What is installer.exe in an Ubuntu iso file?

Question

Today I downloaded an Ubuntu iso file. I opened that file using the file archiver. I can see 'installer.exe'. What was that?

Answer 1

installer.exe is the file to run in Windows to start the Wubi installer to install Ubuntu 14.04 in Windows 7 or earlier. In most releases of Ubuntu this file is named Wubi.exe. Wubi is not supported anymore and was removed as an installation option in the official download page from Ubuntu 13.04 onward, but Wubi for versions after Ubuntu 13.04 are still provided. This doesn't do the Ubuntu user in 2020 much good because Windows 7 and earlier Windows versions are not supported by Microsoft anymore either.

If you are running Windows 10 you can install Ubuntu in Windows using Windows Subsystem for Linux. Windows Subsystem for Linux is being aggressively developed, and it looks like it's going to be a viable option for installing Ubuntu in Windows for a long time.