@IceFox
there are several people helped (less sophisticated users who want an easy way to clear registry entries) for each person inconvenienced (more advanced users who want 100% control over the installation).
so on balance, it almost certainly saves trouble. i would prefer an installer than can be unpacked, may do this in future... this was zilmar's decision for 1.6 and i think it was a good one, just not perfect for everyone. you aren't the person who had to keep telling users to find and run .reg files!
and it does not scatter files all over the place, it writes files only to the install folder and the start menu, and adds a few registry keys (many more files and keys are created during PJ use. if you don't trust us you probably shouldn't be using it at all
).
@Laindelta
yes it sounds like something is missing from Windows. one thing you can do as a workaround is install it on another PC and copy the install folder over on a network or disk. this works fine, the only difference is then you won't easily be able to uninstall it... you could get someone else to do this if you don't have another PC, but please don't ask us to because we discourage publication of modified archives.
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so what i want to change in the installer is
1) make it not rely on other files.
2) make it un-packable.