Winrar Alternative is there one?

[prathapml]

I hope this makes sense

Oh, it sure does. Thanks for the clarification.

[Cartoonite]

I use this option mostly for my PC game saves. Makes it easy to restore them when the game is reinstalled later.

Great idea. I've always just copied the saved games to my second hard drive and then copied them back after I've reinstalled the game. Now I can add my saved games to my uA CD and I will be ready to pick up where I left off as soon as I reinstall the games themselves. Or maybe I can go even crazier, and add even the games to the uA CD. B)

Hmmm..........

[prathapml]

@Cartoonite

If you keep doing a few pre-defined operations (like installing your game, or copying saved files over to your new install) everytime, for that particular PC, having a batch-file plugin run from elsewhere on the hard-disk might be a good idea. Check it out and tell what you think.

[Cartoonite]

I've read that post before prathapml, and it is definitely a great idea. I have the thread bookmarked and will be looking into it more once I've got my uA in and of itself working the way it is supposed to.

[RyanVM]

I just extract to %systemdrive% and use a full directory structure within.

[prathapml]

so what do you do when you have pre-set it to extract to %systemdrive%\Windows, and I have specified in winnt.sif that the %windir% has to be "\WinXP" ?

fast and easy shortcuts, lol - comes to grief in unexpected conditions.

[RyanVM]

so what do you do when you have pre-set it to extract to %systemdrive%\Windows, and I have specified in winnt.sif that the %windir% has to be "\WinXP" ?

fast and easy shortcuts, lol - comes to grief in unexpected conditions.

Then you'd use %systemroot% instead of %systemdrive%\Windows

[prathapml]

Nooo......

I mean, if it was set as to be extracted to %systemdrive%.

And it has folders within, called "Program Files", "Windows", "Documents and Settings" - which might be fine for a specific machine, at defaults.

And I'd have changed the ProgramFiles dir and Profiles dir - for just one install. The rest are at defaults. The result would be that the above doesn't work, for the install which did not use defaults. No offense to you, its just that the bottom-line should be that no matter what the conditions, it should "just work" *EVERYWHERE* without any surprises.

As of now, using an installer (whether free like InnoSetup, or paid like InstallShield) might still be the only way to achieve the objective of extracting to different variable paths.

[Astalavista]

hahahahahhahahah u guys crack me up.

[MHz]

It's down to advantages and disadvantages?

Depends what you want for your install. Multiple archives can achieve this.

One thing I know of Inno setup, they corrupt very easy when burnt to cd, if big in size. So multiple installers may be needed as well?

[RyanVM]

Nooo...... 

I mean, if it was set as to be extracted to %systemdrive%.

And it has folders within, called "Program Files", "Windows", "Documents and Settings" - which might be fine for a specific machine, at defaults.

And I'd have changed the ProgramFiles dir and Profiles dir - for just one install. The rest are at defaults. The result would be that the above doesn't work, for the install which did not use defaults. No offense to you, its just that the bottom-line should be that no matter what the conditions, it should "just work" *EVERYWHERE*  without any surprises.

As of now, using an installer (whether free like InnoSetup, or paid like InstallShield) might still be the only way to achieve the objective of extracting to different variable paths.

....I'd imagine you'd customize the exe for a given unattended CD, so it still wouldn't be a problem. Seriously, you're way overanalyzing here.

[Nologic]

Maybe so...but I could see it as being no fun to repackage a lot of files, because your company had a change of heart about how they want things deployed.

Me I'd suggest just acrhiving the files then setting it to extract to what ever the system drive is....then use a script to move things where ever they may need to go and delete any left overs afterwards.

May not be the most direct or fastest way, but to maintain it would be little hassle...if any.

[battleangel3222]

I agree, just organize the files into folders and tell them to be extracted,

C:

-folder1

---file1

-folder2

---file2

-folder3

---folder3a....

and tell it to be extracted to C: and overwrite anything. This is of course assuming everything is installed to that Partition. If thats not the case, I would make one for each Partition. There are other ways, but thats as simple as it gets.

[Whampoom]

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[Cartoonite]

Nooo...... 

I mean, if it was set as to be extracted to %systemdrive%.

And it has folders within, called "Program Files", "Windows", "Documents and Settings" - which might be fine for a specific machine, at defaults.

And I'd have changed the ProgramFiles dir and Profiles dir - for just one install. The rest are at defaults. The result would be that the above doesn't work, for the install which did not use defaults. No offense to you, its just that the bottom-line should be that no matter what the conditions, it should "just work" *EVERYWHERE*  without any surprises.

As of now, using an installer (whether free like InnoSetup, or paid like InstallShield) might still be the only way to achieve the objective of extracting to different variable paths.

I think the easiest way to do this would be with nested archives. Create one archive each to be extracted to each of your system variable directories. Then create a batch file that will run them all. Zip, rar, 7-Zip or whatever them all up into a single SFX that will extract itself into a temporary directory and run the batch after extraction. Your one main SFX could then be executed from wherever you like, and it will extract itself, extract each of the smaller ones to their specified locations, and then clean itself up when it's done.

Maybe this really isn't any easier than using an installer, but, since I know exactly zero about using any of the currently available installer programs, it's easier for me.