I would like to start by saying great job to the PortableApps.com team for the great job done on the pre-releases. I have followed this portable platform for a few years now and it's awesome to see the developments made. Now for the questions/suggestions:
1)Password protect - I understand there are numerous topics about password protection integration with the suite and they all seem to point towards TrueCrypt, which is just as awesome as everyone says, and the main problem is that mounting the drive requires admin privileges. This is one of the few complaints I have about the program. But there is another not-so-popular encryption utility i have seen floating around called CCrypt (by Peter Selinger). This program keeps the file/directory structure and encrypts each file individually, so there is no virtual drive mounting needed - hence, no admin privileges needed. Maybe this is the password protection integration way to go. The only downside I see with this is possible lengthy encryption/decryption times as the number of files/directories goes.
2)I remember seeing either in a previous version or maybe even a previous pre-release, the ability to add non-portableapps apps by scanning the drive. I personally loved this feature because not only do I use non-portableapps apps, I like to organize my programs' physical location on the drive (buried more than 1 folder deep). From what I've seen so far, the platform only adds applications that are no greater than 1 level deep from the PortableApps folder in the drive's root. My suggestion would be to add a scanner that scans the entire drive for executable files (possibly have an option to exclude programs with "setup" or "uninstaller" in the name) and then add those programs to the menu with categories named the same as the path to the program.
Example: program named xyz.exe located in F:\PortableApps\a folder\xyz folder\xyz.exe. The scanner would add a new category to the menu named "a folder" with the program xyz.exe listed in it.
I don't know if anybody else does things this way or if it's just me, I do appreciate feedback
3)Theme colors. I've noticed that you can change the hex code for a color listed already to change the menu color, but you cannot add you own custom color "CustomcolornamehereBackgroundColor=hexcode". Program limitation or simple code tweak?
4)Search bar location - maybe include the ability in the settings to move the search bar? I personally like the search bar to be at the bottom of the menu, like windows vista/7 does. I personally don't think the current location looks very good. Maybe have it cover the drive usage temporarily; or cover the scroll arrow button?
Yeah, so that was really a lot of questions but if these things were added/tweaked to the menu, it would be THE PERFECT portable menu.
EDIT: I also like this idea: https://portableapps.com/node/28731,
~Cryp71c
tl;dr: 1)Password protect with "CCrypt", 2)scan drive for executables, 3)add own custom colors to list, 4)relocate the search bar
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1. https://portableapps.com/search/node/CCrypt
Also, the official PortableApp called Toucan uses ccrypt.
https://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/toucan
2. Meh. If I have an app such as that, I'd just create F:\PortableApps\a folder\App\Appinfo\Appinfo.ini, and put the path to the exe in that. Then it would show up in the menu. But maybe JTH has your idea in the hopper, IDK.
3. A color picker and more theme stuff is planned for a future release.
I made this half-pony, half-monkey monster to please you.
1. We considered an approach like this, but it's not realistic. Encrypting lots of files is VERY slow on flash drives. And then you still need to securely delete the stuff that was encrypted or someone else can easily undelete them. Secure erasing flash is also slow. Mounting a drive letter is better as all of this can be handled transparently in a soft-drive without writing to flash. But, of course, mounting a drive letter in Windows requires admin rights and there is no way around that. The only real universal solution is to buy a drive with hardware encryption built in. We're working on a more simplistic approach for some security but it will not be truly secure (only full encryption is truly secure) and will warn users of this. More info will come later.
2. You're better off just moving it to be in X:\PortableApps\AppName and letting the platform detect it. There's no need for multiple subfolders within your actual drive directory structure like Internet, etc as you generally have no need to browse into it. And, even when you do, you can just right-click on an app and select Explore Here and you'll get a Windows Explorer window right in that app's directory. Nice, easy and fast.
3. Customizable themes are coming. We even have a color picker in the GUI it's just not enabled yet.
4. The search box will likely remain up top though it will improve visually to blend in with the rest. Search box on the bottom is a bad UI choice in Windows since as you narrow down your results, you wind up with one or a few options all the way at the top, with your search box all the way at the bottom, which is just silly visually and functionally. It's jarring in its current form as the actual graphics around the search box to blend it in and add a close button aren't yet done.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
john is obviouly right
you can use non portable apps made apps in your menu
for example firefox
and i have quite a few but one non portable made apps one called fast copy
its located at "E:\PortableApps\Fast Copy"
in that folder is all necessary files needed to run
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