Hello,
How can I format and/or install my applications on my PC on to PortableApps on my USB stick?
Thanks.
New: Kanri (Oct 9, '24), Platform 29.5.3 (Jun 27, '24)
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Your too vague in your question.
The menu will only read the executables in the folders of the apps in your portableapps directory. Then it creates shortcuts in the menu.
And if you mean you want to put programs from your PC like Microsoft Word, well you would have to make those apps portable and then put them on your USB drive. You could find the program files folder on your PC and copy those if you want to though but if you simply copy those files into your flash drive, it might not be portable. The menu will read the .exes and put it there too. (great isn't it)
I hope I answered your question.
Thanks for your replay Pyromaniac.
Ok, let me explain. Say I have a program on my PC that I use for some charting and complex calculations. How do I put this program on my USB stick that's got portableapps so that I can take the USB to any other computer and I would be able to run the program on the computer from my USB stick?
Many thanks.
A good first place to start is here:
https://portableapps.com/about/what_is_a_portable_app
Look especially at the guidelines.
One of the reasons that regular apps generally AREN'T portable is that they interact with files and folders in the operating system and in the personal folders of the current user, and on entries in the registry.
So, even if you were to copy the whole program folder of an app onto your removable drive, it's still going to be trying to use files and folders that may not be available on another computer; it may start writing files to the other computer, which could cause problems; and you may lose files if you accidentally store them in the wrong place.
Here at PortableApps.com, all of these issues are addressed by analysing the software, and creating a launcher that redirects the program so that everything is self-contained. It's usually more complicated than you'd think, but not really rocket science.
So next, look at these pages:
https://portableapps.com/development
https://portableapps.com/node/14868
Finally, please bear in mind that this site generally only supports the use of Free and Open Source apps at the current time, so those apps will likely get the most help.
Good luck!
I made this half-pony, half-monkey monster to please you.
IF the app can be run portably , this is how you would get it to show up in PAP/Menu:
https://portableapps.com/support/portable_apps_suite#addingotherapps
The IF is the important part.
Putting it on your stick, and putting it in the menu, even following these instructions will not make it the app portable if it is not already portable/self-contained
But if it IS already portable/standalone, the instructions at the above link should give you what you need.
I bring this up because this is often all people need.
Good Luck,
And Welcome to PortableApps.com
Tim
Things have got to get better, they can't get worse, or can they?
Many thanks everybody for your assistance.
There's documentation on this WWW site, though the process is a bit of a mess compared to something like U3 - if your application is already portable, just ZIP up the files, create a config file (there's even a tool to do this for you), and bingo!
Unfortunatly, things are a comparitivly a lot more complex with portableapps.com software - which is why there's a constant trickle of posts from people begging "please can someone create a portableapps.com version of XYZ!", even with applications that are already portable (i.e. store settings to config files instead of registry, etc)
You may need to write a launcher to start off your program - (this bit is badly documented; IIRC, it's not possible to launch an application in it's "App" directory with command line parameters?). You might want to use the "installer creator" as well, which wraps things up in an NSIS installer so other people can use the repackaged version you create!
You've picked the right WWW site to to ask questions though!
yeah, but the software is better.
And you don't have to write the launcher in NSIS, if you know C++ that's good too.
By the way, if you've read any thing that's been posted on the subject you'd know that you can pass config parameters to the app.
2 of my apps in the forums do it, and one is official released and it uses that methodology.
The constatn trickle is form people who don't have time, don't know, etc.
By the way, we usually help the people that ask for help creating a portable app. If they ask a specific enough question.
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