eli5 what is the base install wizard like, and why do so many apps use install wizards?
In: Technology
There are many things that may need to happen before you can use a program.
The most basic is to place the program and all the files it requires in a folder somewhere on the computer. The wizard will ask you where you want this folder to be, create it, copy the program files into there, set the user permissions correctly etc.
But the program may not come with *all* the files it needs because the creator of the program you are installing doesn’t have the rights to distribute those. So the wizard can check if those files are present on your computer already and maybe even download them for you from someone that *does* have the rights to distribute them. (This is the “Installing Visual C++ Runtime” that pops up sometimes when you install games on Steam.)
The wizard can write to the environment variables that make it so that other programs on your computer can find the program you are installing so that they can use it.
The wizard can set up a default configuration for your program so that it doesn’t need to do that when it first runs.
The wizard can create the desktop shortcuts and Start Menu entries you use to launch the program.
And more
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