I have found a way to use any standalone dock launcher (such as RKLauncher http://home.cogeco.ca/~rklauncher/ or y'z dock http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=2790 ) but it is tedious.
In case you dont know what a dock launcher is, It's basically a program launcher that looks like the macOS launcher. It's a clean and efficient way to launch programs, and in my eyes, is a better alternative to the portable launching apps avaliable. The problems is that although RKLauncher and y'z dock are standalone applications, they have trouble using relative paths for shortcuts, rendering them useless as a portable app.
The workaround I have found entails using batch files as shortcuts and using NirCmd (http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/nircmd.html) to supress the command prompt windows that ususally result from executing a batch file. Batch files can use relative paths. It's a time consuming process, but I have finally molded RKLauncher into a portable launcher for my purposes.
If anyone is interested in further explanation, let me know. Again, it's not a quick fix process, but it works.
I think this is a great idea. Have you tried contacting the author of RK Launcher to ask if they will modify for relative paths? The app is at v0.4b, so now would be a good time for that sort of request.
~Lurk~ Email
~Lurk~
Good idea, I just wrote the developer to make the suggestion
RK Launcher works as portable with 2 "buts"
- after any new item in launcher you need to edit itemlist.conf to remove drive letter (eg. from "C:\1\abc.exe" change to "\1\abc.exe"), works fine
- unfortunatly this works only for file path, option "work folder" does not work this way, "work folder" is usually usable while you start a program which will run another program (you can omit that by creating BAT that will be run instead of an application, BAT file is able to work by changing directories no matter what's the drive letter is)
Embrace your dreams