Drawbacks to portable apps? zip files? msi installers?

More and more, most utilities can be found as portable or as not portable,
zip, or msi installer.

It's easy to see the advantage of portable apps of you NEED portability but
if I don't need the advantage of putting the app on a traveling usb stick,
is there any reason to still install the portable app on a static desktop?

For a basic app such as a browser or a ftp client (or whatever), when
presented with the question of downloading the portable or zip or msi,
what's the decision making tree that I should be using?

portable?
zip?
msi?

How do you decide if you are just installing an app on a desktop?

On Wed, 14 Jun 2017 02:00:40 +0000 (UTC), Chaya Eve
wrote:

More and more, most utilities can be found as portable or as not portable,
zip, or msi installer.

It's easy to see the advantage of portable apps of you NEED portability but
if I don't need the advantage of putting the app on a traveling usb stick,
is there any reason to still install the portable app on a static desktop?

For a basic app such as a browser or a ftp client (or whatever), when
presented with the question of downloading the portable or zip or msi,
what's the decision making tree that I should be using?

portable?
zip?
msi?

How do you decide if you are just installing an app on a desktop?

More important is where you download from.

Do not download from softonic.com. They add malware.
Try to get the app from the owner's website.
Before you click install check to see if you will be installing PUPs.

In article ,
says...
is there any reason to still install the portable app on a static desktop?

yes, I use the portable version if I am trying out a program.

If the app suits me then all well and good, if it is crap or broken then
I can just delete it without having to worry about leftover registry
entries and other issues which can arise with install/uninstall method.

On Wed, 14 Jun 2017 02:00:40 +0000 (UTC), Chaya Eve
wrote in
For a basic app such as a browser or a ftp client (or whatever), when
presented with the question of downloading the portable or zip or msi,
what's the decision making tree that I should be using?

If you want a particular program to open when you click on a certain
file type (e.g. click on a .html file type you want it to open with a
particular program) then you need to use an "installed" version rather
than a portable version.
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On 06/13/2017 10:00 PM, Chaya Eve wrote:
More and more, most utilities can be found as portable or as not portable,
zip, or msi installer.

It's easy to see the advantage of portable apps of you NEED portability but
if I don't need the advantage of putting the app on a traveling usb stick,
is there any reason to still install the portable app on a static desktop?

For a basic app such as a browser or a ftp client (or whatever), when
presented with the question of downloading the portable or zip or msi,
what's the decision making tree that I should be using?

portable?
zip?
msi?

How do you decide if you are just installing an app on a desktop?

I'm not sure there is? One might ague that portable apps take up more
room since they have to be self contained, and can't use any of the
standard already available dll's in Windows, but is that really that
much of a savings now with such large hard drives?

If you are reloading often then it sure is easier to just copy and
backup folders. I have a few apps like this, they were not advertized
as portable but they were just an unzipped file.

And the comment about needing to install to get file association if
false, I've associated a lot of extensions to programs over the years.
There are built in ways in windows and 3rd party tools to tweak it even
more.

So rattling around these ideas, IMHO, I'm not sure there is much. I
totally agree that functionality and source are more important. How you
get it to run is less of a factor.

On Wed, 14 Jun 2017 07:54:20 -0400, Big Al wrote:

It's easy to see the advantage of portable apps of you NEED portability but
if I don't need the advantage of putting the app on a traveling usb stick,
is there any reason to still install the portable app on a static desktop?

For a basic app such as a browser or a ftp client (or whatever), when
presented with the question of downloading the portable or zip or msi,
what's the decision making tree that I should be using?

portable?
zip?
msi?

How do you decide if you are just installing an app on a desktop?

I'm not sure there is? One might ague that portable apps take up more
room since they have to be self contained, and can't use any of the
standard already available dll's in Windows, but is that really that
much of a savings now with such large hard drives?

If you are reloading often then it sure is easier to just copy and
backup folders. I have a few apps like this, they were not advertized
as portable but they were just an unzipped file.

And the comment about needing to install to get file association if
false, I've associated a lot of extensions to programs over the years.
There are built in ways in windows and 3rd party tools to tweak it even
more.

So rattling around these ideas, IMHO, I'm not sure there is much. I
totally agree that functionality and source are more important. How you
get it to run is less of a factor.

What made me wonder was I was downloading winscp which came in the three
flavors of zip, msi, and portable.
https://winscp.net/eng/download.php

Just focusing on the TYPE of installer, the main three are
exe/msi
zip
portable

Where, from what you said above, there doesn't seem to be any major
advantage or drawback to either of the three.

Given that, I'd probably go with the portable or zip for most apps that are
executed directly that don't have file types.

I don't see any advantage to putting more stuff in the registry.
Do you?

"Chaya Eve" wrote

| What made me wonder was I was downloading winscp which came in the three
| flavors of zip, msi, and portable.
| https://winscp.net/eng/download.php
|
| Just focusing on the TYPE of installer, the main three are
| exe/msi
| zip
| portable
|

I don't see where you get that. The page has a
setup.exe and a ZIP. Basically, the first is convenient
while the second lets you do things your own way.

Some people are fanatically anti-Registry and want
"portable", which mostly just means no installer. Other
people want convenience. MSIs are mainly designed
for corporate use. They provide easy inventory and
tracking across the corporate network. But Microsoft
has pushed them, so they've gradually become more
common.

Personally I like something that I can unpack and
see before installing. I don't like to be surprised by
a little message box saying, "One second.... We're
downloading a gigabyte of .Net slop." I also like to see
how things are put together. Large packages with lots
of support libraries are often a sign of incompetent
programming. Lots of people make software who
shouldn't. A lot more people -- you'd be surprised --
really don't know how to install their software, in
terms of knowing dependencies, what files can be
replaced, etc. Many think they can just hand that job
over to an installer maker by using something like Inno
installer. That's why system files are locked in
later Windows versions. Too many things were getting
broken. In that sense, all software is now sort of portable.
It's not allowed to replace system libraries.

MSIs can be unpacked and documented, which is nice.
Many EXE installers can be unpacked. (Universal
Extractor) Most Inno packages can be unpacked.
Nullsoft installers, not so much. Sometimes EXE
installers are actually just wrappers for MSIs.
InstallShield packages are a pain. Overproduced
MSI wrappers that defy inspection.

But if you don't care about any of that then just
download the most convenient installer.

Chaya Eve wrote:

....

For me, the best quality of a portable app is that it keeps
program settings even when Windows is restored or
reinstalled. I have a folder full of portable apps
(D:\software\system). But some portable apps also use the
registry. Then there is the fact that it simply does not
require installation.

CRNG wrote:

Chaya Eve wrote:

For a basic app such as a browser or a ftp client (or
whatever), when presented with the question of downloading
the portable or zip or msi, what's the decision making tree
that I should be using?

If you want a particular program to open when you click on
a certain file type (e.g. click on a .html file type you
want it to open with a particular program) then you need to
use an "installed" version rather than a portable version.

You can tell Windows to use a portable program, when opening
a file. Windows remembers the setting.