Get a life. It's your choice to be annoyed ffs.

 

nevermind

 

Dont understand what the fuss is over in honesty....

So you cant hit a button, and it all get installed for you.....Big whoop..........Its quite straight-foward ,d very very simple...

I get what your gripe is.....But free software is free software surely.
......No matter the installation method....

And sum o these guys kill em selves nearly ovr codin this stuff for us lot...

I just dont understand why so many always have to look a gift horse square down the mouth!

 

Myself, like others i'm sure, prefer to leave things alone that are working. However I felt i had to try the symlink stuff based on this thread and the suggested difficulty of installing it. The post that went on with reams of gobbledegook only added to the fear. The point is though that we will get left behind when for example 'kontakt' has wonderful new libraries that can't be accessed without a newer version.

For this reason i started with Kontakt 5.6.8 no install etc etc. I just put the folder at the root of the C drive and pressed the kontakt 5.6.8 symlink installer icon.......that was it .....really easy. I then updated to 5.7.1 symlink again.....there is even a gif animation to show which file to replace....(the folder marked 'C'). It all just worked

I have really admired r2r and their work over the years and the philosophy of not making money from their releases. Their decision to go down the authorisation keygen route for Kontakt may well have been the wrong one, time will tell, but it's hardly being disloyal to get the latest working version when you can.

And don't be frightened by Russia.

 

> So you cant hit a button, and it all get installed for you.....Big whoop..........Its quite straight-foward ,d very very simple...

Yes, that is very simple but not the issue. For me, and I believe many others, the main issue is who put together these "SymLink Installer/Non Installers"? Why did they do it? I'm a bit leery of just hitting a button to install something that I have no idea what the source.

Most of us are used to using installers that were put together by a reputable manufacturer. Then, the keygens are created by reputable groups that we are familiar with and have come to trust their work.

It seemed like overnight, all these "PORTABLE, NO INSTALL, SymLink Installer" started popping up everywhere. I will agree, I think the theory is awesome and really like it, but I need a bit more understanding of how this works before I blindly "hit a button, and it all get installed for you".

Since they are, in fact, not installers, I want to unpack them and manually install them. There lies my confusion. I need to know exactly what's going on and how these were put together so I can do a manual install. I get it that others are happy with hitting the button, but I am very uncomfortable doing this.

Yes, as you say, "But free software is free software surely. ......No matter the installation method....". I agree with that completely and would have no hesitation if this were done by R2R or another group that I have great confidence in but I have no idea who is now putting out all this "free software". Even if it's free, if I don't have an understanding of what and how this software is being put on my computer, I don't want it.

Some may think this is being overly paranoid and that's OK but it's my computer and I've got too much time and effort in keeping my computer safe (as safe as I can) without now, just installing whatever free software gets posted as SymLink. Does anyone else wonder why this concept seemed to pop up over night and is now everywhere? It is probably fine and it is a great idea but it's still a mystery of where this came from.

So, it's not that installing this software automatically that is difficult, it's understanding:

1. The theory of how this works. Knowing the theory will let those who are interested, unpack the compressed files and manually install the software.

2. Who came up with this great idea (and why)? Are they just a bunch of great guys out there who want to offer free software without even claiming authorship? Most groups want credit for their work. Or, is there something else under the covers that we should be concerned about.

Someone asked the question of how to put together one of these SymLink Installer and the answer was "you don't want to know" .... oh yes I do!!! If I knew that, I could easily understand the theory and move forward with my chosen manual install method. I understand Windows folder structure and the registry so why wouldn't why I want know how to put one of these together? Also, I want my software installed into specific folders so If I do it manually, I can put the files wherever I want them.

I love the idea, I just want more information on it so I can understand it better.
I did install the Kontakt 5.7.1 portable version but I did it all manually. It worked great. I could find nothing in the background that cause me concern (not yet).

I then was interested in installing (manually) the recently released "Native Instruments - Kontakt 5.7.1 Update" which is the non-portable version. This is when I ran into confusion because I unpacked it and wanted to install it manually. I played around with it enough to get the Kontakt 5.7.1 executable working but then discovered that this non-portable version does not have the new Library Manager.exe that 5.7.1 portable has but rather used a Add Library.exe instead (which I don't want to use with 5.7.1). I really like the Library Manager). If I knew more about how this whole thing worked, maybe I could get the Library Manager.exe from the portable version working with the 5.7.1 non-portable version.

So, you see, for me, it's not as simple as hitting a button and watching it go.

I write software for Windows so maybe it's just part of my nature to need to understand what's going on with the new SymLink Installers. I completely get how the symlink itself works but the rest is still a bit of a mystery.

 

i appreciate everything i receive here and thankfully of course......

 

Strike is posting this stuff too.

Does that mean anything to anyone?.. I am asking... not stating.

 

Come on, they are awesome! I do like those more than installers where i can't see what they do..
Besides the fact that you just don't need the installer at all most of the time. Drag and drop to your pluginfolder...done..
Why would anyone complain about gifts like that?

 

To be honest the concept is great. But so many have failed on installing on my win 7 64 box. I even installed a fresh copy of win 10 lstb 64
just to give it a fair chance. The scripter made a few mistakes. He had the kontackt 5.7.1 going to c\program files.
Kontakt 5.7.0 worked perfect.
I finally figured out why it did not install when i saw this.
I hope they get better at the scripting, it will save people a fair amount of time on installing and disk space.

 

I created an account just to say regardless of the difficulty or the ease that might be provided w/ these "packs", I suggest they be discouraged from being flooded as they are now. These "thanks to respected people" posts wouldn't be possible w/o the passionate work of someone who needs to stay anonymous. Someone awesome w/ actual skill. If I were one of those people w/ said skill in a released group I'm sure I'd be WTF about all these repacks of their work w/o necessity.

Side story:
I'm not sure how many of you were around (and interested in) the early days of movie bootlegging. The days of HQ groups like Centropy who would have stunning quality video of 1st run movies synced up to line audio the week after a movie debuted (say like Spiderman or Matrix Reloaded).

That was early '00s pre-bit-torrent.

Fast forward a few years and BT comes around and respect of groups and the work that it took to take make that kinda quality happen in the kinda time was gone. Every kid in 5th grade would be on "Mininova" or whatnot bitching about the quality no looking like a DVDrip. There was no more reward in for those doing the work. The only reward they wanted (I always assumed) was just a nod of respect. Maybe a few nice comments in a thread on a VCDQuality or something....but the speed and who-gives-a-fuck-about the source that bit torrent allowed made it so the only people who ever commented were the one to bitch - or the idiots. And it was way too easy/public all of a sudden. What was the result? The scene turned to shit. Movie bootleging went from amazing quality and an almost certainy (w/ crappier tech mind you) to you're lucky if anything at all surfaces.

Anyway - my point is it is important to respect R2R or VR or any of the "groups" that are able to crack the protections. What whoever this installer mastermind is is doing is nothing special. Take 20min and install each piece of software out of respect for the hours and hours of work that a few guys did to make it possible to use the software.

Don't get too chesty about "it's all free man" - "if this is faster it's better" / "If you don't like it just don't download it".....at a point ya have to push back because you respect that it takes some real geniuses to patch these programs.

Whoever is putting these packages together/posting them can't even be fucked enough to post a full list of what's included nor do they credit the names of those who's work they're using. ("All credits goes to the respective people"

"All credits goes to the respective people" <--- Fuck you. No. You're gonna choke off the supply chain. Man up and say who the 'respective people are'. You're betting they'll continue to do the work behind the scenes. I doubt they like you.

Sorry but to rant but I've just stupid people who want their name in a txt file ruin some really good things over the years.....so my suggestions si eh maybe it's better to slow down a little on these repacking or whatevever that shit is.

And 1) I cannot code, 2) I dont' know anyone who does any of the shit posted on this site, 3) I'm probably older than a lot of people who passby this site because it's a great way to try out some cool plugins that I'd never buy nor use for more than one or two sessions.

Thanks to R2R, VR, Audiotopic, the ones who are able to crack passionately for fun - they should be front and center on this site.....cause theyr'e fuckin' good. Cause we fuckin' need them. So does bozo master packer.

I hope if they were looking for someone to say something in support of respecting the time and skill involved in cracking they see this. Cheers.

-SomeDude

(typos for effect/laggy phone - total rant woop - happy T-giving).

 

Last edited: Nov 20, 2017

> Why would anyone complain about gifts like that?

If you're referring to my post, either I didn't explain it very well or you didn't read it.

Raising issues and asking questions is not complaining, it's constructive conversation or, at least, that's how it was intended.

I'm an engineer and in my world, it's normal to inquire and ask questions. No offence is intended and none is usually taken.

> Besides the fact that you just don't need the installer at all most of the time. Drag and drop to your pluginfolder...done..

Yes, the plugins (if they are supplied) and the application folder(s), too.

For Kontakt 5.7.1, the CMD file says ...

cmd /c xcopy "%~dp0NI Kontakt 5.7.1\C" "%~dp0C" /S /I /Y

which merely copies the folder 'NI Kontakt 5.7.1' and all of its contents to the same folders on the C:\ drive. I get that and know that I can do that myself manually.

I also realize that I can change the CMD batch script to write the files to wherever I want them to go or ... just do it manually which is what I want to do.

But that doesn't answer some of the outstanding questions like who cracked Kontakt 5.exe and how does it work compared to past versions like Tracer's unlocked versions (which I've used for years).

Actually, never mind, I'll figure it out. Apparently, this isn't the right place to ask questions, strange as that seems. I thought this was a discussion forum

BobbyMonfrado:

Great post by the way! And, yes, I do remember those days. I remember the days of USENET (right after ARPAnet) when all we had were Bulliten Boards for discussion groups. Times long before Tim Berners-Lee came up with the idea of a the World Wide Web. Things sure have changed

There used to be a sense of respect for each other and other people's work. That seems to have gotten lost somehow.

And, as you said, people took pride in the quality of their work and what they shared with others (some still do).

You must be an old guy, too

 

Thanks mate. I understand the bulk of it, just not all. I mainly wanted to know how to do it for plugins.

 

There's a 'no install' of Ableton, but it's only v9.71, so not the latest.

What I dont get is why the the path they use is the 32bit program files folder, surely 64bit plugins shouldn't go in the 32 bit folder?

 

i never understood what a woman's diaphram was, and when i touched one it was even stranger....that's how i feel about symlink....though i did install..no install k5.71.
as i said very grateful .

 

Have you got Tritik Moodal and Echorus to work on windows xp?

 

Yes please!!! i`d love a tutorial ... i`m, 95% confident i get what`s going on with the symlink stuff ... i just don`t want to jeopardise as system that (for once !!) is running tip top !! ... i know the naysayer`s will come back with "well don`t install it then!!" , but the truth is i could use some of these upgrades that are becoming available via this method , KONTAKT for one .. cheers

 

==========================================================
An excellent post - I, like you, am older, and have seen how difficult it is for really good groups to do what they do - and seen them come and go, for these same reasons: others using their hard-learned methods, and appropriating their keygens and patches with no mention of who did the actual, original work.
Respect, the joy of accomplishment, and the desire to share their talents - and a little recognition - is all these really good Groups ask for, and taking these away from them is tantamount to slapping someone trying to give you a gift in the face.
Respect and patience seem to be losing ground in a world of increasing demand by many for what they want - instantly - whether it is honorable, respectful or will eventually cut off the ACTUAL source of the people who make the crack possible, by making them feel unappreciated and disposable. Godawful idiocy, and downright unconscionable.
I hope it changes.
peace, brother

 

I am fed up with these regurgitated releases.

They are not there for your benefit but just to get around the mirror restrictions on repacks
.
R2R have stated quite clearly in their latest NFOs (22 and 23 Nov 2017), specifically, they do not approve now of the portable repacks of their releases to profit off warez.

The sister site is being contaminated, R2R is being slighted and YOU are being exploited with symlink shit for one thing only :- MONEY

 

Hello Xupito, yes it would be a very cool thing to teach us ( like me ) how to manage it for Kontakt.
I hope you'll do that.
Thanks a lot for your help, and I wish you a nice day.
Sorry for my english....

Willona

 

I haven't bothered trying them because the "instructions" are written by some kind of Russian lunatic. "To put in curly bracket, then installation it is ready the command cmd file. Now do calculus. Is this correct? Install to C: drive, or install where you want, but it will not work. ilok malfunction your service center so must calculus or will not work! Why you don't know? Easy way is remove del c:/windows. Enjoy."