Making a Exe Installer

[Gabrielle]

How do you make a .exe installer for your mod? Zips and Rars get boring after a while.

[cmorgan]

http://dev.gibberlings3.net/index.php/G3_M...ackage_Creation

 

Follow the winrar instructions for sfx installer creation.

 

The format is very customizable, free, and very simple to create. I like to play with colors on the EULA screen and title pages; but then again, i am not quite right in the head.

[Gabrielle]

Thanks!

[aVENGER_(RR)]

Hmm, I just noticed that WinRAR uses Internet Explorer for rendering HTML code inside the License Agreement and the text window. Unfortunately, this also seems to force any links inside those windows to open in Internet Explorer despite having another program (i.e. Firefox) set up as the default browser.

 

I don't suppose there's any way around this?

[Miloch]

It probably just uses the default browser, which might still be IE despite your best efforts to use something else. If in doubt, try launching an HTML file on its own from Explorer. You can change it but it has an annoying tendency not to stick or to revert to IE.

 

You can also probably override it in WinRAR through Options > Viewer > External viewer name and point directly to the .exe for Firefox, Avant or whatever.

[aVENGER_(RR)]

It probably just uses the default browser, which might still be IE despite your best efforts to use something else. If in doubt, try launching an HTML file on its own from Explorer. You can change it but it has an annoying tendency not to stick or to revert to IE.

 

Nope, it's always IE, no matter what I set as the default browser.

 

You can also probably override it in WinRAR through Options > Viewer > External viewer name and point directly to the .exe for Firefox, Avant or whatever.

 

I tried fiddling with the internal/external viewer settings in WinRAR but that didn't seem to have any effect on the licence/text window.

[Miloch]

I just RARed an .html file and launched it from the archive and it opened it in Avant (my default browser). I haven't messed with the viewer settings either. So I'm thinking either:

1) Your default browser is actually IE, despite what you might think, or

2) You're talking of something completely different, about which I've no clue

[aVENGER_(RR)]

No, it's not abut HTML files Miloch, those work fine. I'm talking about the License Agreement and the Description Text windows i.e. the two initial info screens which pop up when you first click on an self-extracting exe. These can be set in SFX Options -> Text and Icon -> License when you first create a SFX Archive.

 

Those windows are primarily used for text, but they also support HTML code input. However, using HTML code makes any links present there open in IE as that is the HTML renderer which WinRAR apparently uses in such cases.

[Miloch]

Those options didn't even open a browser in my test. They just displayed the HTML code in the RAR installer windows.

Here is the code I pasted in the license text box:

<a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/">
<img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc/3.0/88x31.png" />
</a>
<br />This work is licensed under a 
<a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License</a>.

Though if I were doing something like this for real, I'd provide a local copy of the documents I was linking to. I'm not commonly connected to the Internet when installing anything, and if I am, I have to specifically allow .exes to bypass my firewall for Internet access. Otherwise, I'd just get a "This page cannot be displayed" in the window above.

[aVENGER_(RR)]

A browser window is opened once you clik on the link.

 

Also, try right-clicking on a License window which contains HTML code and check out the properties meny which then pops up. Yep, it's IE alright.

[Miloch]

A browser window is opened once you clik on the link.

It doesn't for me. That second window above is what appears when I clicked on the first link.

Also, try right-clicking on a License window which contains HTML code and check out the properties meny which then pops up. Yep, it's IE alright.

Also negative. I get:

Properties

Protocol: HyperText Transfer Protocol

Address: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/

I'm not sure where you got your HTML code for your license or whatever, but maybe you're explicitly (and inadvertently) telling it to use IE.

[aVENGER_(RR)]

Odd... I'm getting the classic IE properties window on both my home and my work computer.

 

Furthermore, if I right-click and select the "Add to Favorites" option it the License Window gets added to the IE favorites menu as an about:blank page.

[Miloch]

Odd... I'm getting the classic IE properties window on both my home and my work computer.

You using Vista or something? I'm on XP. Also I have WinRAR v3.61 if that makes a difference (I doubt it... that's a fairly old version).

Furthermore, if I right-click and select the "Add to Favorites" option it the License Window gets added to the IE favorites menu as an about:blank page.

This added the proper link to IE favorites for me. And it doesn't surprise me it added it to IE and not some other browser, since it's probably just calling Windows shell functionality at that point.

[aVENGER_(RR)]

Nope, I'm using WindowsXP + SP2. Here's a screenshot of my mod description window:

 

 

When I click on one of the links (i.e. the one for the patch) an Internet Explorer window opens. Note that this only happens from the WinRAR License and Description screens. The links in any other programs or files open from Firefox which is set up as my default browser. This is my firewall blocking IE:

 

 

BTW, I'm using WinRAR 3.50, perhaps that's the problem?

[Miloch]

BTW, I'm using WinRAR 3.50, perhaps that's the problem?

I dunno, I guess it's possible. Svchost launching iexplore is suspicious too though - a lot of trojans and bots operate that way. Antivirus software won't always pick up on these. Not trying to scare you, I'm just paranoid by nature.

 

If you want to send (PM, post or email) me a link, I can try testing it on my machine. The last RR I DLed didn't have those links.

 

Incidentally, your instructions are not entirely accurate if your mod is also EasyTutu compatible (as I believe it is).