Menu

Silent installation woithout browser start "http://getgreenshot.org/thank-you"

2015-01-13
2015-01-13
  • Frank.Dethlefsen

    Hi!

    If you make a silent install of Greenshot, the browser starts at the end with the website "http://getgreenshot.org/thank-you". For a silent software deployment it is confusing.
    The problem could be solved very easy in the inno setup iss file. Add flag: skipifsilent

    [Run]
    ...
    Filename: "http://getgreenshot.org/thank-you/?language={language}&version=1.2.4.9"; MinVersion: 0.0,5.01.2600; Flags: shellexec nowait skipifsilent
    ...

    Regards
    Frank

     
  • Robin Krom

    Robin Krom - 2015-01-13

    Hello Frank,

    The "thank-you" website has reasons for existing:
    1) as we put a LOT of time in developing and supporting Greenshot and are giving it away for free, there needs to be some kind of compensation. While this page is displayed we get an (ridiculous small) amount of money for the add that is displayed. This makes the time spent somewhat worth it. By removing the thank-you we get nothing, and I would not be able to continue working on it as everything else I would do in that time would make my life easier (e.g. I could grow potato's, so I don't have to buy them). This thank-you also makes it possible that we have no ads in the installer and no in the application, and try to keep the ads on the website as little annoying as possible (we ban a LOT, which if not done would double/tripple the ads-revenue).

    2) As Greenshot is free & open source, it can be downloaded from MANY sources where we have no control on the quality and the version. We want to have a way of informing people that their version is old (or even has a huge bug) and they should download a newer version (from the official site so there is no malware in it). The opening of the thank-you site with the version in the URL leaves this option open. (currently we don't use this option, as we have problems with SF)

    Most people requesting (or even complaining about not having) a silent installer (or even MSI) are doing this as they want to install Greenshot inside a company on many PC's and want to do this in the background. But as a lot of companies just use Greenshot without even considering donating (as it's free!) we don't see a reason for spending time on something that reduces the little money we get. Some companies (actually their employees) are even astonishing rude to us, while we try to support them for free.

    That said...

    Most companies use products which can distribute and install software, these products are more than capable to install Greenshot exactly how they want to. I would advice to use the .zip and "just copy" the Greenshot files to any location. As the Greenshot installer only copies files, modifies the registry so Greenshot is started when starting Windows (if the checkbox is set) and runs "ngen" on the exe and dll (this speeds up Greenshot, but is not needed), this can also be done "manually".

    So we don't look at a technical "solution" for removing the "thank-you", we cannot afford to remove it, but if a different way of making money presents itself we might be able to remove the thank-you...

    Hope you can understand this...

    Best wishes,
    Robin

     

Log in to post a comment.