How to distribute an .exe via email?

I have a customer that wants to distribute the program I wrote for him as an email attachment. He's already stated that he's had trouble with the end-users email filters blocking the attachments (which isn't so hard to believe).

I'm just trying to think up a way that he could do it. The program has a self-installer, but that too, is an .exe. I distributed it to him as a .zip file and I think that he could do the same, but that's a tacky way to do it, and it also requires a small bit of computer experience on the part of the end user (we will assume that they are computer ignorant).

"I" would post the game on a website and just email a link to it, but I'm trying to find a solution for this guy before I give up and tell him that that's the only? solution that really works.

So, any ideas out there?

(P.S., I realize after rereading this, that it looks like the kind of thing someone would want to try to distribute email viruses. Obviously, that is not my intentions. I'm just looking for a 'safe' method of distributing an .exe file.)

even a zip would be blocked by many email filters, especially if it contains an exe, especially on freebie services.

I would simply rename the .EXE to a .PDF and just tell recipient to rename the PDF to an EXE once they download the attachment. That usually solves the problem.

Yeah I thought of that, but that's not a very professional way to achieve it. I'm looking for a more professional way.

Best way would be to have a link to the exe in the e-mail. Not what your client wants, but hey, thats the internet you ya.

distributing the program itself via email isn't very professional either. Tell him that. The correct way is, as everyone says, email a link to the download which should also be login/password protected so it can't just be found and downloaded by anyone.

The password protected download is a good idea. However, the customers must store their password or purchase ID savely for future correspondence (like when they failed to download the file, so they can get a new password), you have to make this clear.

The password / login should work like a ticket system. if the file is downloaded more than say 3 times, the link should become invalid.

A simple solution is to link to a php script that will store the IP, the password, the time etc. Depending on the state of the passwords account it will then redirect the client right to the downloadable file, or to an error message.

also people hate getting fat emails. Plus an exe in an email jsut makes peoples alarm bells ring. For friends I get them to name the extension from foo or whatever. But a link seems the best way to me.

Sending .EXE's by email is a major no-no. First of all many servers will block them, and secondly many email clients will by default prevent you from accessing them becuase they are potentially dangerous. Outlook Express, for example, in the default configuration will not let you open or save an .EXE, unless you change some of its settings first. Major support headache.

You could choose to use a real .zip file, but run into the problem that many people wouldn't know how to handle one of those, don't have the decompression software, and additional support overhead.

Then there's the 'rename a .exe to .whatever' route, but that's a bad idea as well, since it just adds more convoluted non-intuitive instructions (=extra support for you), and in many cases it may not make a difference since plenty opf mailservers don't just care about the extension, but can also recognize (and block) a .EXE based on the actual content. the initial header of an EXE is always the same, after all.

Then there's the problem of mail quota's: I don't know what file size you're dealing with, but many mail providers (especially the freebies) won't support very large attachment sizes. Plenty of places will reject stuff that's a meg in size already, so you'll never know if your message can make it through. There's also mail server quota's limiting how much mail someone can have at the server at the same time, and having worked at an ISP I can tell you that there's plenty of people who are perpetually pushing their quota's.

The *only* 'professional' delivery method, is to provide the user with a link, username and password to a web portal where they can download the file at their own convenience.

The 'best' option is to provide a single link that has the username/password/file thing encoded in it so a single click will initiate the download -- but you should also include the plain URL, username & password as a fallback in case the direct link doesn't work with someone's mail client. (Some won't launch external hyperlinks, others may break a long hyperlink it word-wrapping breaks it in half, etc.)

Any other method would either have a relatively high % of failure thanks to the big variety of mail setups, and/or require you to send along a book's worth of insutrctions telling people how to extract the thing they need from your message.



You would need to interface your website with a database to keep track of those things -- which can give you even more flexible options, e.g.:

In addition to the 'only download x times' rule, you can tell it a link expires -x- days after either the link was created, or after the initial download

You could also 'freeze' a link, allowing say three downloads within the first 30 days, and then one additional download every -x- months or so, in case people need to reinstall their computer.

If the number of permitted downloads is exceeded, you can still record info such at the requesting IP address, date/time, etc. You can even throw an error explaining the issue, and give the person a form they can fill in to request 'help', leave their email address, etc.

You can then review these case-by-case to see if they are legit, and choose whether or not to permit additional downloads. If a certain username/password combo is blatantly being abused, you can put a permanent freeze on it.

Alright guys, thanks for the responses so far. I'm mostly aware of everything that's been stated so far, was just hoping for other ideas.

Some of it doesn't apply however.


I'm sure that the people my client is sending emails to are expecting an email from him.
The game/program that my client wants to distribute is just a demo so no password/login is necessary *I think*. He had me sign a non-disclosure agreement before I wrote it, and I wonder if the people he is sharing it with also must sign an NDA before they can playtest it...
The reason I say this, is it might explain why he may want to send the game via email (i.e. one recipient at a time).
I may have to ask him his full intentions in that area.
If he is trying to limit who can/can't obtain the file, then he may have to use a login/password if downloading from a website is his only option...

Also, my client isn't very computer savvy himself, so he may be just trying to avoid setting up a download site himself since he most likely doesn't know how to do so.

I guess I will just have to ask him what his actual intentions are.

If anyone has any more ideas though, throw them out here. I'm just trying to avoid having to say something to him like "No. It can't be done."

It's not that it can't be done - it's that it can't be done reliably.

My two cents on professionalism in sending executables:

Emailing renamed zip files is an great way to provide individual customer-specific patches or older versions of software. When I buy a piece of software, I expect to download a self-installing EXE from a secure website.

Sending someone an EXE in the same email as their receipt is a huge no-no: they may wind up deleting the email to free up some space in their inbox!

I block .pfd files in e-mails too.

MOst exe viruses are around 30-60k. I'm surprised noone has invented a 'more than 100k exe' type of check.

Just goes to show that viruses are certainly well written pieces of malicious software. It may potentially destroy your machine, but hey it runs quick and isn't bloatware. ;)