Keeping track of every file from an installer

[Sideshow Todd]

I am in need of an application that will allow me to look into an installer to not only see
what files will be installed, but where each and every file will be sent to.....including the
registry. The application doesn’t nee to be fancy. I’m more interested in ease of use.

?sugestions?

[Sideshow Todd]

This includes any of dll, ini files...and so on and so forth.

[sick0]

try Ashampoo Uninstaller Suite Plus or Total Uninstall (freeware)

[steve1955]

I think he wants to know what will be installed before it is installed not what has been installed after an app has been installed(lot of installs there!)

[myself]

What you want is impossible since most of installers are packed and self-protected.
Some external programs allow you to see inside some of those installers, but it's rare, and you can only look at the files within, that's all. As for the registry, forget it in general, because you can't see the code inside those packed installers (.exe), and they are well protected against tampering...

We're speaking here of professionnal installers, not the easy way like Zip self-extracting .exe

[FanJ]

Well, although I'm not completely sure whether this is the answer that Sideshow Todd was looking for, here are some suggestions:


1.
Use Inctrl from PCMag.

2.
Use a file-integrity-checker and a registry-integrity-checker.

For files: ADinf32 Pro
Run it before and after installing that program.
ADinf32 Pro is capable to show you every change (change, added, deleted) with respect to files on your system.
Use also NISFileCheck as file-integrity-checker. Set it up the way you like. It gives you other kind of info than ADinf32.

For registry: RegRun Gold

3.
To be even more certain about the registry:
Export and save your registry before installing and after installing.
Use Beyond Compare to compare those two.

4.
Make sure you have a good backup image before installing.
If you don't like what you're seeing after the installation, then go back to that backup image.