Has anyone already designed a "This Drive Belongs to" splash screen or menu choice?
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New: Run-Command (Dec 2, 2024), Platform 29.5.3 (Jun 27, 2024)
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HTA apps are HTML apps.
Anything you can do with basic HTML can be used in HTA, and there's a few other tricks that it can do.
You can make one that has almost anything you want in your splash screen. You can add a button to close it, or set a timer.
Once you create it, you can set it to show up as an app in your menu and then use the Options to autostart it whenever you start the menu.
I think I'll take a stab at this.
EDIT:
OK, so far I've got an HTA wrapper that can display a separate HTML file or an image, with an exit button, and a timer that closes it at 5 seconds.
All you will need to do is install this, then create your custom splash page or image, and set it to autostart in the menu. I'll post it on my paskins web page in a day or so when it's ready.
EDIT - 2:
If you'd like an app that allows for more customization of the screen, I've created one called MySplash. It has an iframe that shows a customizable HTML file, and it has an internal timer that closes it in 10 seconds.
http://paskins.sourceforge.net/miniapps.html#MySplash
I made this half-pony, half-monkey monster to please you.
You're relying on someone who finds the drive being foolish enough to run an unknown application from an unknown source on his home PC. Anyone who would do that most likely has so many viruses on their PC that I'm not sure you would want the drive back.
A much safer, and much more likely to be accessed way, would be to keep the root folder of the drive fairly free of files (which is good practice for organisation anyway), and to have a text file there, called something like
This drive belongs to.txt
Text files are safe, most people can click on them to open them, and you can put anything you like inside it, names, phone numbers, even addresses if you wanted to (bad idea if your drive is on your keys!)
While what you say has merit, there are instances where this has some use.
In an environment where you expect people to have identical drives and they are expecting to use PortableApps.com (such as a workshop or a conference) it could actually help as an identification tool.
It's probably more useful as a branding tool, though, a nice splash screen that can either be a logo, or even an About screen for your workshop, class, conference, etc.
It's not likely to be integrated into the platform, but as a small separate app, you can set it to start automatically, and the user can later disable the autostart when they don't want to see it anymore.
I made this half-pony, half-monkey monster to please you.
I don't deny that what you propose could be useful in many ways - I can even add a few, such as some quick help tips that would auto-show with the menu, to help out new users.
However, if you look as the title of the OP's thread, it is about getting a drive back on loss, for which I still say the chances are significantly better if you just have an easy to see text file on the root of the drive.
It's not unusual for a request for one purpose to give rise to a solution that has other purposes, even without solving the first issue.
I made this half-pony, half-monkey monster to please you.
I wont say SEARCH!!! because you need to know the name of such application, but it exists, and is quite old... since 2007... it is called "lost" and used to be on http://portable.cubegames.net but that site doesn't exist anymore... And there use to be another one in a blog called "daily cup of coffee" but I culdn't find it either.
The Menu Mod called R32 (or something like that) have this thing coded in the menu and is still available in the forum.
I know I have lost.exe in one of my backup CDs... let me see what can I do, give me a couple of days to explore my backups...
If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port,
and the bus is interrupted as a very last resort,
and the address of the memory makes your floppy disk abort,
then the socket packet pocket has an error to report
i think the blog was Daily Cup of Tech
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
Thank you Zach.
This can solve de issue http://dailycupoftech.com/have-your-lost-usb-drive-ask-for-help/
If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port,
and the bus is interrupted as a very last resort,
and the address of the memory makes your floppy disk abort,
then the socket packet pocket has an error to report
This is Lost 1.1 (Launcher)
http://code.google.com/p/padp/downloads/detail?name=Lost-Launch.zip&can=...
Uploaded by: cubegames
Uploaded: Nov 01, 2008
Downloads: 76
Author-RyanMcCue
I used it and found the new download address.
Peter
Wow! a newer version, thank you very much, I'm going to download it too...
If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port,
and the bus is interrupted as a very last resort,
and the address of the memory makes your floppy disk abort,
then the socket packet pocket has an error to report
What your missing is that people are learning not to run programs from strange flashdrives. This is how the pentagon was hacked. They have since changed the evil of autorunning flash drives.
That being said, the simple way to do this is to give the flash drive a label. You can do this when you format the disk, or putting it in the autorun.inf, which again may be disabled due to security concerns. Putting a simple text file on the root of the drive is the best option.
There was a splash, but I don't remember exactly where it was. It would not be that hard for you to do this yourself. But I would be wary of opening anything but a text file.
Too many lonely hearts in the real world
Too many bridges you can burn
Too many tables you can't turn
Don't wanna live my life in the real world
OliverK, when you loose something that belongs to you and that you consider important, whatever you do to recover it is a valid option.
I think I should invite you to read this two entries in DCOT
http://dailycupoftech.com/lost-usb-drive-experiment/
http://dailycupoftech.com/2008/06/11/long-lost-drive-found/
Regards.-
If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port,
and the bus is interrupted as a very last resort,
and the address of the memory makes your floppy disk abort,
then the socket packet pocket has an error to report
that's why I have backups of all the important stuff, I leave my emails on the mail server and I backup my password database regularly.
Its not an option to consider retrieving the device. Regardless of if I do, I will spend the next 2 hours changing all of my passwords.
If you feel the need to stuff an exe on your flash drive, that fine. But I won't run it. You'd be lucky if I'd stick it in my windows machine. More likely, if I even looked I'd stick it in a linux box. Which isn't going to run windows binaries.
Too many lonely hearts in the real world
Too many bridges you can burn
Too many tables you can't turn
Don't wanna live my life in the real world