Installing a Setup.exe created with SUF60

[Sam]

Hi

Our software will be installed on tool grinding machines with Pentium 120MHz, 64MB RAM.

The setup.exe (18.4MB with SUF5.0) needs 2'22" for installation. The part where it installs files is about 1'47"

The setup.exe (18.5MB with SUF6.0) needs 10'21" for installation. The part where it installs files is about 3'01"

As we create updates monthly we need to uninstall/install very often. Therefore we cannot waste about 6 minutes for "performing setup action" each time.

We like to build the setup.exe with SUF6.0 because it is much easier. Nevertheless we have to use SUF5.0 because it is much faster to install.

What can we do, what can you do to increase installation speed??

Sam.

[Hajo]

Re: Installing a Setup.exe created with SUF60

Sam,

I did not verify whether it really improves the speed, but possibly setting the new variable "%ShowActionProgressDlg%" of SUF 6.0.0.4 to FALSE will help.

- Hans

[Sam]

Re: Installing a Setup.exe created with SUF60

Thanks, Hans. It was worth a trial. But it saved only a few seconds. In exchange the installation looks like disappeared for two times about 3 minutes. That will confuse any user.

I guess it's up to Indigo Rose...

Sam

[Lorne]

Re: Installing a Setup.exe created with SUF60

What kind of testing methodology were you following to determine those times, Sam?

Testing on the same machine? Reformatted + defragged between tests?

Are these setups based on a converted project (sf5 -> sf6) or did you build them from scratch?

Are you using a lot of actions and control structures? If so, perhaps the logic could be improved.

Can you tell us more about the nature of the project? Are you installing lots of very small files, or are you installing only a few very large ones?

Feel free to contact [email protected] if you don't want to publish such details on this forum.

[Sam]

Re: Installing a Setup.exe created with SUF60

Hi Lorne

of course, it is not a scientific testing methode! The installation time has only been measured once.
I installed the setup6. As it took very long, I created the setup5 with exactly the same files and installed that over the existing. After I took my watch and stopped the time for the whole installation and for parts of it. Always installing on top of the existing.

If I remember correctly we converted a SUF4 project to the SUF5 and now to the SUF6.

Yes we have a huge quantity of small files. About 3000 with a size of less than 30kB out of 3359 files. Most of them are bmps which we skip on installation if they are already present. That's probably why the check for space takes that long. Total installation size is about 110MB.

There are only a few registry entries and some shortcuts.

I hope this may help. If you need more or further details, please ask.

Thanks,
Sam.

[csd214]

Re: Installing a Setup.exe created with SUF60

Originally posted by Sam:
In exchange the installation looks like disappeared for two times about 3 minutes. That will confuse any user.

Yes, that's why I want to be able to choose a progress bar screen (without the need of a counter) as an alternative to the text progress screen (in some cases this will produce flickering text).

[Lorne]

Re: Installing a Setup.exe created with SUF60

You might want to try rebuilding the SF6 project from scratch. The project convertor works well enough to get the job done, but it tends to perform some actions in an overly roundabout way.

[Sam]

Re: Installing a Setup.exe created with SUF60

Hi

we rebuilt now our SF6 project as suggested. The time it uses to check disk space and before copying files has been reduced from 3 min. each to 20 sec. each. That's now better. Thanks for your advice, Lorne.

Sam.

[Lorne]

Re: Installing a Setup.exe created with SUF60

Glad it helped. Thanks for responding with the data.

Maybe once we're done with AutoPlay Menu Studio 4 we can spend some quality time with the convertor...