Question about Archiving Installers (.exe files)

[glomedia]

I downloaded the installer for Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.1 ("AcroReader51_ENU_full.exe" - a 13 MB file) and used it to install the program.

When I control-click on the installer file (the .exe file that I downloaded) and choose "Properties," I see 7 info tabs:

General
Digital Signatures
Program
Font
Memory
Screen
Misc

However, if I MOVE or COPY that installer to another location (such as another partition), then the info tabs change. When I control-click on the .exe that's in the new location, the 7 info tabs are replaced with only 3 info tabs:

General
Version (shows Description as "PackageForTheWeb Stub" ver 2.02)
Digital Signatures

I even re-downloaded the same 13 MB installer file directly to this new location and then checked the Properties . Again, the properties only show 3 info. tabs instead of 7.

Can anyone explain why this is? Are the additional info tabs generated only when an installer (.exe file) is actually run?

I'd be interested to know if anyone out there who archives his or her installer programs to another location or to other media (such as CD-R) notices the same properties behavior (i.e., only 3 info tabs instead of 7).

[semble]

there should only be 3 tabs.

are the icons different too?
is the description on the file with 7 tabs "AcroReader51_ENU_full.exe"?

it sounds like windows is just confused as to what the original file is. windows thinks that it has to open a dos shell to run the executable.

[Report_2]

I would guess that executing the file activates the other four tabs. Moving the file after it has been activated nullifies the info on the other four tabs.

As a test you could reinstall it from the other location to see if the missing tabs reappear.

I am guessing but being a betting kind of person; my money is on my guess.

[glomedia]

I figured out what happened, and it's closer to semble's theory.

At the time, I was having trouble downloading the Acrobat Reader installer ("AcroReader51_ENU_full.exe"). IE for Windows was slow that day, so I logged onto my Macintosh computer, opened IE for Mac, and downloaded the installer to a shared network drive that can store both Mac and Windows files.

So I believe that Windows needed those extra tabs to know what to do with an .exe file that was originally in a Mac environment. (It was downloaded using a Macintosh system on a Macintosh browser and to a Macintosh drive, albeit a shared one.) Once I moved the installer (the .exe) to a Windows drive, the extra tabs disappeared.

Since then, I've downloaded other installers (.exe files) directly to my Windows drive and they only show the basic info tabs, even after I move or copy them elsewhere. (Exception: If I copy them to the shared Macintosh drive, then the 7 tabs reappear, which supports my theory.)

Thanks for helping me figure this out. It appears that it's taking the normal action for the environment, so everything is O.K.