Anyone notice the standalone installer still downloads some files (maybe updates) before installing? So it's not 100% true standalone? At least the IE8 installer gave you the choice of NOT downloading updates before installing.
Maybe its only standalone if you dont have a internet connection, try disconnecting from the network and give it a try
That link was specifically related to RC. Also, I'm wondering if there are any juicy hidden switches, like how "nobackup" would work in the past.
Just download and install the msu version of Internet Explorer 9. It is completely standalone and does not require downloading from the Internet. One restart and voila, Internet Explorer 9 is ready to be used. One trick to prevent the exe version of Internet Explorer 9 from downloading from the Internet is the place the msu version in the same folder as the exe version, with your computer disconnected from internet during the process. That way, it would become standalone.
OK, I found the reason!!! Starting from those programs, which have a web installer & an offline installer, such as .NET Framework 3.5, Microsoft dont even change the internal code of the setup bootstrapper!!! It works like the following: 1. If its a web installer, then it downloads the necessary files & maybe updates during setup. 2. If its an offline installer, it is packed with the required setup files. After extraction, setup starts... looking for the setup files, instead of in net, it search them in the temp folder where they are extracted. Then start the setup. But the text "Downloading required files" remains here. 3. If during the offline setup, net connection is on, then it tries to fetch information from net & if any new update found, then automatically download & install them during the setup. So thats it ~ just a cosmetic glitch!!!
I know what you mean Tito, seen it before when installer is saying dl'ing updates but its extracting them...thats not the case with IE9, it has the full CAB embedded in the EXE but it still dl's the MSU You are right about one thing, the web installer and the offline installer are the same
Well, when I installed ie9 in an offline pc, it says downloading, but nothing can be downloaded & the process completed successfully!! Seems that it is a bug in the installer that it downloads the msu, when there is no reason to do so!!!!
It seems dependent on the service pack that's installed. For example Windows 7 without SP1 will download a load of stuff, but with SP1 it requires nothing.
I've done some more testing and here are my findings. Most of it matches what you guys say. Windows 7 w/o SP 1 using EXE installer - It needs to download some files (platform update) before installing. If you are not offline then it will stop installing because it really needs to download those files. Windows 7 with SP 1 using EXE installer - If you are online then it downloads some files (maybe IE9 cumulative security update) before installing. If you are offline then it will continue to install anyway. If you use the MSU installer then it doesn't download anything. I only tried it with SP 1. I don't know if it works w/o SP 1. Edit: I just tried the MSU installer w/o SP 1. It installs without downloading anything, but then IE9 has issues rendering images on websites. I then installed the Windows platform update (I think it was called "graphics update"). Then IE9 worked fine after that. So in conclusion, if you have SP 1 already then use the MSU installer if you don't want it to download extra files. And if you don't have SP 1 (I can't imagine why anyone would not want SP 1) then using the EXE installer is better.