[glomedia]

I downloaded the installer for Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.1 ("AcroReader51_ENU_full.exe" - a 13 MB file) and used it to install the program.

When I control-click on the installer file (the .exe file that I downloaded) and choose "Properties," I see 7 info tabs:

General
Digital Signatures
Program
Font
Memory
Screen
Misc

However, if I MOVE or COPY that installer to another location (such as another partition), then the info tabs change. When I control-click on the .exe that's in the new location, the 7 info. tabs are replaced with only 3 info tabs:

General
Version (shows Description as "PackageForTheWeb Stub" v. 2.02)
Digital Signatures

I even re-downloaded the same 13 MB installer file directly to this new location and then checked the Properties. Again, the properties only show 3 info. tabs instead of 7.

Can anyone explain why this is? Are the additional info tabs generated only when an installer (.exe file) is actually run?

I'd be interested to know if anyone out there who archives his or her installer programs to another location or to other media (such as CD-R) notices the same properties behavior (i.e., only 3 info tabs instead of 7).

 

[V0lt]

What different filesystems are these partitions formatted as?

 

[glomedia]

What different filesystems are these partitions formatted as?

Well Fox, the original download location was a shared network drive on my Macintosh computer that can store both Macintosh and Windows files. (IE for Windows was slow at the time, so I logged onto my Macintosh computer to download the Acrobat Reader installer.) When I ran the installer, I specified that it install Acrobat Reader on my Windows machine on Drive C, which it did perfectly. I have retained the original installer (the .exe file I downloaded) on the shared network drive. This is the installer that shows 7 info tabs in its Properties.

The location to which I copied this original installer (.exe file) is Drive E on my Windows computer. This is a partition I created to archive my downloaded installers in case I need to reinstall the software. It is the same as my other Windows drives - FAT32, Windows 98, etc. However, the copied installer's properties only show 3 info tabs when it's in this location. (The original installer on the shared drive continues to show 7 tabs.)

Even when I re-downloaded the Acrobat Reader Installer (the .exe file) directly to Drive E, it still only showed 3 info tabs in its Properties.

Does this provide any further insight?

 

[V0lt]

I'm not completely sure what would be the cause of this, other than to say that the extra tabs you have mentioned are for use with DOS-based programs in order to customize the way the run and display text, and a program that only has a purpose to install something would not really need these.

Do you need these extra features or were you just curious as to why they appeared only under some circumstances?

 

[glomedia]

Do you need these extra features or were you just curious as to why they appeared only under some circumstances?

Just curious, Fox, and here's why:

I wish to archive (save) my installer files in a separate partition (and eventually to other media when I run out of space) so, if something happens to the original program, I can reinstall it.

However, once I moved the installer file to its new home and noticed the change in the info tabs (when checking the Properties), I wondered if that changed the installer file in any way. Would it still work and install the program if I ran it again?

Fox, have you saved any of your installer files (.exe files) on your computer? If so, can you check their properties and see if they show 3 info tabs? Also, if you move or copy the installer file elsewhere (to a different directory, say), does it still show the same info tabs? Knowing what appears on others' computers will help me determine what's normal.

 

[V0lt]

I think what you saw before was a quirk and most likely wouldn't affect the integrity of the installer. I checked a couple of installers on my machine and here's what I found: Some of them have version and digital signatures and some have version alone, but none of them have the MS-DOS tabs that you saw on yours.

Edit: Also, I tried moving a installer with special tabs first into another folder and then onto my second hard drive, and the info tabs did not change.

 

[Volt-Schwibe]

well

i have a collection on cd of more than 4 gigs of installers, and they work fine.

i have only found one or two that wouldnt work after burning them to a cd.

when i was on cable i downloaded every free thing i found.

and i have quite a few other installers that i made, and they also love to be moved.

so, i would try to copy it to your archive, and then test it, and if it works, then delete the original.

OTOH if you cant save it, you will have to download it again next time, so what have you got to lose by trying?

~BoB~

 

[glomedia]

Thank you Fox and Bob. I think you helped me find my answer. I downloaded some more freeware and the basic info tabs of the installer stayed the same - before installation, after installation, and after copying elsewhere.

Therefore, I think those extra DOS tabs on my Acrobat Reader installer had something to do with the fact that I downloaded it using a primarily Macintosh system (including IE for Mac) to a Macintosh drive (even though that drive is shared and is also used to store Windows files).

Maybe Windows needed those DOS tabs to know what to do with an .exe file that was (originally) in a Mac environment (sound reasonable?). Once I moved the installer to a Windows drive, the extra tabs disappeared.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Volt-Schwibe]

glad to help

~BoB~