i hate U3 really i despise U3 but ... there is 1 feature that i like the virtual cd drive i formatted u3 off my drive and my friends ... needless to say he changed his mind so had to reinstall it i was expecting not to have the virtual cd drive and him having to manually autoplay but no it was there. so it should be possible to create an open source variation for the portable apps menu who knows maybe in the near future we'll see USB drive sporting a built in collection of software from this site.
New: Kanri (Oct 9, '24), Platform 29.5.3 (Jun 27, '24)
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unfortunately no there are no possible way as the U3 Disk partition was hardware related and mounted virtually by the u3 chip inside the U3 Flash Drive
your friendly neighbourhood moderator Zach Thibeau
and before any one jumps on him, Zach's answer may not be technically 100% correct, but it is correct enough to answer the question
Tim
Things have got to get better, they can't get worse, or can they?
ehhh... hmm it's clearly not hardware, wouldn't of been able uninstall it, but driver related surely. surely ... had a thought here ... any one got a spare usb drive?
its possible to tell windows thats not the driver for a usb and install the correct 1 so could you tell windows a generic usb drive is not a generic usb drive but a recently formmatted u3 drive e.g. sandisk cruzer and install u3 on there if it works surely an open source version could be created
I am who I intend to be.
Beg away
This has been discussed many times before. The uninstaller is designed to tell the firmware/hardware/whatever to behave differently and to tell the OS that it is now one normal flash drive. The REinstaller [as it should be called] reverses the process and causes the firmware/hardware/whatever to tell the OS that it contains 2 drives, not one. But the ability has to be built into the firmware/hardware/whatever of the drive to begin with.
Been Here, Done This, Bought the Teeshirt
Tim
Things have got to get better, they can't get worse, or can they?
i see nice explanation
so basically the only way to be able to do it would be on u3 enabled drives and altering the u3 reinstaller and possible a custom portable apps menu.
I am who I intend to be.
Correct, and someone has gone thru the starting stages of just such a thing.
His name is smithtech and he has come up with a way to install something on the "CD" portion that will launch something on the "normal" portion of the drive [like the portableapps.com menu ]
But really, autorun is turning out to be more of a hassle than it worth from a safety perspective, and is more and more being disabled anyway.
Tim
Things have got to get better, they can't get worse, or can they?
true the auto run is becoming increasingly disabled. i yeah i agree pointless it would just be nice to have that option. tell smithtech if he requires help i am more than will although i aint sure vb, or autohotkey languages will help.
autohotkey in my opinion is a programming language btw i created my own portable menu with launchy type thing with it could change wallpaper using dll calls and some other stuff even hot keys. but portable apps was better.
I am who I intend to be.
I believe he has contact information at his site:
http://usb.smithtech.us/
and for the current project, as far as i know it ...
Disclaimer
1 I do not encourage anyone to mess with the firmware of their drive, U3 or otherwise!
2 The Uninstall of the U3 LaunchPad from a U3 drive has been known to Fail!
3 The Reinstall of the U3 LaunchPad to a U3 drive has been known to Fail!
4 The Substitution of a non-U3 ISO has been known to Fail!
5 Allowing anyone to insert an auto starting flash drive into Your computer that has been hacked from it's factory defaults is foolish to say the least.
That having been said:
SmithTech AutoLauncher 4U3
http://usb.smithtech.us/projects/autolauncher4u3.php
Use At Your Own RISK!!!
Tim
Things have got to get better, they can't get worse, or can they?
maybe u3 drives have a use afterall
I am who I intend to be.
You're Welcome
And by the way, I'm perfectly happy, as are others, with my U3 drive
Tim
Things have got to get better, they can't get worse, or can they?
Vista ships with CD autorun disabled by default. So does Windows 7. Public PCs that are setup securely also have autorun disabled.
The 2.0 release of the PortableApps.com Platform has an option to install a helper app locally so you can autorun your PortableApps.com device. There's a preview in the forums already.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I don't really see that the helper app is necessary. If the autorun.inf file on the drive is set up correctly, then, while Windows won't automatically launch it, it still pops up an AutoPlay dialog that asks you if you want to run the software. One extra click; big deal. The only time it wouldn't is if it were completely disabled, and that would probably be mostly on PCs for which the user has no authorization to install software anyway.
Besides, installing stuff locally runs counter to the PortableApps philosophy, IMO.
Simple... people want it. Being able to plug a flash drive into your own PC and having your PortableApps.com Platform come right up can be handy. And installing software on your own PC is just fine. This is the same reason that Ceedo, U3, etc also ship with a helper app to do the same thing.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I dont know the correct definition of "installed", but Johns App/Starter is just a program that is started when you boot up your PC and keeps running and checking if a drive with the PortableApps.com Platform is inserted.
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate