Installer takes a long time if there are leftover files in the application directory

[josborne]

This is a very specific question about LabVIEW-built installers.

I have an application than can potentially cache a large number of files.  They get stored in a subfolder like this:

    C:\Program Files\My Application Directory\My Cache folder

Sometimes I distribute updates to my software.  And the users just re-run the new installer, which overwrites the files and everything works great.  But I have noticed that the installer takes a LONG time to execute if there are a lot of leftover files in that cache folder.  The installer must be scanning through all those files to see if they need updating or something.  The more cache files in that folder, the longer the delay. 

I realize it may not be the greatest software design to have leave lots of leftover files in that directory.  But until I fix that, my questions are:

Has anyone noticed this behavior, and is there a workaround?  Like is there a way to force the installer to ignore certain subfolders?  

[Bob_Schor]

If you are going to overwrite some of the files in the Cache folder, and you think that having files "left over" in the Cache folder that were not updated is slowing things down, why not try the following (much simpler, and probably safer) method?

• Create a folder "Old Cache" someplace safe and move all of the files in the Cache folder to Old Cache.
• Run the new Installer "which updates everything".
• When the new Installation finishes (without the long delay, because there are no "leftover" files for it to see), you can (if you so choose) safely delete Old Cache.

Bob Schor

[Kyle97330]

I think the problem is that it's not him doing the installs, it's his users.  And asking users to do this may be beyond what they are willing/able to do.

I looked at the installer options and there are options to run EXEs at the end of the install and before uninstallation, but no option to do something before installation starts, which is probably what he needs.