Installer vs. Setup Assistants vs. Uninstallers
Installer vs. Setup Assistants vs. Uninstallers
- Subject: Installer vs. Setup Assistants vs. Uninstallers
- From: "Nathan Herring" <email@hidden>
- Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2006 12:17:58 -0800
- Thread-topic: Installer vs. Setup Assistants vs. Uninstallers
In the current shipping version of Microsoft Office 2004, our Setup
Assistant application is a combination of what Apple's documents would
describe as an installer and a setup assistant
(http://developer.apple.com/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/OSXH
IGuidelines/XHIGInstallationsUpdates/chapter_9_section_4.html). Is the
Apple separation of these two things specifically desired and, if so,
why? One of the differences between the two is that an Installer
generally just installs the product (though it does accomplish the
ancillary task of license acceptance), and it leaves the setup assistant
tasks to the first time you launch the program. Our current product is a
mix of both: The setup assistant, run separately, takes care of setup
operations and accomplishes the install. If you drag-and-drop, then the
setup assistant is run, though it bypasses several of the
installation-specific tasks.
>From the HIG and from viewing the installer, the UI for both installers
and setup assistants are incredibly similar: bevel button lists on the
left, work panes on the right. Is there any reason not to use the
installer's custom installer pane technology to implement a setup
assistant?
I'm asking these questions from a HIG standpoint... what's the Apple
take on how the workflow of installing/setting up an application should
work.
Also, whereas the HIG suggests that you provide an uninstaller, the
Apple installer currently doesn't have an uninstall function. In our
case, we have uninstaller that uninstalls older versions as well. Where
would Apple suggest it be placed in the order of operations? (i.e.,
should we and when should we offer the user the option to remove older
versions of the product?)
Thanks in advance,
Nathan
----
Nathan Herring
MacBU SDE/Development
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