Any chance for silent install options

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BRX
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Re: Any chance for silent install options

Post by BRX »

Do you know chocolatey?

https://chocolatey.org

That's what I'm using for fresh installs and of course regular updates for most of my applications.

Though not on x2 so far since there is no ultimate package. (And the ones for pro and lite aren't up to date).

Nikos, would you consider to be the official maintainer for the update packages for x2 (including ultimate) and keep them current?

That would be great.
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nikos
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Re: Any chance for silent install options

Post by nikos »

never heard of this thing before, so between the 2 of us, YOU are the better choice for the task :)
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Re: Any chance for silent install options

Post by BRX »

Nikos, you know I'm purely a user with no skills in programming (or even little bit of scripting) at all. :D

Looking into chocolatey is well worth IMHO (if not for x2 then for your personal covenience for installing and updating the soft).

But I will try to contact the current maintainer and ask why it isn't updated or include x2 ultimate.
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Re: Any chance for silent install options

Post by teknowledgist »

I know Chocolatey! Quite well, actually. :biggrin:

The reason X2 pro and lite aren't current is because, frankly, it's a fiddly PITA to maintain options via AutoHotKey when the installer doesn't have integrated options and certain choices are available only at install.

It's a good thing someone started this thread! Maybe in the near future the package maintainer will be able to improve the X2 packages (and add one for Ultimate) without outsized effort. :wink:
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Re: Any chance for silent install options

Post by BRX »

Hi teknowledgist, nice that you're here.

Are you not the package maintainer? I thought you were since you are listed as such (together with one Werner).

What should/could Nikos change (if he's willing to) to make the installation process and thepackaging easier?
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Re: Any chance for silent install options

Post by teknowledgist »

Yes. I am the package maintainer. 8) I maintain a lot of Chocolatey packages, and I really try to do the best job that I can to make them flexible for users and appealing for folks browsing through the repository. Although I feel that I am promoting the applications for which I have created packages, I'm always wary that the author(s) will take offense to my unauthorized work. :oops:

As I said earlier in the thread, installer options are for power users, so any/all options that are available in the installer GUI are welcome on the command line. At a minimum, the options that can only be set at install time should be there (IMHO) since the others can be set later. As I also said, if Nikos isn't willing to make the changes, I'll still be a user, but remaining as a maintainer for the Chocolatey packages will grow less and less appealing.
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Re: Any chance for silent install options

Post by BRX »

So, Nikos, if it isn't to complicated and assuming you are willing, is there a chance you can give us command line install options in one of the next updates for Lite/Pro/Ultimate so maintaining the chocolatey packages is easier for teknowledgist?

I hope you don't take offense to his packaging work as he is wary of. As I said, chocolatey is a very practical and free automatic way to install and update lots of useful programs without having to find them, download them and install them individually. I also think it's a promotion of the product as well.
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Re: Any chance for silent install options

Post by nikos »

so what's the advantage of running a package rather than the installer itself?
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Re: Any chance for silent install options

Post by teknowledgist »

Are you familiar with package managers?

If all you are doing is installing a single application, the advantage of a Chocolatey package is that you don't need to go find/download/install the latest version of the software, don't need to check-on/find/install it's dependencies, can let Chocolatey tell you if you have the latest version (if already installed) and can automate the installation every time you need to install it. For a single app, it doesn't actually sound like much, I admit.

If you are installing a collection of software (like when building a new system), the advantages scale nicely. So for example, when setting up a new computer, I can install Chocolatey and then run a command:

Code: Select all

choco install firefox google-chrome adobereader notepad++ filezilla dropbox thunderbird teamviewer xnview libreoffice bitwarden 7-zip winmerge vscode rsat -y
A couple minutes later, the latest version of everything is installed and all their dependencies. If I later decide I want to drop FileZilla and use WinSCP, it's as easy as:

Code: Select all

choco uninstall filezilla -y
choco install winscp -y
Of course, if you need additional parameters for a particular app (like an improved, Xplorer2 :) ), you would have to put it on it's own command line:

Code: Select all

choco install xplorer2pro -y --params '"/Replace"'
but all these lines can be easily dropped into a script.

When I want to check on the version status of all my Chocolatey-installed apps:

Code: Select all

choco outdated
If I simply want to upgrade all the apps without picking and choosing:

Code: Select all

choco upgrade * -y
Do folks need Chocolatey to install Xplorer2? Absolutely not. Would having a current, stable, Xplorer2 package in the Chocolatey repository make it easier for existing Xplorer2 users to get set up? I think so. Would it help new users try out Xplorer2? Definitely.
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Re: Any chance for silent install options

Post by BRX »

Well said, teknowledgist.

Chocolatey has saved me immense time as well for several new installs as for keeping my essential apps current without much effort.

And since x2 is a must have app for me on all my Windows devices it would be very nice to have it included (current versions and ultimate).

IMHO all the apps included in the chocolatey repository are quite good and useful or otherwise the community or a maintainer wouldn't have made the effort to include them. If then there's also a good amount of users (the amount of installations via chocolatey is documented and can be seen) I think it's a good promotion for the app as well.
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Re: Any chance for silent install options

Post by teknowledgist »

I'll just add one more thing...

The Chocolatey public repository makes it pretty easy for package maintainers to grant maintainership to other developers. The Chocolatey admins insist that packages must be legal and have always welcomed software authors/vendors who want to maintain packages for their own software: https://docs.chocolatey.org/en-us/commu ... are-vendor

Of course, if you/Nikos wants to be the sole maintainer (or share it) for the X2 packages, I'm happy to assist with that although the Chocolatey admins probably still need to be notified so they can flag the X2 packages as "author-maintained". I share maintainer status with a couple other authors (MarkDown-Edit and DAX Studio).
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Re: Any chance for silent install options

Post by nikos »

ok let me see what can be done for the next installer version
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Re: Any chance for silent install options

Post by teknowledgist »

Just bumping this as I see another release and no new silent options. :cry:

I do see that the NSIS installer has been changed to unicode. Is that in preparation for more silent install options? :wink:
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Re: Any chance for silent install options

Post by nikos »

just keep on bugging me till I drop into submission :)
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Re: Any chance for silent install options

Post by BRX »

I'll happily join in bugging you. :devil:
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