I need to point the .purple directory to an encrypted volume (W) since pidgin sores plaintext logs and account passwords in that location.
Using the PURPLEHOME environment variable, I can confirm it is pointing to the correct location, however pidgin ignores it. See following screenshot:
http://i.imgur.com/dieOXXK.jpg
Please fix this issue, and let me know if there is any kind of workaround I can use in the meantime to force pidgin to store its data in a different location, thanks.
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Pidgin Portable sets PURPLEHOME when it is run, which I believe means it overrides your previously-set variable.
Also, it currently uses a custom launcher, rather than the PortableApps.com Launcher, so it's not as easy to change. If you absolutely must have a different location, you can recompile the launcher from source using NSIS Unicode Portable against the appropriate .nsi file in Other\Source once you've modified it.
The PURPLEHOME environment variable is altered by the Pidgin Portable launcher. Setting it outside the app has no effect on Pidgin Portable. If you wish to use an encrypted volume, you can place all of Pidgin Portable within it.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I see the issue now, thanks.
I was able to work around it by using the -c flag on launch.
I'm compelled to point out that the way pidginportable stores account information in a plaintext configuration file is inherently problematic because of unencrypted thumb drives being lost or stolen. While it's possible to store pidginportable entirely on an encrypted volume, this severely hinders the performance of the application, which consists of over 1000 files, so is not really a feasible solution either.
My solution is to mount the encrypted volume before launching pidginportable from unencrypted space, then direct it to the new .purple directory using pidginportable.exe -c W:\path
It would be nice if the application launcher provided some kind of configuration GUI that made users aware of this issue and offered an easier way to solve it, or even if it just stored the path in an easy to edit .ini file. (asking for built in account and log encryption may be a bit much.)