[Arryn]

Originally posted by Norfleet:
Pah! In the old days, installing things didn't involve wonky executables just for installing, or DLLs. Installations couldn't "fail", because you simply copied everything into the directory of your choice.

What, may I ask, was wrong with this system? It was foolproof and flawless, yet they had to can install some crazy new-fangled "installer", when something as simple as untar/unzip/copy would have worked fine!

In the "old days", you had crappy, grossly-unstable OSes like DOS/Windows, or Windows 9x (still DOS-based, essentially). OSes that didn't care if you overwrote key system files (that shouldn't be) or installed drivers that are incompatible with other drivers. I could go on and on about the shortcomings of the M$ OSes prior to WinXP, but this isn't the forum for such, and, frankly, I've better things to do.

The short answer as to what the big deal is today with needing a sophisticated installer can be summed up in two words: Windows Registry. The long answer involves *why* this is important, and an entire college-level course on the subject can be taught.

Since, AFAIK, you (Norfleet) aren't a sofware engineer, much less have extensive knowledge of Windows OS internals (there are many books on this subject alone), nor ever actually wrote an installer for a modern Windows application, you really have no business judging that which you know zilch about. Of course, knowing you to be the cantankerous old curmudgeon that we're so fond of, that most assuredly would never stop you from doing so.