What do you think of this idea? (internet/download related)

[ianpaisley]

Hi there,

I'm going to put a demo of our product up on our site. The entire software product is pretty big, but the demo is only about 100K. Or so I thought.

After compiling the damn thing, bundling the runtime dlls and all into one unit, it comes to 2.56MB. In this part of the world most people still use 28k modems so some people might be put off. It's all that Msvbvm60.dll and stuff, and about 6 other dlls, that take up all the space.

So here's my idea:

Before they download my demo I have a link saying 'For your convenience and to save you time...' or something. This downloads a small program onto their computer, around 10k or so.

When they click 'start' button on my program it searches their computer to see if they have Asycfilt.dll, Msvbvm60.dll, Mfc42.dll and others in their Windows System folder.

If these files are already in their folder then they will be instructed to download a version of my program that is much, much smaller.

If they don't have them in their System folder then they will have to download the 2.56MB version.

It seems like a good idea so my questions are:

1. Does anybody foresee any difficulties with this, and if so, what?

2. How do you check the Windows System directory for files?

Thanks!

[paulw]

Alternatively, re-write as a COM project that will run from the server within the user's browser.

Too difficult? It is for me....

Cheers,

P.

[noble]

It sounds as though your asking the user if they have the
VB6 runtimes. You could easily have two links on your page:
1) your program w/the runtimes
2) your program w/o the runtimes

tell your user, "HEY BUDDY! if you got the runtimes download
the smaller version! don't have them? well download the bigger one. Dont know what runtimes are? Download the bigger one!"

[PsyVision]

U could put an active x control on the web page that determins what they do/do not have and then can have a button that tells the browser to download whichever version.

[ianpaisley]

Thanks for the suggestions.

Noble,

Unfortunately the average consumer/downloader isn't as enlightened as we are about Msvbvm60.dll, asycfilt.dll,olepro32.dll etc....

In fact, they don't even know what the Windows/System folder is. So forget about asking my users to manually check if they have each and every file. (they'd be quicker just downloading the bigger version). The idea is to make it as easy as possible for the user.

[Jop]

Hey Ianpaisley.

I think it's a great idea.
The only problem is, that you have to write the small program in a language without runtimes, C(++) maybe?

Just call that one the installer, let people download it, and integrate the downloading progress in it, microsoft does that too, have a look at the installer of IE5
It's pretty the same as an installer from CD, it runs a prog, checks what's already there and copy the stuff needed.

I think the C(++) part is the toughest, good luck.