I have accumulated over 200 DAZ products I am embarrassed to say. Purchases, Platinum Club, Free Stuff. Another disc crash and again I have to deal with those installers... several flavors of installers! I have learned my lessen: install to a dummy Runtime and then make a zip... and repeat... and repeat... and repeat...and repeat... and repeat... and repeat... and repeat... and repeat... and repeat... and repeat... and repeat... and repeat... and repeat... and repeat...and repeat... and repeat... and repeat... and repeat... and repeat... and repeat... and repeat... OY! Why have they made it this way?

I have never at any time had any problem with using a daz installer.

I have. I hate them with the intensity of a thousand white-hot suns.

But I'm far too lazy to make them into zips. I wish I had the discipline to do that, but I don't, and I never will.

The main reason I prefer zips: I like to be able to extract one file without installing the whole thing. A texture, an OBJ, the readme, etc.

Why do you double your work and make a zip? Why not just install it to a folder on your desktop and then rearrange the files the way you like them and then when done drop the runtime into your main runtime folder? That's what I do.

Because you might want to reinstall sometime, without fussing with an installer or rearranging all the files again. I often install and uninstall products for various reasons.

Everytime I install something new I install into some folder (temp, 1,2,etc) then I move the contents to predefined folders (Vicky3 clothes to "Vicky3 Clothes", animals/plants to "Liveforms" and so on) I also edit the cr2/pp2 and for example all the Daz geometries go to "DazGeom" folder. Anything that don't use anymore goes to a CD, so my runtime is below 2 GB.

Install, arrange, backup Runtime. That's the easiest way. Then when the Apocalyse occurs, you copy the backup to the new install - all finished. Now, you don't have to backup everytime you install, but good to do this about once a month or week depending upon your determination. You will never have to zip/unzip repeatedly and never need to rearrange your library.

That's what I do. Burn my runtimes to CD's. The last time before my reformat, I used CDRW's and they didn't seem to like the zipped Poser Compressed files very much. If I use CDRs, I don't have a problem for some reason.

Too many CDs to backup my Runtimes. Too much data to backup onto DVD (though I could start using my double-sided DVD writer if I had the need). Instead, I use an external firewire harddrive.

I download each item to its own folder. Say, D005_V3_WailingWilma. I run daz exe for each item to its own little runtime. These I give clear names, numbered in the order I bought, and then save to a cd. Same for Renderosity and the others.

example:

D005_V3_WailingWilma>Runtime (this is what daz exe creates)

Then I eliminate the readme that doesn't say anything. If it does, it goes to a folder with readmes. And I eliminate that webcontent folder.

A readme that I want to keep has its same name convention:

Readmes>D005_V3_WailingWilma

Same for the images or the page of what I bought or downloaded.
The folders inside the library are renamed also. I prefer (having Poser5) for example to place a subfolder called MFD_RoyalElfinto a V3_Clothes folder to the Daz' choice of Daz Morphing Clothes original, in which each merchant just throws her/his own scribblings. (this is also true for Rosity here, and the others.

I know, a lot of work, but you only have to do it once.
Downloaded something new? Just add it. Not that much work anymore.

D means Daz, Re means Renderosity, Ra means RuntimeDNA, Pp means Poserpros etc etc...

Message edited on: 08/21/2005 01:04

I add the 'distributor' (Daz, Rendo, etc.) to the installer/zip as well. Easy to forget where you purchased or downloaded items when you have hundreds or thousands of them. I organize the installers/zips by type/figure/figure_type, as in: Props->Weapons or Aiko3->Clothing With the advent of merchants including multi-figure clothing (BatLabs for example), I now have a section just for those installers/zips.

To get away from this sort of problem I regularly copy my entire runtime[s] to DVD and then if i do get a crash the only thing I have to reinstall is the actual programme. Saves a life time of grief. I started with computers when they were a new form of magic and we were taught the hard way "back up, back up, back up", It's still true today! thefixer, poser coord.

I backup my runtimes, but I still prefer zips to installers. I like to be able to extract one file, without reinstalling. For example, if I've accidentally ruined the OBJ of something with my feeble modelling attempts. Or if a CR2 has just gone bad. Or I've accidentally overwritten a texture while attempting to make my own.

Most commonly, I'm looking for the readme. It's easy to find the name of the product file, because it's right on your order history. Search for the name of the file, and it comes right up. Finding the name of the readme is a whole 'nother story. Sometimes, the readme name has nothing to do with the product name. Even if it does, it's hard to guess where to start looking. V3FantasyArmorReadMe.htm? FantasyArmorV3ReadMe.htm? JoeMerchant'sV3FantasyArmorReadMe.htm?

The easiest way to find the readme is to extract it from the installer...but that means reinstalling the whole @#$$ thing.

It would be less obnoxious, except for Windows' penchant for locking folders once you've used them. So you install to a dummy folder, then can't delete it until you've rebooted. Of course, I always forget to delete the darn things when I reboot a week later, so I have dummy runtimes scattered all over the place.

Aeneas, that sounds like the best course... my runtimes are too big for CD-ROM. I just wish I had done this sooner. One problem I have is I can only remeber where I got things so that is how I find I have to organize my runtimes, by place of purchase, e.g. Rosity, Daz, etc. This because I am so tortured over each purchase but the product names often fail me. My freebies are organized by people, place, thing, clothes, hair on the other hand. Ugh.

I employ the same method,a few months back i was hit with a virus that infects EXEs and had to redownload almost all my daz files. i now make a zip from every one.

Exe files usually are more susceptible to viruses so why don`t daz use zips?

Beats me.

The files are made for the pc so making them zips wouldn`t be a problem for mac users, free zip decompressors are available and windows xp has an inbuilt zip thing so there is really no reason for not using zips. Another thing I would like to see is the template included in with the main file instead of being a seperate download. They could have a one file download and the seperate files for people with slower modems.

They like all the bells and whistles like the agreement screen that nobody reads.lol