It would be nice if there was a portable file manager. The PAM could then launch it when you click the explore/documents/etc. buttons. It could even just use the 7zip file manager.
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I agree a portable file manager would be fantastic.
One that actually works well and is stable.
SmithTech
"Because they stand on a wall and say, 'Nothing is going to hurt you tonight. Not on my watch.'" (A Few Good Men)
Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous.(Albert Einstein)
This has been discussed already. Direct your attention to the top of the page. You'll see a silver bar underneath a thicker red one. At the right, there is a text box and a search button.
Vintage!
Well, PowerDesk 6, A43, freeCommander, and XYplorer are few that come to mind, and all are portable (though not necessarily "run" portably, in the sense of leaving no traces behind on host machine). I use 'em all at various times (PD6 preferred, 'cuz of richness of feature set).
All are free & relatively small downloads, but none are open-source (AFAIK), so you'll not likely see 'em here on portableapps.com
PowerDesk 6 Std
http://www.v-com.com/product/PowerDesk_free.html
A43
http://www.primitus.us/a43/
freeCommander
www.freeCommander.com
XYplorer (has since gone "non-free", but you can scour the net to find one of the earlier free versions)
www.xyplorer.com
"I don't hate cats...as long as they stay on the freeway, where they belong."
- Brad Stine
Hiya Preacher,
I went to the PowerDesk (Free) page and got ready to download when I noticed that the DL page for the Free version is title "Free Trial" and the DL button is labeled "Request Trial". Can you please confirm whether this is truly a fully functional version that will not expire? Or are you using the Pro version? Since I have to enter an email address to get it, I would like to be sure.
Also, do you know what kind of stuff PowerDesk leaves on the host computer? You mention that some of the products you mention do not necessarily leave no traces...did you have PowerDesk6 in mind?
Thanks. CD
The Free Version
The free version of PowerDesk has a minor static advertisement... I believe at the bottom of the window. It won't expire however if It's been a while since I've upgraded to pro, some of the advanced features like folder synchronization and tree size management might be features reserved for Pro.
@ JJDafoe
"The free version of PowerDesk has a minor static advertisement... I believe at the bottom of the window."
-------------------
Yes, very minor indeed. It's one of the best (and perhaps only?) examples of "unobtrusive" adware. Other adware proggies should emulate these guys...
"some of the advanced features like folder synchronization and tree size management might be features reserved for Pro."
--------------------
Yup, still the case - last I was aware of, anyway.
"I don't hate cats...as long as they stay on the freeway, where they belong."
- Brad Stine
@chezduong:
"Can you please confirm whether this is truly a fully functional version that will not expire?"
----------------------------
Yupper, the one I'm using is fully functional, although there are some features that are ONLY found in the "Pro" version.
However, I don't use them features real often, so when I *do* need them I simply go the the "Pro" edition of v.4 that I've had for years, and use said features from that.
In fact, I only bother using v4 at ALL when I need those features.
"Also, do you know what kind of stuff PowerDesk leaves on the host computer?
----------------------------
Nope, I dunno. Never bothered to check.
Since coming here I've begun to realize there are 2 kinds of "portable" apps. I'm not sure what sort of terminology to use to distinguish the two (I'm open to suggestsions on nomenclature from the fine folks here on the forum, tho', so y'all feel free to offer suggestions), but it comes down to this:
1) Those that *run* portably - meaning, they don't need to be installed and can be run from a thumbdrive of a burned CD-ROM
and
2) Those that are "fully" portable - meaning, they both run portably AND leave no traces of themselves behind
(IOW, those that fit the "portableapps.com" definition of the term...)
"I don't hate cats...as long as they stay on the freeway, where they belong."
- Brad Stine
Someone else mentioned Stealth versus Portable....
Ciao.
To quote my FAQ:
Q. If these programs are portable, does that mean they leave no traces on the
host computer?
A. Portable apps themselves do not leave traces, but the operating system will
track all applications run, including those run from a removable drive. Windows
will keep a record in the prefetch folder (typically C:\WINDOWS\Prefetch\) aka
%PREFETCH% as well as in the registry
(HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ShellNoRoam\MUICache).
So stealth and portability are two different things.
Vintage!
I think stealth (although its not real stealth) vs. portable is a good differentiation. Its not perfect but good.
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
There are programs that are able to run out of a USB on any computer, but it leaves registry settings behind, therefore portable but not invisible. What PA.com is trying to do is to create "invisible" programs. Also, I'm sure there's a way to delete the %prefetch% and MUICache entries with the launchers, but there must be a good reason of why it's not done. On the other hand, I like "Firefox Portable Edition" better than "Firefox Stealth Edition"
---------------
Marge: Homer, the plant called. They said if you don't show up tomorrow don't bother showing up on Monday.
Homer: Woo-hoo. Four-day weekend.
"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on." -- Robert Frost
"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: baby ain't mine." -- Adam Holguin
"Stealth Edition" sounds like Cold War and other bad things.
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
I found a site that makes this distiction
Mobile apps will run w/o installation while Portable Apps will not alter the registry or leave any files behind.
Thats a good idea!
I concur.
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
---------------
Marge: Homer, the plant called. They said if you don't show up tomorrow don't bother showing up on Monday.
Homer: Woo-hoo. Four-day weekend.
"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on." -- Robert Frost
"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: baby ain't mine." -- Adam Holguin
Total Commander rulez 8)
There's also Ewaynes's File Manager. Quite useless, but fun
"Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do." Asimov
if you like a DOS sort of style archiver, there is file and archive manager(FAR manager). its under 3mb and is available from http://farmanager.com/
But there’s no sense crying over every mistake,
You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.
Meh, Necromancer's DOS Navigator is much better and more feature-packed, and comes in DOS and Windows versions.
Thx anyway.
"I don't hate cats...as long as they stay on the freeway, where they belong."
- Brad Stine
I just finished packaging xplorer2 lite edition (with permission) with a launcher.
Give it a try if you like and let me know if you have any comments.
xplorer2 lite
"Because they stand on a wall and say, 'Nothing is going to hurt you tonight. Not on my watch.'" (A Few Good Men)
Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous.(Albert Einstein)
I like it - clean, simple.
2 things:
- Shouldn't you include the source for your launcher?
- A separate topic to announce it would be better I think
I'll add the source for the launcher.
Not allowed to add a seperate topic here as xplorer2 is not open source.
"Because they stand on a wall and say, 'Nothing is going to hurt you tonight. Not on my watch.'" (A Few Good Men)
Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous.(Albert Einstein)
I double-checked the forum "Stickies", and couldn't find anywhere that says your app needs to be open source. As long as you have permission from the author to repackage their app in portable format (as you have done), you are able to post about it in the forums.
Perhaps you're confusing it with the requirements for having a portable app hosted by PortableApps.com: Since PA.com uses Sourceforge for hosting, closed source applications cannot be hosted by PA.com. But you can host it yourself (or elsewhere) (again, as you already have done).
I guess we need to wait for further explicit guidelines from John, I presume when he officially releases the PAF specification.
I started my own topic couple of weeks ago for a portable version of Tunnelier, which is closed source, and the post has not been removed/censored. So I think you should be fine.
It does say it, but only the launcher has to be portable. The launcher and the actual app don't even need to have the same license (e.g. See my RSSOwl launcher; Launcher is GPL, RSSOwl is EPL) as they are separate apps.
----
Ryan McCue
Person 1: Oh my god. You will never believe what just happened.
Person 2: What?
Person 1: I can't remember, I've forgotten.
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
Hi Ryan,
Can you link to the where it says this?
Thanks
Well, it doesn't actually say it, but I know for a fact that it's true.
----
Ryan McCue
Person 1: Oh my god. You will never believe what just happened.
Person 2: What?
Person 1: I can't remember, I've forgotten.
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
As indicated in the forum guidelines, self-promotion is prohibited. There is one exception, and that is when you take an open source app and make it portable. Both must be under OSI-approved licenses. And even in this case, you can only make a couple posts a month per person/entity/website. The forum guidelines are stickied in the General Forum and there's a link to them when you post a new topic.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
That means I broke the rules with my posting. Although I made all the code for the launcher available, the underlying app is closed source (although free) and I did obtain permission from the authors.
I also apologise for straying from the topic...
I thought it was possible to self-promote if the launcher was open-source and either the program was open-source or you had permission from the proggy's author.
----
Ryan McCue
Person 1: Oh my god. You will never believe what just happened.
Person 2: What?
Person 1: I can't remember, I've forgotten.
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
If just your launcher is open source, you're still self-promoting closed source software. The exception to the self promotion rule is specifically to encourage open source software creation and use.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
If you have time, can you update the package?
Thanks
package updated
"Because they stand on a wall and say, 'Nothing is going to hurt you tonight. Not on my watch.'" (A Few Good Men)
Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous.(Albert Einstein)
If you don't mind paying for it, XYplorer.
It's awesome, but it's not free.
www.xyplorer.com
Vintage!
Older versions of XYplorer ARE, in fact, free for home use.
I just fired up the free version I have on my system, and I note that it's v4.40.
You just have to scour the net to find said earlier versions.
Happy hunting!
"I don't hate cats...as long as they stay on the freeway, where they belong."
- Brad Stine
I will have to see if I can find it.
In case anyone else is looking, the history file on the website indicates they switched to shareware at v4.50.0044
"Because they stand on a wall and say, 'Nothing is going to hurt you tonight. Not on my watch.'" (A Few Good Men)
Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous.(Albert Einstein)
One of my favorite Web sites is Last Freeware version. It's an online repository for great freeware that has gone shareware. Some of the software you'll find there includes jv16 Powertools, RegCleaner, AIDA32, and XYplorer!
LFV reports that the last freeware version of XYplorer was 4.50.
Enjoy!
Thanx 4 sharing that site with us. I've just bookmarked it, and sense I'll be going there frequently.
"I don't hate cats...as long as they stay on the freeway, where they belong."
- Brad Stine
Better late than never.
http://www.xyplorer.com/xyfc/viewtopic.php?t=611
Vintage!
you could always use a extention for Portable Firefox (DownThemAll! for example).
Far Manager Portable, v. 1.70.2087.0
try...
[Link removed by moderator RM: Only open-source software can be promoted on this site. Also, the PortableApps.com logo and splash screen are copyrighted and as such can not be used without permission]
Yeah, FAR is really powerful. But text mode is too big limitation IMO.
"Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do." Asimov