VB6 App Downloaded From Web

[Bob334]

Maybe I might understand this better if I knew the purpose.

Yes, simply put......Our members are downloading software we don't want anyone else to use....

Is the goal here to prevent the user from having a full setup package they might store off? Something that would let them reinstall offline later or even copy to another computer?

Yes, basically that is correct


It is certainly possible to have an EXE that gets downloaded from a link ("shortcut") on the web page that doesn't have the rest of the package. That EXE would get downloaded and run on the user's machine. It could then download any additional files itself and do an installation.


Thank you for letting me know it is possible. Can you please explain HOW I could set this up to work? This would be a great help thank you.

As for "hiding" the "unzipped file" (the rest of the setup package?), the bootstrapper EXE could store them locally in some temp folder with random looking names and then remove them after installing is complete.

Thank you. My inexperience in this process prompted this siggestion. I assume if it is UNZIPPED in a temp folder it would be hidden. Is that correct?


I suppose a clever enough bootstrapper might even download each file required for installation directly to its final location. Then there wouldn't even be a temp copy of a CAB, etc. file. This would be a custom job though, normal installer technologies don't work this way. If you roll your own nothing prevents your setup bootstrapper EXE from decompressing the other downloaded files on the fly, to save download bandwidth.

I may be wrong, but I think even ClickOnce uses something like a CAB-style archive that gets downloaded and then processed.

Can you please tell me what *Click Once* is? As I stated this is not my field of expertise. I would be grateful for this. Will this solve the problem I have posed??

[dilettante]

If you have a setup EXE that gets downloaded, it could in turn download additional files itself by using the Inet control or FTP or something. If it installs using these from the temporary folder it puts them in, and then removes them afterward... is this what you want to do?

Of course after installing you still have the problem of the actual installed files being on the user's machine.