Our last big desktop project was free, so I can't comment on anything regarding sales, but distribution was a pain in the ass because it was a Windows product.
About 20% of those who downloaded were not able to install it due to the following reasons:
* Could not find "where did it go?" after downloading (not joking)
* Were running some kind of "security suite" which was crippling our installer or didn't let our product connect to the internet and users couldn't figure out which program performed the function of a firewall, let alone configure it.
* Their computers were heavily modified by other installed Windows software (non-standard DLLs in /windows/system), missing/modified registry entries, rootkits+spyware+malware+adware. Windows allows this kind of thing.
Technically the product was nothing fancy, an Internet Explorer plugin, but it surely knows how it feels to be a domesticated cat dropped from a comfy helicopter into amazonian jungle. [dev. machine -> an average user's machine]
I spent most of my career developing Windows libraries for other developers (ActiveX controls, signal processing, industrial automation, that kind of thing) and never faced a "6-pack Joe" as a customer. Once I've tried, I got rid of all my Windows computers, forced myself to open a whole new UNIX world and yes, switched to mostly Web development, which I find extremely trivial and boring (HTMLization of DB schemas), but I'm glad I don't have to deal with "Where did it go?" anymore.
Use an installer like InstallShield. (There may be free or cheaper alternatives, but I haven't looked in a long time.) The installer takes care of housekeeping pains that will trip you up, like registry differences between XP and Vista, or cross platform installations.
actually even with installshield you will have many unforeseen "dev to userland machine" problems... now you may have similar problems with testing on several browsers but a lot of these problems are a lot easier to mitigate...
"Could not find "where did it go?" after downloading (not joking)"
I know you are not joking. The company that can solve this problem will have my heart, and probably my wallet if I ever develop desktop software again.
About 20% of those who downloaded were not able to install it due to the following reasons:
* Could not find "where did it go?" after downloading (not joking)
* Were running some kind of "security suite" which was crippling our installer or didn't let our product connect to the internet and users couldn't figure out which program performed the function of a firewall, let alone configure it.
* Their computers were heavily modified by other installed Windows software (non-standard DLLs in /windows/system), missing/modified registry entries, rootkits+spyware+malware+adware. Windows allows this kind of thing.
Technically the product was nothing fancy, an Internet Explorer plugin, but it surely knows how it feels to be a domesticated cat dropped from a comfy helicopter into amazonian jungle. [dev. machine -> an average user's machine]
I spent most of my career developing Windows libraries for other developers (ActiveX controls, signal processing, industrial automation, that kind of thing) and never faced a "6-pack Joe" as a customer. Once I've tried, I got rid of all my Windows computers, forced myself to open a whole new UNIX world and yes, switched to mostly Web development, which I find extremely trivial and boring (HTMLization of DB schemas), but I'm glad I don't have to deal with "Where did it go?" anymore.