Help my users find the installer on the CD

Question

I need suggestions on CD layout for non-technical users.

My software is deployed on a CD with the setup.exe boot file and the MSI file. There are also several dependency files used by the installer. The root of the CD looks something like this:

myapp.msi
setup.exe
sqlexpr32.exe
dotnetfx.exe
myapp.ico
...

This is not rocket science for the developer, suggesting that the file that you need to run to start the installation is setup.exe.

But my users are definitely not that highly valued.

I included the file autorun.inf, but I found that after testing on several machines, most of them do not start the silent installation. For any reason. On some machines, someone turned off autorun or some kind of anti-virus software or something else. The fact is, I cannot always rely on autorun.

So, I’m thinking about making changes to the CD layout to make it more obvious which file should be running.

One option is to create a new program Install.exethat only launches the source loader and moves everything to a folder in the root directory of the CD:

autorun.inf   <-- launches Install.exe, if autorun is enabled for the drive.
Install.exe   <-- launches contents/setup.exe
contents/myapp.msi
contents/setup.exe
contents/sqlexpr32.exe
contents/dotnetfx.exe
contents/myapp.ico
contents/...

Since I still cannot rely on the existing .net infrastructure, I cannot use .net to create my Install.exe, and this is a little annoying.

Install.bat, .bat . .

- exe , - autorun.inf .

?

Answer 1

Install.bat, .bat . .

Install.bat . , , , .

---

EDIT: ( )

, :

:

Target:    %windir%\system32\cmd.exe "/C start contents\setup.exe"
Start in:  %cd%
Run:       Minimized
Icon:      %SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll (and manually select the one that looks like a setup package.

, .

Answer 2

, , , setup.exe install.exe README.txt, . install.exe setup.exe, , , txt.

Answer 3

- , " Setup.exe".

Answer 4

, , , Install.exe, , , -, - .

= . , .

Answer 5

, " Bat To Exe Converter".
, EXE , . , , CMD-.