[Q] About an Installer Script for PyWin

[Mr. Roboto]

I need PyWin under the covers, that is, to install it as part of an
application, but in such a way that it isn't visible to users. I'm
concerned about a so-called "power-user", seeing the Python directory
and/or the corresponding entry in the 'Add/Remove Programs' list,
breaking my app by uninstalling what he/she thinks is removing an
'unnecessary program.'

Unfortunately, I don't see any installer scripts, like for Inno Setup
or NSIS in the source archive I just downloaded from SourceForge.
I'd love to volunteer to do something like this for the larger
community of Pythonista, but I can't find any info (via Google) about
this. AFAIK, the critical info is related to the registry settings
for the Win32-related elements. I'm especially concerned about
installation of the COM infrastructure, as getting the other registry
settings is mostly tedious (but doable), trial-and-error exports from
the Registry. The rest "should" be simply a matter of creating the
primary directory structure and copying the archive files to it.

Does anyone have pointers ? TIA....

[Larry Bates]

Mr. Roboto wrote:

I need PyWin under the covers, that is, to install it as part of an
application, but in such a way that it isn't visible to users. I'm
concerned about a so-called "power-user", seeing the Python directory
and/or the corresponding entry in the 'Add/Remove Programs' list,
breaking my app by uninstalling what he/she thinks is removing an
'unnecessary program.'

Unfortunately, I don't see any installer scripts, like for Inno Setup
or NSIS in the source archive I just downloaded from SourceForge.
I'd love to volunteer to do something like this for the larger
community of Pythonista, but I can't find any info (via Google) about
this. AFAIK, the critical info is related to the registry settings
for the Win32-related elements. I'm especially concerned about
installation of the COM infrastructure, as getting the other registry
settings is mostly tedious (but doable), trial-and-error exports from
the Registry. The rest "should" be simply a matter of creating the
primary directory structure and copying the archive files to it.

Does anyone have pointers ? TIA....

Use py2exe to convert to .exe and a library.zip file that contains all the
modules. Then all that gets installed is pythonwinxx.dll. This also
removes dependencies on a particular version of Python being installed.
Wrap that in an Inno Setup script and you are good to go. There is an
entry on the Add/Remove Programs list for your program, but not for
Python (as the full runtime isn't ever installed). Inno Setup can do
all the registry/com stuff that you need.

BTW-Python is now a 'necessary' program on many computers (Compaq/HP) as
some of their management software is written in Python. So "power-users"
need to be pretty careful removing it these days.

-Larry Bates