![]() In the early days of Linux, the only way to get a piece of software running on your machine was to download the source code, and compile it yourself. In Linux, things can be a bit more complex - or they can be even easier! Some of these setup programs work very well, and some don't. The setup program is also responsible for letting Windows know what it has done, and what has to be done to uninstall the program, in case the user ever needs to remove it. Some setup programs might even ask the user various questions, as it runs, to get information about the computer on which it will be running, or the user's preferences on how some aspects of the software should work. This is an executable file, which has, packaged within it, all of the files that need to be installed on a computer, and instructions on how to set it up - how to edit the registry, copy the appropriate files to the appropriate locations, check for dependencies, etc. In the Windows world, this would all be done by a setup program. For Windows machines, there would likely also be changes that need to be made to the system's registry.Copy over any applicable configuration files - and, possibly, set some of those configurations, for the specific user/machine.Copy the executable file(s) to the appropriate target destination(s) in Windows, this might mean copying the files to a subdirectory of the C:\Program Files directory.Compile the “source code” into an executable program.This means that there are numerous things you have to do, to make a program run on someone's computer you have to: Or if I write a program that has the ability to update itself from the internet, it might depend on a web browser being installed, which it can use for the HTTP access. For example, if I write a plugin that will work in the Firefox web browser, then of course my plugin would need Firefox, before it would run - Firefox would be a dependency. A dependency is another program, that this program needs to do its work. Along with the executable file(s), there may be data files, configuration files, libraries (which may also be shareable with other applications), and, usually dependencies. While some software consists of a single, executable file, that runs on its own, most software is more complex than that.
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