How to Download Entire Software instead of Small Installer

[starbux]

It used to be that when you downloaded software you downloaded the entire file. Now most companies force you to download a small file and when that is launched it completes the download and installation.

So now as an example, because I had to uninstall Oculus to fix a problem, I've got to download the entire freaking 5 GB all over again, whereas if I had been able to download the 5 GB file in the first place, I could just reinstall it.

I assume these files are usually being thrown in a temp directory somewhere, but is there an app out there that allows me to somehow easily store these downloads so I can launch them again if I need to uninstall and reinstall?

Thanks!

 

[USAFRet]

It used to be that when you downloaded software you downloaded the entire file. Now most companies force you to download a small file and when that is launched it completes the download and installation.

So now as an example, because I had to uninstall Oculus to fix a problem, I've got to download the entire freaking 5 GB all over again, whereas if I had been able to download the 5 GB file in the first place, I could just reinstall it.

I assume these files are usually being thrown in a temp directory somewhere, but is there an app out there that allows me to somehow easily store these downloads so I can launch them again if I need to uninstall and reinstall?

Thanks!

That is entirely up to whomever created that software.

They do it like that, so that they can control and give you the latest version.
A version of their thing you were able to save 6 months ago may have serious holes in it. They don't want that still out in the wild.
So, you download the little stub, and it goes and gets the current thing from their servers.

 

[Wolfshadw]

Even if you could capture the files, somehow, it wouldn't matter because in order to re-install the files, you have to run the installer which, of course, if going to download the latest from the home server.

-Wolf sends

 

[canadianvice]

It is worth noting that if you look around the areas to get these installers, you can often find an "offline installer" vs a "web installer". Microsoft's resource site in particular usually offers this for things like the .NET library or similar.