from
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
installer
<operating system> A {utility program} to ease the
installation of another, probably larger, {application}. It
is also possible for {hardware} to have an installer accompany
it, to install any low level {device drivers} required.
The installer commonly asks the user to enter desired
configuration options for the main program or hardware, and
sets up various initialisation files accordingly, as well as
copying the main program to a {hard disc}.
Some badly designed operating systems require applications to
provide an {uninstaller} because of the number of different
files modified or created during the installation process.
(1998-02-09)