Hi Brian, all (Brian is included in BCC)
> On February 24, 2020 4:56 AM Brian Barker <b.m.bar...@btinternet.com.invalid> > wrote: > > > At 14:01 23/02/2020 +0100, Peter Kovacs wrote: > > > >To my knowledge in the past we did create an exe because you could > >not double-click msi files. But Microsoft had fixed this for quite > >some time and there is no real reason to keep the exe packaging. Not exactly. The exe file was needed because it self unpacked to a folder containing a MSVC++ Runtime installer the OpenOffice installer and in some cases even a Java Runtime installer and then would execute these installers sequentially. Since AOO is no longer including runtimes, creating a intermediate folder is really unnecessary. > I'm no expert, but my understanding is that the .msi file is a > database, required just as much during removal of any product as > during installation. My impression is that products such as Microsoft > Office quietly salt away a copy of the .msi file (or as much as is > needed) and Windows uses this when the product is removed. Failing > that, Windows remembers where the .msi file was during installation > and seeks it out, asking for it if necessary. And all this applies > when removal is effected by installing a later version, doesn't it? That is correct. At installation time Windows (at least since Windows XP) stores a copy of the installer in C:\Windows\Installer, renames the file to a 6 or 7 character name (e.g. 2dfbe4.msi, possibly to simplify information storage in the registry) and it is this file that is executed when you uninstall a program. Therefore keeping the installer on the desktop (or on the same folder where it was installed from) is no longer needed. When updating the new installer will look for the version number of the same product and will install if the version is newer and remove the older version. > Now the user may have thought (or even been told) that, once the > product is installed, the downloaded files are no longer needed and > may have deleted them. This used to result in a steady stream of > requests to the Users list, asking how the new version can be > installed when the process stalls at this point. Indeed, as recently > as ten days ago, a user trying to install a current version reported > to the Users list "Every time I try I get a message to insert the > Open Office.org 3.2 disk". He must have installed the older version > from a CD - which he may well no longer have. I just read the thread. When the installer mentions Disk it just means that it is looking for the installer file in the same drive/path where it was installed from (originally this actually meant a CD or even a Floppy disk) Maybe this user who is sticking to 3.2 (the last Sun branded release from back in 2010!) is still using Windows 98 or 95? Nevertheless in some cases (especially when using registry cleaners) the reference to the installer is lost. I believe the only option is to reinstall the broken version and uninstall before installing a new version https://www.openoffice.org/download/archive.html Hope this helps Pedro --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@openoffice.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@openoffice.apache.org
