I was wondering if it would be possible to get a portable app that hijacked the File Associations and rerouted them to a .reg or a .ini file temporarily. So that when I put in my drive and run the program I can have my custom list of file associations become dominant... (ie html files open in portable firefox, video files open in portable VLC etc.) Then everything goes back to normal when I close the program and remove the drive.
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To me it looks more like something Microsoft needs to add to associations, call it "cascading associations": If App1 is available, use it, otherwise use the default App2.
In general, I find filetype associations in XP quite frustrating. Don't know if it's changed in Vista (anyone else know?).
At first blush it seems like something perfect for Portable Apps Suite to do, because it knows the portable apps installed on the drive, and it could register the new associations at startup.
The problems I can see with this:
- there can be other apps on the portable drive that PAS doesn't know about (not PAF format)
- at shutdown, it needs to de-register the temporary associations, but I don't think there's any assurance that shutdown is properly run every time.
Jeff
Actually it wouldn't be that hard a thing to do.
PCMag actually has a util the will do it, but its not portable and not automatable.
I've sent them a suggestion to do just that.
Any way what you would need to do is...
1. Maintain a list of file extensions to change the association on.
2. Back up those associations from the host machine.
3. Apply the portable settings only if the backup was successful.
4. On exit restore the host settings
5. Delete the backup only if the restore was successful.
6. Have the option to reapply the restore if for some reason it wasn't successful.
Optional:
Have profiles for different machines with the option to apply a default profile on unknown machines. Could use the machine name for this as it isn't likely to change.
I've actually been thinking about writing such an app, just don't have the time right now. I would probably have to be written in C++ or Delphi for best compatibility neither of which I'm familiar with, and I'm busy studying for my MCSD.NET for work.
SmithTech
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I used "AppSnapper", which did something very similar to what SmithTech is proposing.
I agree it would be something to integrate into PortableApssSuite (I had AppSnapper setup to AutoLaunch with U3, but it didn't feel integrated into the "Experience"!)
I made a AutoIt exe that opens a few things: PAM, AutoStart, but it's also setup to create shortcuts in "c:\Documents and settings\user\sendto\", for example, I have Firefox, OpenOffice, Notepad++, FoxIt, and 7zip. So instead of "open with" or double-click, I just go to "send to".
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