Your Install Sucks

So, you have developed this awesome program, and you want to spread it to the world! You need to create a package to install the program. What should this installation do? I'll tell you!

Things your installation should do:

Install the program.

That's it! That is all! You know what your install should NOT do? Anything else! This includes but is not limited to:

Starting the program. When your install is finished, DO NOT start or allow the option to start the program you just installed! The user launches the program when he wants, and he does it in his own context, NOT the context in which the program was installed!

Actually, don't start ANY process after the install. Deploying a computer with, for instance, Microsoft System Center means installing dozens or hundreds of programs in a row. If your app needs running processes, launch them at startup or logon.

Don't suddenly restart the computer! This should go without saying, but apparently NOOOO. Respect REBOOT=ReallySuppress or other flags. If your app is not quite installed after your installer but needs a restart, exit with 3010.

About that, exit with proper exit codes! 0 (zero) means success. 255 does NOT mean success! Where did you get that idea? I'm talking to you, Adobe! Again: 0 means success! DON'T return zero if the installation failed! If you do, I'll hunt you down!

Don't install other programs! Definitely not malware, but ALSO not prerequirements for your app! If your program requires vc_redist 2027 or dotnet 19, put them in a prereq-folder. If you MUST, have a setup-wrapper that installs them. They are ALREADY outdated when you ship your product and MY environment already have them. Newer and better versions, actually. DON'T force them on me. Merge-modules are ok, of course.

If you have a wrapper, DON'T require it. "This install must be started from setup.exe" is not a valid argument! I don't want to figure out your stupid parameters to run the setup standalone.

Don't require internet during installation. Don't require a network at all. If you are stupid enough to have some stupid license activation requirement, manage that with a manager, NOT the installer. Do you know how ANNOYING it is to have a computer fail during sequencing because some paper pusher didn't add more licenses to some stupid pool of licenses?

Have a working unattended option. A way to silently install your program. And be sure it is SILENT. How hard can it be to NOT display a dialog box? Jeez...

To be continued...