Installers: what are they and what do they do?
Before you can use any application, you often ought to create an installation using a software installer.
A lot of programs are distributed in a packed format.
For programmers there are ample opportunities to make their releases more effective with the help of commercial or freely distributed install maker.
Microsoft has made the Windows Installer for its Windows platform that lets programmers create installation.
There are a number of other commercial installation software applications available for Windows XP: InstallShield, Smart Install Maker and some others.
A lot of such solutions make distributives that offer a consistent experience for users installing different solutions.
Not happy with commercial setup creator programs? There are also a some good open source applications available. Check out Clickteam Install Creater and Innosetup, to name a few.
Many software solutions nowadays are developed for more than 1 system.
Programmers often find the job of making install packages for each of the platforms to be quite challenging.
Developers ought to develop and assure the quality of each installer for each platform.
The good news is, though, that you there are alot of multi-system installation software programs.
You can also find an outstanding commercial product entitled IntallAnywhere.
Talking of installers, it would be wrong not to say a few words about their counterparts, i.e. uninstallers.
Some years ago a number of programs could not be uninstalled correctly without the assistance of special 3rd-party programs.
3rd-party uninstallers are rarely used this way these days, because they are sometimes less efficient than standard uninstall procedures.
Nevertheless, even today there could be use for third party uninstallers.
One of the reasons for that is that some solutions choose not to erase themselves entirely leaving some features behind.
Trojan and spyware programs pose one more challenge to your computer.
Such a program does not delete itself voluntarily, so a bit of assistance from a dedicated uninstaller may be needed.
Uninstallers often include some extra functionality such as handing cache memory and managing temporary files, etc.