Topic Locked: New Version Available
Application: MiniLaunchBar (Beta)
Category: Launcher
Release notes: This is a complete rewrite of Mini Launch Bar using wxWidgets. Although it brings a lot of advantages in terms of development, it won't make a big difference right now for the end-user since the feature set hasn't really changed.
I'd appreciate if you could give it a try just to see if it works on your computer (I've only tested on my dev machine so far). Any feedback on Vista would be great too.
Description: This an application launcher for PortableApps applications. Rather than organizing the apps as a list like the Windows Start menu, they are organized in a tool bar a bit similar to the Mac OS X dock bar.
You simply need to drop the executable and data folder anywhere on your USB drive and launch it. As long as you are using the standard folder structure (apps in "PortableApps" and documents in "Documents"), it should detect everything automatically.
Feature suggestions and bug reports are also welcome.
Possible names: I'm still looking for a name for this app 
Below are the current candidates - feel free to let me know your preference(s). Also I'm still open to other suggestions.
- Launchmi
- appetizer
- appélaunch (appédock?)
- DockonUSB (or just Dockon?)
- PocketDocker (Only 1 result on google)
- FreeDock
Features:
- Add or delete a shortcut or a divider by right-clicking on any icon
- Change the properties (name and path) of an icon
- Move the bar by clicking and dragging its border
- Order the icons by clicking and dragging them
- Eject the drive by clicking on the arrow button, and then the eject button
Known bugs
- Doesn't work under Windows 2000?
- On Vista, some icons appear with a red border in the popup menu
Release Notes:
Version 0.9.2.179 Beta (2008-10-31):
- Implemented file exclusions (which prevent a file from being automatically added after it has been deleted)
- Documents, Music, Videos and Pictures folders now show up
- Fixed 16-bit icons "missing pixel" bug
- Fixed opening of folders and documents
- Fixed window disappearance when resizing
- Removed error message when PortableApps folder is missing
- Fixed white border problem on 32-bits icons
- Done help file
- Fixed errors when opening folders or documents from the dock
- Done about box
- Added "Add shortcut" button
- Updated polish localization
- Optimized PNG files to make them smaller
Version 0.9.0.3 Alpha (2008-10-30):
- Fixed browse icon
- Fixed rendering issue for icons without an alpha channel
- Fixed localization memory leak
- Use hand cursor on interactive controls
- Exit label on tray icon menu is now visible
- Fixed dependencies to C++ dlls
Version 0.8.5.278 Alpha (2008-10-29):
- Complete rewrite using wxWidgets
- Fixed localization issues where some texts weren't being translated, or controls were overlapping each others
- Added tooltips to buttons
Beta 1 (2008-09-06):
- Support for 16x16 and 32x32 icons
- Config dialog box to change the locale or icon sizes
- Finished French localization
- Improved rendering speed of the interface.
- It's now possible to select a file OR a folder when adding or modifying a shortcut
- Added Multi Launch button (the one with a thunder icon)
- Added "New shortcut" icon
- Added "Minimize" icon
Preview 2 (2008-08-31):
- NEW: The bar can now be resized
- NEW: The application location and dimensions are now saved on close
- NEW: Tooltips on icons
- UPDATE: Disabled animation of drawer for now as it's currently too slow
- UPDATE: Disabled dividers in icon panel as they don't work properly with multiple rows of icons.
Preview 1 (2008-08-30):
- First preview release
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fine for me under Vista
I really like the app!
Just wondering as a wxWidgets developer myself how you achieved the look of the launch bar, is it custom drawn wxDC or does it use wxSkins?
Thanks for the feedback! Yes the bar is custom drawn on the "paint" event. All the controls are actually a custom wxPanel which has the ability to draw its parent (to simulate transparency) + itself. I gave a try to wxSkins but it didn't work for me, and seemed too complex.
On Vista the icons on the drop down menu appear red.
cowsay Moo
cowthink 'Dude, why are you staring at me.'
What do you mean? Do they all appear as just a red square, or maybe with a red transparent overlay? If you could send a screenshot of it that would be very useful.
http://img516.imageshack.us/my.php?image=minilaunchgb4.png
cowsay Moo
cowthink 'Dude, why are you staring at me.'
I don't know who cam up with that but I love it.
a few things: settings aren´t read at restart -> if you delete an exe by rightclicking the icon it reappears with restart, default folders don´t show up
trayclose doesn´t show the label but works, confirmation for adding a folder isn´t translated yet.
Very nice , btw "launchmi" should make it
Seems to work only on admin account XP SP3
"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis .." Friday Next -
"May The Schwartz be with You!" Yogurt the Yoda
Thanks I'll have a look at these bugs. I'm a bit suprised about the admin account problem since the app shouldn't put anything outside of its "Data" folder. Are you getting any error message?
enough, app doesn´t put any data outside the data/settings folder -> I ment the PortableApps default folders Documents/music/videos/pictures don´t show up/ aren´t recognized by the app..
and as written below, now start up on restricted (domain user) account but an error message
"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis .." Friday Next -
"May The Schwartz be with You!" Yogurt the Yoda
I hope that was a joke. If it was, it was funny.
If not, I fear for your sanity...
"The application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect. Please see the application event log for more detail."
Operating system is Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 (32-bit), with UAC on.
winXP SP3, limited account.
"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis .." Friday Next -
"May The Schwartz be with You!" Yogurt the Yoda
Thanks, as it's apparently working for developers, I think I need to include some additional libraries. Will have a look into that.
Don't make the bar automatically look for apps in x:\Portable Apps\ not everyone will want to use this in a portable setting, and not everyone uses the PortableApps.com directory structure.
Bugs:
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
Well I'd like to support the PortableApps.com format one way or the other, so I think it will always look for the Portableapps folder. However, I could indeed provide some alternative for people who don't use this format. Maybe an option to set where the app folder is, or to automatically add all the app from a given folder?
Ok for the tray icon bug, that will be fixed in the next release.
The disappearance of the window is more worrying. It did happen once to me but I can't figure out how to replicate it anymore. Does it happen consistently for you?
All PAF apps can be installed anywhere and used out-of-the-box without the Platform being installed. It's going to confuse people if this doesn't work the same way.
With no icons in the bar, attempting a vertical resize causes the window to disappear, if only 1 icon is included, vertical resize can't be done at all, if multiple icons are added, vertical resize only works to the height of included icons. This height changes depeding on width. I think the idea of allowing the user to rotate the bar to be vertical or horizontal will produce a better looking result in the long run
There is nothing wrong with supporting the PortableApps.com format, but as not everyone will want to use this app only for the PortableApps.com format, don't force it to search. Make it something disabled by default, but optional to enable. Forcing the user to autoscan some/any directory for apps is a bad idea IMHO. The user may not want all apps from a directory, it would be easier for the user to add a few on their own than for the apps to be auto-added, and the user forced to remove the ones they don't want.
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
Thanks, I see what you mean now - the maximum size of the dock was wrongly set to (0,0) when it was empty, which mean that you were ending up with a 0x0 pixels dock
It will be fixed in the next release. Yes it would be nice to be able to rotate the bar, however it's quite difficult to implement, which is why I haven't done it yet. I will think about it once the app is stable enough.
Regarding the support for portableapps.com, I think that part of the issue is that the app was showing an error message if the PortableApps folder was missing. It shouldn't have done that. Normally, it silently checks if the folder is there. If it is, it looks for the applications, otherwise, it just stops. Ditto for the special folders (Documents, Music, etc.). It's not doing that in this release but it will in the next one, so you'll be able to use any app folder without getting an error message.
I do agree that forcing the user to use some specific folder structure is bad, however I want to provide some reasonable defaults so that in some (or most?) cases, the dock is ready to use straightaway, without having to add any icon to it manually.
Instead of automatically adding all PAF apps, it can ask on the first launch if you want the application to check for PAF apps. Everyones happy
First of all that is a good idea but you posted in the wrong forum buddy
new topic is located here Mini Launch bar is now called Apettizer https://portableapps.com/node/16530
your friendly neighbourhood moderator Zach Thibeau
I liked the earlier release and look forward to using this release however I don't use the [PortableApps.com] either.
Thanks, Bill
ok I didn't get any of the bugs the other users got, But on thing I did notice was an error message on first launch about enumerating files in C:/PortableApps when run on a hard drive
Vista Home Premium SP1 without UAC on is where I tested it on
your friendly neighbourhood moderator Zach Thibeau
I haven't heard about this error before. Could you give it another try and let me know the exact error message? If you delete the content of Data/Settings you might be able to reproduce the error.
Actually I did and I already posted the error message, Mind you this was done in the main hard drive of my laptop so thats probably how the error came to be. After the error message however it launches normally
your friendly neighbourhood moderator Zach Thibeau
no matter what I do I keep getting a "this application has failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect. reinstalling this application may fix this problem."
Can you help me?
same error here....
i´m using a winXP SP2 unlimitited account machine
on the second one, win2k limited account, i get a message that it cant find the p MSVCP90.dll in path X:/MiniLaunchBar 0.8.5.278 Alpha;.;C:WINNT/system32;C:WINNT...............
regards
NeoRame
Hell was full, so I came back!!!
Sorry for my lousy English!!!
Thanks, I'm going to include this MSVCP90.dll file in the next build, and we'll see if it fixes all these errors.
Are you using MSVC to build Mini Launchbar? I would suggest using wxDev-C++ as the compiled results will never require any dependencies (unless you code with sdl)
If I could get a copy of the code I could try and compile in wxDev-C++
your friendly neighbourhood moderator Zach Thibeau
I'm using VC++ Express Edition to build the project. Actually I've changed the settings so that it includes all the dependencies into the exe, and now it seems to be working fine.
If you are interested, you can get the most up-to-date version of the source code directly from the repository on Google Code. I've also uploaded it as a zip file on the download section.
it dont work on win2k i have insert the msvcp90.dll at myself and i get the same error
Hell was full, so I came back!!!
Sorry for my lousy English!!!
I haven't tested with win2k at all. What does the error message say?
i can confirm that error on windows XP SP2 and SP3 with both limited.
But there’s no sense crying over every mistake,
You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.
Also can't start the app with the error mentioned above.
WinXP SP2 admin account
Cancer Survivors -- Remember the fight, celebrate the victory!
Help control the rugrat population -- have yourself spayed or neutered!
Hi
Here I have a polish update for the Alpha version
In my file there i a string: IconPanel.NewShorcut.OpenDialog
leave it or delete it?
Download:
http://drop.io/Mini_Launch_Bar_PL
Hi, thanks I've updated the polish localization. No need for "IconPanel.NewShorcut.OpenDialog" anymore - I guess it's been replaced by "EditFolderItemForm.Title"
I have found a little bug in my last file
I corrected it and put it on this page.
Please have a look
http://drop.io/Mini_Launch_Bar
How about 'PortableDock' for the name.
Well I prefer not to use "Portable" in the name as the application will also be available in non-portable format, and of course it can't just be called "Dock". So there will be two releases: one called "Somename" and the other called "Portable Somename"
Just a quick release to fix a few bugs in particular the C++ DLL dependency issue. If you couldn't start the app at all, please give it another try and let me know if it works.
works now on domain user account win XP SP3, no start up error
all icons show up, but the ones with transparent background now show an ugly white background
other bugs you´ve already mentioned in your posting update
"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis .." Friday Next -
"May The Schwartz be with You!" Yogurt the Yoda
Great, good to hear that it's now working on user account.
Regarding the white background on icons, could you give me the names of the applications that show this issue? I've tried with CoolPlayer+, FileZilla, Toucan among others and none of them show the issue.
Maybe it's a video driver issue - which one are you using?
but all show a small white margin though, try "openoffice 3.0" or "ico fx" or "speed crunch portable" then you can see what I mean, maybe.
I´ll test it on my home PC later.
"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis .." Friday Next -
"May The Schwartz be with You!" Yogurt the Yoda
had some difficulties to access registry, but I think I got most of the drivers for video:
jalmrnt5,DamewareDisp,vga,vga256,vga64k,framebuf,rdpdd,mnmdd. Hope it helps..
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"May The Schwartz be with You!" Yogurt the Yoda
Indeed, now I can clearly see the problem with IcoFX. I'm going to look into that.
the same as mentioned with domain user.
"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis .." Friday Next -
"May The Schwartz be with You!" Yogurt the Yoda
Wow! I really like this!
Just wondering if "Always on top" would be possible?
--Skate6566
Yes that shouldn't be hard to add. It won't be there in version 1.0, but maybe on the version after that.
use the name "appetizer"
its funny
I downloaded the new alpha and now the bar is working. Thanks for the quick reply to my question.
Okay version 0.9.2.179 Beta is now available. Please see the release notes for the last changes.
I think that's nearly the last beta before the public release. I just need a proper icon and logo and a new name.
resizing bug is fixed
no more error message for missing PortableApps directory either
One question though:
I thought you had switched over to wxWidgets/C++. if so, why is the DelphiTools.dll still included?
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
Well DelphiTools.dll includes some legacy code from the Delphi version that I couldn't convert to C++. In particular, a function to get the "file description" of an executable. I found that it was incredibly complex to do in C++ (at least for me) without the MFC. However I'm still hoping to remove this DLL at some point, since it's really an ugly workaround, and do it properly in C++.
Thanks for the clarification, and good luck with porting it to C++
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
It still has the issue with the red icons on the menu. I posted the screenshot above.
cowsay Moo
cowthink 'Dude, why are you staring at me.'
Thanks for the screenshot, but unfortunately I don't have Vista so I don't know if I'll be able to fix this bug. Do you know something about wxWidgets / C++ by any chance? If you (or somebody else) could help fixing that bug, I could provide some minimalistic code to reproduce the issue.
both me and John (above) work in C++/wxWidgets, post away!
Here you go! Vista Icon test
Right-click on the window to popup the menu. The only two functions you may need to look at are MyFrame::OnRightUp and IconGetter::GetExecutableIcon
Thanks and let me know how it goes!
It doesn't include main.cpp. Any chance that you could give me that?
cowsay Moo
cowthink 'Dude, why are you staring at me.'
Sorry I don't know how this file went missing. I've reuploaded the file: http://code.google.com/p/minilaunchbar/downloads/detail?name=VistaIconTe...
I was able to find that it has to do with converting from wxIcon to wxBitmap. It doesn't seem to have to do with the loading. I haven't been able to find a perfect solution yet.
cowsay Moo
cowthink 'Dude, why are you staring at me.'
it looks fine on my copy of Vista I am afraid
Must be your PC John 
How about if we copy the icon into a wxImage pixel by pixel, and then create a new bitmap from that image? Although that's a bit heavy, it's a sure way to preserve the alpha channel. I did that to fix an icon rendering issue on XP (16-bits icons were showing as all white). I'm going to give it a try here and upload that.
Edit: Ok it doesn't work. It would only work with 16-bits icons, while the one creating problems here are 32-bits.
Seems to work - a small bug:
after correcting the locale the de langfile doesn´t show up in the config any more
"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis .." Friday Next -
"May The Schwartz be with You!" Yogurt the Yoda
also the corrected polish translation doesn't show up in the config
strange...
Yes that's because the text files have to be saved as UTF-8 without BOM (in NotePad++: Format > Convert to UTF-8 no BOM). In the next version, it will work with all UTF8 files, whether there is a BOM or not.
that fixed it. A last thing for now:
"eject" button only closes minilaunchbar and shows the windows dialogue for ejecting the drive, but it doesn´t close other apps like the PortableApps Platform and others on the drive.. I know the alpha versions did
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"May The Schwartz be with You!" Yogurt the Yoda
Actually the alpha version didn't do that. I think I mentioned this feature once as I indeed like to implement it, but it's not done yet.
so it was the old Beta and I mixed it up with the new alpha.
"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis .." Friday Next -
"May The Schwartz be with You!" Yogurt the Yoda
Feature Suggestion: Drag n Drop icons/exes into dock area to add them
Also, if you have any general ideas for an icon/logo and the app name, let me know and I'll try to come up with an icon for you
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
Yes that are a number of things that I'd like to improve about the drag&drop:
- Drag and drop of files onto the dock
- Drag and drop of documents on icons (eg dropping a .txt file on the NotePad++ icon)
Regarding the name, I think I'm going to go for "AppetizerDock". I'm trying to put together an icon right now. It shows the old orange background with a "stylized" toothpick and an olive, but it's not looking good
So if you want to give it a try yourself, then please do.
Edit: here is what I came up with: Icon 48x48 I'm definitely not going to use it, but maybe be it can be used as a base for a better icon.
That name is really awkward. What's wrong with just "Appetizer?"
That's mainly because there are already millions of hits on Google for that word, while I'd prefer a more unique name. Maybe by slighlty changing it, that would work - appetizr, apptizer... ?
View Icon Test 3 (48x48)
or, more simple:
View Icon Test 4 (48x48)
Any opinions?
I have one in the works.....not quite ready yet.
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
I think I'm going to go for the olive icon for the next release. If you come up with something else, let me know.
I like the olive one...
Win XP SP3 limited account, Blackbox shell (bbClean). Crashes every time I'm clicking on >>.
Could be a conflict with bb's own skinning engine bbLeanSkin, but even adding minilaunchbar.exe to the exlusions list and restarting the shell didn't improve the situation.
Also, i takes a bit long to populate the dock with icons.
And with most programs started from your dock, even the Portable Apps Documents folders, your program is doing the opposite of "Always on Top" - it'll stay behind other programs and clicking on it just produces a sound. I can't start a second program, I have to close the first one before I can launch another.
The only programs this didn't happen with were the Sudoku game, Kompozer, DosBoxPortable, CommandPromptPortable, Xenon.
As for the name, I don't really like any of the ones you suggested. MiniLaunchBar actually sounds best.
Thanks for the feedback. I don't know what's causing the bbClean crash since I don't use this shell, but it may have something to do with the displaying of icons in the popup menu. If you want, I can send you a version which doesn't show any icons - that way we could at least know where the bug's coming from. Just let me know.
Also, i takes a bit long to populate the dock with icons.
Yes I've noticed that when launching the dock from a USB drive. I'll try to optimize that at some point.
it'll stay behind other programs and clicking on it just produces a sound.
Thanks, there was indeed a bug in the launching code - it will be fixed in the next release.
As for the "Always on top" feature, it's been requested a few time and I'm going to add it after version 1.0 is out.
Edit: Ok I went ahead and uploaded a test release, which doesn't show any icon in the popup menu. That would be great if you could give it a try.
Hi
on this page you will always find the current (polish) languages:
http://drop.io/Mini_Launch_Bar
Hi, thanks for the quick updates. I'm going to do another pre-release soon, which will have a few new strings. After that it won't change that much (at least not until the next major version).
Ok, that test version does indeed not crash, thank you
In my testing I found out, however, that under other flavours of Blackbox 4 Windows - bbLeanMod and bbWin_Mod - the version with icons works ok. So the problem seems to be with bbClean, and not your program.
seems since BETA 1 you changed something,
because now i'm not able to start some Apps
like PuTTY because you modify the Path and
in .../MiniLaunchbar Putty didnt find the needed files.
Same for OperaUSB.
That's indeed one of the bugs in the current beta release. It will (I hope) be fixed in the next pre-release.