Suggestion: Provide a ZIP of installation files.

[Simon Brown]

The installer is useful for conventional installs, however, this would be useful in some other circumstances:

• [*:23f0wfua]Having two instances/versions of Paint.NET installed side-by-side without messing with the registry and risking not changing all paths.
  [*:23f0wfua]Putting Paint.NET on a USB key.
  [*:23f0wfua]When the installer fails.
  [*:23f0wfua]To try PDN without installing.
  [*:23f0wfua]To use PDN without admin privilages.

The first one is the reason it'd be useful to me, but the others may be reasons it'd be useful to others.

[Ash]

1 and 2 for me.

[Andrew D]

1 and 2 for me.

Same here.

[MyChemicalSnowman]

2,3* and 5 for me...

*I'm introducing friends at school to PDN and they want to try without installing.

[Myrddin]

I may have to play Devil's advocate here.

Having another 'installation' product available besides the primary one could cause confusion for new users, or the non-tech-savvy. You could get around this by having the new ZIP elsewhere to the main download, but this then subverts points four and five by obscuring it. Okay, the confusion may be limited if it were (which I'm positive it would be) labelled aptly, but one must also see it from the viewpoint of Rick, in that this is another task he must do, another product he must 'maintain' to an extent.

Another point, most modern computers come packaged with the .NET Framework, so installation is a mere five minute job; un-installation of equal measure.

Saying that, I'm no bonfire extinguisher, points one and two would suit me quick nicely. However, I (and no doubt many others as well), who would require such a unique installation, am more than capable of doing so myself. The kind of person who would need a second installation for point one must be of the mind-set to be able to accomplish the task themselves. A user opting for point two must clearly be aware of the need for the system files, therefore, like before, are able to do this themselves (you could argue that having such a ZIP available will advertise the portability of Paint.NET, but why when Rick has never made its portability official knowledge?).

Yes, there are holes in my advocation, but it was never meant to be perfect.

[Simon Brown]

am more than capable of doing so myself.

Wouldn't the user still have to install Paint.NET before being able to access the files, capable or not? :?

[Myrddin]

Yes, there are holes in my advocation, but it was never meant to be perfect.

You're quite right it would, but having a true installation is always advised when technically, there is no support for what you're suggesting. Who knows what problems could arise through a free-floating application not tied down to the host computer; it could complicate troubleshooting for us by adding many other variables to the equation. It might not, though... Consideration has to be paid to the other side of the case.

[pyrochild]

To get the files without installing, type the following command lines:

Paint.NET.[x.yy].exe /createMsi TARGETDIR="path (no trailing backslash)"
msiexec /a PaintDotNetMsi\PaintDotNet.x[zz].msi

where [x.yy] is the version in the setup file, and [zz] is 86 or 64, depending on your platform.

[Simon Brown]

Thanks, that'll be indispensable.

[pyrochild]

the TARGETDIR parameter can actually be set on either of the command lines (or both, if you're weird).

i think you can also extract an msi from the setup program via 7-zip, instead of using /createMsi, though I haven't tested this approach.