SOFTWARE INSTALLATION

An executable file contains materials necessary for the installation of a software product, and the executable file is executed to provide a compressed file and a shell program module. The shell program module locates a suitable temporary storage space, extracts the compressed file from the initial executable file, and places the compressed file in the temporary storage space. The initial executable file causes a second executable file to be extracted from the compressed file and executed, so that a setup program module is run. In response to execution of the setup program module, files are sequentially decompressed from the compressed file. A newly decompressed file may initially be placed in the temporary storage space, and the decompressing is paused until that newly decompressed file is copied to a target storage space. The newly decompressed file may be renamed or decompressed while being copied to the target storage space. Thereafter, that newly decompressed file is deleted from the temporary directory. This process is repeated until multiple files originating from the compressed file are in their respective directory of a directory tree created in the target directory. Alternatively, newly decompressed files may be placed directly in the target storage space. Thereafter, the setup program module prepares the data and information on the computer so that the software product will work with the computer and its attached devices. Once the setup program module is no longer running, files remaining in the temporary storage space as a result of execution of the shell program module are deleted from the temporary storage space, and execution of the shell program module is terminated.