Why are all apps not made portable? In the sense that they save all of the files are made in their own directory and compacted to the smallest possible size.
[Topic clarified by mod Tim]
was: Portable Apps
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Mostly because multiple people using the same machine is far from rare. And because it's impossible to implement an effective copyright protection scheme in a portable app. And also because certain things need admin rights (e.g. installing a driver).
Vintage!
Yep. Exactly. There are many people who work online who don't understand this concept of multiple people using the same machine. But it's prevalent; especially in families and in areas where people have less money per capita.
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Is the reason so that you can have multiple "profiles"?
I don't have a short attention span. I just...oh look a kitty!
Using the facilities of Windows for better performance is another. The Windows Registry is in memory and thus provides instant access to options and configuration info that an app may want to use rather than searching the hard drive looking for an ini file and read it and scrolling through it line by line each time it needs the info.
Ed
Programs don't need to search for their configuration files, and loading a settings file into memory is pretty insignificant. Also the registry is only practical for storing settings; many programs (e.g. Firefox) need to store other data on disk.
Vintage!