Correctly Naming Your Setup

It amazes me how many people fail to give their setup programs a decent name. 30 seconds of coming up with a decent name can save a lot of people a small amount of time, all of which adds up. If the ease of my install isn't worth at most 30 seconds of your time then your program isn't worth my time.

You see a lot of installers that are named Setup.exe or Install.exe. Back in the days when the setup was on a floppy or CD this was acceptable - you knew what the setup was for because you knew what floppy or CD was in the drive. However, most programs are now downloaded and this practice leads to dozens of Setup.exe and Install (5).msi's and it's difficult to tell what each one is. If they just named it MySuperDuperProgramSetup.exe it would make everyone's life so much easier.

It's debatable as to the worth of putting version numbers in the install title. It can potentially confuse novice users, but I would argue the benefits outweigh the cons. If you're like me you'll keep install files around in case you need them. If it's a particularly big install file it's useful to know before you merrily go downloading it again from the site if the one you already have is the most up-to-date version simply by looking at the version number in the install file's name.

So please, if you are creating an installer, at least name if something sensible like MyProgramTitleSetup.exe or even better MyProgramTitle 1.5 Setup.exe.