I am "compiling" my Python application for Windows with PyInstaller 2.1. I initially tried using onefile mode, but onefile takes a long time to startup (decompressing wx and matplotlib). With the onedir mode it's pretty fast (only a little bit slower than native python).
So I want to use onedir mode for faster startup times, but for the end-user it's difficult to find the actual *.exe file inside the huge amount of files located in the main directory (there are 98 files including the actual executable and it's manifest).
I want to make sure a non tech-savvy user can easily "double-click" the executable and work with this program (ease and portability) without a long disclaimer to "just ignore" the 97 other files there.
Is it possible to move all those "distracting" files into a subfolder? Or are there other ways to make it easy for the end-user to run this program?
13 Answers
maybe you could use onedir. The resulting folder you can put anywhere and create a shortcut to the user where it is more comfortable.
You could use some software to pack it into a one-file installer, such as Inno setup.
You could also try to delete some files one by one (if the executable fails just undelete it). I figured out that almost half of the files can be deleted with the executable working fine.
Download Inno Setup from here.
Easiest way to reduce the number of files created in --onefile mode would be to create a virtual environment and install only the necessary modules.
