InstallAware

I recently discovered that if I mark all the InstallAware files as read-only (to protect them against unintentional changes), InstallAware completely ignores and bypasses this protection. It looks as if InstallAware just removes the read-only protection and makes the modifications to the project.

This is very, very, very, very bad. The whole point of me marking a file as read-only is to protect the files. Rather that overwriting the files, InstallAware should display a message stating that it was unable to make file modification dues to the files protection level.

Is this a bug or is this a "feature"?

Thanks.

Hi,

This is actually a feature - InstallAware makes changes to its project files, and therefore requires non-readonly files.

Thanks but....

This makes no sense at all. I don’t know of a single other application that completely ignores the read-only attribute like InstallAware does. Microsoft Office, Visual Studio etc, etc. All these applications respect the read-only attribute and won’t overwrite files. Even InstallAware itself dialog editor won’t overwrite its files it they are marked as read-only.

Would you mind elaborating on the reason why InstallAware can’t simply let a user know that the file must be read-write before it can make any changes? Just like the absolute majority of applications available today do? Why the need for the odd behavior.

Thanks.

Hi,

We added this feature due to user complaints - I guess some users like this feature better than others.

Is there at least an option to have InstallAware respect the read-only attribute?...... I mean really, if there is an option to change the behavior then you can call this a feature, but if there is no option then this is clearly a gross design bug..... in my opinion at least!

I have to tell you, I am awfully curious to know why would anyone complain about not being able to write to a file after they set the read-only attribute. Seriously, if someone needs a read/write file then don't turn on the read-only flag, is that simple. Any comments on that?

Thanks.

We appreciate your comments. This has been added to our wish list.