Installation (computer programs)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
"Installer" redirects here. For the AmigaOS scripting language, see Installer (programming language).

Installation (or setup) of a computer program (including device drivers and plugins), is the act of making the program ready for execution. Installation refers to the particular configuration of software or hardware with a view to making it usable with the computer. A soft or digital copy of the piece of software (program) is needed to install it. There are different processes of installing a piece of software (program). Because the process varies for each program and each computer, programs (including operating systems) often come with an installer, a specialised program responsible for doing whatever is needed (see below) for the installation. Installation may be part of a larger software deployment process.[1]

Installation typically involves code (program) being copied/generated from the installation files to new files on the local computer for easier access by the operating system, creating necessary directories, registering environment variables, providing a separate program for un-installation etc. Because code is generally copied/generated in multiple locations, uninstallation usually involves more than just erasing the program folder. For example, registry files and other system code may need to be modified or deleted for a complete uninstallation.

Overview

Some computer programs can be executed by simply copying them into a

folder
stored on a computer and executing them. Other programs are supplied in a form unsuitable for immediate execution and therefore need an installation procedure. Once installed, the program can be executed again and again, without the need to reinstall before each execution.

Common operations performed during software installations include:

These operations may require some charges or be free of charge. In case of payment, installation costs means the costs connected and relevant to or incurred as a result of installing the drivers or the equipment in the customers' premises.

Some installers may attempt to trick users into installing

Download.com installer by CNET.[3]

Necessity

As mentioned earlier, some computer programs need no installation. This was once usual for many programs which run on

floppy disks, the need for tangible installation presented itself. For example Commodore released the Installer for Amiga
.

A class of modern applications that do not need installation are known as

CD, DVD, USB flash drive or loaded over the network as with thin clients. Examples are AmigaOS 4.0, various Linux distributions, MorphOS or Mac OS versions 1.0 through 9.0. (See live CD and live USB.) Finally, web applications, which run inside a web browser
, do not need installation.

Types

Custom installation

A custom installation allows the installer to choose to select components or parts that are required to be installed. This is sometimes preferred as opposed to installing the full suite of software components. Some situations that require the need for a custom install might be where only the basic components are required which are smaller in size instead of the full components which may take up too much hard drive space.

Attended installation

On

Windows systems, this is the most common form of installation. An installation process usually needs a user who attend it to make choices, such as accepting or declining an end-user license agreement (EULA), specifying preferences such as the installation location, supplying passwords or assisting in product activation. In graphical environments, installers that offer a wizard-based interface
are common. Attended installers may ask users to help mitigate the errors. For instance, if the disk in which the computer program is being installed was full, the installer may ask the user to specify another target path or clear enough space in the disk. A common misconception is unarchivation, which is not considered an installation action because it does not include user choices, such as accepting or declining EULA.

Silent installation

A "silent installation" is an installation that does not display messages or windows during its progress. "Silent installation" is not the same as "unattended installation" (see below): All silent installations are unattended but not all unattended installations are silent. The reason behind a silent installation may be convenience or subterfuge. Malware and viruses can be installed silently when a person clicks on a link while working at a business they think is real but is a hacker's program download.[4][5] For normal users silent installation is not of much use, but in bigger organizations where thousands of users work, deploying the applications becomes a typical task and for that reason silent installation is performed so that the application is installed in the background without affecting the work of the user. Silent parameters can vary from software to software; if a software/application has silent parameters, it can be checked by " <software.exe> /? " or " <software.exe> /help " or " <software.exe> -help ".

Silently installing a software program can be used to deploy a program on networks in educational institutions, including primary and secondary education and universities, in addition to business, government, and corporate networks. The person managing the silent installation can choose to add a desktop shortcut, for example, to silently install Google Drive with a desktop shortcut[6]:

GoogleDrive.exe --silent --desktop_shortcut=true

Unattended installation

Installation that is performed without user interaction during its progress or with no user present at all. One of the reasons to use this approach is to automate the installation of a large number of systems. An unattended installation either does not require the user to supply anything or has received all necessary input prior to the start of installation. Such input may be in the form of

computer log
for later review.

Headless installation

Installation performed without using a computer monitor connected. In attended forms of headless installation, another machine connects to the target machine (for instance, via a local area network) and takes over the display output. Since a headless installation does not need a user at the location of the target computer, unattended headless installers may be used to install a program on multiple machines at the same time.

Scheduled or automated installation

An installation process that runs on a preset time or when a predefined condition transpires, as opposed to an installation process that starts explicitly on a user's command. For instance, a system administrator willing to install a later version of a computer program that is being used can schedule that installation to occur when that program is not running. An operating system may automatically install a device driver for a device that the user connects. (See plug and play.) Malware may also be installed automatically. For example, the infamous Con ficker was installed when the user plugged an infected device to their computer.

Clean installation

A clean installation is one that is done in the absence of any interfering elements such as old versions of the computer program being installed or leftovers from a previous installation. In particular, the clean installation of an operating system is an installation in which the target

disk partition
is erased before installation. Since the interfering elements are absent, a clean installation may succeed where an unclean installation may fail or may take significantly longer.

Network installation

Not to be confused with Network booting.

Network installation, shortened net install, is an installation of a program from a shared network resource that may be done by installing a minimal system before proceeding to download further packages over the network. This may simply be a copy of the original media but software publishers which offer site licenses for institutional customers may provide a version intended for installation over a network.

Installer

Look up installer in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

An installation program or installer is a

software package
to be installed.

They exist both as "standalone installer" (or "offline installer") & "web installer" (or "online installer"), where the former allows for

offline
installation as it contains all installation files, whereas the latter needs to download files necessary for installation from the web at the time of installation.

The differences between a

package management system
and an installer are:

This box:
Criterion Package manager Installer
Shipped with Usually, the operating system Each computer program
Location of installation information One central installation database It is entirely at the discretion of the installer. It could be a file within the app's folder, or among the operating system's files and folders. At best, they may register themselves with an uninstallers list without exposing installation information.
Scope of maintenance Potentially all packages on the system Only the product with which it was bundled
Developed by One package manager vendor Multiple installer vendors
Package format A handful of well-known formats There could be as many formats as the number of apps
Package format compatibility Can be consumed as long as the package manager supports it. Either newer versions of the package manager keep supporting it or the user does not upgrade the package manager. The installer is always compatible with its
archive format, if it uses any. However, installers, like all computer programs, may be affected by software rot
.

Bootstrapper

During an installation of a computer program, it is sometimes necessary to update the installer or package manager itself. To make this possible, a technique called bootstrapping is used. The common pattern for this is to use small executable files which update the installer and starts the real installation after the update. This small executable is called bootstrapper. Sometimes the bootstrapper installs other prerequisites for the software during the bootstrapping process too.

Common types

Main article: List of installation software

Cross-platform installer builders produce installers that run on Windows,

Flexera Software
.

InnoSetup
and InstallSimple.

macOS includes

dragged and dropped into the Applications folder; those applications are described as drag-install applications. These often feature prominent installation instructions and a shortcut to the Applications folder; that style of drag-install application was invented and published by Iris Artin (formerly Ben Artin) during the development of Fetch 5[8] and subsequently gained wide adoption. Commercial applications for macOS may also use a third-party installer, such as the Mac version of Installer VISE (MindVision Software) or InstallerMaker (StuffIt
).

System installer

A system installer is the software that is used to set up and install an operating system onto a device.

Examples of Linux system installers:

Another example is found in the

Haiku Installer to install itself onto a device after booting from a live CD or live USB
.

See also

References

  1. PMID 35068698
    .
  2. ^ a b Hoffman, Chris (27 July 2013). "How to Avoid Installing Junk Programs When Downloading Free Software". HowToGeek. Retrieved 6 October 2015.
  3. ^ Mathews, Lee (22 August 2011). "Download.com wraps downloads in bloatware, lies about motivations". ExtremeTech. Retrieved 6 October 2015.
  4. ^ "What is a Silent Installation?". Webopedia. 2021-12-20. Retrieved 2022-05-05.
  5. ^ "Silent Install Definition". techterms.com. Retrieved 2022-05-05.
  6. ^ Bergner, Jason. "Google Drive Silent Install (How-To Guide)". Silent Install HQ. Retrieved 2022-05-05.
  7. ^ "macOS - What is macOS". Apple. Retrieved 5 April 2018.
  8. ^ "Easy Access to the Applications Folder from a Disk Image". Mac Dev Center. Archived from the original on 2005-12-14. Retrieved 23 November 2023.
  9. ^ Debian Wiki: Debian Installer GUI
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