What exactly is a symlink installer? Why are so many apps now coming out in this version and is there any advantages/disadvantages to regular installs?

 

All I know is it's a bit more complicated to get symlink's (I think it stands for symbolic link) working for the average user, they're meant for advanced users who know what the hell they're doing and don't wanna have to go and install every release individually. I could never figure them out, so I just avoid them, although I can definitely see the advantages in not having to install regularly.

 

From the ones I have tried including Kontakt 5.7.3, they work very well and are very easy and quick to intall. There was a bit of a worry about,certainly Kontakt, calling an ip address but I think even that turned out to be innocuous. Personally I have no internet on my studio partition anyway.
The main bones of contention with these releases was the lack of acknowledgement for the original crackers and that someone is probably making money out of an existing release by just changing the way it installs which in my opinion is just not cricket.

 

i agree, they look more complicated than they really are.
you can keep the programs any where you like, the shortcuts are put in place ( these are the 'symlinks') to make the software appear like it is installed in the right directories.
i think there is a 'symlink' installer you have to use so it's not strictly true that there is no install : )
it takes moments to do it.

 

Kontakt 5.7.3 portable is great and nothing to install. lib organizer is terrific too.

 

If you know what your doing (which isn't hard to work out if you have common sense about how a computer works)
These are very easy to install. Your're just bypassing the installer (which for those clueless people) just places the relevant data on your hard drive lol

Maybe just harder for you to understand an alternative method.

 

From another thread about this topic

Makes it easy to understand what a symlink installation does. Although it is in german ;)
(original post @r4e )




So basically you can store the data of your installation wherever you want to.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Feb 3, 2018

Think about symbolic links as advanced shortcuts that work like "true folders" for the OS. This way you can keep things in another place, usually another drive/partition.

Advanced users use them for another purposes, like having heavy data (games) in another partition.

 

Yo this sounds like exactly what I need, my ssd is almost out of space, if I could have installed all those plugins on a different hard drive that would have been great.

 

Ok, i'd admit its quite difficult for a beginner, but it really is not when you get the hang of it. The poorly written English these scripts provide does not help much either

Other then that, they are one of the best things to do when testing plugins, as you can uninstall and leave no traces 90% off the time.

The first step you need to do is download this: http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/visual_c_runtime_installer.html . It will install all visual runtime libraries. This is usefull, a lot of plugins rely on these libraries.

Ok, say you see have a ''no install'', first thing you need to do is extract it witt 7zip. You're left with a bunch of files , 'C' folder holds the plugins (here you can see what exactly see what will be installed)

Its not really that important to look into it if you want to run the software. Just run the script "x64 copy vst" or something. Make sure to run it as Administrator.

Most of the time, it installs in the C:\Program Files (x86)\VSTplugins folder which is annoying. You can change that with two ways. The first one, edit the ''x64 copy vst'' with NOTEPAD ++, and specify your normal VST directory.

The second way, which is my favourite, install Linkshell extension. And make a symbolic link to your VST folder.
BTW: linkshell extension is very handy for those no installers, because you can basically do it yourself without running scripts, and there fore installing stuff which you actually dont need.

I really think PossibleWorld did a great job here, very clever to run a buch of pre cracked plugins in a folder.

 

My strengths however lie in other highly, ambient domains...thank goodness. I have always relied on pro quid pro for these kind of things, barter and such to help my seeming helplessness, those modern necessities that pass through me like sunlight in a wind.

 

You can still move all your installed stuff to a different HDD. You just need to create your own symlink in a few simple steps:
1. Copy the folder which contains too much data to another partition. Lets say it is
C:\Program Files, your C:\ drive is full, so you cut and paste the folder to D:\Program Files.
2. Make sure C:\Program Files does not exist anymore afterwards, otherwise the following command can't do it's job properly.
3. Run a cmd with elevated rights and type:

mklink /D "C:\Program Files" "D:\Program Files"

4.

 

Poorly Written?
Poorly written in Russian more like.
gives a whole new meaning to the term Russian Roulette : )

 

symlinks are the SHIT......especialy the russian ones...they are great...the russian ones have always unsymlink cmd added

and the nfo's are the most extensive but in russian lol...
symlinking is so easy and fast....

i hate repacks but symlinks are special...remarkable like bulk crap uninstaller...

 

copy symlink pack to c....to symlink cmd....copppy content to vst,program files etc....done....in most cases no kg regis needed..dunno how lol..

 

this so much this, also the tone2 symlink bundle is the greatest thing ever.

although in my laziness i have a few too many of them sitting in my downloads folder linked, but for izotope stuff symlink was a godsend

 

Basically, to use successfully these symlink releases (from barbarian repackagers and so on... ):

1) change both the folder and in the .cmd files "(Current User)" for your Windows user

2) change in the .cmd files the path of VST2 folders
The default is: c:\program files\vstplugins
You could have it, for instance, in c:\program files\steinberg\vstplugins

I think this is it. You can have the plugin in the folder/drive that you prefer and you don't need to mess with file operations which is the first temptation (I've been there).

 

They basically take a snapshot before and after like you could do with an advanced uninstaller. For instance, if you install Adobe stuff it's very, very advisable to do this with Revo Uninstaller which monitor all the changes. Or Visual studio.

At the end you have a complete list of files and registry entries added. They compile this and you get the symlink installer (symlinks are only for convenience as they can emulate any new folder created by an installation, plus bonus that you can have the files in any location).

But of course the files and registry entries added after an installation are often the result of very complex combinations, often unique for every Windows installation. You can't do a symlink installer of Photoshop. Plugins are relatively easy in this thing (I guess because the complex things are handled by the DAW).

 

thx xupito