Microsoft’s online installer for Live applications wastes time
By Jonathan Schlaffer
Microsoft and other companies are beginning to switch some of their applications to online based installers. This means that the user downloads a smaller file to their hard drive which is a download manager of sorts; it will then launch, download the program to the desktop and begin the installation automatically.
One of our readers mentioned that it was difficult to install IE8 Beta 1 without being connected to the Internet. I got to thinking that there some other software packages that require an Internet connection to download and install.
When installing software, most companies will make the assumption that the computer is connected to the Internet and these days that is pretty much taken for granted. But, online installers can make things more difficult if you want to install the software on a PC that isn’t connected to the Internet.
One such example is Windows Live. Microsoft provides Windows Live Installer, when launched, allows you to pick and choose the Live applications you wish to download and install. That’s great, provided your PC is connected to the Internet, if not things get more difficult. Google has also adopted a similar method with its Google Pack and Adobe also uses a method not so different.
Say you want to save time by moving the exe or msi file to another computer without having to re-download the application, this is where online installers fail. You can’t, or rather, you can’t easily do it. Each time you wish to install the application you have to download the online installer, select the applications and wait for the download to complete; it wastes time.
Microsoft used to provide standalone installers for at least some of the Live applications but that’s no longer the case. Downloading the standalone installers was a much easier way to install the application to another computer without having to wait for another download of the same thing. Some third party sources may still offer them but the versions are usually outdated and of questionable nature.
Other companies seem to be making this move as well. I can’t say that I like online installers, they are more annoying and cost users more time if installing the applications to more than one computer but it is what it is and I guess we’ll all just have to get used to the idea.
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on Sunday, March 16th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
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March 17th, 2008
I do find the installer a little silly, but hey google is doing it so it must be ok….
The comment i have is that there really is no big deal that it requires an internet connection to install. The obvious thing is that the person must of had the internet to download the installer, so they must have the internet access to install.
The reason that I see Microsoft making the installer reg. internet access is that windows Live is about the internet and communigating over it. The installer has Messenger, Live Writer, Live Photo and other stuff I didn’t install, but they are all applications that allow you to share and communicate over the internet. To take advantage of the programs you need the internet anyway.
So a little annoying, yes, but you need the internet anyways so if you don’t have it to install then look for different application becasue you will not be able to get the full use out of Live.