The old README.txt instructed you to manually update PATH if you
wanted to run pscp from a command prompt. But the MSI installer can do
that automatically, so the wording needs tweaks. And now that we're
actually launching README (at least optionally) from the installer UI,
it's more important to not make it look silly.
This is a thing that the Inno Setup installer did, and that I didn't
get round to replicating when I rushed out the initial MSI in a hurry.
I've checked that this doesn't prevent unattended installation by
administrators: running 'msiexec /q /i putty-whatever.msi' as
administrator still installs silently after this change, without
popping up the README unexpectedly on anyone's desktop as a side
effect.
(I _think_ - but I'm still a long way from an MSI expert - that that's
because /q turns off the whole UI part of the MSI system, and the
loading of README is actually triggered by the transition away from
the final UI dialog box, which we now never visit in the first place.)
I rushed out the MSI in too much of a hurry to sort out this kind of
thing, but now we've got leisure to reconsider, I think it's better
behaviour not to clutter everyone's desktops unless specifically asked
to.
It would be nicer if we could also make this show up as the icon for
the .msi file itself when viewed in Explorer, but apparently nothing
can change that. But at least this still gives us _some_ use for the
cardboard-box icon :-)
Mostly this is a reaction to the reports of Inno Setup having a DLL
hijacking vulnerability. But also, the new installer has several other
nice features that our Inno Setup one didn't provide: it can put the
PuTTY install directory on PATH automatically, and it supports
completely automatic and silent install/uninstall via 'msiexec /q'
which should make it easier for sysadmins to roll out installation in
large organisations. Also, it just seems like good sense to be using
Windows's own native packaging system (or closest equivalent) rather
than going it alone.
(And on the developer side, I have to say I like the fact that WiX
lets me pass in the version number as a set of command-line #define-
equivalents, whereas for Inno Setup I had to have Buildscr apply Perl
rewriting to the source file.)
For the moment, I'm still building the old Inno Setup installer
alongside this one, but I expect to retire it once the WiX one has
survived in the wild for a while and proven itself more or less
stable.
I've found both MSI and WiX to be confusing and difficult
technologies, so this installer has some noticeable pieces missing
(e.g. retrospective reconfiguration of the installed feature set, and
per-user vs systemwide installation) simply because I couldn't get
them to work. I've commented the new installer source code heavily, in
the hope that a passing WiX expert can give me a hand!
