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Many bugs in the early days would result in a computer just restarting, so you needed to let someone know why it would be restarting if it was in the normal course of events. The logical way of doing this would be with a prompt, but considering that many installs were unattended, the delay was a good balance between informing the user what is happening ...

Here is my point: How should I prompt the user for installation directories, especially if they are required to set it? How can I make the request more intuitive and less error prone? You shouldn't. Use default path! Look at Mac OS X. It has one of the simplest installation procedure I've ever seen (now it's often done through App Store which always ...

It's reasonable to presume that the installer is running either unattended (user has decided to get some coffee, or the installer has been pre-cooked) or that a user is monitoring its progress. In the former case a small delay doesn't matter since no one is actually waiting. In the latter case the user is able to press Enter to go to reboot immediately. ...

The answer depends on how critical playback is to the user. Is it a standard process that almost all users will use? Or is it a sub-function that a large number of users will never encounter? Requiring the user to install a separate application in the middle of their workflow is bad, but if only a very small percentage of users will encounter this it may be ...

An important distinction is that an installer will require the user to have admin permissions on the target computer while a simple executable file doesn't. If your audience is made up of people who do not have admin permissions, the non-installer option allows them to access your application without requiring a system admin to come and install it for them. ...

Note that Eclipse and VLC are both oriented more for a techy crowd. Hand-holding install wizards help you by creating the Start Menu/Desktop shortcuts in Windows that most users are familiar with. Techy users don't need the hand holding, and they know to go into the folder and look for the executable file; not all users would be able to figure this out. ...

The first thing that came to mind was Apple's shift from .pkg installers to drag-and-drop .app installation years ago. To take from Apple's own documentaiton: People who take finished product files and create installation packages for them are known as packagers. With PackageMaker, packagers accomplish these objectives: Enclose a software ...

Most operating systems have a dialog box specifically for this, and this is what should be used. The dialog box usually looks much like a file selection dialog, but only directories can be selected with it. There are other answers to your question that suggest to not give the user the option to specify the directory. This is generally a bad idea. I've ...

Here's what we are doing, modified for your scenario: Put the key into a text file, zip the DLL with the text file, rename the .zip to an extension of your choosing, and register the extension for your application. When ypur applicaiton detects it is run with a file of that extension, verify the contents of the .zip, indicate the user You are about ...

When you are at the last step of the work flow and the result is a complete installation, the user should be told that this is the case. If the computer just restarted without any warning, it might confuse the user. They might wonder if the restart was "planned" or the result of a fatal error during install, a hardware problem, etc. Also, depending on the ...

Apart from what Charles and Koen already covered: Time to take out the floppy disk Time to let the user know of the next step I would like to point out, it is still a standard practice in Mac OS X. The reason being, rather than just jumping on the gun and getting on with the restart/shutdown command, it gives the user a chance to rethink their decision ...

I would create a checklist that lists each component that your application uses and what it does within your application. Label the second application as optional and give them the option to install it right away or leave it until later if they choose to. Something like: Here's everything you need to get started: 1. Our application - Listen to audio! ...

Software that runs without the need for large external dependencies can often be packaged into a single EXE. The main thing here is that in these cases an installer is an unnecessary step for the most part. And of course, whenever you can eliminate an unnecessary step you're lowering the barrier to entry. On the other hand, there are a few advantages of a ...