PortableApps.com is proud to announce the PortableApps.com Platform Version 10.2 (codename: Leo) stable release. This release adds incremental update support for apps (so the LibreOffice Portable update is 9MB instead of 140MB), new support for Armenian, updated translations, GUI enhancements and multiple bug fixes. Like previous releases, it also has automated and customizable folders (aka categories) in the menu, a full theming engine with multiple chrome styles, the Portable App Directory app store for automatic download and installation of portable apps, find-as-you-type search (just type / or F3) to easily find apps in your ever-growing collection, an improved updater, more-complete translations into more languages and lots more. The first 11.0 beta is just a couple days away as well (UPDATE: Releasing Thursday late morning or afternoon). If you'd like to see more features and functionality keep coming, please donate to PortableApps.com to help. The new platform releases is available for immediate download as well as for purchase bundled on the World's Best Flash Drive: The PortableApps.com Companion, which is now on sale for as little as $29.95. Read on for all the details...(permalink)
Existing users can automatically update by clicking Manage Apps - Check for Updates
New in 10.2
This release adds partial update support for apps, meaning that when we make a small patch to a large app like LibreOffice Portable, you can save bandwidth and install time with the PortableApps.com Updater by downloading a patch of just the changed files. Context menu icons have been cleaned up and additional icons added to the system tray and app right-click menus. The Options window now shows longer translations properly. Updaters from multiple platforms can now run simultaneously. Armenian has been added as a supported language. Updated translations for Polish, Hungarian, Italian and Slovenian are included. Several bugs related to free size calculation and updating, Wine use and shutdown were also made. Read the PortableApps.com Platform Changelog for the full list of features and fixes.
11.0 Beta 1 build progress
The first 11.0 beta build is nearly complete and will feature full keyboard navigation, screen reader compatibility and new functionality and bug fixes. It should be released by tomorrow Wednesday evening and then new beta builds every day or two as we quickly progress to a stable release. Turn on the beta channel in the PortableApps.com Platform Advanced Options window or watch our RSS feed, Twitter, Facebook or Google+ accounts to be notified. And please donate to PortableApps.com or sponsor the PortableApps.com Platform to help us keep bringing you more great software for free!
Portable Apps - All Your Favorite Apps, Everywhere
PortableApps.com lets you carry all your favorite apps on a portable device or cloud drive and use them on any PC. Now you can have your own browser with all your bookmarks and extensions, your full office suite, your photo editor, your whole music collecion, your favorite games, your development tools and more. You can have everything you need for work and play with you on every PC you use. At work, at home, at school, visiting family and friends, even while traveling. And all your bookmarks, emails, personal files and settings stay right on your drive, too. Now, every PC becomes your PC.
Portable App Directory™ - Built-In App Store
The PortableApps.com Platform has an app store built right in, so you can find and install the apps you want with just a few clicks. You can find your favorite web browser, popular games, handy utilities, educational tools, image editors, chat programs and more. There are hundreds of free apps available with new apps added every week. With no download limit, you can download one app or one hundred. Best of all, you don't even need to give up your email address to get them.
Organize With Folders, Favorites, Type-To-Find Search and More
You can organize your growing app collection using the customizable menu so you can find the apps you need with ease. You can organize apps into folders automatically or create your own that work the way you think. Pick apps as favorites and they'll always be right at the top for instant access. You can even have the menu learn which apps you use most and keep them front and center. And when you need to find an app quickly, just hit / or F3 and then start typing, and you'll find what you're looking for. When you've found your app, just hit enter and the first app will start right up.
PortableApps.com Updater - Your Apps Are Up To Date
With PortableApps.com, you don't need to worry about making sure your software is up to date. When a new security fix for your browser is released or a new feature in your favorite game is available, the PortableApps.com Updater will automatically let you know. Just click a button and the updates are downloaded and installed without messing up your settings and saved files. And if you're in a hurry or using a computer on a slow connection, you can wait until later to update with just a click.
Themes, Colors and Your Personal Menu
Whether you want your menu to look modern or retro, light or dark, glassy or simple, the PortableApps.com Platform has an option for you. With a dozen bundled themes each with a rainbow of color selections, you could pick a different look every day for months and never have the same menu twice. And you can make the menu your own by adding your own personal picture to the upper right-hand corner.
Portable Fonts
The PortableApps.com Platform supports the ability to carry fonts on your portable device and use them with your portable software without needing to install them on the local machine. Now when you're working on that important presentation for work or that poster for your charity drive, you can be as creative as you like with the look and still have it look and print the same on every computer you use. TrueType (TTF), OpenType (OTF), TrueType Collections (TTC) and other font formats are all supported.
Advanced Features
Whether you want to only see open source software, hide the word "Portable" in your app names, hide splash screens, automatically start apps when you start the menu, tweak the look and functionality of the menu or start checking out beta versions of our software, the PortableApps.com Platform has the power - and the options - to work the way you want it to. And if there's something we haven't added yet that you'd like to see, just ask in the forums. We add new features every month!
Please Sponsor the PortableApps.com Platform! Be Part Of The Action!
PortableApps.com needs your help to keep bringing you great software! Now you can sponsor the PortableApps.com Platform and help us keep delivering awesome software for free. With options ranging from having your name included to a full-blown site-wide sponsorship, there's a good fit for everyone. Sponsor us today and be a part of the action!
We also accept donations of any size to help with development and hosting:
- Please help support PortableApps.com's development and hosting
World's Best Flash Drive: The PortableApps.com Companion
If you'd like a speedy new flash drive to use with the new platform, we have the World's Best Flash Drive: The PortableApps.com Companion available. This durable USB 3.0 drive comes laser-etched with your name, URL or other text and is a great way to carry your software with you. It's backed by a lifetime warranty, comes in 8GB, 16GB and 32GB sizes, and starts at under $30. Best of all, sales help support the PortableApps.com project and our mission to change the world of software!
Discussing The Release, Enhancements and Bug Reports
As there is much to discuss with this new release, we've separated out a few forum threads for discussing:
- Platform bug reports
- Default app organization settings and "smart" list sorting
- Language updates and changes
- Portable Apps that have outdated installers and need an update to better work with the new app store
Download Today
You can download the new version of the PortableApps.com Platform from the download page. Get it today!
Please note that any bug reports and feature requests go in the PortableApps.com Platform Bug Report and Feature Request Tracker.
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Comments
AWESOME!
It's like Christmas! Thanks so much!
I LOVE YOU GUYS! Keep up the amazing work!
Congrats!
-PSkilton
Explanation of Incremental Update Support
For folks wondering what incremental update support is. LibreOffice Portable 3.6.1.1 is the first app released using it. In addition to the full app installers, LibreOffice Portable 3.6.1.1 includes an 'update installer' for users with 3.6.1 installed. Instead of 140-160MB, it's only 9MB and just includes the updated launcher and the portable fonts (for anyone who may have removed them to fix 3.6.1's long path support bug). This update installer is automatically selected and delivered by the PortableApps.com Platform's built-in automatic updater. It saves you bandwidth (over 130MB), download time and install time (since it only updates the necessary files and doesn't need to reinstall everything else).
Folks not using the platform can manually download and install the update installer, but note that no checks are built into the installer to ensure it upgrades a 3.6.1 install (and not an earlier one), so be careful. All that logic is part of the PortableApps.com Updater. So, advanced non-platform users can download and install that over their current install after they verify that they are using LO Portable 3.6.1.0.
Thanks for the update...
Excellent work love the icons and incremental updater, great idea! Will this make it to all apps or just the larger ones? Why would anyone not use the Platform for auto-updates?! Madness, utter madness! It makes it so much easier to keep so many apps up to date I've quickly forgotten the hassle I used to have keeping track of it all.
Specific Situations
We'll likely only be using it for specific situations. It's not a full-on differential updater (aka diff-ing binaries and patching them) as that would be prohibitive development and packaging wise at the moment and likely very hard on flash drives write-wise. So, it's basically incremental updates. As most apps update all their files for each new version, it won't help much there. Where it does help is situations like the LibreOffice Portable revision I went over above since we just needed to patch the launcher and bundle the font files (since the previous workaround was to delete them). This means a 9MB download instead of a 140MB one and a 30 second install instead of a 15 minute one for some flash drives. We're doing a Sauerbraten Portable update that will be a 440MB download for the full version and a 1MB download for the incremental update in the next week. It's designed for situations like this.
As a bonus, we'll be bringing it to platform updates in 11.0 as well so as we release each 11.0 Beta, you'll have a smaller download and upgrade time as we won't have to include the unchanged graphics, app icons, etc. It will make for much snappier upgrade installs as well as we'll be only including new/changed graphics which, although very small in size, represent a few hundred individual file writes which can take an extra 20 seconds on a flash drive. So, it'll save time there, too. The smaller download size and install time will mean we can push out more updates to users faster since we don't need to be as concerned about each one being so big and taking so much time to install.
Overall, it saves people time. It'll take us an extra 15 to 30 minutes to package each release and test it, but it'll save end users 15 seconds to 15 minutes each depending on the app. Multiple that by millions of users and you're looking at the equivalent of 10,000 years of people's time we just saved!
I can't figure out why anybody would want to manually update files anymore either. Glad you like our work
I manually update sometimes
as I have ~4 PA.com installs and I see no reason to download bigger apps 4 times.
The right-click-icons are handy and make it wasier to find the desired entry! Thanks John. Looks like I should donate something and finally get myself a new drive...
Wasier
Way + easier = wasier. I like it
hehe
Actually everyonr can see on their keyboard that the w and the e are next to each other. But having creativity being used as an excuse to ones fast-typing-errors is nice nontheless.
11.0 Beta 1 on Thursday
The 11.0 Beta 1 release will be Thursday morning instead of Tuesday night due to some internet connectivity issues that we hope will be resolved by then. The PeaZip 4.7 release and the CrystalDiskInfo and Checksum Control Revisions will be moved to Wednesday (UPDATE: They've been released.) We've been without internet connectivity for 6 hours now (thank you, Time Warner + the thunderstorm here in NYC). No site activities or downloads are affected.
UPDATE 2: 11.0 Beta 1 is prepped for release and will be posted late Thursday morning, allowing for us developer folks to keep an eye on anything that may need quick fixing rather than releasing and going to bed
The new icons in the context
The new icons in the context menus are very pweeeetty
New Code
Yeah, I finally got them to show properly using alpha PNGs across all systems instead of magic color BMPs. That was the only thing holding us back from using them more extensively before.
Problems and more problems
Sept 18th: cannot download further than 30%
Sept 19th: NSIS Error: error launching installer
Good, good...
No Changes
There are no changes to the download component at all in this released. If there are issues with your ISP resetting your connection, downloads will fail (as they currently don't support a resume function as most browsers do). If you get an NSIS error, that means your download didn't complete, again an ISP issue. Our current products don't support intermittent internet connections well. If you'd like us to help you troubleshoot, please create a new ticket in the PA.c Platform support forum with the complete details (error message, what you tried to download, etc).
11.0 Beta 1 Prepped
The 11.0 Beta 1 release is prepped for release! We'll be posting it late tomorrow morning/early afternoon (Thursday) rather than tonight to ensure that we developer folk are around to address any issues that may arise rather than releasing it and going to bed. We figure it's better for users support-wise and better for us sleep-wise so we're not worrying if everything is ok while counting sheep. And, with the platform now supporting incremental updates beginning with the 11.0 Beta 1 release, we can quickly push out small patches if any major issues arise, which is a big plus. Keyboard navigation and screen reader compatibility within the menu is complete and working as well, including with find-as-you-type search, and we know quite a few folks looking forward to that. Keep an eye on the RSS feed, Twitter or Facebook to get word as soon as it's posted.
Nice
I especially like the incremental update feature...
Time for a revision of Sauerbraten in the near future? /27912
Just to prevent some user ranting again (but maybe he quit already).
Exactly
That's one of the next things I'll be pushing the revision out on. It's just been waiting for this. 1MB update instead of 400MB
Hi
Is your launcher (portableapps.com) is an open source?
If it is, which type of license?
And where i can download the source code?
Thanks,
Tal.
Yes
Yes, it is open source. Go to the following page, details are at the very bottom
https://portableapps.com/download