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#1
Installers. Why?
This thread is just a pondering, not a real technical question. That's why I've put it here. Sorry if it's in the wrong place! New poster here.
Why use installers? A recent experience has made me question the purpose of installers in general. Why not just have big Zips that you unzip into Program Files or wherever you want, and just run all the contained files? Why create registry entries and all that mess with installers?
For example. New game out, Aion. I had major installation problems. Got it installed on an XP system, couldn't get it working on a Vista system. So, I decided what the heck, I'll just copy the whole folder over to my Vista box.
Wouldn't you know, it worked. About a 3 minute copy, no patching, everything was already updated from the other PC. It just plain worked.
Is the purpose of installers just to create Start Menu > Programs shortcuts, and add (apparently unneeded!) registry entries?
This leads me to think, what if I had two hard drives and installed everything to the 2nd hard drive, and Windows was on the 1st. This way when I reformat Windows I don't reinstall all my apps. Seems in theory this would work, but I always scoffed at it working because of missing registry entries, programs not being in Add/Remove Programs or Programs and Features, etc. Stuff like that.
If it would work, why not just do it? Anyone got experience doing this? Experiences with problems, or nothing but good luck from it? I may try it out since I like experimenting with stuff, and plus I have massive installs sometimes (mostly big games!).