it?!<g>
>

<VBG> :)

Friedrich

NewsArchive
01-11-2010, 02:12 AM
Hi Jane,

> So be good, and maintain your integrity ;-)

_I_ think that this one should be checked by default!

Best regards,

--
Arnór Baldvinsson - Icetips Alta LLC
Port Angeles, Washington
www.icetips.com - www.buildautomator.com - www.altawebworks.com

Icetips product subscriptions at http://www.icetips.com/subscribe.php

NewsArchive
02-04-2010, 02:55 AM
Hi Friedrich

> I have added a new option to the Tools | Options | Preferences in SB71.
> If it is marked, the "Enable Installer Integrity Check" option is enabled
> by default for new projects.

Just a quick note, in 7.1.2860 its not enabled in Tools, Options,
Preferences Tab and thus doesnt cascade down to new projects. <g>

Cheers

Richard

NewsArchive
02-04-2010, 02:56 AM
Hi Richard,

>> I have added a new option to the Tools | Options | Preferences in SB71.
>> If it is marked, the "Enable Installer Integrity Check" option is enabled
>> by default for new projects.
>
> Just a quick note, in 7.1.2860 its not enabled in Tools, Options,
> Preferences Tab and thus doesnt cascade down to new projects. <g>

Yes, and that's corrct <g>

If the "Enable Installer Integrity Check Verification for New Projects" IDE
option in Tools | Options | Preferences is marked, then the "Enable
Installer Integrity Check" option in new projects is automatically enabled
;-)

But the "Enable Installer Integrity Check Verification for New Projects"
option in Tools | Options | Preferences is disabled by default!

Friedrich

NewsArchive
02-04-2010, 02:56 AM
Hi Friedrich

> But the "Enable Installer Integrity Check Verification for New Projects"
> option in Tools | Options | Preferences is disabled by default!

Ah, my mistake I thought the Tools, Option, Preferences, Integrity option
was going to be Enabled as default as well.<g>

Mind you I think it would still be handy to have that option enabled by
default as well though, afterall its not much of an overhead ie no increase
in file size just the initial time checking the installer contents are ok
and its better to be preventative or defensive towards any potential
problems than not.

Anyway JMO.<g>

Cheers

Richard

NewsArchive
02-04-2010, 04:56 AM
Hi Richard,

>> But the "Enable Installer Integrity Check Verification for New Projects"
>> option in Tools | Options | Preferences is disabled by default!
>
> Ah, my mistake I thought the Tools, Option, Preferences, Integrity option
> was going to be Enabled as default as well.<g>
>
> Mind you I think it would still be handy to have that option enabled by
> default as well though, afterall its not much of an overhead ie no
> increase in file size just the initial time checking the installer
> contents are ok and its better to be preventative or defensive towards
> any potential problems than not.
>
> Anyway JMO.<g>

<G>

Sometimes it's "suboptimal" to have installer integrity checking enabled.
For example, if you develop helper tools (10%-15% of all applications
developed with SetupBuilder are non-installer products). Or if you are
performing Authenticode verification from within the installer itself (see
attached screenshot) -- in this case, Windows does the verification. Or
if you let SetupBuilder package the generated .exe installer into a .zip
or .msi.

But once you have the "Enable Installer Integrity Check Verification for New
Projects" option in Tools | Options | Preferences enabled, it stays enabled
(until you disable it <g>).

Friedrich

--
Friedrich Linder
Lindersoft
www.lindersoft.com
+1.954.252.3910

SetupBuilder is Windows 7 installation -- "point. click. ship"

-- Official Comodo Code Signing and SSL Certificate Partner

NewsArchive
02-05-2010, 03:17 AM
Friedrich,
I would still vote to have YOU enable this by default and let those
who really don't want this to disable it. Unfortunately, too many
people don't think of this. If during their testing they decide that
they don't want this default action, then they can disable it. But in
my way of thinking it is always better to have this enabled by
default. How about it?
-- Thanks, Roger Due

NewsArchive
02-06-2010, 03:16 AM
Hi Roger

I agree which is why I bought this up but Friedrich has explained what I
didnt know, but I think the majority would benefit from it however Friedrich
has the accurate breakdown of customer useage outside of the Clarion world
so he's probably going with the majority requirement on this option. <g>

Cheers

Richard