Windows Installer criticism

[tulamide]

The first answer given regarding customer support I just think is incredibly tone deaf and very business-first orientated. Such a decision being made purely on a customer support basis...

To the contrary. If anything, the number of people who contact our support is and indicator of how well (or not) a system works. Fewer customer support incidences correlate with more customer happiness.

Customer happiness is the main goal in pretty much everything we do. It is aligned with our own interest: Happy customers, happy company.

But let's visit pure company interest for the fun of it: I think the general person who checks out a demo does not necessarily contact customer support if the demo doesn't work. Most commonly they delete the demo and will never think about out again. If one only out of 20 people have some crazy outdated registry entry that puts VST in C:\Program Files, many plug-ins will simply crash because (against all odds) Windows has changed over time. From a business perspective, that's one employee less from lost sales. And I believe that it's merely one out of 5 people who have those prehistoric registry entries.

Anyhow. If people really need to move their stuff wherever they want, good, they can do it. If asking them to do it themselves is a burden, we'll happily provide a .bat script that does it for them (I have no idea how these work, and I guess I'll get angry looks from my devs, but d'oh... I guess it should be possible, no?)

Deal?

Wow. What you think of your customers is really undeserving. To summarize:
"My customers are too stupid, so I force an installation path."
"If you really think, you're not stupid, you can move the plugin AFTER I forced you to install it in a location, you didn't want it to be installed in the first place."
Ignorant, arrogant and customer shaming. Good job, sir.

[tasmaniandevil]

Would you please store the plugin formats I installed the last time and restore that selection the next time I install the plugin?

That's a good idea.
I have no idea if it's possible with Innosetup, the installer software we are using on Windows.
But might be worth exploring. Thanks for the suggestion.

[SLiC]

I really think it’s time for UHE to have an install manager….there are a lot of plugins now and I find install managers much easier for checking for updates across all products etc.

[D-Fusion]

I really think it’s time for UHE to have an install manager….there are a lot of plugins now and I find install managers much easier for checking for updates across all products etc.

Yeah. Great Idea in these times when they speak of Electricity Rationing and other Stuff to Cripple the Common man and Woman on this planet

I prefer Offline options in these days and if things where more stable and Normal i would offcourse Welcome you're Idea but this is not the time for it.

[whyterabbyt]

I really think it’s time for UHE to have an install manager….there are a lot of plugins now and I find install managers much easier for checking for updates across all products etc.

Yeah. Great Idea in these times when they speak of Electricity Rationing and other Stuff to Cripple the Common man and Woman on this planet

I prefer Offline options in these days and if things where more stable and Normal i would offcourse Welcome you're Idea but this is not the time for it.

Feel free to detail exactly how much electricity an install manager uses versus standalone installers, and also the plugins that are subsequently installed. Please be as technical as possible, and provide references.

[D-Fusion]

I really think it’s time for UHE to have an install manager….there are a lot of plugins now and I find install managers much easier for checking for updates across all products etc.

Yeah. Great Idea in these times when they speak of Electricity Rationing and other Stuff to Cripple the Common man and Woman on this planet

I prefer Offline options in these days and if things where more stable and Normal i would offcourse Welcome you're Idea but this is not the time for it.

Feel free to detail exactly how much electricity an install manager uses versus standalone installers, and also the plugins that are subsequently installed. Please be as technical as possible, and provide references.

Nah. I am good and won't bother since you didn't get the point.

[Teksonik]

If people really need to move their stuff wherever they want, good, they can do it. If asking them to do it themselves is a burden, we'll happily provide a .bat script that does it for them.

Oh FFS just add the option to install wherever the customer wants in your installer instead of making us manually move stuff around.

If asking you to do that is a burden then I'll take my business elsewhere......

[Urs]

Well, at least with CLAP it's now ultimately solved. Advanced users with advanced requirements can set an environment variable with any path that suits their needs. In order to get this done (and other things) we actually hired a developer to rewrite our Windows installers! Such that, in a year or so, our installers should be good!

[pdxindy]

I really think it’s time for UHE to have an install manager….there are a lot of plugins now and I find install managers much easier for checking for updates across all products etc.

I'm ambivalent about the concept. My only experience with an Install Manager is Native Access and I would much rather it stay as it is rather than that.

[SHall1000]

Like all software Install managers could be great if they are designed properly. They could solve the problem of set and forget for install paths for example but some of them don’t. They can be slick and efficient like the old UVI Portal or they can be a mess like the new one which has turned into a shop front.

While I am here can I put in my plea for proper windows uninstallers for Uhe stuff, please.