RS Software Downloader

Project summary

Key features of the software:

• Search for software on the largest software databases.¹
• Automatically download the best match from the fastest server.
• Analyse the installer and install silently.²
• Install the newest version from a predefined list of software with no user interaction whatsoever!³
• Open source software! Fork it, fix it, tailor it to your own needs!

This software was mainly developed because the most boring and time-consuming part of a Windows reinstallation is installing all the software you're going to use.

It's not inteded to be a real package manager. Actual package managers work with their own internal database and this gives them both advantages and disadvantages: they can silently install and then keep a software up-to-date, however, they can only work with software listed in their database. Usually the less popular software will have out-dated versions or they won't be in the database at all.

This software can search on most of the major software download sites, list results, download the installer, and then launch it. After the installation finished, the installer will be deleted from the %TEMP% directory.

Supported Sites

• FileHippo
• Softpedia
• FileForum
• CNET Downloads
• Brothersoft
• Tucows
• SnapFiles
• [origo] szoftverbázis
• USiTE

Silent Installation Support

When asked to preform a silent installation, the software will be able to identify the following major installation systems and initiate a silent installation:

• Nullsoft Scriptable Install System
• Inno Setup
• InstallShield
• Microsoft Windows Installer
• Wise Installation System
• Ghost Installer

The success of the silent installation will be determined by the installation processes exit code. All major installation systems return 0 when the installation was successful and +1 when the installation was cancelled by the user or failed due to some other reasons.

Scripting

The software has minimal scripting-like features. You can create a new txt file and write a software name on each line. When this file is passed to the software, it will automatically try to install them.

Syntax

If a line starts with ; it will be treated as a comment. When a line starts with >> a new group is created with that name, and any software below it will belong to that group. After any software name, you can append some operators:

• The @_short_ operator will specify the software on which site to search for the software. You can specify more than one such operators separating them by a space.

• The ^_regex_ operator will specify which link to select for download if a site offers multiple files for download (like Softpedia does). This operator's value will be compiled as a regular expression. The regular expression ends at the very first space, so if you want to match spaces in your regular expression, use \s instead.

• The /s operator will force a software to install silently (if possible) even if silent installation is turned off.
• The /!s operator will force a software not to install silently even if silent installation is turned on.

Example

; install the drivers strictly from FileHippo
ATi Catalyst Vista 64 @fh
Realtek High Definition Audio Vista 64 @fh

; install Tor with Vidalia from Softpedia
Tor @sp ^vidalia

; install Secunia PSI strictly from Softpedia, CNET or SnapFiles
Secunia Personal Software Inspector @sp @cn @sf

; get 64-bit Notepad2 from Softpedia
Notepad2 @sp ^x64

Bonus

To demonstrate how easy it is to install software with this utility, here's a list of supported software by some of the competitors:

• allmyapps

;
;  allmyapps list for RS Software Downloader
;  http://allmyapps.com/instant-setup
;  2011-06-18
;

>> Video
VLC media player
K-Lite Codec Pack full
Any Video Converter
QuickTime
Real Alternative
Windows Media Player 11
Gom Player
HandBrake
Hulu Desktop
DVD Flick

>> Security
Avira AntiVir Personal
AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 2011
Microsoft Security Essentials
Spybot
Avast! Internet Security
KeePass
PeerGuardian
Karen's Replicator
Online Armor 
Spyware Terminator

>> Communication
Skype
Facebook Desktop
Google Talk
Pidgin
Thunderbird
ManyCam Virtual Webcam
Yahoo Messenger
TweetDeck
Microsoft Live Essentials 2011

>> Utilities
CCleaner
Google Earth
7-Zip
Winrar
CDBurnerXP
TeraCopy
Speed Fan
Defraggler
DisplayFusion
Revo Uninstaller
Recuva
DVD Shrink
TeamViewer
PowerCmd
Launchy
UltraVNC
Easeus Partition Master Home Edition
Universal Extractor
Everything 
TreeSize Free
UltraSearch

>> Web
Firefox
Google Chrome
Opera
Internet Explorer 8
Chromium Updater
Internet Explorer 9

>> Office
Adobe Reader
Foxit Reader
OpenOffice
Dropbox
Microsoft Office Word Viewer
PDFCreator
EverNote
Dia
Sumatra PDF
Lingoes
Sunbird
LibreOffice
Excel Viewer
PicPick
XMind

>> Audio
iTunes
Virtual DJ
Audacity
Electronic Piano
Spotify
Songbird
AIMP2
MusikCube
CDex
Doubletwist
MediaMonkey
Foobar2000

>> Development
Notepad++
Java SE JRE
Silverlight
Putty
Microsoft .NET Framework 4
WinSCP
GTK+
Vim

>> Imaging
Picasa
Paint.NET
PhotoWipe
Gimp
PhotoFiltre
Inkscape
IrfanView
Photo Story
XnView
Shape Collage
FastStone Image Viewer
Flickr Downloader

• FreeApps

;
;  FreeApps list for RS Software Downloader
;  http://www.freenew.net/
;  2011-06-18
;

>> Browsers
Mozilla Firefox
Google Chrome
Opera
Safari

>> COmmunications
Skype
Yahoo! Messenger
Camfrog Video Chat
Mozilla Thunderbird
Windows Live Messenger 2009
Digsby
Miranda IM
Pidgin
Google Talk

>> Anti-Virus and Firewall
AVG Free Anti-Virus
Avast Antivirus Home
Avira AntiVir Personal
Microsoft Security Essentials
ZoneAlarm

>> Anti-Spyware
Security 360
Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
SuperAntiSpyware
Spybot - Search & Destroy
HiJackThis
Ad-Aware Free Anti-Malware

>> System Utilities
Advanced SystemCare Free
Smart Defrag
CCleaner
Revo Uninstaller
TeraCopy
Glary Utilities
IObit Uninstaller
PC Wizard 2010
Defraggler
Auslogics
Belarc
Launchy
Recuva
WinDirStat

>> Office
OpenOffice
Adobe Reader
CutePDF Writer
Foxit Reader
PrimoPDF
AbiWord
PDFCreator
SumatraPDF
FeedReader

>> Audio and Video
VLC Media Player
Real Player
Apple iTunes
Hulu Desktop
Winamp
Audacity
K-Lite Codec
KMPlayer
XMedia Recode
GOM Player
Spotify
FLV player
AIMP
MediaMonkey
Songbird
VSO Image Resizer

>> Imaging
Paint.NET
GIMP
Picasa
IrfanView
FastStone
Light Image Resizer
Inkscape
XnView
Easy Photo Uploader

>> CD and DVD Tools
CDBurnerXP
DAEMON Tools Lite
ImgBurn
Exact Audio Copy
AnyDVD
Free Rip MP3
idoo Free DVD Ripper
HandBrake
Easy MPEG

>> Desktop Enhancement
TimeLeft
NoteZilla
ObjectDock

>> File Sharing and Transfer
uTorrent
FrostWire
TeamViewer
BitComet
HJSplit
eMule
Vuze
UltraVNC

>> Compression and Backup
WinRAR
7-Zip
Dropbox
PeaZip

>> Runtimes and Drivers
Flash Player 10 (Non IE)
Flash Player 10 (IE)
Microsoft Silverlight
DirectX
Microsoft Framework .NET 4

>> Benchmarking
CPU-Z
Speccy
Sandra Lite 2011

>> Business Software
Download Accelerator Plus
Ultimate Business Plan Starter
NolaPro
OpenProj

>> Developer Tools
Notepad++
Python
Filezilla
PuTTY
WinSCP

>> Others
Google Earth
KeePass Password Safe
Stellarium
Steam
Everything
RealVNC
Evernote
DiskGetor Data Recovery Free

• Ninite

;
;  Ninite list for RS Software Downloader
;  http://ninite.com/
;  2011-06-18
;

>> Web Browsers
Chrome
Safari
Opera
Firefox

>> Messaging
Skype
Windows Live Messenger
Pidgin
Digsby
Google Talk
Thunderbird
AIM
Yahoo! Messenger

>> Media
iTunes
Songbird
Hulu
VLC
KMPlayer
AIMP
foobar2000
Winamp
Audacity
K-Lite Codecs
GOM
Spotify
CCCP @ff @cn
MediaMonkey
QuickTime

>> Runtimes
Flash Player Non-IE
Flash Player IE
Java
.NET Framework 4.0
Silverlight
Air
Shockwave

>> Imaging
Paint.NET
Picasa
GIMP
IrfanView
XnView
Inkscape
FastStone

>> Documents
Microsoft Office @sp
OpenOffice
Adobe Reader
SumatraPDF
Foxit Reader
CutePDF
LibreOffice
PDFCreator

>> Security
Microsoft Security Essentials
Avast Free Antivirus
AVG Free Edition
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware
Ad-Aware
Spybot
SUPERAntiSpyware

>> File Sharing
uTorrent
eMule

>> Other
Dropbox
Evernote
Google Earth
Steam
KeePass
Everything
Mozy

>> Utilities
TeamViewer
ImgBurn
CCleaner
Auslogics
Defraggler
RealVNC
TeraCopy
CDBurnerXP
Recuva
TrueCrypt
Revo
Launchy
Glary
Speccy
InfraRecorder

>> Compression
7-Zip
WinRAR

>> Developer Tools
Python
FileZilla
Notepad++
JDK
WinSCP
PuTTY
Eclipse

These files were formatted to be compatible with RS Software Downloader; just download them and drag-and-drop them into the software's start page.

Screenshots

Automatic download and silent installation turned on

The software will search on the supported sites, select the best candidate and download it. [pic. 2-3]

If silent installation is turned on, the software will analyse the downloaded executable, determine the installation system and launch the file with the according arguments.

In this case the setup was created with NSIS, so the launched process is KMPlayer-3.0.0.1440.exe /S [pic. 4]

Batch installation