Let me start by saying that PortableApps Menu is the best looking portable menu I've seen so far. And I've tried dozens.
I do have a few suggestions.
1. Use config or ini files to build the menu instead of scanning for exe's.
You could load the app list from a central config on startup.
Then if the "Refresh App Icons" is pressed, scan for app config files (I notice the app/appinfo/appinfo.ini) and rebuild the central config from them.
If the "Install a New App" button is pressed have it browse for the exe, and build the app config file. (useful for "non_portableapps" apps)
2. Not related to portable apps, but if you have the time, I would like to see PortableApps Menu run from a customizable button rather that the systray. (I've been searching forever for a decent replacement for nu2menu for bartpe) I think the entire Portable Apps Suite would be fantastic for this.
3. An option to display the entire menu rather than scroll.
Again love the menu, I've already added almost every program on my usb drive (except the ones with multiple exe's)
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Could you add the option to change the systray icon?
I have several flashdrives, hard drive, and microdrives I run portable apps on.
Sometime I may have 2 or 3 running at the same time.
Being able to customize the icon would make telling them apart sooooo much easier.
It would be nice to be able to edit the shortcuts in the menu, to be able to pass default parameters. I know, for example, that portable ultravnc requires the -portable parameter.
How hard would it be to put an eject button next to the x on the menu?
that way, you could eject the usb device from there, closing all programs using it and elimate having to click the WINDOWS SAFELY REMOVE HARDWARE.
Semper Fi
For what it's worth, I would love to see an eject button.
I've got an entry on the menu that starts "Microsoft (R) Windows (R) 2000 Operat". Double-clicking opens a DOS window that then quickly closes. I haven't tracked it down yet but assume it's one of those extra exes that isn't the main app. Maybe have the mouseover tooltip show the path of the exe?
I was thinking about that... but I'm not really thrilled with the look of it. Maybe I'll just show the path in the hint... like Windows' start menu does. At least that would help ya out.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I added it back in as it doesn't look 1/2 bad as a tooltip when it's done as just the folder. Check out the current 1.0.2 Pre-Release here:
https://portableapps.com/node/3808
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Your message just showed up as new ?!?!?!
Anyway, thanks for adding the path to the tool tip. It's a big help. Personally I'd rather have the full path but I can live with it the way it is.
...like Windowblinds. I realize this is purely cosmetic and of minimal concern, but it would be cool at some point in the future.
Realistically, I'm of the same mind as the other users as to the future functionality that would make this app stellar.
- organize apps into folders
- create your own shortcuts (to spreadsheets and other non-exe files)
- edit apps on the menu (name, icon, parameters)
- read a config file on insert instead of scanning the entire drive (3-4 minutes on a half-full 4Gb)
I know that's all in the works, and that makes me very happy. I like the menu a lot. I just bought a Sandisk Cruzer 4Gb U3. After downloading PAM, I removed U3. However, I use PStart on another drive, and like it a lot, too.
Thanks a lot for all of your work, and I'm very excited to see the next release.
Whenever I plug in my flash drive into my home computer it always creates a folder called "videos" and the portable apps menu creates a separate folder called "video", not a big problem, but a little annoyance that would be nice if it was fixed.
First off, thanks John! This easily trumps PStart which I had been using previously.
Here are my suggestions - some of which have already been mentioned.
** The autoscan for installing apps is great. Saved me a lot of time. Problem is, it picks up every single EXE when in fact, many of these EXEs are part of other programs. What would be nice is the ability to hide things you dont want to see. Or an optional INI file that could be generated, edited and used as a replacement for the autoscan going forward.
** Skins - I like the red now... though it does clash with my Windows Vista desktop. It would be nice to open up the graphics to people that want to make black, silver, and other variations than the red.
** As started by others, the ability to organize apps by categories or folders is a must! Heck, even being able to shift my most used programs to the top of the list would be handy.
** I don't know how feasible this would be - but if it's easy, it would be nice to choose where the menu pops up. Lower right, upper left, upper center etc.
Again, thank you for this app! It's nicely layed out and some of the features such as the disk space meter, backup and search are just awesome. This is exactly what I've been looking and hoping for.
Craig, St. Louis, MO
Nice app, thank you! But as always.. need more
* It would be nice to have some synchronization functionality. And can’t find use for backup till now.
* Ability to add apps to the list from anywhere, not just from PortableApp folder. I use TrueCript volume for data and portable apps to store, but PortableAppMenu is running from non-secured volume.
* Ability to run some apps automatically at PortableAppsMenu start and exit. Need to dismount secured volume and safely eject flash drive on exit. Autorun some apps on the start would be grate too, like mounting of secured volume.
Thanks again!
The menu is great looking but it doesn't work for two of my apps.
First, I have a 2 GB drive, so I tossed quake3 on it. Qauek3 fails to run. As far as I can tell, it's because portable apps is passing the USB drive root as the current working directory, and not the directory of quake3. Thus it is unable to find any of it's data and fails to run. Manually executing it from it's directory works fine, and pstart could run it too.
Second, I have lispbox on my usb stick. It's emacs + lisp + slime. It has a .bat file to initialize it and launch it, but I can't for the life of me add it to the portable apps menu. Again, this worked in pstart.
Still, great work. This menu looks way better than anything else and I like things like the free space left bar!
As has been stated a few times, grab the beta for the working directory issue. It's in the beta forum.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!