[web] People Blocking .EXE Files
Author
Hello, one of our products is a .exe file that is downloaded from the web. The way we do it, is, we have a link (an anchor) to the .exe file. The problem with this, is that about 2 -3 times a week we get a caller saying that the download failed and says the file is not found, or page is not found. We figure this is from network administrators or something, blocking the .exe files.
Is there a way we can tell if the .exe is blocked? And display maybe a nice message..telling them why? I thought of replacing the 404 Not Found page, but I think that would then replace it for the whole website..
Any Solutions?
Kyle>
You might be able to screw around with .htacess. In the meantime, you can have an alternate link to yourfile.extension, and tell them to change "extension" to "exe" after they have downloaded it.
Quote:Everyone knows how to handle zips.
Are you sure? A lot of my friends can't handle zips. So I started distributing beta-versions of my programs using a self-extracting EXE package.
Quote:Original post by LesanQuote:Everyone knows how to handle zips.
Are you sure? A lot of my friends can't handle zips. So I started distributing beta-versions of my programs using a self-extracting EXE package.
As windows includes an integrated unzipper since about Windows ME, the zip folder will simply display as a normal folder to them and they may not even realize that they are using zips. So it shouldn't be a problem
...unless you are using other platforms than windows, in which case I can't help you (does linux integrates a zip utility?)
I don't think I've seen a Linux desktop distro that couldn't natively handle zips for about 4 or 5 years.
Well, but there is problem, that many people, when they see an EXE file and a data folder in the integrated Windows unzipper, they just execute the EXE and don't extract it. Then, my EXE file cannot load the datas and it can't work.
That's the trade-off you make, unfortunately. Most people can handle downloading executables, but some places don't, for good reason.
Quote:Original post by Lesan
Well, but there is problem, that many people, when they see an EXE file and a data folder in the integrated Windows unzipper, they just execute the EXE and don't extract it. Then, my EXE file cannot load the datas and it can't work.
You can't please everyone :-) Ofcourse you could simply offer both a self-extracting exe as well as a zip (or tar.gz) for download.
This topic is closed to new replies.
Advertisement
Popular Topics
Advertisement