Member Avatar for Antonescu Andre

I have an c++ program that works with some photos and some audio files and some other .exe for specific tasks.

I need to merge them all in an .exe that when runned will copy all this files into an folder and run the program.
Do you know an application that does sort of thing ?

Thank you very much in advance,
Andrei

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by sknake

Dani AI

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A few practical ways to produce a single EXE that drops your photos, audio and helper EXEs and then launches the main program. @AnconescuAndre wanted a simple "one file" distribution; was right that an installer-style approach is the usual answer, and 's comment about packing is useful when size matters. Pick the approach that matches your distribution and permission needs.

One-time installer: scriptable installers are best if you want to install into Program Files, create shortcuts, add an uninstaller and run the app after copying. Self-extracting archive: good for a single-file drop that extracts to a temp or chosen folder and runs a command (quick but minimal control). Embedded-resources / runtime-extract: compile your files into your exe as resources and have the program write them out at first run—gives tight control and avoids external tooling but requires code to extract and clean up. Virtual-bundle tools exist that run without extraction; those can simplify delivery but sometimes trigger AV heuristics.

Minimal example (installer-style) — an installer script that copies files and runs the app after install:

[Setup]
AppName=MyApp
DefaultDirName={pf}\MyApp
OutputBaseFilename=MyAppInstaller

[Files]
Source: "MyProgram.exe"; DestDir: "{app}"
Source: "data\*"; DestDir: "{app}\data"; Flags: recursesubdirs createallsubdirs

[Run]
Filename: "{app}\MyProgram.exe"; Flags: nowait postinstall skipifsilent

Practical cautions: test on a clean machine, consider admin rights when writing to Program Files, use %TEMP% extraction if you cannot require elevation, sign installers to reduce warnings, watch for AV false positives with packers, and ensure your app uses absolute paths or sets its working directory when launched.

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Member Avatar for Ancient Dragon

In think you are talking about an installation program such as InstallShield, or possibly a compression program such as WinZip and PkZip (but they will not run a program after the files are copied),

Member Avatar for Antonescu Andre

In think you are talking about an installation program such as InstallShield, or possibly a compression program such as WinZip and PkZip (but they will not run a program after the files are copied),

I know programs such as WinZip but i need something to also run one of the files so the app can be started automaticaly.

Member Avatar for Ancient Dragon

google around and you will find them. For example, read this article, which gives several installation programs.

Member Avatar for Antonescu Andre

google around and you will find them. For example, read this article, which gives several installation programs.

Ok, thanks the article was useful and then i managed to find what i need.

Member Avatar for sknake

You can also take a look at UPX. I UPX pack .map files in to my finished executables so I can get detailed stack traces on my delphi apps without having the compiler's map file sitting in the same directory. You can extract packed resources but it takes a little more effort. This isn't used for setup/install/deployment but can be used to embed resources and get the file size down.

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