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Drive Letter

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Matchboxx
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Drive Letter

Hello,

I'm a new first-time user of PortableApps -- using the Light Suite as of now -- and I'm curious about something.

I have used Windows Computer Management under Administrative Tools to force my Lexar 2GB flash drive to take the drive letter of H:\ -- if I take my flash drive to another PC, and it automatically mounts as say, F:\ -- does PortableApps still run normally?

Thanks
Matchboxx

someoneabc
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Yes

It should run just fine, as long as you are using .paf official apps from here. We cannot guarantee the behavior of apps from elsewhere.

solanus
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Absolutely!

First, when you use the Windows Computer Management tool to change a drive letter, you aren't changing anything on the flash drive itself. You are changing the way that particular installation of Windows identifies that particular flash drive, and those settings are stored on the local system, not on the drive.
Secondly, Portable Apps use relative file paths, not drive letters. Relative paths means that the path is relative to whatever your starting point is, and use specific syntax to go up or down in folders from that point.

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I think you'll find a lot of great apps here, beyond what's in the Light Suite.

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Matchboxx
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Thanks

Thanks for the replies guys Biggrin I've been spending most of the morning loading apps from here on to my flash drive. PortableApps looks simply great.

Thank you for all the answers!

Matchboxx

Skiffie
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GIMP Portable does not use relative paths

Secondly, Portable Apps use relative file paths, not drive letters. Relative paths means that the path is relative to whatever your starting point is, and use specific syntax to go up or down in folders from that point.

GIMP Portable does not appear to have this ability, and the issue has been raised several times in the GIMP Support forums here.

solanus
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Au contraire!

You may think so if you look in Edit>Preferences>Folders, because the paths there show a drive letter.
But the portable launcher takes care of that in the background.

Check it out yourself - with Portable GIMP closed, copy the folder to another drive.
Now, start the copy of GIMPPortable.exe, and check the paths in Preferences. You will see that the drive letters and paths now reflect the new location.

However, in the File>Open dialog, if you add your own locations to the Places on the left, you do need to type in a relative file path, because if you browse and then add, it will remember the drive letter.

EDIT: It appears that if you use GIMP as installed, you won't have issues, but some people have reported problems if they add plug-ins or try to manually alter the folder paths in Preferences, or create brushes.

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John T. Haller
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GIMP

I posted a GIMP fix here:
https://portableapps.com/node/12994#comment-115895

It had been missed as most people don't do custom paths, they just add the files to their app directory.

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

NakedYip
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how about fix the drive letter

I am sorry that I have another question about the drive letter.

In case, if I want to set fix the drive letter of my flash device, which mean even I plug my flash device to any other computer, it still show the fixed letter(for example, "Z:" )
Is it possible to do it?

wk
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yes, you need this app

https://portableapps.com/node/10826
EDIT: reading the post you´ll find some lines on how the app works.
If you plug in and start with Drive letter F: you can start the app via autorun or from the menu and it will show you a clone on the assigned Drive eg B: (which is reserved to floppies in Windows-> so you could use it as a safe letter for almost every Windows OS). Before first start you can edit the name of your clone and the desired drive letter in the ini. If the drive letter is already there, no clone will be created -> no HDD drive letters are messed up...

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solanus
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But what happens

if you plug it into a computer that already has that drive letter assigned?

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EspaÑaks (not verified)
that nor the selected local

that nor the selected local drive or the plugged drive will be shown

frozenknight
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What if?

For example I have an html page saved on the thumb drive, and I wish to make a bookmark of it in Firefox Portable.

Will the app be intelligent enough to change the reference of the file if the drive letter is changed?

I was thinking if portableapps has a System Variable it sets with the drive letter, like for example the one that Free Commander sets when it starts:


%FcSrcDrive% -> The drive letter that Free Commander was started from.

Thanks in advance Smile

--
FrozenKnight

John T. Haller
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Nope

Bookmarks are not updated (it would take a while to go through all the SQL each time). If you set it as a homepage - including a homepage group of tabs - it will be updated.

You may be able to set it as a relative path bookmark. I can't recall if those work or not. It would probably need to be relative to firefox.exe.

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

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