I need suggestions about a setup CD layout for non technical users.
My software is deployed on a CD with a setup.exe bootstrapper and a MSI file. There are also several dependency files used by the installer. The CD root looks something like this:
myapp.msi
setup.exe
sqlexpr32.exe
dotnetfx.exe
myapp.ico
...
It is not rocket science for a developer guessing that the file you need to run in order to begin the installation is setup.exe.
But my users are definitely not as tech-savvy.
I have included an autorun.inf file, but I have found after testing in several machines that most of them do not automatically launch the setup. For whatever reason. In some machines somebody has disabled autorun, or some antivirus software, or whatever. The thing is that I cannot rely on autorun being available at all times.
So I'm thinking making changes to the CD layout in order to make more obvious which file has to be run.
One option is to make a new Install.exe program that just launches the original bootstrapper, and moving everything to a folder in the root of the CD:
autorun.inf <-- launches Install.exe, if autorun is enabled for the drive.
Install.exe <-- launches contents/setup.exe
contents/myapp.msi
contents/setup.exe
contents/sqlexpr32.exe
contents/dotnetfx.exe
contents/myapp.ico
contents/...
As I cannot yet rely on the .net framework being present, I cannot use .net to make my Install.exe and that is kind of annoying.
Other option is making a Install.bat but most users are not familiar with the .bat extension and might not think about double-clicking it. And the user would see a command prompt window.
Other option is making a self-extracting exe and compressing everything inside, so the only files in the CD would be the autorun.inf and the self-extracting file.
What would you do?
Other option is making a Install.bat but most users are not familiar with the .bat extension and might not think about double-clicking it. And the user would see a command prompt window.
You could create a shortcut to the Install.bat and give it a pretty icon and a nicer name. You can also make it start minimised, so they probably wouldn't notice the command prompt appearing briefly.
EDIT: (By Sergio Acosta)
I found out how to solve the relative path issue:
This is how the shortcut should be configured:
Target: %windir%\system32\cmd.exe "/C start contents\setup.exe"
Start in: %cd%
Run: Minimized
Icon: %SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll (and manually select the one that looks like a setup package.
I have tested it and it works.
Keep it simple, instead of thinking to much of the layout, go by conventions and leave the setup.exe or install.exe and provide a README.txt file where they can find installation instructions. Most users will choose install.exe or setup.exe and other will probably read the txt.
Put a big sticker on the CD that reads "Run Setup.exe".
I think that the simplest option you have mentioned, to make a new Install.exe program that just launches the original bootstrapper, and having nothing else except the Autorun at the root of the CD, is the best choice.
One icon = no options. Can't really do better than this.
Though I like the solution with the shortcuts, it may be an alternative also to use the free "Bat To Exe Converter".
This way your users will see a standard-looking EXE with any custom icon you want. Plus you can configure it to be run invisible so there won't even be a minimized CMD box.
Related
now I'm currently using Visual Studio Code and I wanted to make the terminal use babun instead of the default cmd.exe
In fact, I have already managed to do that in theory - the problem is that, unlike with cmd.exe, the directory that I'm in upon starting the terminal is no longer the currently open project, it's just simply /home/myusername (i.e. a path in babun's directory tree).
This kinda sucks, since I don't really want to navigate to my directory every time.
Next, I also found out how to tell babun (in my case, zsh.exe) to use a default directory such as C:/ by adding cd /cygdrive/c to the end of .zshrc - Unfortunately, that's not what I want either, since I don't want babun to always use the same directory.
Now I figured that, seeing as this would be the most comfortable option with VSC*, there might be some console argument that tells zsh.exe to use a specific directory. Sadly, I couldn't find anything, hence this question.
Weirdly enough
Anyone know how to help me out? Appreciate the help :)
*VSC allows you to specify the path to your shell, as well as an array of arguments that will be passed.
You could place your directory into a cmd file and run it as a shell:
d:
#rem note that's important to change the drive 'permanently'
cd d:\home
zsh.exe
And then specify this cmd file as shell to invoke.
Open the desired directory in a file explorer, right click, then select Open Babun here.
Babun currently does not natively support a command line parameter specifying the directory to launch in.
However, there is a pull request in the Babun GitHub which solves the issue. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be likely to be accepted anytime soon, though.
To gain access to the feature manually, check out the pull request.
This following code in my bat file copy's the bat file while it's running into a correct directory in windows 7 but when I convert it to a exe script it no longer works.
Can any one suggest a alternative ? Or any suggestions to why?
if not exist "%programfiles%\toolset\" (
md "%programfiles%\toolset\"
copy "%~f0" "%programfiles%\toolset\"
)
can any one else help I'm pretty sure it's not my converter tool I use as I have tried all the ones listed below but I think the script needs editing for it to function as exe application?
You can try the following nice tool
http://www.battoexeconverter.com/
since you are accessing programfiles you need to be admin
To do this run the cmd in admin mode and try to execute in command line
Download this tool. It works well.
Bat2Exe
You can add administrator manifest to run as administrator when opening the exe file.
I am a batch programmer just like you.
Personally I use this tool;
http://www.f2ko.de/programs.php?lang=en&pid=ob2e
Nice tool, only requires a download, used it multiple times, never dissappointed me, and it is very legit, have no doubts about it!
Pringles
I have created a shortcut for my program (under Windows 7), whose target is in a sub-directory. But when I zip everything and send it to my colleague, the shortcut wont work because it the target directory cannot be found, it is like:
Target: C:\Users\my_user_name\Desktop\my_program\sub_directory\my_program.exe
and the shortcut is in C:\Users\my_user_name\Desktop\my_program\
When I send it to another PC, my_user_name directory cannot be found and shortcut doesnt work. How to solve this?
Create a batch file that launches the program. You can then use a relative path.
e.g.
C:\Users\my_user_name\Desktop\my_program\launch.cmd
cd sub_directory
start my_program.exe
possible solutions:
place the program with the exe on disk like c:\program\programname\ Location must be the same on all computers.
place the program with the exe on the network where you can both access, shortcut is the same
edit the shortcut in notepad and change the user
For example, I have 2 exe's. Let's call them 1.exe and 2.exe, to keep it simple.
And I want to make a zip file, with 3 things in it, 1.exe, 2.exe and setup.bat.
First off, I want to know that the user is okay that we start the first exe (1.exe). So we type:
#echo off
cls
echo Are you sure you want to install 1.exe?
echo If not, click exit right now. If you are okay with it,
pause
Here comes the first question. So we want to start 1.exe. How do I start 1.exe, that is in the same folder as the bat file?
Okay, lets continue. When 1.exe is finished, I want to copy 2.exe, place it in %appdata%, and then add it to startup. And that's the second question. How do i do that.
So the questions are:
How do I start 1.exe, which is in the same map as setup.bat
How do I copy 2.exe which is in the same map as setup.bat to %appdata%
How do I properly add 2.exe which is in %appdata% now to startup?
Note: Just using C:\documents and settings\all users\desktop\1.exe isn't going to work. I want it to work in all sorts of languages, and in some languages the folders might be called different.
1.exe will run 1.exe, just like on the command line.
copy 2.exe %appdata% will copy 2.exe.
I don't know what question 3 means.
Define "work in all sorts of languages"? If you need to pass in an argument to the batch file, do so: http://commandwindows.com/batch.htm
You are right you should never hard code "Documents and Settings" or "Program Files" in a BAT file, because these folder names don't "work in all sorts of languages". You need to refer to them using special folder ids or environment variables.
In your case, you need to create a program shortcut (.LNK file) in the startup folder. There are two parts.
creating a shortcut. Unfortunately there is no way to create a shortcut using only windows commands. You need to rely on a third party tool, there are many free command line tools that may do it; or write your own.
locating the Startup folder and placing the shortcut there. There are two startup folders. The common startup and the user startup folder. Choose one. Then, you need to use either the %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp or the %USERPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp.
So putting all pieces together in your SETUP.BAT , it would look something like this...
#echo off
echo Are you sure you want to install 1.exe?
echo If not, click exit right now. If you are okay with it,
pause
1
copy 2.exe %appdata%
makelink %appdata%\2.exe %USERPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp\2.lnk
One suggestion. Avoid all this mess. It seems to me that you need to install a program. If so, I'd recommend you to try Inno Setup. http://www.jrsoftware.org/ .
Inno Setup is a free installer for Windows. First introduced in 1997, Inno Setup today rivals and even surpasses many commercial installers in feature set and stability.
...
Supports creation of a single EXE to install your program for easy online distribution. Disk spanning is also supported.
Standard Windows 2000/XP-style wizard interface.
Customizable setup types, e.g. Full, Minimal, Custom.
Complete uninstall capabilities.
Installation of files: Includes integrated support for "deflate", bzip2, and 7-Zip LZMA/LZMA2 file compression. The installer has the ability to compare file version info, replace in-use files, use shared file counting, register DLL/OCX's and type libraries, and install fonts.
Creation of shortcuts anywhere, including in the Start Menu and on the desktop.
Creation of registry and .INI entries.
Running other programs before, during or after install.
...
This should do what you want.
#echo off
cls
echo Are you sure you want to install 1.exe?
echo If not, click exit right now. If you are okay with it,
pause
start /wait 1.exe
xcopy 2.exe %appdata% /y
reg add HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run /v "2" /d %appdata%\2.exe
The last line will make a reg entry instead of copying it to the startup folder which will not create a shortcut on the desktop and you don't need anything more than batch.
It is very stupid that windows will not let you add batch files to your quick launch or whatever they call in in windows 7. That bar across the bar, i can attach firefox there, command prompt, even paint (my favorite), but not a batch file. I can "pin" it to another program, which is just weird. I want it to standalone, the batch file does enough work by itself.
So lets say i have batch file. What is the simplest executable program I can write to invoke said script. Then I can finally pin all my useful batch files on that quick-jump-pin-bar.
If I remember right, you can do this by first pinning a shortcut to CMD.exe to the taskbar. Then edit the command, and change CMD.exe to CMD.exe /c MyBatchFile.bat. I believe this will execute the batch file.
Since you can only pin one cmd, here's an alternative, assuming you have the .NET framework installed - a very simple C# application:
Populate a textfile with the following contents:
class Program {
static void Main() {
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(#"c:\test.bat");
}
}
where Program is the name of the executable you want to create, and c:\test.bat is the full path to the batch file. Save the file as Program.cs. Execute the following from the command line:
c:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\csc.exe Program.cs
You can replace 2.0.50727 with whatever directory exists on your machine - might be 1.1.something or 3.5 or 4.0.something - it's all the same for this scenario.
This will generate Program.exe. You can put that exe file wherever you want, and pin that executable to the taskbar. You can discard the .cs file once you're done making your executables.
Kind of a crappy solution, but it should work, assuming you don't find anything better. And if you don't have the .NET framework (which I'm not sure is even possible in Windows 7), you can install it pretty easily.
The easiest way is to create a folder, put your batch files in it, and pin the folder to the menu bar :D
You can also write a startup script, so the batch file will be executed on startup, but I don't know if you want to run those scripts on every bootup... You can also add the command prompt to the bar, and edit the startup path..
Use command switches on CMD.exe.
cmd.exe /c "myscript.bat"
As a sort of workaround you could use the following trick. Pin an arbitrary application to the task bar, Shift+right click on the pinned icon, select Properties, change 'Target' and 'Start in' accordingly. Rename it too if you like.
You can pin more than one .bat file using this technique.