Skip to main content

Where to install small programs without installers on Windows?


On the Windows platform, most large applications come with their own installer which sets up folders under C:\Program Files, possibly some other places, and perhaps adding some registry keys, etc.


But there's still quite a few tools around that consist of just an .exe or maybe also a README and a .dll or two.


How should I install such tools? Directly in C:\Program Files? All in one subfolder under C:\Program Files? Somewhere under C:\Users\Me? Somewhere totally different?


Or maybe different approaches for the tools with just an .exe to those that also have other files, or maybe only the ones with .dlls need to be treated differenty ...


Is there any standard accepted way to do this? A "best practice"? If the answer depends on the Windows version, I'm using Windows 7.


In particular, what might strike people as the obvious answer seems to have a catch:


I had tried to manually create new subfolders under C:\Program Files. In fact I thought I had done so before, but Windows puts up a dialog Destination Folder Access Denied. This caused me to think twice rather than just blindly click Continue.


Destination Folder Access Denied


On the assumption that greater minds than mine have come up against this many times over the years I'd like to ask the community if some kind of "best practice" has come to be accepted.



Answer



Use C:\Tools


or C:\Users\\Tools
 


I'm using many small programs without installer and I'm recommending the following:



  • Save them all into C:\Tools

  • If a program consists of single file, put it directly under C:\Tools

  • If a program consists of multiple files, put it under C:\Tools\ProgramName

  • SysInternals tools have a special category C:\Tools\_SysInternals because there is many of them


I'm simply moving C:\Tools from machine to machine when migrating, works like a charm.


Practical sample (shortened listing):



C:\Tools\autoexec-elevated.bat
C:\Tools\cleanup.bat
C:\Tools\BabelMap.exe
C:\Tools\netmon.exe
C:\Tools\notifu.exe
C:\Tools\putty.exe
C:\Tools\UDPixel.exe
C:\Tools\battery.vbs

C:\Tools\3dclip-1.5.1\
C:\Tools\alternatestreamview\
C:\Tools\blender-2.71-windows64\
C:\Tools\Notepad++\
C:\Tools\QueryExpress\
C:\Tools\winscp555\
C:\Tools\Xinorbis\

C:\Tools\_Sysinternals\accesschk\
C:\Tools\_Sysinternals\Autoruns\
C:\Tools\_Sysinternals\depends22_x64\
C:\Tools\_Sysinternals\depends22_x86\
C:\Tools\_Sysinternals\LogonSessions\

I hope this gives an idea.


EDIT: Extended info


I suppose that under install in your question How should I install such tools? you actually mean manual setup, something like copying the files.


Rule of thumb: Use manually created folders for manually maintained files. Let system folders to be used by (installation) processes you don't directly control. You will immediately get benefit of recognition which content is 'yours' (and you can freely copy it) and which application is managed by the installer.


So when installing manually (by copying), stay away from



  • C:\Program Files - programs found here cannot be simply migrated, must be reinstalled (gives a great hint for migration)

  • C:\Program Files (x86) - as the above, but on 64-bit systems, 32-bit programs go here (can give a hint to determine whether particular app is 32-bit or 64-bit)

  • C:\ProgramData - application storages found here show that these programs maintain some of their data in their own way. But you asked about putting your programs under Data? Not a good idea.

  • C:\Users\Steven\AppData - again, putting programs under Data is not a good idea. If you asked about data, then several interesting things can be written about this path. But for programs simply 'no'. :)


Possible path



  • C:\Users\Steven - can be your alternative root if this is a shared computer and you want to keep it tidy, so you decide not to create any global directories. You can consider C:\Users\Steven\Tools for your programs or even C:\Users\Steven\Desktop\Tools if you want to use comfortable Desktop folder access available via shortcut from many places in Windows. But better can be the former one and you can still place the shortcut to this folder to desktop or whenever needed.



Edit: Additional useful hint:


If you want to make some of your small programs recognized in Windows 10 Start menu (for incremental searching of their names or instant elevated start using Ctrl+Shift+Enter), add their shortcuts there and launch them once. (Then you can remove them.)


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Use Google instead of Bing with Windows 10 search

I want to use Google Chrome and Google search instead of Bing when I search in Windows 10. Google Chrome is launched when I click on web, but it's Bing search. (My default search engine on Google and Edge is http://www.google.com ) I haven't found how to configure that. Someone can help me ? Answer There is no way to change the default in Cortana itself but you can redirect it in Chrome. You said that it opens the results in the Chrome browser but it used Bing search right? There's a Chrome extension now that will redirect Bing to Google, DuckDuckGo, or Yahoo , whichever you prefer. More information on that in the second link.
Post a Comment
Read more

linux - Using an index to make grep faster?

I find myself grepping the same codebase over and over. While it works great, each command takes about 10 seconds, so I am thinking about ways to make it faster. So can grep use some sort of index? I understand an index probably won't help for complicated regexps, but I use mostly very simple patters. Does an indexer exist for this case? EDIT: I know about ctags and the like, but I would like to do full-text search. Answer what about cscope , does this match your shoes? Allows searching code for: all references to a symbol global definitions functions called by a function functions calling a function text string regular expression pattern a file files including a file
Post a Comment
Read more

How do I transmit a single hexadecimal value serial data in PuTTY using an Alt code?

I am trying to sent a specific hexadecimal value across a serial COM port using PuTTY. Specifically, I want to send the hex codes 9C, B6, FC, and 8B. I have looked up the Alt codes for these and they are 156, 182, 252, and 139 respectively. However, whenever I input the Alt codes, a preceding hex value of C2 is sent before 9C, B6, and 8B so the values that are sent are C2 9C, C2 B6, and C2 8B. The value for FC is changed to C3 FC. Why are these values being placed before the hex value and why is FC being changed altogether? To me, it seems like there is a problem internally converting the Alt code to hex. Is there a way to directly input hex values without using Alt codes in PuTTY? Answer What you're seeing is just ordinary text character set conversion. As far as PuTTY is concerned, you are typing (and reading) text , not raw binary data, therefore it has to convert the text to bytes in whatever configured character set before sending it over the wire. In other words, when y
Post a Comment
Read more

networking - Windows 10, can ping other PC but cannot access shared folders! What gives?

I have a computer running Windows 7 that shares a Git repo on drive D. Let's call this PC " win7 ". This repo is the origin of a project that we push to and pull from. The network is a wireless network. One PC on this network is running on Windows 10. Let's call this PC " win10 ". Win10 can ping every other PC on the network including win7 . Win7 can ping win10 . Win7 can access all shared files on win10 . Neither of the PCs have passwords. Problem : Win10 cannot access any shared files on win7 , not from Explorer, nor from Git Bash or any other Git management system (E-Git on Eclipse or Visual Studio). So, win10 cannot pull/push. Every other PC on the network can access win7 shared files and push/pull to/from the shared Git origin. What's wrong with Windows 10? I have tried these: Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Network and Sharing Center\Advanced sharing settings\ File sharing is on, Discovery is on, Password protected sharing is off Adapte
Post a Comment
Read more