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Suggestion: Have the self-extracting archive's default extract path include a sub-folder?

Posted: 2017-09-01, 06:10
by __NM64__
Would it not make more sense for the default extraction path for the self-extracting archive's include a sub-folder?

Currently, if the self-extracting archive is located in "D:\programs" and you run it, the default extraction path would be "D:\programs\", which then results in the EXE being located at "D:\programs\palemoon-portable.exe". Would it not instead make more sense if the default extraction path said something along the lines of "D:\programs\palemoon-portable\", which would then result in the EXE being located at "D:\programs\palemoon-portable\palemoon-portable.exe"? And since this would just be the default path, the user could easily still change the extraction path to "D:\programs\" which would then result in the EXE being located at "D:\programs\palemoon-portable.exe".

This came to mind because I had to update my .NET framework yesterday, and its initial extraction of the installation files works exactly like my suggestion, and I know that the initial extraction for the Radeon GPU drivers installer as well as any and all PortableApps extractors/"installers" all behave in the same way as my suggestion.

Re: Suggestion: Have the self-extracting archive extract to a folder?

Posted: 2017-09-01, 07:03
by adesh
WONTFIX - Issue #1299

Re: Suggestion: Have the self-extracting archive extract to a folder?

Posted: 2017-09-01, 07:26
by __NM64__
Oddly enough, I was unable to find that issue even when I went searching for it...

Nevertheless, my understanding for the reason of that "WONTFIX" is that it's wrong to have the extraction path say something like "D:\programs\" but then have the result actually end up as "D:\programs\palemoon-portable\palemoon-portable.exe". This isn't want I wanted to suggest - I mean for the actual default extraction path to include a sub-folder, not a sub-folder that is always added regardless of what the user specified as the extraction path. I've edited my opening post considerably as well the topic's subject line to better convey just what it is I'm trying to suggest.

I'm aware that the "WONTFIX" issue also mentions that "Using the installer name as a folder name is even worse." in response to the comment that said "an indeed better solution would have been to change the default extraction path to <current dir>\<installer name without extension>", but it did not state that including a sub-folder period in the default extraction path is even worse, just that using the installer name for this sub-folder is worse. As my suggestion is purely about the existence of the default extraction path including a sub-folder at all, the name of said default sub-folder isn't really something within the scope of what I'm suggesting and any folder names I'm using are purely examples for demonstration's sake.