Wanted: Installer Program
Tuesday, 16 June 2009 15:03

There's some great freeware out there. Now how about some great installer program to match?

There's a bunch of great freeware out there for FSX and FS9 (and earlier). I only guess has to how many millions of man-hours it took to produce such vast libraries as you'd find at an AVSIM or FlighSim.com. Some authors take it to such a high level, that it rivals - if not beats - payware. They do it for one reason - to give back to the community (and positive feedback doesn't hurt either).

 

It's a shame that some of it, despite being downloaded, never gets installed.

It's not due to lack of trying; it's due to lack of being such a pain in the rear. 

Typically, an author will include a readme.txt file explaining where to place a variety of files and folders. For beginners (even somewhat experienced users) this can be a frustrating task. You thought you followed the directions, so you boot up FSX, load that snappy new download and find - there is no panel. So you quit FSX, re-read the readme.txt, and try to find the ill-place panel folder, think you've found it, and then put it where you think it goes, get back into FSX and try again. Still no panel. Frustrated you move on to your favorite 172. Not IT has no panel! 

 Don't laugh, most of us have all done it. Sometimes it's due to just a simple mistake the person installing it made. Maybe the readme.txt wasn't clear enough. Maybe the freeware author had very bad english and mis-stated some directions.

So, why do we have to go thru this, freeware authors?

May I propose a solution? I know there's a lot of talented guys out there that can actually create programs. How about creating a universal installer? No, seriously. On the back end of it, the freeware author can tell this utility what folder and what file goes where. On the front side, the user has to point to his FSX (or FS9) folder, and then hit the install button - just like on professional products from Aerosoft and Carenado. 

I know freeware authors like to be recognized for their products; they want their product to be lauded by the community. Well, here's one everyone can laud, and for a long time. It could be included in most, if not all freeware. It would be THE freeware product in the FS community. I don't think it would involve a tremendous amount of coding to take files and folders, and put them here and there. 

So, who's going to be the hero out there?

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Ted Wagner
July 12, 2009
99.179.164.30
Votes: +0
...

That wouldn't be terribly hard to accomplish. You could use WinInstall LE or InstallRite to easily create an install package. Both are also free.

All you'd need to do is make sure that there isn't any other applications running, run InstallRite, perform the install/setup of the add-on and complete the InstallRite package. Then, voila.

Administrator
July 12, 2009
66.67.55.76
Votes: +0
...

Jeez, I wish someone would do it...I mean, that's something everyone could use!

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