How can I find out what modifications a program’s installer makes?

Posted by Gregory MOUSSAT on Super User See other posts from Super User or by Gregory MOUSSAT
Published on 2012-08-05T17:35:04Z Indexed on 2012/11/11 5:05 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 140

Filed under:

Windows

|

installation

|

monitoring

|

installer

I want to know what some installers do: mainly what files, folders, and registry entries they add, remove, or modify.

Lots of “ professional” programs are so poorly documented that it’s difficult to find the proper way to configure them, update them, etc.

InstallRite is a program which is able to take a “snapshot” before and after the installation of a program and then compare the snapshots. This allows you to know what was done and even to create a custom uninstaller. Unfortunately InstallRite seems to no longer be maintained and has not been updated since 2008.

© Super User or respective owner

Related posts about Windows

Server 2012 DFS New Member Issue

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I am trying to add a new member to our DFS topology. We have 3 DCs (VMs - VMware) running Windows server 2012, two servers are located in or Primary site and the third at our DR site. Currently the two servers at our primary site are currently replicating DFS (full mesh) and are working fine. I have… >>> More
error in IIS7 but not on IIS6

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I have a website that is we are now deploying to windows 2008 servers that has worked in the past on IIS6 without a problem. It is using .net 2 framework. Most of the website works. Just when we create a screen report over a certain size on the server we get this error. Event code: 3005 Event… >>> More
error in IIS7 but not on IIS6

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I have a website that is we are now deploying to windows 2008 servers that has worked in the past on IIS6 without a problem. It is using .net 2 framework. Most of the website works. Just when we create a screen report over a certain size on the server we get this error. Event code: 3005 Event… >>> More
Microsoft Management Console stops working when I add snap-in to it

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I have Windows 7 Ultimate OS. I'm opening mmc.exe as administrator and trying add Certificates or any other snap-in, then while loading that snap-in MMC breaks and displays following message and after that it closes automatically once I click on close button on that message. What could be the problem… >>> More
Handling keyboard and mouse input (Win API)

as seen on Game Development - Search for 'Game Development'
There is a number of ways to catch mouse or keyboard under Windows. So I tried some of them, but every of them has some advantages and drawbacks. I want to ask you: Which method do use? I've tried these: WM_KEYDOWN/WM_KEYUP - Main disadvantage is that, I can't distinguish between left and right-handed… >>> More

Related posts about installation

Installation stuck on "Installation Type" screen

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I am trying to install Ubuntu 11.10 with Windows 7 from a CD. I am using an HP Pavilion dm4. I've never used Ubuntu (or any Linux) before. Everything goes alright until I get to the "Installation Type" screen. Instead of giving me options, it just has a blank menu, and all the buttons are disabled… >>> More
Visual Studio 2010 Installation Screenshots, links to installation Guides, Forum

as seen on Microsoft .NET Support Team - Search for 'Microsoft .NET Support Team'
Today Installed Visual Studio 2010 in my new Sony Vaio laptop. I’ve habit of taking screen shots while setups are running. It helps me if I want to find the items what I installed earlier for that software. but taking screen shots is not required for the software's like Visual Studio as it provides… >>> More
OpenIndiana installation hangs at 2% - Preparing disk for OpenIndiana installation

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I've been trying to install OpenIndiana on an HP DL320 G6 for a while now. I've got a 16GB HP SDHC card in the onboard slot and a SATA CD-Rom with oi-dev-151a-text-x86.iso burnt to a disc. Installation seems to progress fine until I get to the actual installation portion. The SD card is picked up… >>> More
local wordpress installation, plugin installation and file permissions

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I have a local wordpress installation and got everything working, until I tried to install a new plugin. Trying to activate the plugin, wordpress asked me for FTP connection information, which I understood to be a failure of write-access to the plugins directory. Apache runs as www-data, so I ran… >>> More
Messed up installation of mysql-server - cannot complete installation or deinstallation

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
apt-get got stuck while installing mysql-server. I don't know why but it just stopped working and never continued. I had to reboot the machine in the middle of the setup process. Now, if I try to install or purge the mysql-server package, apt-get tries to configure mysql-server first (tells me its… >>> More