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Home » Forums » Development Forums » Portable App Development

Launcher Generator Use?

miksmith - October 7, 2011 - 6:34am

Hi

I installed Launcher Generator (and NSIS) and then pointed it at the directory of an app I wanted to portabilize. I then get the following error:

ERROR: C:\Program Files\Genbox Family History\App\AppInfo\appinfo.ini doesn't exist!

Am I doing something wrong in its use at all?

thanks

mike

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you sir, forgot to read the

Zach Thibeau's picture
Zach Thibeau
DeveloperModerator
(Homepage) - October 7, 2011 - 7:19am

you sir, forgot to read the documentation, the appinfo.ini is a file that helps identify the program to the platform, it holds the program name, version etc, all the apps hosted here make use of an appinfo.ini file.

your friendly neighbourhood moderator Zach Thibeau

PortableApps.com Format

John T. Haller's picture
John T. Haller
AdministratorDeveloperModerator
(Homepage) - October 7, 2011 - 9:47am

Hey Mike. Check out the information on PortableApps.com Format before using the installer and launcher generator. The launcher uses the AppNamePortable.ini for its configuration but it uses the appinfo.ini for the actual name and description, so it needs both.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

need help

dragonogard - October 9, 2011 - 5:33pm

can anyone point me to a step by step, how-to make a program portable using portableapps. i downloaded the portableapps programs but cant figure how to make a portable app. thx

There isn't one.

winterblood's picture
winterblood
Developer
(Homepage) - October 9, 2011 - 7:53pm

Every app is different, and every app has different requirements to make it portable.

You have to determine whether the app uses Java or not, whether it utilizes the registry, whether it needs certain files or folders in certain locations.

If you are really interested in developing portable apps (as opposed to just wanting to click a button and have it all magically done for you, which isn't going to happen) you need to check out the following:

  • The PortableApps Format spec. This will tell you the file and folder structure you need.
  • RegShot Portable. This will show you what registry entries are created/modified/deleted by the app. I won't detail how to use it, or what registry entries you can ignore, that is documented numerous times elsewhere in these forums.
  • The PortableApps Launcher documentation. This will tell you how to write the launcher.ini which controls things such as what happens when an app is started (or exited), which is when the majority of the portability is created.

And that is just for starters. If you are really interested in it, I'm sure you can find out where to go from there, instead of me writing an essay on it.

It's not a bug, its a feature.

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