Application or Install Program?

[soopytwist]

What is recommended for the distribution of a game? A single .exe or an installer? What sort of files are included in the install directory? Are files in my game such as WAV's and AVI's included in the installed directory? - because I wouldn't want that. It seems to me that a single .exe in a zipped folder with a Readme.txt is the best option. The downside is that some people balk at downloading .exe's, for obvious reasons.

EDIT

Also, I need some advice about compression. My mfa is 45Mb and the built .exe is 25Mb. I think compression is set to normal. Should I change this? What problems could high compression have?

Actually, to save posting again is there a checklist of what to do and what not to do when releasing a game to the public. This is my first game and I don't really know what the protocols are.

EDIT

I have another problem. My antivirus software has suddenly decided it doesn't like the .exe for my game any more and deletes it as soon as I try to run it. It hasn't done this before and I don't know why it has suddenly decided to do this. A bigger problem is that I use BitDefender and you can't exclude anything in that and expect it to work.

EDIT
????

What the hell does this mean? Why has everything gone to **** all of a sudden?!

What the f'k?

Now I can't copy anything into my folder on my computer!

[soopytwist]

Well, it seems I can get away with building an installer instead but I have to rename the .exe beforehand otherwise MMF2 won't let me save it before creating the installer.

I ran the installer and I can run my game.

A pity that it includes an AVI from my game - that kind of spoils the game a bit.

Guess I answered my own f'king question.

Don't build an .exe.

[aenever]

Hi Snoopytwist I'm really looking forward to this release. Please post a link when it's available