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New: Kanri (Oct 9, '24), Platform 29.5.3 (Jun 27, '24)
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Till now I've only seen the new look and its PHANTASTIC.
Congratulations!
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
I noticed a few apps (the one I noticed was Filezilla, but I'm sure there are others) have been removed from the suite for this release. First, and I ask only out of curiosity, was there any particular reason why?
Second, can we add apps to the new menu?
I don't mean to waste anyone's time, so if I'll get answers to these questions when the download finishes (slow wi-fi connection here, despite the high-speed DSL), please feel free to ignore.
I whittled the suite down to be just the apps that pretty much everybody needs. And, yes, you can add apps in PortableApps Format like FileZilla Portable *VERY* easily. Just download the new package from the FileZilla Portable page and then, in PortableApps Menu, click Options - Install a New App - Install and select the FileZilla Portable package. The PortableApps Menu will automatically install it and configure it for you.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
dude its GUI it amazing and the ability to detect the the drive space is amazing to but i didnt manage to see the source i downloaded the "PortableApps_Suite_Base_1.0.exe" package i just wanna view the source to see how you implementing the GUI and mange to calculate drive space.
Slackware 12 for system
MCP (For XP and Server 2003)
Network + Certified
aim is "nycjv321" (minus quotes)
See the SourceForge page (click the icon near Download Details). It's in a separate package called Source (PortableApps Suite). It would have added a bit to the install size (it's bigger than NSIS stuff... it's written in Delphi).
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
do u mean here
https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=151265
i cant find it sorry for being a n00b :-]
it doesnt show the source package for portableapps suite only other apps
Slackware 12 for system
MCP (For XP and Server 2003)
Network + Certified
aim is "nycjv321" (minus quotes)
I think I borked the source code upload. (SourceForge has been very testy today... throwing 500 Internal Server errors on my left and right) I'll upload it again while I'm patching the Suite.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
it's probably a result of recent system upgrades on their part.
----
Ryan McCue
Cube Games
Life is like a sewer. You only get out of it what you put into it.
(Tom Lehrer)
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
I'd love to have an uber-download that had every portable app available. Everytime I got a new USB stick or portable drive it would be my first download and the first thing I'd install. [ Without actually needing to install it.
]
I like interface of portableapps menu.
I want look the sources (I am curious
), but I didn't find it in project pages (on sourceforge).
I cannot even begin to express my gratitude to you, Mr.Haller. Portable Apps, Making your life easyer every day!
I haave been running the suite since it came out and it is great!!!
--
you suck
I like the look. I realize this is version 1.0 but I've got some suggestions for enhancements for PortableAppsMenu:
- Ability to add other applications to the menu. For instance I have PSPad and KeepPass on my drive.
- Option for PAM to start minimized. Just because I inserted the drive doesn't necessarily mean I want to run an app right away (see next).
- A key to close PAM window without selecting something (Esc perhaps?). I know I can click to tray icon to minimize but I can stab at the Esc key a lot faster than grabbing the mouse, navigating to that little icon and clicking on it.
- Ability to run one or more of the apps upon startup/exit of PAM (ala PStart).
- It would be nice to be able to run other apps and/or batch files on the drive but not in PAM menu upon startup/exit.
The menu works with any app you'd like. It will handle the installation of any app in PortableApps Format (See the Options menu). It will detect and launch any apps that are in a directory next to its own... so if you stick PSPad.exe in a directory called PSPad within the PortableApps directory (next to PortableAppsMenu)... it'll automatically find it.
You don't have to click the tray button to hide the menu. Just click anywhere else on the screen. When the menu loses focus, it fades out of view.
Autorunning other stuff is planned for a future release
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Several of the apps I moved into the PortableApps folder actually have several executables in the folder although there is only one for the main app. For example PSPad includes a notepad.exe to replace the Windows notepad.exe with PSPad. In this case I just deleted that extra notepad. Others I'll have to look at. All PAM could be expected to do is have the ability to exclude specific executables. Or add links to specific exes outside the PortableApps folder.
When the list of apps gets too long, scroll arrows appear which is good. Can they be made to operate with a mouse-over or a click and hold so I don't have to click multiple times?
One of the folders I moved has the Sysinternals suite of tools in it. That made the list in PAM REALLY long. I tried to move that folder into Documents hoping that PAM would see that similarly to Music, Pictures, Videos but no such luck. For this instance, ading any folder in Documents would work well. In general the ability to have subfolders in the menu would be handy. That's how I set up in PStart.
Automatically removing the USB drive on exit (assuming the apps have been closed) would be nice.
I have a solution for multiple EXEs (that doesn't involve deleting em) but it's about 3 weeks away from seeing the light of day.
The mouse wheel is already enabled to scroll through the list of apps, even if it's longer. Try it out.
The ability to use folders in the menu is something I'm thinking about, it borks the automatedness of it, but I have a possible solution I'm working on.
Ejection of the USB device is something planned for a later release (note that the screenshot on the website has an eject button on it... I removed it near the end due to some issues).
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Mouse wheel works well. Don't know why I didn't think to try that. Already looking forward to the enhancements.
Keep up the good John. It's greatly appreciated.
Hey John, great job. Now about the eject button: I like what Rene did on his AutoStart program, I'm refering to ejecting the drive and it automatically unmounts the TrueCrypt volume. Are you planing on doing this as well? Also, I'd like to have a way to remove some programs from the menu list. How about right-clicking or an XML file to do this? Once again, thanks for your work.
---------------
Teen1: Oh, here comes that cannonball guy. He's cool.
Teen2: Are you being sarcastic, dude?
Teen1: I don't even know anymore.
"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
Can't wait for the multiple exe's fix as Totalcommander has two additional .exe's in it's directory.
I logged into this thread just so I could post about these very problems. I really like the look and feel of PAM (as opposed to PSTART) - it's pretty, easy to use, and doesn't take up room on the taskbar (other than the little icon next to the clock). But while I LOVE these things about PAM, I MISS some things about PSTART - the user control, manual editing, shortcuts, etc. I would love to see a combination of those two programs, but I guess when you add functionality, you sacrifice ease of use, and vice versa.
Hope you can come to a happy medium, John. Maybe you could add a right-click menu to remove the extra .exe's or add folders or something. I guess it would be too difficult to have 2 separate programs - 1 advanced for the use of any portable app, and one specifically for "John T. Haller's Portable Apps (TM)."
One problem I'm having is I can't delete Sunbird. I was able to delete Thunderbird fine, but now it says that sunbird is write protected and cannot be erased. Any idea what that's about? I haven't tried restarting, but I'll do that a little later.
Concerning the people who want auto drive ejection (which I, too, miss): The way you remove apps also leads to a problem with the eject button. If you eject the drive on PAM's closing, then you couldn't erase the folders. Or would you implement Drive Ejection some other way?
Also, I hope to see Notepad++ as a portable app. That would remove those extra pesky exe's. Wait...I think I got it. But still...
And instead of having a launcher for each OpenOffice component, how about just one Open Office link, then you can click the little Icon in the top left to select which component (like Writer or Impress)...it seems like it's faster that way, but I could be wrong.
Thanks for all the work and concern, John. Overall, I'm LOVING the new suite.
You have to exit to delete as the menu leaves handles open to all app folders (in simple terms, it locks em). If you click Options - Remove an App it says this. In a later release, the menu will unlock the icons, delete an app for you and then refresh them. I just haven't built the GUI for it. It already does this when you do an install from the menu so that apps can be upgraded.
Ejection has been mentioned a few times. It's coming in a later release.
The ability to use specific EXEs is coming in a later release, too. It's been discussed in detail elsewhere.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Hello John!
Plz, I have an USB flash drive w/ U3.
What's the difference betwaeen FF 2.0 portable an FF 2.0 for U3?
Only the shortcut added on launchpad? Or something else?
Tks and your apps are NICE!!
They are basically the same. FF portable takes up about half the space of John's U3 counterpart, due to the way U3 works. U3 just doesn't have the selection of Portable Apps, so I removed the U3 system from my drive. Plus, that splash screen on start up was terribly slow, especially on my school's USB 1.1 drives.
Kinda like U3, aye?
Great job on the suite and launcher. But the launcher looks screwy on my computer, probably because it's set to 120 dpi instead of the standard 96. Screenshot
I hope I posted in the right thread. I couldn't find a more appropriate one.
I have a fix posted, please try it out and comment in that thread:
https://portableapps.com/node/3808
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I really like the idea of a portable suite ... but ... everything is changing so fast. Will it be easy to upgrade to TB 2.0 when it becomes reality? Howzabout with FFX becomes increments by .01 every month? Will the auto updates be able to work?
I know you can't control what the individual programs do, but do you have a visualization of the update issues?
-----Paul-----
That's the great thing about the way the 1.0 Final is arranged as opposed to the 1.0 Beta from last year. The layout of the apps in the suite is *EXACTLY* the same as that of the individual apps. That why you can download any apps you want from here and use em in the suite. Firefox Portable 2.0.1 comes out? Drop it right over 2.0. Or use FF's built-in auto-update. You can even take the existing copies of the apps you have from here and move them into the PortableApps directory... and they'll just work. And, if the Suite's base components are updated (Say the Menu and Backup), you can update just those without having to re-download the whole suite.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Hi John,
I knew you were working on something but such a flashy release was completely unexpected
You are the man!!
Thanks
Paul
Using Windows 2000 I'm afraid I just can't get it to work.
I always get the "PortableAppsMen.exe has generated error and will be closed by Windows..." message when I click the icon to launch it.
I've tried both the Lite and the Base version, also tried installing to an internal folder as well as the flash drive - nothing works
Same thing here...
OTBSoft ::Thinking Outside The Box::
Menu Bug On Win2K: There's a bug in the build of the PortableApps Menu bundled with the suite that prevents it from running successfully on many Windows 2000 and earlier systems. We're hoping to release a fix tomorrow. Sorry for any inconvenience.
The error crept in in one of my later builds after I'd done cross-OS testing (including Wine on Ubuntu) last night. The PortableApps Menu *should* work in Win95 and up (and it handles the animation difference, too). I'm working on it.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
It might be Windows XP only. I'm 99% sure it uses this API:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/winui/w...
which would rule out it working on 95 and NT (and ME apparently?).
Signature automatically removed for being too awesome.
The issue with the menu has been fixed with a patch. You'll see it on the Portable Apps Suite page right below the download buttons.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Works Great Now
A beautiful interface - puts the Windows 2k one to shame
What an excellent suite - This is going to be incredibly popular
this is great, then menu is amazing.
--
you suck
XP is NT 5.1.
Vintage!
I knew this already, but thanks? I was referring to NT4, which is what "Windows NT" generally refers to.
Signature automatically removed for being too awesome.
I made the comment because NT would probably support the API. It might not, though; I don't know.
Vintage!
juct download the 1.0 to 1.0.1 Patch from the info page, then insall it to your desktop, and copy the file called portableappsmenu.exe and replace the existing file
--
you suck
But the menu needs more in the way of customization, especially for non- *Portable programs.
I especially don't like how I'm locked to a particular menu structure.
I keep my programs in \Programs\[Category]\[ProgramName], where Category is something like Development, Documents, Games, Media, Graphics, Internet, Maintenance, Storage, Emulation, etc. I find it cuts down on clutter from having all the apps' subfolders in one main folder. But with this menu I can't do this.
Also like others have said, having folders in the menu (I like to keep them just like my \Programs\etc structure! :)) would be nice. IMO you should copy the Vista Start Menu for this, IE: http://common.ziffdavisinternet.com/util_get_image/10/0,1425,sz=1&i=1028...
Signature automatically removed for being too awesome.
Haven't had a chance to download the suite yet (still at work), but it seems as though the menu could replace the U3 launchpad. How will the suite work on a stick with U3 installed. Should I delete U3, or can I just 'turn it off'??
Am I right in thinking that the new suite will allow addition of new programs to the launch menu (unlike U3)?
If so, then the suite is truly awesome!
I know that there are already a few comments with the same content before but I want to say it too:
This apps are great, thank you very much!!!!
Hi,
Looks great! I've been using a lot of your Portable Apps with PStart for months. I like your new menu.
I have 2 suggestions:
1. Ability to either move or detect location of menu. I usually have my taskbar at the top of my screen, so I'd like the menu to appear there instead of at the bottom.
2. Ability to manually remove an item from the menu.
I assume these are probably on the list of things-to-do. Good work, and thanks!
Hello John
Thank you again for all your work, it's very appreciated.
Bill
Exelant
----
Morgan Stagg
9 Year Old Computer Wizard
___________________________________________________________________________________
----
Morgan Stagg
It's the megapack of all portable applications I love it it might even replace my u3 launchpad with it as it takes too much room for even me. You should also include FilezillaPortable for the web designers on the go
I could use it to maintain my Ubunut Multimedia Center site which needs more bandwidth...Which my site only started 2 days ago and I started with 100gb of bandwidth. you would think there was enough
----------------------------------------------------
My own linux Distro called Ubuntu Multimedia Center
your friendly neighbourhood moderator Zach Thibeau
Massive bandwidth loss (for me), send the whole site down.
I'll just have to wait a month.
WRT the suite, I unfortunately can not install this, because our sys-admins have banned me from using "Portable Apps" and "Firefox Portable" (at least they know what they are ;)). Maybe you could also add a Portable Suite Deluxe with all the apps?
WRT the site, I love the effects!
----
Ryan McCue
Cube Games
Life is like a sewer. You only get out of it what you put into it.
(Tom Lehrer)
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
even though your only 9 doesn't mean you don't have to make an effort to spell excelent correctly, i'm only 12
--
you suck
It looks like there is an eject button on the front page, but when I install I don't see it. Am I seeing things, or doing something wrong?
I can't wait to see where this project will go! U3, eat your heart out. (stupid red square on the desktop that you can't turn off!)
The eject button is a feature planned for the next release. You arent doing anything wrong, its just a glimpse of the future.
PS. I hate the red square too !!
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
With a developing range of Portable apps, the Suite and the Menu is just what the doctor ordered.
A small point in the interests of accuracy: at the bottom of the page at https://portableapps.com/suite, the MD5 hash for the Base and Standard versions have been swapped. The MD5 checksums for the downloads are:
E8D38570969225C7724ECE8DB09B5770 PortableApps_Suite_Standard_1.0.exe.
DA9D15132D82BB9163F2D8274A842508 PortableApps_Suite_Lite_1.0.exe.
I'm getting the same buggy rendering of the menu as seen in the screenshot here
https://portableapps.com/node/3779#comment-17473
This makes the menu completely useless. I hope a fix can be found soon.
P.S.Thanks for all the great work at portable apps, I have been using portable Firefox since its very first release
Hey John i realise your a very busy man , i would like to say how gratefull i am personally for all the work you have done here i am extremly impressed with the new launchpad. keep up the good work. i noticed that vlc media player portable and audacity portable dont come as .paf files like the rest of the apps for your new launchpad. i have figured out how to still install them with the launchpad i just wondered if perhaps you missed them out by mistake as you must have alot on your plate right now. sorry to bother you. just wondering if u will convert them to .paf files thanx.
I'm really impressed with the launcher!
I just finished tweaking my setup and this is just great!
Thank you!
To go home and try the new PortableApp Suite!!!
I've not downloaded it yet because I would have passed all my paid work time playing with it instead of working
I have just a couple of comments:
First how I migrate all my PortableApps settings and data to the suite? I know the answer could be: "read about it in the forum". But if it is the case It could be nice to write something anyway on the suite page (just like the standalone Apps).
The new launcher is written in Delphi? The sources can be built with Lazarus/FreePascal or with Turbo Delphi (the borland free IDE for Delphi)?
keep up the good work!!!
sblandin
P.S. Do you have any plans for PortableApp OS?
I really like the suite. I do have a couple of suggestions. A little information in the documentation would be nice for those of us already using other portable applications. I thought the install would see what was already on my USB drive and update or install over those applications. It did not do that. That left me extremely confused when I tried to copy my profile for Firefox 2.0 from my laptop to my USB drive. I finally just deleted everything on the drive and started with a clean install. Finding where to copy my profile after that was very easy.
Also, having the install give more information on what it is doing during the installation would be nice. It sat there for over 5 minutes without any change or indication of what it was doing. After that, the install told me what was going on.
You did a great job!!!!
Hello !
Just wanted to thanks John & all people envolved in the development of these wonderfull portable apps.
i've just updated Gaim, Firefox & Thunderbird on my usb drive and added the PortableApps Suite (Base Edition) ... all worked like a charm, no bug to report at the moment ... waow ! that roxX !! oÔ
So once again many thanxX John & crew, keep up the good work.
Respeckt due.
@+...
how old are you, you should work on your spelling
--
you suck
I love the work you do. It is cool stuff. I am having a problem though:
1.My download doesn't look like the one on the homepage, it is lacking the "eject" button on the left side of the "x".
2.I am getting a constant message that "another instace of Firefox is currently running".
3.How do delete the software? I have tried deleting all the items but some folders won't let me. It says to check for permission, or if the disc is right protected, or that it is running after I close everything.
Thanks and thanks.
Please post a message in the PortableApps Menu support forum.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Dear John,
thanks a lot!
I like your suite - it's simply the best out there!
Looking forward to upcoming versions already
BR
zikarus
PS Just out of curiosity: will you allow ooodev.org to 'produce' a german version of your suite?
I just wanted to add my thanks as we are at that time of season in the States. I appreciate all the hard work and I REALLY like the new suite. Works wonderfully. So thank you once again.
I would like to say that the new Apps Suite is beautifull. Kudos to the developer.
Few comment in it:
1 - As already mentioned here folders on the menu would be nice
2 - Instead of throwing all exe in a separate folder, it would be nice if one could create subfolders, because some portables have more than just the executable and have all files jumbled up into one folder (So all exe can be in there) is kinda messy. So maybe the menu could search subfolders under that "otherapps" folder and not only the main folder.
Thanks for the great software.
Wow ... I don't know what to say ... Just great ...
Thanks for all the updates. Thanks for all your work ...
But I stay on Pstart because it fits more my needs of an apps menu for starting other applications (for example better costumization, right click on the icon in the taskbar, which opens a startmenu with subfolders).
mosquito
I think you should make the suite that store the information of any portable apps, so that next time when you come in, the suite will only take the information from the files that stored the information and no need to research all the portable apps again.... I'm using USB 2.0 Kingston Traveller 2 and it took 3 to 5 minutes to load all my apps....
If you make a files like the Pstart.exe that store the information that would be nice but make it like that, you can make different version like USB version and Disc Version so that disc need to reload all files but USB no need to do that, juz read from the files that stored the information of the apps..
Hello John;
I like the suite very much. I only had one problem with it. I have bad eyes so I checked off large fonts in the options. This did work but did not stay checked off. I have to recheck this option everytime.
All so would you consider in a future release a extra large font selection. I have bad eyes and I wonder how small the menue would look on a higher resolution. Hope this is not upsetting to any one else. It is one feature I look for in all of my kept programs. The suite is a work of pure art the very best I have ever seen.
I downloaded all three just to be able to show people what can be done on a protable USB.
Frank D. Hubeny
Yeah, it doesn't remember the setting at the moment, but it will in the next point release. I'll explore whether an extra-large setting will fit or not. If it does, I'll add it in for ya. (I'm trying to keep everything I do as accessible as possible)
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Hello John;
Thank you for this reply. I know space is a premium. So what ever you can do or the bigest will be nice. I have to admit it is beautiful. Just may be a little small for some of us.
this is an after thought:
Maybe in a future release you could have a larger menue option or choice to use. Like menue one, or menue two. Even if a user like me had to rename one. If you think about it the menu could be larger if needed by some. It disapears when the application is lauched. I would not mind one twicw as big or more if it helped me see the thing easier. I start it from the explorer because it is not automatically picked up in my OS. Then I click on it and off I go. It does not all ways stay there. This may not be a thing you wish to do but think about it. The up and down scroll arrow is also very dimm and hard to see.
Thanks again
Frank D. Hubeny
I like very much the applications but i don't fully use it because a have to many portable applications and if i put all of them the it would be impossible to use. I have tried. That's why a say that the application has to have the option to create folders to group types of applications. Another thing is the need for the scroll to happen onmouseover and on click doubling the speed. Continue the good job.
I'm excited to see such a cool new tool to access my portable apps. Thanks for all the hard work!
One thing I already use in PStart is Windows shortcuts. For instance, I have Control Panel, My Computer, Admin Tools, etc. all in my PStart menu. Those paths rarely ever change, so they are universal on almost any Windows system.
In short, is there a way to add a Windows shortcut to the menu?
Is it possible to prevent the PortableApp Suite launcher from minimizing itself to the system tray after launching a program? Can it just close itself entirely? Thanks.
Hello John;
Can you come up with a way to add in applications that are not your portableapps?
I have a few applications which do run from a USB portabley. But they have a number of "exe" files that keep getting picked up when I try to add them.
You can not edit them out. My solution has been to leave then in another directory. I did add two apps of my own but they only have one "exe" file. They are Atlantis word processor, and cybershredder. They were picked up fine. But my encryption tool has about ten 'exe" files in it and they were all added with no way of editing like you can with "autostart"
Frank D. Hubeny
I had been having trouble updating TBP.
I downloaded the New TBP 1.5.0.8. I used the PAM to "install" the TBP. Worked flawlessly. License agreement came up 1st time, profiles, extensions, mail, all are there.
Thanks John. I look forward to the other features you are working on, autostart, eject, install exe's etc.
8)
Life is about the journey not the destination!
Live today like it is your last!
Do you do the right thing even when no one will know you did?
\(^.^)/
Life is about the journey not the destination!
The Kazoo Spartan
Hi John,
Really great work, I love the Suite and the way the menu works.
Is it possible to resize the menu so I dont have to scroll to see all my apps?
roger
It shows 20 app icons by default. You can use your mousewheel to scroll through them (which is nice and quick).
In a later release, you'll be able to choose whether to show multiple icons for apps that use them (so OpenOffice.org Portable would be 1 icon instead of 6). That will help.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Although its a shame the laptop has no wheel.
roger
No scroll area either? (that *should* work in theory) Maybe I'll add in support for arrow keys or something.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Up and down arrow keys would be great, I use left and right to navigate tabs in FF!
Thanks for the consideration.
roger
I am so glad.....this is better than PSTART & as good as U3, but FREE!!!
Chris
Im a big fan of your work for a while. This release is fantastic. Best site and apps on the net. Well done checks in the mail.
I use a lot of apps. I like the command line option in PStart for programs like VLC and being able to create sub folders for short cuts. Is there a way to create a shortcut that will open PStart in the root folder so I can keep my existing menus. The other feature I like is being able to click on a side to bring up the menu.
Moving my profiles was seamless and so easy. Thank you.
Dexilectrics
Dexilectrics
With the recent explosion of "portable applications" in the recent years, I notice how history is repeating itself...yet again. What I am talking about is back in the old school days--during the DOS days.
All applications back then were "portable." None of these novel things that you new kids have been used to where applications create and save INI files, jack into the Windows registry, or more for annoyances to insist on leaving us all in DLL hell by integrating, merging, and essentially to be in utter matrimony with Windows. A lot of you old timers probably know exactly what I am talking about.
The Windows apps sensation of having inappropriate relations with the registry and a fusing with DLL hell appears to all have been an attempt to thwart piracy, to create more headaches for interoperability and compatibility, and to leave behind digital dirt.
Portable software is how things should have always been. Kudos
to your team John Haller for taking back what has always been the rights of users, and for brining applications back where they have always belonged...in the hands of users.
I'll add to what others have said: PortableApps Suite w/Menu is terrific! Many thanks to you and to all your collaborators...and I include your intrepid beta testers.
Any other ways to make a donation? I don't do Paypal.
very cool indeed. I've been tracking the portable app development for a while, and now it is definitely one giant step towards perfection.
one thing is missing, though: an easy way to select specific "locations", especially for settings like proxy servers. I am moving between three (minimum) locations constantly, two of which have proxy servers. perhaps an option that adds a little location selector in the right part of the menu?
then again, I am quite sure that you have thought of something like this already, and just haven't had the time to implement it.
This is something handled by the individual apps. For Firefox and Thunderbird, use the SwitchProxy extension. It's mentioned on the support pages for FF.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
The suite seems very cool, I was a bit dubious about having everything in one package but it all seems useful and much simpler. I like some of the ideas used in the PortableApps menu but having used pstart for a while and developed some things using it, the lack of control is a bit frustrating although some of the issues may be cleared up soon. I hear that auto eject is going to be added which I like, using the run on exit in pstart I have got my drive to do this using RemoveDrive.exe, which is good as it continues to run until it succeeds which is good because my drive usually takes two attempts before it released and it is also good as it puts a dot for each attempt so if it gets past three dots, you know to look for an app that is keeping the drive locked. I also wouldn't mind the choice of where folders are located, as I have a folder structure I currently use, and it would be cool if the menu could be adjusted to point to my current folders or even to add custom commonly used folders. Being able to add things other that exe's would also be useful as would passing parameters to programs like in pstart, especially for non portable programs where you can pass the %pdrive% parameter to get it pointing in the right direction. A shortcut on load would also be good in the my documents folder of the current user as this is the place most programs default to for open and save dialogs and then you can get to the usb drive straight away and it is created on the fly so always correct and can be deleted on close. A right click on the icon would be nice for a smaller menu with just a few options like close and backup and maybe so that it is smaller if you just want to close the program. Also why are the desktop.ini files not hidden like my other folders ones are? i have hidden files turned off but not os required files, which shows most desktop.ini files. When run a second time, you also end up with two instances, maybe it would be more useful if it just maximized the initial instance. Also my start bar is normally minimized and so when the menu appears it is covered up until it minimizes again is there a way to fix this. Two last things, the outline on the left side of the menu is complete but the one on the left is not a really minor thing but something that irritates me, my problem though if you don't want to fix it. Also maybe for the backup program could an option be added so that it shuts down the computer once it is finished, so that you can do it last thing and leave it. Great idea though the suite and sorry this is so long but hopefully it gives people some ideas to think about. I may be trying to make the menu too much like pstart and maybe I should just stick to this, or maybe I will be happier with the next release thanks.
For security, I have hidden files showing, just not system files, this normally hides desktop.ini files but for some reason the suite desktop.ini ones were showing. I have found that this is because they have different attributes to the normally ones and so they are not treated a system files. To make them hidden all the time when system files are hidden, they must have both the hidden and system attributes, done by running attrib in the command prompt with +h and +s as the switches on these files. Maybe this could be looked into for the next suite release so users don't have to do this.
Let me first add my name to the chorus of thanks for Portable Apps.
Excellent work.
The ability to run two instances is actually a potential benefit. Since I am basically greedy, and I want it ALL, I have a lot of portable applications from various sites. I tried putting them all on one drive, but it became a little ridiculous.
I decided to split them into two flash drives, grouped into Office/System Apps and Web/Multimedia Apps.
Each runs on its own instance just fine. The only problem is that they look identical in the system tray, and very similar when you open them.
It would be great if the next release allowed you to choose the system tray icon, and maybe the color (or skin) of the menu.
The one thing that does work, is if I change the Label value in the Autorun.inf, the custom label appears in the lower left of the menu.
Solanus, The East Wind
I made this half-pony, half-monkey monster to please you.
Okay, so after I put it on my USB I wanted to have it on my PC too, so I extracted the files to the root of my C: drive but then I found out that it changes the name and icon of the drive. I tried deleting the files (Documents, PortableApps and StarPortableApps) but it only replaced the icon with an empty file icon and the name is still PortableApps.
Is there a better way to remove it? I'm sure I didn't leave any of the files behind.
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