Portable apps are totally wonderful! The big drawback though, I'm finding, is the need to be very careful to close them all before disconnecting the drive.
Is there any way to have the launcher do this with a single command (since it's already got most of the necessary information)? Or are there already other plans to fix this problem?
If this is something that's already been discussed, maybe someone would be kind enough to let me have the link to it.
Thanks.
Visit the Community page
Join our forums
Subscribe to our email newsletter
Subscribe with RSS
Follow us on BlueSky
Follow us on Facebook
Follow us on LinkedIn
Follow us on Mastodon
Follow us on Twitter
Whether this is an issue kinda depends on your personality type in dealing with technology. I'm a type 1 (aka OCD): I close every single app individually before I shutdown Windows. There is actually an advantage to this as some apps don't close properly in some instances when Windows tells them to (example: OpenOffice.org and StarOffice, for instance, when you're doing something Java-based like a wizard will actually hang and become unresponsive in this instance).
Other people are type 2... they want to click One Damn Thing (tm) and be done with it. The advantage to this is it makes it easy to get everything closed... great when you're in a hurry to rush out somewhere or quickly get all your stuff off a PC that you maybe, possibly shouldn't be using.
Now, as there are quite a lot of type 2 people out there... and that there are advantages to this feature... I'm working on a way to allow the menu to close the apps down happily when you want it to. It's a combination of methods involving building intelligence into the apps to a certain degree and the menu to another allowing it to work with all the apps in PAF format as well as many that are standalone EXEs, etc. It's a bit more complicated than can be explained in a quick post, but I'll post some detail on it in the near future.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I can't wait that long!
I'm Type 1, with exceptions.
I only keep the essential apps open like Thunderbird, Firefox and Notepad++ and close everything else. So when I shutdown my computer I just shut those down anyway
Oh and it seems to me like everyone on these forums is OCD.
----
Ryan McCue
Santa: Ho Ho Ho!
Kim: Yes, thank you Santa, I am.
(Kath and Kim)
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
Hey, JTH, very nice to 'meet' you - as it were.
I really admire this portable trend. I hope it goes 'all the way', eventually to including a desktop and platform, thus moving towards making computing available to everyone and opening some real, big, wide doors in a world of too many (barred) windows!
I think we'd all love to be OCD...(I.e. extremely neat and tidy) but we just can't all afford the luxury!!! Real life sometimes means grabbing your emails on the fly and leaving in a hurry.
SAFE portable drives are going to need three things (appart from the portableapps): hardware-level encryption; to close with a OneDamnThing click (yes, absolutely, and I'm delighted to hear that it's coming!); and to know that they have been left behind, if you should leave without them.
Paul J. Dickson
1. Hardware-level encryption - You can get this today, you just have to get a drive that supports it. The Kingston DataTraveler Secure is a popular commercially-available drive that does. Most drives with fingerprint readers have whole-drive encryption. I'm working with a few vendors to pre-bundle the PortableApps.com Platform on these drives. (Side Note: Remember that a drive that just offers 'password protection' is NOT secure and your data CAN be accessed unless it states that it encrypts the whole drive at AES-128 or above.)
2. OneDamnThing close button... coming soon.
3. Drive phoning home... I'm actually working on something along these lines that will let you track a lost drive and even be able to display an optional "I'm Lost" message with your contact details (and reward info, if necessary).
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
3. Drive phoning home... I'm actually working on something along these lines that will let you track a lost drive and even be able to display an optional "I'm Lost" message with your contact details (and reward info, if necessary).
I once wrote a simple AutoIt program to run on insert that gave my contact details, but got fed up of it coming up everytime I used my drive - being able to remotely turn this message on when lost is a great idea!
I'm also working on a #3 idea, see here under experiments, if you guys want to get together on it I'm sure we can work something out.
Yours
Steve Lamerton
Heck, when I'm in a hurry, I just Alt+Tab once and then hold down Alt+F4 until they all close. The only time it pauses is if I have an unsaved doc, and I want it to ask me then, anyway.
-Obsessive Compulsiveness is not a Disorder, it's a Feature!
Solanus,
The East Wind
I made this half-pony, half-monkey monster to please you.
You could also write a simple VB script that sends keystrokes, such as Alt+Tab followed by Alt+F4, and make it loop 10 times. That could close 10 at once, and still it should pause on unsaved docs.
Solanus,
The East Wind
I made this half-pony, half-monkey monster to please you.