Hi
For many months I have been content with Open Office 2.2 installed on my
internal system drive C:\.
Its configuration has been adjusted to my needs
An unwanted evaluation of Version 2.3.1 has, despite assurances to the
contrary, totally trashed that installation.
The culprit is OOo_2.3.1_Win32Intel_install_wJRE_en-US.exe which I
downloaded to my external Drive H:\.
The default location on C:\etc. for "Installation Files" was wrong, I
corrected it to H:\ and clicked Unpack.
The Installation Wizard presented "Files" with default checks against
Documents, Excel, and PowerPoint,
and concluded with "If you are just trying out ... leave the boxes
unchecked."
I cleared the check marks because I did not want permanent File
Associations dependant on a temporary external drive.
I proceeded.
Installer proceeded WITHOUT warning what it would do, or WHERE it would
do it.
I took its advice. I left boxes unchecked because it was offering this
for "... just trying out ...".
It was supposed to be a TEMPORARY try out. Instead it permanently
trashed the system.
It made over 10,000 changes to the system :-
over 50% were irreversible changes to the registry;
over 25% files added to C:\, instead of H:\;
a bit under 25% were irreversible and wanton deletions of files from
Open Office 2.2.
For myself there is no problem - as a software engineer I double check
everything,
and trust nothing - especially if it is in any way related to Windows.
Therefore NOTHING gets installed until I have created, and also validated,
an archive of an image of my system drive C:\.
So long as the archive partition of the external Hard drive survives, I
can recover.
You may have many (potential) users without the ability to recover from
being trashed.
For their benefit I would suggest that you give warnings of WHAT and
WHERE you are about to do something.
The initial unpacking of "Installation Files" told me WHAT and WHERE,
AND allowed me to change the destination,
and allowed me to "View Details" which confirmed they were going to my
choice.
The Installation Wizard MUST be changed to say WHAT and WHERE,
EVEN if it is not possible to let the user choose an alternative location,
it REALLY should say where it will go.
You may wonder why I was surprised that "... just trying out ..." was so
disastrous.
Simple.
I have just installed on my external drive the "Standard" from
http://portableapps.com/suite.
This included Open Office 2.0.4. I clicked "Check for Updates" and that
got me version 2.3.
UNFORTUNATELY it failed to get the Portable version.
It got the NON-Portable version - and I only realised after it trashed C:\
Supplementary :-
I use Windows XP Home edition with SP2, Firefox 2.0.0.11, Comodo 3.0
Firewall,
and ESET NOD32 Anti-Virus version 2.7.
OOo_2.3.1_Win32Intel_install_wJRE_en-US.exe download was NOT delayed by
ESET,
it was immediately available for me to copy and execute. - ESET seemed
to ignore it.
BUT when I used the context menu option to virus scan, it took 716
Seconds and reported
OOo_2.3.1_Win32Intel_install_wJRE_en-US.exe »NSIS »openofficeorg4.cab
»CAB »testtar.tar »TAR - archive damaged
Number of scanned files: 52849 - Number of threats found: 0
Is this TAR damaged ?
The Installation files include H:\OpenOffice.org 2.3 Installation
Files\openofficeorg4.cab
PowerArchiver 2007 finds in that :-
testtar.tar 112,640 ? 17/08/2007 21:42
PowerArchiver extracts from this (without reporting errors or damage)
52053 Bytes in 8 files plus one empty folder.
60 KBytes are missing - what happened to them, is this why ESET said the
archive was damaged ???
Interesting details about Open Office etc. downloads from
http://portableapps.com/ :-
1. http://portableapps.com/suite this download was NOT delayed by ESET;
2. After download a Context Menu virus scan found only 1 file (not
52849) and took less than 1 Second;
3. OpenOffice_Portable_2.3.1_Rev_2_en-us.paf.exe 10 to 20 Minute
ESET lock-up after download,
After ESET finished scrutiny, nothing was reported - presumably
no viruses found;
4. Context menu virus scan took 997 Seconds and reported
OpenOffice_Portable_2.3.1_Rev_2_en-us.paf.exe »NSIS »testtar.tar
»TAR - archive damaged
Number of scanned files: 52446 - Number of threats found: 0;
5. OpenOffice_Portable_2.3.1_en-us.paf.exe - Same 10 to 20 minute
lock-up after download;
6. Same "TAR archive damaged" complaint, and same numbers of scanned
files and threats.
My personal user preferences, to which others may agree, upon
encapsulation/packing/etc. techniques :-
a) OOo_2.3.1_Win32Intel_install_wJRE_en-US.exe - perfect,
I do NOT want a 20 minute scrutiny to delay a download,
But it is nice to know that the encapsulation does not shield
potential virus carriers from ESET;
b) http://portableapps.com/suite - this worries me,
I am happy that the download itself is not delayed by ESET,
I am prepared to believe in the goodwill of the creators, and
that no virus is within,
BUT I am concerned that virus writers could use similar
encapsulation to stealth against virus detection,
I just hope that ESET will defeat this "stealth", but without
also spending 20 minutes upon a download;
c) OpenOffice_Portable_2.3.1_Rev_2_en-us.paf.exe etc. - could be
better,
I wish it was like NON-Portable OpenOffice, and that its download
avoided a 20 minute delay,
but at least it does not deploy "Atomic Bomb" stealth technology
that virus writers could copy.
Regards
Alan Borer.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
