Single-exe vs PackageForTheWeb

[dbriggs]

We have been packaging our IS5 (and MSI) Setups using PackageForTheWeb for some years. Having just about finished a conversion to DS9, I am wondering about single-exe packages.

PFTW gives me an opportunity to adjust the contents of the Setup directory while a single-exe does not. PFTW (and OCI) gives the user a chance to save the kit to a location for later re-use. A single-exe does not.

I am also a bit concerned about Maintenance Mode "getting at" the contents of the original self-extractor, maybe using the PACKAGE_LOCATION variable...

Does anyone have any comments, views, or suggestions either way?

Thanks,

David

[tw0001]

The one benefit of single exe technology (Professional 7.01 and greater) is that it doesn't have to extract all the contents to a temporary folder before running the setup.exe. In single-exe it actually reads the contents of the cab files right out of the EXE at install time (i.e. during transfer of data)

Having said that, I still use PFTW for many purposes as well as IEXPRESS (Microsoft package creator)

Ted.

[dbriggs]

Yes, I have noticed that it goes straight into the Setup without offering to extract first. I have a number of user-replaceable Disk-1 files. I provide defaults for these. Can I still get at them if they are in the single-exe?

It doesn't seem reasonable to expect the end user to know about /extract_all, but that looks like the only way they can get at these files to replace them. PFTW of course (and OCI) can ask.

I have just sorted out the use of these files in a One-Click-Install, read-only, hidden, system, and so on...

Thanks,

David