After running into a problem with legalities when working on Portable Skype, I checked my wishlist of open-source software programs that I wanted to be portable, I found VideoLAN. Now although VideoLAN can run from a USB key without problems, it sadly isn't truly portable as it saves its configuration to:
C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\vlc\vlcrc
So in order to prove that I could make a valid portable application, I took on the challenge of making Portable VideoLAN. This included finding a way to not only have the configuration save to a seperate location, but also wrap it up into a nice easy Portable Apps solution. Here is the aftermath:
Download Portable VideoLAN (test release)
Now I've only had limited testing with it (20 minutes), but it should work. It doesn't save anything on disk or in the registry, it's all saved in the profile folder. Try it out and tell me what you think. One problem with it is the horrible looking splash screen. If anyone wants to fix that up, please be my guest.
Anyway, I should be off. I've had a fantastic time making Portable Apps solutions for both Skype and VideoLAN today and I hope to take on some larger applications at a later date. Please tell me what you think!
Thanks again,
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VideoLan can be made completely portable by using command line switches. I use Pstart to add those switches on startup. They are:
--no-plugins-cache --config=vlcrc
These switches tell the application to not cache the plugins to the application directory or create a vlcrc file in the application data directory, but within the application folder. You just need to create a vlcrc file with no extension and the program will use that. The program will not write anything the windows machine or registry.
Deuce
"Portable Software: Just the beginning..."
Deuce
Portable Software: Just the beginning.
This is actually the solution I took, plus a few extra features. The main issue was putting it together as a Portable App solution like Portable Miranda. All you have to do is run PortableVideoLAN.exe and away you go.
It also comes with all the features that the other solutions have:
It's actually quite similar to the Portable Miranda loader. The only difference is the execution parameters and an added splash screen.
I use to use your PStart solution and just made the switch and haven't had any problems with it yet. The main reason I wrote this was to test whether or not I could actually make a Portable Apps solution.
Rob Loach [Website] [Projects]
MPUI is already portable and is somewhat a cross between vlc and mpc.
hehe
This would be the 3rd project I was working on... in addition to ClamWin and GIMP. Though I'm calling it PortableVLC instead of VideoLAN. I should have had them done already, but I've been really under the weather as of late.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Our frenchy PortableVLC...
http://forum.framasoft.org/viewtopic.php?t=11851
it be made with some idea from "John Haller Launcher"...
Framakey... FrenchPortableAppsProject [Framakey Project] [Framakey Forum]
Haha, I kind of feel bad for tredding on your tracks.
I'd be willing to rename it PortableVLC is you'd like, Portable VideoLAN is quite a long title. If you have a look at the source, you'll notice it's almost exactly the same as Portable Miranda, aside from the splash screen and the command line arguments.
Rob Loach [Website] [Projects]
Mine's basically the same thing. But launcher's a bit smaller due to a smaller icon. And my splash is a bit different. And the overall package is compressed using UPX, too. I hadn't released it as I hadn't tested it under Windows 95/98 and Win2K yet. (I usually like to do that before posting a release)
The short name is PortableVLC. The full name is Portable VLC Media Player so people unfamiliar with VLC know what the heck it is. I debated that a bit. Even did Google searches for videolan vs vlc. VideoLan seems a bit of an odd name and both were about equally popular (between 3 million and 3.5 million pages) so I went with VLC. Adding "Media Player" to that was fine. And that's the way they list it on their homepage. I'll post my version just in the forum here so you guys can take a look at it.
No worries on tredding. It's my own fault. I really should release alpha test versions to the forums for people to try out even before I do a thorough OS test. That is kinda why I created the Dev and Beta forums.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
As promised, I posted the release of VLC I had been working on so you guys can check it out.
https://portableapps.com/node/760
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!