use editor recommendations, add more indepth FFMpeg installer

CompressionTask.cs

@@ -3,30 +3,14 @@
 
 namespace LiteCut
 {
-    internal class CompressionTask
+    internal class CompressionTask(string inputFilePath, string outputFilePath, int targetFileSizeMB, TimeSpan startTime, TimeSpan endTime, bool mergeAudio)
     {
         public EventHandler<double>? CompressionProgress;
 
         public EventHandler<string>? CompressionError;
 
         public EventHandler<string>? CompressionOutput;
 
-        private readonly string inputFilePath;
-        private readonly string outputFilePath;
-        private readonly int targetFileSizeMB;
-        private readonly TimeSpan startTime;
-        private readonly TimeSpan endTime;
-        private readonly bool mergeAudio;
-
-        public CompressionTask(string inputFilePath, string outputFilePath, int targetFileSizeMB, TimeSpan startTime, TimeSpan endTime, bool mergeAudio)
-        {
-            this.inputFilePath = inputFilePath;
-            this.outputFilePath = outputFilePath;
-            this.targetFileSizeMB = targetFileSizeMB;
-            this.startTime = startTime;
-            this.endTime = endTime;
-            this.mergeAudio = mergeAudio;
-        }
         public async Task CompressVideo()
         {
             double targetFileSizeBytes = targetFileSizeMB * 1024;

FFmpegInstaller.cs

@@ -0,0 +1,161 @@
+using System;
+using System.Diagnostics;
+using System.IO;
+using System.Text;
+using System.Windows.Forms;
+using Microsoft.Win32;
+
+namespace LiteCut
+{
+    public static class FFmpegInstaller
+    {
+        public static bool InstallFFmpeg()
+        {
+            try
+            {
+
+                ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new()
+                {
+                    FileName = "winget",
+                    Arguments = "install Gyan.FFmpeg -h",
+                    UseShellExecute = false,
+                    RedirectStandardOutput = true,
+                    RedirectStandardError = true,
+                    CreateNoWindow = true
+                };
+
+                using Process process = new();
+                process.StartInfo = startInfo;
+                process.Start();
+                process.BeginOutputReadLine();
+                process.BeginErrorReadLine();
+                process.WaitForExit();
+
+                // Refresh this process' PATH from the registry so newly-installed executables are found without restarting
+                RefreshProcessPathFromRegistry();
+
+                // Quick verification: try running `ffmpeg -version`
+                if (CanRunFFmpeg())
+                {
+                    return true;
+                }
+
+                var ffmpegInstallationDirectory = FindFFmpeg();
+
+                if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(ffmpegInstallationDirectory))
+                {
+                    string dir = Path.GetDirectoryName(ffmpegInstallationDirectory);
+                    string current = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("PATH", EnvironmentVariableTarget.Process) ?? string.Empty;
+                    Environment.SetEnvironmentVariable("PATH", dir + ";" + current, EnvironmentVariableTarget.Process);
+
+                    if (!CanRunFFmpeg())
+                    {
+                        MessageBox.Show("FFmpeg was not directly accessbile. You may need to restart LiteCut or your computer.");
+                        return true; // installation likely succeeded, but process PATH wasn't picked up by all mechanisms
+                    }
+                }
+                else
+                {
+                    MessageBox.Show("FFmpeg was installed but could not be located. Try restarting Litecut or your computer.");
+                    return true;
+                }
+            }
+            catch (Exception ex)
+            {
+                MessageBox.Show($"Error: {ex.Message}");
+                return false;
+            }
+
+            return false;
+        }
+
+        private static void RefreshProcessPathFromRegistry()
+        {
+            try
+            {
+                const string systemEnvKey = @"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment";
+                string systemPath = Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey(systemEnvKey)?.GetValue("Path") as string ?? string.Empty;
+                string userPath = Registry.CurrentUser.OpenSubKey("Environment")?.GetValue("Path") as string ?? string.Empty;
+
+                string merged;
+                if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(systemPath)) merged = userPath;
+                else if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(userPath)) merged = systemPath;
+                else merged = systemPath + ";" + userPath;
+
+                if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(merged))
+                {
+                    Environment.SetEnvironmentVariable("PATH", merged, EnvironmentVariableTarget.Process);
+                }
+            }
+            catch
+            {
+                // Non-fatal — leave process PATH unchanged if registry read fails.
+            }
+        }
+
+        private static bool CanRunFFmpeg()
+        {
+            try
+            {
+                ProcessStartInfo psi = new()
+                {
+                    FileName = "ffmpeg",
+                    Arguments = "-version",
+                    UseShellExecute = false,
+                    RedirectStandardOutput = true,
+                    RedirectStandardError = true,       
+                    CreateNoWindow = true
+                };
+
+                using Process p = Process.Start(psi);
+                if (p is null)
+                {
+                    return false;
+                }
+                p.WaitForExit(3000);
+                return p.ExitCode == 0;
+            }
+            catch
+            {
+                return false;
+            }
+        }
+
+
+        private static string FindFFmpeg()
+        {
+            try
+            {
+                ProcessStartInfo psi = new()
+                {
+                    FileName = "where",
+                    Arguments = "ffmpeg",
+                    UseShellExecute = false,
+                    RedirectStandardOutput = true,
+                    RedirectStandardError = true,
+                    CreateNoWindow = true
+                };
+
+                using Process p = Process.Start(psi);
+                if (p == null) return string.Empty;
+
+                string output = p.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
+                p.WaitForExit(2000);
+
+                if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(output)) return string.Empty;
+
+                var lines = output.Split(new[] { '\r', '\n' }, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);
+                foreach (var line in lines)
+                {
+                    var path = line.Trim();
+                    if (File.Exists(path)) return path;
+                }
+            }
+            catch
+            {
+            }
+
+            return string.Empty;
+        }
+    }
+}

FileAssociation.cs

@@ -11,10 +11,8 @@ public static void AssociateFile()
             var applicationInfo = new ApplicationInfo("LiteCut", "LiteCut", "LiteCut", Application.ExecutablePath);
             applicationInfo.SupportedExtensions.Add(".mp4");
 
-            IApplicationRegistrationService registrationService = new ApplicationRegistrationService();
-
+            var registrationService = new ApplicationRegistrationService();
             registrationService.RegisterApplication(applicationInfo);
-
-            }
+        }
     }
 }

LiteCut.cs

@@ -12,12 +12,12 @@ public LiteCut(string[] args)
             {
                 FFMpeg.GetCodecs();
             }
-            catch
+            catch (Exception e) 
             {
-                DialogResult result = MessageBox.Show("FFMpeg is not installed, or has no codecs. Do you want to try to install it now?", "error", MessageBoxButtons.YesNo);
+                DialogResult result = MessageBox.Show($"Error retrieving FFmpeg codecs: \n {e.Message} \n\n This usually happens when FFmpeg is not installed. Do you want to try to install it now?", "error", MessageBoxButtons.YesNo);
                 if (result == DialogResult.Yes)
                 {
-                    var installResult = InstallFFmpeg.installFFmpeg();
+                    var installResult = FFmpegInstaller.InstallFFmpeg();
                     if (installResult == true)
                     {
                         MessageBox.Show("Successfully installed FFMpeg!");
@@ -88,7 +88,7 @@ private async void CompressButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
             var endTime = TimeSpan.FromSeconds((double)EndTimeBox.Value);
             var mergeAudio = MergeAudioTrackCheckBox.Checked;
 
-            CompressionTask compression = new CompressionTask(fileName, fileName + "_compressed.mp4", size, startTime, endTime, mergeAudio );
+            var compression = new CompressionTask(fileName, fileName + "_compressed.mp4", size, startTime, endTime, mergeAudio );
             compression.CompressionProgress += (sender, progress) =>
             {
                 if (ProgressBar.InvokeRequired)