For the people that are using Pstart, how do you set it up so it can eject/ safely remove the USB pen.
I have tried using autostart software but am having trouble combing the two?
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I have a shortcut to the safely remove dialogue. Pstart runs it on exit. The target is:
%windir%\System32\RUNDLL32.EXE shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll
I wouldn't try ejecting from AutoStart with Pstart running (Pstart seems to need to write something to the drive on close), but the other way around works just fine.
thanks for that, but how do actuly makes this run,
complete novice at writing code etc
Graham Yates
Read this first, try it out, and see if it works for you. If not let me know, I can send you what I have, based on this, but with minor modifications.
https://portableapps.com/node/639#comment-2238
Copy from "start autorun.vbs" to "end of autorun.vbs", paste on notebook and save as Autorun.vbs
Create Autorun.ini file, explained there also.
"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on." -- Robert Frost
"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: baby ain't mine." -- Adam Holguin
The words "writing code" are practically code to me. This one will be easy.
To create the shortcut, right-click, new, new shortcut, then put in:
%windir%\System32\RUNDLL32.EXE shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll
as the target. I would recomend naming the shortcut something like "Safely Remove Flash Drive".
Add the shortcut to Pstart's list. Then, in the Pstart panel, right-click on "Safely Remove Flash Drive", properties, advanced. In the dropdown menu under autorun, select "on exit". Click OK. And you're done. Now, every time you exit Pstart, the safely remove device dialogue will open.
I used that in my (failed) launcher START.
Try Libertà AutoStart. It has an option to remove with 2 clicks.
----
R McCue
PortaBlog Home and My Website
And before anyone complains about the grammar, I'm so jetlagged that my
hands aren't even in the same time zone...
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
Just started using it this morning, actually. I'm a big fan. For now, I'm using both AutoStart and Pstart (which is a little annoying, since I have to remember to close Pstart first, then eject the drive), but I may drop Pstart altogether soon.
Unfortunately, AutoStart still has the other problem I had with Pstart, though I doubt there's anything you can do about it. I've got a flash drive with a fingerprint reader for security. It mounts a virtual CD-ROM drive for the security software, then mounts the real drive when you pass security. The only problem is, the real drive has no autorun of any sort. It just refuses to work for some reason. Every time I need to find the drive in the explorer and start whatever menu I'm using manually.
believe that is being looked into for the next Autostart release.
Yours
Steve Lamerton
It's exactly what Renè was talking about.
Don't you listen
----
R McCue
PortaBlog Home and My Website
And before anyone complains about the grammar, I'm so jetlagged that my
hands aren't even in the same time zone...
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
The reason AutoStart cannot eject in your situation is because PStart is still running from the flash drive.
Here is what you need to do to get PStart + AutoStart working together.
Note we are going to be splitting responsiblities here.
a. AutoStart will provide the tray icon and launch PStart.
b. PStart will perform the application launching.
First install AutoStart to your flash drive I assume it is in folder \AutoStart
Then put PStart on your flash drive I assume it is in folder \PStart
Now run PStart and goto Setup>Setting>Items>On Execution
Change the value to 'run and exit application'
Now your autorun.inf file should be changed to look something like this:
Finished,
Now left click the drive icon in the notification area and PStart should launch.
PS.
You are using less memory this way too !
PStart takes 12MB of memory
AutoStart is satisfied with just 4MB
Because PStart shutsdown after each program launch you are actually saving 8MB of memory space.
PPS.
There is one weird thing with PStart. When you hit the close button (top right X) PStart will not actually terminate, but will continue to run. It will only close when you launch an application. To fix this, in PStart go to Setup>Settings>General>Panel>When closed
Change this from 'minimize to tray' to 'exit application'
Thanks,
that is the perfect simple solution i have been looking for
Graham Yates
You can run programs directly from AutoStart. What advantage do you get from turning a 2-click process into a 3-click process?
I just prefer the pstart interface, just a personal thing
Graham Yates
untill the Launchpad extension comes out
Yours
Steve Lamerton
Still a 2 click process. By including the 'shell=pstart' line you are setting up PStart to launch when you left click the icon. So that would be click one. Then you click the app in PStart to launch.
There will always be people that will actually prefer PStart to the Launchpad extension we are creating for AutoStart. I don't want to deny them the functionality AutoStart core has to offer.
I've focused core AutoStart functionality on being THE best tray icon for USB Flash Drives and USB Hard Drives (version that supports usb hard drive is not released yet, but I actually have that working now). This results in a tiny program that does one thing very wel with a minimal runtime memory footprint. All other functionality will be in the form of extensions. Extensions will mostly be transient like a launchpad which means they'll only run during a short period in time.
I forgot you can have the PStart panel open on start. I thought we were talking click AutoStart, click PStart, click the application. This makes much more sense to me all of a sudden.
Is the skin still HTML or can we switch to XML?
----
R McCue
PortaBlog Home and My Website
And before anyone complains about the grammar, I'm so jetlagged that my
hands aren't even in the same time zone...
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
thanks for all the help on this,
i now have an eject querry.
once i have autostart running i then click and it starts pstart, i then run roboform 2 go.
to stop these i exit pstart, exit robo form and then try to eject autostart, but it wiil not eject and the light remians on on the usb.
does anyone have a method of resolving this?
Graham Yates
Follow these steps to find out which application is causing the drive to fail to eject.
Step 1.
Only start autostart, (don't start PStart). Then use AutoStart to eject. Does this work ?
Step 2.
Start AutoStart let autostart start PStart. Then Exit PStart and use AutoStart to eject the drive. Does this work ?
Step 3.
Start AutoStart, start PStart start robotform 2. Then close robo and PStart.
Check the programs are absolutely gone, because I found PStart may keep on running depending on how you close it. So press <ctrl><alt><del> and see if you see pstart.exe or robo are still running.
ok i experiance no problems on the computer that i use at work, in closing the files down and ejecting via autostart.
However on my home computer the usb doesnt autostart?
I have it installed on my home copmuter, so when i then run it and try to eject the usb, it doesnt eject?
This is my autorun:
[AutoRun]
label=Libertà Flash Drive
icon=AutoStart\AutoStart.exe,0
action=Start application launcher for this drive
open=AutoStart\AutoStart.exe
shell=PStart
shell\pstart\command=Pstart\PStart.exe
shell\pstart=PStart portable start menu
any ideas?
Graham Yates
I have frequent problems at home where Safely Remove claims the drive is in use but I have no applications open, Process Explorer doesn't list anything that might be running off the drive (like the occasional firefox.exe) and Unlocker doesn't list anything. I have similar problems when using my automated PStart startup and exit scheme. The unmount program gets stuck waiting for something but the only thing unlocker lists is unmount.exe. Frustrating.
I have a theory that it may only happen after the PC has been in hibernation but haven't verified that yet.
Hibernation/Sleep + removable drives = bad things
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I really like hibernation to come back to what I was doing. OTOH, I'm pretty careful about saving everything and closing programs first anyway so I suppose most times it really doesn't make much difference if I hibernate or not. And their are those occasional times where wake up doesn't work and I wind up doing a hard rest anyway.
Today I woke up the PC, plugged in the flash drive, ran PStart when prompted, put a file on the drive, exit PStart which starts my close down and unmount process. Bingo, Windows thinks it's in use.
I use this same process daily at work on XP SP2 and it works flawlessly. At home on XP SP2 it fails to unmount roughly half the time.