How to track what setup.exe has installed

Question

1. Is there a way to track what the setup file has installed? Everything - Registry, files.

2. Is there a way to track down what kind of files software creates? Cookies & all other files it creates on the system.

Answer 1

ahem ahem

Process Monitor:

Process Monitor is an advanced monitoring tool for Windows that shows real-time file system, Registry and process/thread activity. It combines the features of two legacy Sysinternals utilities, Filemon and Regmon, and adds an extensive list of enhancements including rich and non-destructive filtering, comprehensive event properties such session IDs and user names, reliable process information, full thread stacks with integrated symbol support for each operation, simultaneous logging to a file, and much more. Its uniquely powerful features will make Process Monitor a core utility in your system troubleshooting and malware hunting toolkit.

Answer 2

You could run the installation in a sandbox (like sandboxie) and see what it has changed. Then you can either reinstall in the live OS or break the application out of the sandbox.

Answer 3

It's not guaranteed to work, but I have done this before by using a fresh installation of Wine on a Linux machine. Run the installer using Wine and then check out what's happened under ~/.wine/. The registry changes and files installed should mirror exactly what happens on a Windows machine.

Answer 4

What OS?

InCtrl5. You should be able to find it around on various "archive" websites.

Revo Uninstaller (the Pro, shareware version) has "Real-Time monitoring of system changes - during install of programs".

SpyMe Tools

Total Uninstall

PRIMO

(I'm only familiar with InCtrl5.)