Why do some portable applications still need to be "installed".

[mxmaniac]

I love portable apps, but theres something I could never find the answer to.

Why do many portable apps out there still need to be "installed". They come as an exe file, and you specify the location, and they make the files and folders in that location.

Why is that necessary? There are other pieces of portable software where you simply unzip it to whatever location you want, which I prefer. So why do some still require that exe install?

 

[cabri]

If the additional info is not where needed; the app could crash and/or generate issues with the host OS.

Somehow the app needs to know certain information.

 

[lxskllr]

I don't think they do need to be "installed". It's just an unnecessary abstraction PortableApps™ makes. It might be considered easier for a complete novice, but I don't know the reason.

 

[ArisVer]

They come as an exe file, and you specify the location, and they make the files and folders in that location.

There are other pieces of portable software where you simply unzip it to whatever location you want...

The outcome is the same either by using the .exe or the .zip file. A folder with the required files the application needs. In the .exe example, you can zip the extracted folder and you will be in the second situation (a zipped folder which you can unzip it anywhere you like).
Some really simple applications just have an .exe file which runs without anything installed.

Edit. I would say that in the first example the programmer went one step further and combined the files into one executable file, while in the second example the programmer just zipped the files.

 

[lamedude]

Dependencies would be my guess. Could be silently running vcredist.exe you don't have yet another copy of those dlls or or dxsetup since DirectX's redist license doesn't let you just include the dlls in the program's directory.

 

[mrjminer]

Because they are not actually portable in your expectation of what portability ensues. Typically companies will falsely label their application as portable in order to mislead people into acquiring their application. Don't trust a company that labels something as portable, but actually isn't in the manner you expect. Technically, they aren't breaking any laws since they are "portable" (as is every computer program ever created), but they know the game they are playing, and the practice is obviously sketchy.

 

[jkauff]

If you have a simple app that is self-contained and writes its settings to a .ini file instead of the registry, no install should be necessary.

If you're running something like Firefox, the install program creates all necessary folders and extracts all the additional files to their proper location. It's really a convenience thing.