Windows binary without installer

[zetab007]

Is it possible to provide windows binary without installer?

[sodevel]

It looks like the installer simply packs the whole CMake install "tree", the Windows workflow could be enhanced to archive and upload that directory too. It could be more tricky to use a better directory name inside that archive (e.g. not _install), using no directory at all should be easy.

Not sure what's the benefit of such an archive, this doesn't turn wxFB into a portable application, it will still write into the Windows registry and user directory.

[zetab007]

I think just archiving everything inside _install directory is good enough. That was also the way wxFB packed the archive version in the old days (v3.1.70 and earlier, still can be found on SourceForge repo).

I may use wxFB on several PCs, an archive version can save me some time to install on every machine.
I don't know about wxFB will write Windows registry and user directory, but I think it won't be an issue in my case.

I've built wxFB from source, renamed the _install directory and copy to wherever I want as an archive version.
The build instruction is quite clear and straightforward, buiding from source is not hard. But it woud be more convenient to have an archive version release.

By the way, will I miss any functionality by skipping the installation process?

[sodevel]

The project file extension won't get registered so you won't see its icon in e.g. explorer and can't open it by double-click.

[SpareSimian]

I'd be happy with a script to install/uninstall the file association.

Presumably, the only use of the registry and user directory is to store persistent configuration, like the recently-used project file list. I'm fine with cleaning that up myself on uninstalls.

[sodevel]

The Windows workflow creates an additional archive version of wxFB now, you can download them from the Actions tab.

About the file association script, this is a bit cumbersome, because it does not only depend on the actual location of wxFB but also the architecture of Windows and the architecture of wxFB.

[zetab007]

Will it be easier adding a menu or dialog inside wxFB to set/unset the file association?

[sodevel]

This requires to add UI that should only be present in the windows version. Also, you need to decide if the registration should only be done for the user or for the system, the latter requires to elevate the process. A forgotten user registration could overrule a later done system registration done by the installer.

This sounds like a lot of work for a pretty advanced feature that will be used by advanced users only. These users should be able to create a proper .reg-file for their own needs. But maybe i am a bit biased, because this is actually the way how we deploy wxFB versions 😄.