Software to benchmark software installation times

Question

Is there any software that exists to benchmark how long it takes to install software? I know there are programs to benchmark startup times, but I'd like to measure how long the installation package for a given program takes to run. This will be used in an upcoming Super User Blog post.

Answer 1

Having not yet found any software to do this, I wrote my own. It's pretty basic, though I may add more features later. Application Timer will load the installer or application you choose. When you click Run, it starts the application, and displays a timer. The timer stops automatically when the application closes, or if you manually kill the application or stop the timer. You can download Application Timer from my website.

Answer 2

its a horrible horrible hack, but a batch file with

 @echo. :time >>foo.txt 
 installer 
 @echo .:time >>foo.txt

would create a batchfile with the start and end times of the task since windows runs tasks in batch files sequencially that should give you the start and end time of the install. It won't be hugely precise, and i haven't tested it, but if there's no other options, this might work.