Conventions for installing programs

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I am about to release my first commercial app and would like some pointers
on install conventions. I am using SetupBuilder 7.1 but these are more
generic questions. First up, the installation paths for program and data.
Given that Windows seems to be getting more picky about where things
install, should we continue to make these paths options in the install? In
other words, should we just force the installs to whatever path the users OS
wants, or should we continue to show the path and allow the user to change
it? For my betas I have been allowing the user to select the path but I am
leaning towards locking to the OS suggested path for production. Any
suggestions?

Frank

[NewsArchive]

Default to the standard (a folder you create inside of c:\program files or
whatever it is on the user's machine -- SetupBuilder will resolve
%PROGRAMFILESDIR% to that path) but allow the user the option to put it
somewhere else if he wants.

That's standard behavior that users expect.

Jane

[NewsArchive]

That is where I am now, guess I will leave that part the way it is and work
on something else.

Frank

[NewsArchive]

Frank,

Data all depends. During the install, you might like to give the user the
option (install for all users of this pc, or the current user). Depending on
selection, will depend on which data store you using (AppData or
CommonAppData).

You'd need a registry setting that SB7.1 writes to, that your app reads to
determine which location to use the data.

It comes a little more tricky if you have a network wide installation. Then
you'd need a 3rd option and get the user to point to the data dir (on
another local machine).

--
Geoff (Capesoft)

www.capesoft.com
The Capesoft inside scoop: http://twitter.com/geoffthomson