SteveRussell
22nd May 2008 11:17 UTC

Firewall objections
We have a downloadable product that appears to cause problems and ocnfusion for many people. We suspect that the installer's "exe" extension is the biggest factor, in that a customer's firewall or other security objects to that extension. Of course, many people do not have the slightest idea of how to get around this difficulty, but I would hope that they would not even have to think about it. It certainly is detrimental to the entire transaction.

Would anyone have any comments about this?

pospec
22nd May 2008 11:49 UTC

Yes, I have. It is problem of your customers, not NSIS problem.

SteveRussell
22nd May 2008 17:09 UTC

Can an NSIS installer have an extension other than "exe"?

Sheik
22nd May 2008 17:29 UTC

No. Its an executable.
By its very nature, it must be an .exe

If you are emailing your Installers around, yes, most email filters will block .exe's, and rightfully so.

What we generally do here, when I send someone a .exe, is I zip the .exe up, and tell the person who receives it, to unzip it, and then run it.

SteveRussell
22nd May 2008 18:48 UTC

Thanks, Sheik. We provide the download link both on a web page and by email. I'm not really concerned right here with the email aspect, but rather with the actual download of the installer being blocked in one way or another.

You are confirming the validity of one of my ideas -- to provide a zip version and let the customer make the choice. These things are difficult for many people, and such pain should not be present at the point of sale. I have been told emphatically that many people also struggle with what to do with a zip file.

Joost Verburg
22nd May 2008 20:04 UTC

Windows will ask the user for permission to run a downloaded executable. This is a security feature, you can't do anything about it. If you digitally sign your installer, the confirmation window will show your name instead of "unknown publisher".

SteveRussell
22nd May 2008 21:53 UTC

Thank you for pointing that out, as one of the stumbling points related to a download. I am going to give it careful consideration.

SteveRussell
22nd May 2008 22:29 UTC

What about the option of giving the installer another extension, say "dld", and letting the user change it back to "exe"? Would a firewall and other antivirus software go a lot easier on the download?

kichik
23rd May 2008 08:18 UTC

It might trick the firewalls, but it'd be very tricky for the users to change the extension. Especially if you consider Windows' default of hiding the file extension.

pospec
23rd May 2008 08:19 UTC

Maybe you should send them setups on CD's ;)

SteveRussell
23rd May 2008 11:12 UTC

Well, thank you all for your thoughts. We do have cd's, and in a very short time the content on that cd can be outdated by our updates. That's one of the nicest things about downloadable products.

I think these various difficulaties are simply reflecting the digital revolution we're living through, and I am trying to navigate it smoothly; but it seems to me that there is only so much you can do to help someone understand such a process. I work with a lot of intelligent adults who can't always make sense of what's on the computer in front of them. Just giving them one more thing to think about, to click on, etc., can be hard on them. And that's with me standing next to them. Even one error message leaves them stuck. So I know I'm biting off a big chunk when I address problems of downloads.

Funny thing about zipping, I Winzipped my 70 meg installer and the size did not change. Besides, we use some Spanish characters, and at least via email, Winzipped attachments alter those characters.