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I have a bunch of way-old Daz 3D content installers that shipped as Windows EXEs, and I need to be able to install them in macOS. These days, Daz provides everything in ZIP files for cross-platform usage, and one can usually re-download old purchases in this newer form. However, quite a few of them are no longer available from Daz, so I cannot get a ZIP version. I have to make one.

Ergo, I'm looking for some means of ascertaining exactly what an EXE installs in Windows, where, and either automatically converting that into a ZIP, or at very least producing a list I can use to manually ZIP up a copy. Daz uses a very complex directory structure, so "just go look" isn't an option; any given installer might install 100+ files into 20+ subdirectories, a dozen deep, including some potential overwrites of older files.

I don't think any of these installers do any Registry stuff, and it wouldn't be applicable to the use case anyway (ultimately for macOS).

I saw a similar question asked ("How can I track the changes an installer makes?"), but it was about macOS installers. "Program installation recording for future manual installation" was about replicating an install process across multiple machines. "Track changes to file system and registry" was about Registry stuff mostly, and using a VM, and MS app certification kit. That last one also mentioned Process Monitor (a MS sysinternals app), which seems like it could possibly do this but is quite complicated.

I'm really just looking for something I can point at a directory to show me what changed between time X and time Y (even between "ran it 5 minutes ago" and "just ran it again"). I know how to do something like this with scripting in Unix/Linux, but not in Windows (though am amendable to a similar [command-line] solution; it doesn't have to be some GUI app).

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    Some installers can be extracted e.g. using 7Zip or similar archivers. Even if Process Monitor is pretty complex it is very powerful and worth learning it. I limit the output by selectively excluding al processes that create output all the time. Depending on your Windows installation this may be 30-40 processes you have to exclude after first start but PM saves those settings so you have to do it only one time. Just exclude all process until there is no more output for about a minute. Then clear all data and start the program you are interested in.
    – Robert
    Commented May 23, 2021 at 10:08

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I'd have a look at something like Revo Uninstaller which will track & log an install, in order to be able to fully uninstall it later.

Judging by the app comparison page at https://www.revouninstaller.com/products/revo-uninstaller-free/ the freeware version may not log this in an easily-accessible way, but the Pro comes with a free trial. Probably worth a look if you don't particularly want to get messy with sysinternals, procmon or command line stuff.

As mentioned in comments, many [but not all] .exe installers can be unzipped - even potentially on a Mac, using maybe BetterZip (paid) or Keka (donationware, free direct download or paid from App Store)
Packing anything back into a zip is as easy as right-click>Compress, but to get that to unpack to correct locations on Mac would require you to build a dedicated installer or even Applescript. It would probably be a lot simpler to set the locations up as 'recognisable' hierarchies using Mac-like folder refs then use that as a notepad to manually copy to the real locations.

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  • Thanks, but Revo is an annual subscription, so it would eventually cost more than the value of the stuff I'm trying to salvage. Heh. A command-line solution would be fine; I just don't do enough batch language enough any more to do it myself that way (I haven't done complicated batch scripts since the Win3.1/DOS 6 days). One thing I'm considering is putting the Daz directory under version control, but that's another overkill, so maybe do ProcMon after all. PS: The Mac and Win paths will be the same, under the Daz directory. Will also try BetterZIP and Keka, after I set the Mac up again.
    – S. McCandlish
    Commented May 24, 2021 at 2:11
  • The idea with Revo was to do the whole task during the free trial period ;))
    – Tetsujin
    Commented May 24, 2021 at 6:24

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