Windows has a 200 second limit set for cases like this, which means that the operating system waits more than 3 minutes before the window waiting for input is pulled to the front.

Sure, it is possible to minimize all other windows to see if a window waiting for user input is delaying the software installation.

Changing the default interval from 200 seconds to a shorter interval is often a better option. Windows stores the value in the Windows Registry. To change the value, press Windows-R, type regedit, and hit the enter key on the keyboard.

Navigate to the Registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop and locate the parameter ForegroundLockTimeout on the right side of the Registry editor.

foreground lock timeout

Definition: ForegroundLockTimeout, Specifies the time in milliseconds, following user input, during which the system keeps applications from moving into the foreground.

Double-click that parameter to edit it. Switching from hexadecimal to decimal makes the value changing easier. The values are listed in milliseconds, the default 200000. Change the value to one between 10000 and 50000, which equals 10 to 50 seconds.

It is not recommended to change it to less than 10 seconds, considering that it will bring all windows requiring input to the front in that time, not only installation windows.

The changes are immediately active. It is always possible to go back and adjust the interval if the window changing is happening to fast or to slow.

I’m sure you have read plenty of my Linux articles that outline how to install with Ubuntu. That distribution takes advantage of apt-get and dpkg for command line installation. In the OpenSuSE distribution the zypper tool is used for this same task. Believe it or not, zypper is just as easy to use as is the Ubuntu equivalent. And in this article you will see just that.

What is zypper?

The zypper tool is the command line interface to the ZYpp system management library. Zypper can be used to install/update/remove software, manage repositories, perform queries, and more. Using the zypper command does require root privileges, so you will have to first su to the root user before you issue any of the zypper commands.

Usage

The basic structure of the zypper command looks like:

zypper GLOBAL_OPTIONS COMMAND COMMAND_OPTIONS

Although it looks a bit complex it’s not. Let’s take a look at the various tasks you will perform with the zypper command.

Installing software

Installing software with zypper is simple. The command will look like this:

zypper install SOFTWARE

Where SOFTWARE is the name of the software you want to install.

Say, for example, I want to install Scribus (the desktop publishing application). To do this the command would look like:

zypper install scribus

Removing software

Now let’s say you want to remove a piece of software. The command structure for deleting software looks like:

zypper remove SOFTWARE

Sticking with our example, if you want to remove Scribus from your OpenSuSE machine you would issue the command:

zypper remove scribus

Searching for software

Figure 1

Say you don’t know what Scribus is, or you aren’t sure if you know the name of the package. You could use zypper to search the cached database for installation candidates like so:

zypper search scribus

The above command would return something like what you see in Figure 1. As you can see, zypper will report back all possible applications for the search string.

Updating with zypper

Updating with zypper is incredibly easy. Issue the command zypper update and if there are any updates available to your system they will be reported and all you need to do is type “y” (no quotes) and then hit Enter to run all of the updates.

Distribution upgrade with zypper

If you want to do a distribution upgrade with zypper you would use the dup command like so:

zypper dup

With that single command you will upgrade your OpenSuSE distribution (if the upgrade is available).

Final thoughts

Command line package management in OpenSuSE is about as simple as it gets. If you hesitate to use the command line for this task in OpenSuSE, I hope this article has persuaded you there is nothing to fear. OpenSuSE is an outstanding distribution with a lot to offer and it’s package management is on par with just about any other system.



FreeApp is on the other hand an easy to use service. All it takes is to pick the apps to install from a list of available ones on the start page of the service and to click the Get Installer button afterwards to download the application installer to the local computer system.

The service promises that all applications have been tested for viruses and spyware. They even inform the user about toolbars that are included in the installer.

Programs are offered in categories like anti-spyware, communications, anti-virus and firewall, office software or imaging. Most categories list four or more applications that can be added to the installer. Computer users find lots of familiar programs in the listing from browsers like Firefox over media players like Winamp or itunes to compression programs like 7-zip.

The installer is a small program that will download and install the selected programs. It begins by selecting an installation directory for the applications.

The selected applications are then displayed in the interface. Each program is downloaded from the Internet and installed in the selected program.

Program updates are displayed in the installer’s interface as well which can be handy if the installer is opened regularly.

FreeApp is a helpful service for users who plan to install multiple popular (and free) programs on a Windows computer system. It can be helpful for system administrators who have to install a pack of applications on all computer systems.

TGUP, which stands for The Great Unattended Project, is a Windows software deployment application that can be used to install popular free software in Windows. The program can be used to either download and install the selected software or to only download it and create a silent installer. The second method can be used for multiple installations on different computer systems or to prepare the setup for a computer without Internet connection.

TGUP is a portable program that will launch a command line window upon execution. The program will automatically identify the operating system and language. Options in the main screen are to download and install software silently (1), download software and create an installer (2) or to change the program’s options (3).

A list of programs will be pulled from the project’s server. Programs are listed under different categories like graphic, system, Internet, multimedia or office.

Checkboxes define if a program will be downloaded or not. A click on an entry will display a description in the right window. The listing contains many popular free programs like Winamp, VLC Media Player, Thunderbird, Opera, firefox (with a selection of add-ons), 7-zip or ImgBurn. The programs offered are usually the latest official versions of the program.

The download will be started with a click on the next button. Each program that has been selected by the user will be downloaded and installed if direct installation has been selected.

TGUP offers a very sophisticated and straightforward method of deploying popular programs in the Windows operating system. The only thing that is missing is an information about the size of the selected programs.

The software can be downloaded from the project’s homepage. The website contains a listing of the included applications. The software deployment tool is compatible with many Windows operating systems including Windows 7.

Most Windows 7 users will probably notice the compatibility messages after installing programs and running portable applications. Windows offers the option to inform the compatibility assistant that the program installed correctly (even if there was not an installation) which usually gets rid of the compatibility message.

Selecting the option to reinstall using recommended settings will make changes to the program’s compatibility settings but not the program itself. This can mean changes to the User Account Control in Windows or running the program installation in compatibility mode.

Users who regularly install new software usually see the compatibility window regularly. The messages are powered by the Windows service PcaSVC which is the Program Compatibility Assistant Service. Stopping the service from running and changing the startup type to disabled will solve the issues. Changing the settings of the service is only recommended to experienced users.

Open the Windows services configuration by typing services.msc in the start menu run box. Locate the Program Compatibility Assistant Service in the window and double-click it to open its properties. A click on the Stop button will stop the service in the current session. Changing the startup type from manual to disabled will prevent that the service is started after system restarts.

Users who double-click on the msi file directly will also install the application but with the possibility that it will not run properly on the computer system. Take a computer program that requires the Microsoft .net Framework 3.5 for example. If the user has an older version of the framework installed setup.exe will download the files needed and launch the installation of the compatible framework and launch the installation using the msi file afterwards.

If the user installs using the msi file the installation will go through without problems but might experience an application crash or warning message while starting the application. It is therefor recommend on end user systems to always install applications using the setup.exe file if both a setup.exe and xyz.msi are available after unpacking the software program.

There are even some msi setup files out there that will not perform the installation upon execution but request an installation using the setup.exe file instead to ensure that all necessary components are installed.

SpyMe Tools is a software program that can monitor both file and registry changes caused by software installations. This is done by creating snapshots before and after the software installation. These snapshots are then compared to each other and the differences are shown to the user. The program does require some manual work before it can be used effectively. The first step is to create a snapshot of the Windows Registry before the software installation.

After that it is necessary to switch to file mode and select the hard drives that should be monitored for changes. This usually includes the partition with the Windows operating system and the partition that the software gets installed to. The program will create another snapshot of the hard drives which also has to be saved to the local hard drive.

After both snapshots have been created start the software installation normally. Once the software installation has been completed run a second scan of both the file system and Windows Registry. A click on the Compare button makes it then possible to compare both snapshots with each other to display the changes to both the file system and the Windows Registry that the installation has caused.

The software installation monitor will display the information in a tree like view in the left window of the software program. If you compare the file system it will list all folders that have been changed in the file system since the creation of the first and second snapshot. The right window will contain the actual file information including name, type and size.

SpyMe Tools are also providing access to a real time monitor that can either monitor the Windows Registry or the file system in specified locations. The real time mode is a bit harder to work with as all changes will be listed in one quickly growing table.