system
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Sorry, but I’ve been doing this for years. And in my experience, much software is packed with a totally unnecessary installer just so the user gets a few shortcuts on their start menu, or so that some rubbish toolbar can be offered on install.
Otherwise, some of them allow direct extracting from the .exe file (I mean, unpack the .exe file like it was a .zip).
Yes, you are right, some do, and then some don’t. For the ones that can be upacked with tools like Universal Extractor et al. that’s fine, but sometimes you get a bit of software which amounts to a help file and a single exe and there’s no (simple way) to unpack it without installing it first.
You can't install software within the sandbox.
Well, sorry to contradict you, but that can’t be correct, because I did exactly this today.
Filename ‘AdvShortcutsCompInst.exe’. Ran it sandboxed with Avast, and after it installed the installer offered to run the app, which it did. Whilst the app was running the files and folder structure were visible in the sandbox, and only after I’d closed the app did the sandbox contents get removed. So either I’m misunderstanding something or…