Stand alone programs versus installation

What advantages do installed programs (via installer) have over stand alone?

Stand alone seems a much better solution because it doesn't touch your registry...

I know this is a stretch but is there anyway to make standalones out of installers without having access to the source code?

 

You're right, its a stretch. No there isn't.

Gary

 

Depends on the program. Programs like Firefox work quite well running without the installer, but they typically ship as an installer. Generally open-source programs work well without an installer. Outside of that, it's a grey area, and depends on the application. The company I used to work for has a completely standalone product, but there's no way you could use MS Office without an installer, it depends on too many other files and bits and pieces that the installer scatters about the system.

 

Couple of things.
First, just because it's standalone doesn't mean it won't touch the registry. (It might do so while the program is running)

In fact, one advantage of installers is that they get a chance to clean up after them. If you delete a standalone program, it won't clean out any changes it may have made to the registry. When running an uninstaller, it is supposed to clean up. (Whether or not it actually does this is an entirely different matter.

Now, many applications rely on accessing the registry. So even if you were to strip out the installer and pretend it was a standalone application, you'd run into the problem that the program woulnd't be able to find the registry keys it expects (because they're supposed to be put there by the installer)
So no, usually you can't just strip away the installer.