AW: Boring but important - selling a download product for Windows

[Tiemo Hollmann TB]

Hi Graham,
I do it just this way - creating a signed installer, zip it and upload it for download. Offering an installer exe without having zipped it, will always be detected as potentially harmful. The remaining support is for users, who don't know how to handle a zip file
Tiemo

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: use-livecode [mailto:use-livecode-bounces at lists.runrev.com] Im Auftrag von Graham Samuel via use-livecode
Gesendet: Sonntag, 22. Januar 2017 20:59
An: How to use LiveCode <use-livecode at lists.runrev.com>
Cc: Graham Samuel <livfoss at mac.com>
Betreff: Re: Boring but important - selling a download product for Windows

Well Roger, I agree with you - that’s why I went all the way with code signing and creating an installer. But the Norton Catch-22 ("not many people have used this software so we’re going to delete it until more people have used it…”) a small developer is in an impossible position, it seems to me. And even Google Chrome is hostile to .exe files even if they’re code signed. That’s why I was looking for any other solution. Is there a better way?

Graham

BTW none of these problems seem to exist on the Mac. Code signing is enough to make an installer acceptable to OSX.



> On 22 Jan 2017, at 16:06, Roger Eller via use-livecode <use-livecode at lists.runrev.com> wrote:
> 
> I tend to disagree with the consensus to use zip files on Windows.  
> Nothing screams UNPROFESSIONAL more than not having an installer that 
> is standard for the platform you are installing to.
> 
> ~Roger
> 
> On Jan 22, 2017 8:06 AM, "Richmond Mathewson via use-livecode" < 
> use-livecode at lists.runrev.com> wrote:
> 
>> How about downloading a zip file from a DropBox account?
>> 
>> Richmond.
>> 
>> On 1/22/17 2:59 pm, Graham Samuel via use-livecode wrote:
>> 
>>> Just to report on how this method worked for me: I chose to have a 
>>> web page from which the zipped file is downloaded. This worked fine, 
>>> but not without warnings. The browser of choice, Chrome, offered to 
>>> discard the file, but this was easy to ignore; then either when the 
>>> zipped file was an installer or when it was just the original 
>>> standalone, Norton intervened to prevent it running, but at least 
>>> gave an option to “Run this program anyway”. So I do need to put a 
>>> number of warnings on my web site, but at least it is less painful than before.
>>> 
>>> In another mail in this thread, answering Richmond, I speculate that 
>>> the zip file could be delivered via an email attachment. I tried 
>>> this, and although it seemed to get rid of Chrome’s objection (I was 
>>> using webmail via Chrome), Norton made the same intervention. So 
>>> that path is probably not worth going down.
>>> 
>>> Anyway this method certainly improves things, so that’s the one I’m 
>>> going to use. Pity that code signing doesn’t just sweep this all 
>>> away, but I suppose to really help naive users there should also be 
>>> a kind of “harmlessness certificate”, which AFAIK doesn’t exist.
>>> 
>>> Graham
>>> 
>>> On 21 Jan 2017, at 23:37, Graham Samuel via use-livecode <
>>>> use-livecode at lists.runrev.com> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> Wow, Jacque, that is such a great idea. Too late where I am to try 
>>>> it out tonight, but I will certainly try it tomorrow.
>>>> 
>>>> Thanks so much
>>>> 
>>>> Graham
>>>> 
>>>> On 21 Jan 2017, at 20:59, J. Landman Gay via use-livecode <
>>>>> use-livecode at lists.runrev.com> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> On 1/21/17 1:43 PM, Graham Samuel via use-livecode wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>>> My question is, what do other people do about this? If you 
>>>>>> generate a new desktop program for Windows and try to sell it as 
>>>>>> a download, how can you strip away all this nonsense for the average purchaser?
>>>>>> 
>>>>> One of my clients said she'd had it with Windows installers and 
>>>>> now ships the product as a zip file. The user is instructed to 
>>>>> move the app folder out of the zip folder. This is just about the 
>>>>> only hitch in the process, because Windows presents the zip folder 
>>>>> as a regular folder and users think they can just double-click the app inside the zip archive.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Other than instructing naive Windows users to drag the app folder 
>>>>> out of the zip archive, there have been virtually no other issues. 
>>>>> The signed app itself works fine without interference from the OS.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Windows users have become used to installers and expect them, but 
>>>>> if your app is self-contained and doesn't require changing 
>>>>> registry keys or other OS-level stuff, it works pretty well. I 
>>>>> know that's not what you asked, but that's how we solved it.
>>>>> 
>>>>> --
>>>>> Jacqueline Landman Gay         |     jacque at hyperactivesw.com
>>>>> HyperActive Software           |     http://www.hyperactivesw.com
>>>>> 
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> use-livecode mailing list
>>>>> use-livecode at lists.runrev.com
>>>>> Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your 
>>>>> subscription preferences:
>>>>> http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
>>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> use-livecode mailing list
>>>> use-livecode at lists.runrev.com
>>>> Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your 
>>>> subscription preferences:
>>>> http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
>>>> 
>>> 
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> use-livecode mailing list
>>> use-livecode at lists.runrev.com
>>> Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your 
>>> subscription preferences:
>>> http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
>>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> use-livecode mailing list
>> use-livecode at lists.runrev.com
>> Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your 
>> subscription preferences:
>> http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
> _______________________________________________
> use-livecode mailing list
> use-livecode at lists.runrev.com
> Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences:
> http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode


_______________________________________________
use-livecode mailing list
use-livecode at lists.runrev.com
Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences:
http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode