The app arrives as 2 folders and 1 file:
- Documents
- PortableApps
- Start.exe
To be honest, I've kept just the PortableApps subfolder as its own standalone folder, because I don't understand the purpose of the other folder and file. Start.exe seems like a shortcut to PortableApps\PortableApps.com\PortableAppsPlatform.exe although it's a real file that takes a couple of MB.
May I ask what is the purpose of them?
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The Start.exe is a full EXE and does things like testing the TEMP folder's viability and a few other things before passing off to PortableApps.exe.
The Documents folder contains the Documents, Music, Videos, Pictures used by the PA.c Platform and its apps. The idea being you'd be carrying it all around on an external drive or syncing it all on a cloud drive folder. Doesn't apply as much to a local install.
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What happens on startup is not Start.exe but the other file. Does it mean it's not supposed to be used except for the first time?
As for Documents, does it make the portable apps use it?
Start is generally used on portable drives as the tests it does (TEMP etc) usually only need to be done on a PC that's not yours. It's fine to start PortableAppsPlatform.exe directly.
Many portable apps will use the bundled Documents, etc by default.
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What's used automatically is the other file. So even those with a PC that's not theirs are likely to never use it.
On a portable drive, they're gonna use Start.exe in the root directory. The 'Start Automatically With Windows' etc is for your own PC. You wouldn't install it permanently on someone else's PC. Unless it was a work or school PC, in which case you know TEMP and stuff is working correctly anyway so Start.exe isn't needed.
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Where is the TEMP folder and what does it do? When you say "used by", do you mean some of the apps store their files there? Why can't they store them in PortableApps/whatever?
By default, apps use the system TEMP directory since it will be fastest and have available space. You can optionally specify a portable location but I only recommend doing it if the drive is fast enough and has sufficient space: https://portableapps.com/support/platform#advanced
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Use the TEMP directory for what? And why is the portable documents folder necessary? And where is the system temp directory?
Windows has a built in TEMP directory which is used by all apps. All kinds of apps use it for temporary files. Google Drive, Photoshop, FileZilla, Skype, Steam, etc. The PA.c Platform can optionally use a contained TEMP on your drive if you'd like to keep all your portable app TEMP files in a single location outside system temp. Our portable apps contain and delete their own TEMP directory on exit already.
The portable Documents folder is primarily for folks using the platform from a portable drive. It's a place for all your files without storing them locally. Most of our apps will automatically use it for saving files.
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What exactly does start.exe do? What do you mean by "our apps contain their own temp directory"? Are you saying the apps aren't capable of saving files anywhere? So long as the files are on the portable drive, why does it matter if they're in the documents folder?
All your questions were already answered, others need a basic search (as I did) to quickly find related topics.
PA.c has a deep documentation to fully answer such topics, also older threads and the web of course.
“All these years that I had spent in the service of mankind brought me nothing but insults and humiliation.”
― Nikola Tesla ―
“I'm such an open book, but you shall read between the lines.”
― Neo Buddha ―
I can't even find the forum search. There's a search bar in the upper right but it's not for the forum. And what do you mean by "the web of course"? What other sites could I possibly get the answers from?
“All these years that I had spent in the service of mankind brought me nothing but insults and humiliation.”
― Nikola Tesla ―
“I'm such an open book, but you shall read between the lines.”
― Neo Buddha ―
I don't know what a node is. What I'm looking for are forum threads. And why would information about the platform be on some other site, but not on this one?
Just Stop Your Spam!
“All these years that I had spent in the service of mankind brought me nothing but insults and humiliation.”
― Nikola Tesla ―
“I'm such an open book, but you shall read between the lines.”
― Neo Buddha ―
Start is already described earlier in this very thread: https://portableapps.com/comment/257270#comment-257270
The AppNamePortable.exe launcher will contain the apps TEMP files within a directory inside TEMP and delete it on exit. So, the launcher makes sure the app itself doesn't leave temp files behind.
Documents is to help organize as a default. You can save stuff wherever you want. A lot of apps will default to Documents on the local PC and some users may not realize this. That's why a portable Documents folder exists and is the default when it can be.
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What do you mean by "checking the temp folder's viability"? What might be wrong with it? And what are the "few other things"?
Are you saying there are some people who don't even look at where their files are being saved?
What functionality does a portable temp folder provide over a local temp folder? If the files are temporary, who cares where they are?
Our users have had PCs with a TEMP directory defined to a path that doesn't exist. Or one where the current user doesn't have permission to write to them. The Start.exe launcher checks all of this and responds appropriately.
Lots of people just click save without really looking since they expect it to save to their Documents directory. Since many portable app users are using someone else's PC, we don't want to do that by default just in case.
As explained above, the AppNamePortable.exe launcher creates a temporary directory of its own within TEMP and then uses that, deleting it on exit. The TEMP files could contain personal data. Or indicate what a user was doing on the PC to a third party. If an app leaves files behind in TEMP, it's not portable. https://portableapps.com/about/what_is_a_portable_app
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"Temp directory defined to a path that doesn't exist" - out of curiosity, how does that happen?
"Current user doesn't have permission to write" - just to be clear, we're talking about C:/users/username/appdata/local/temp, right?
What does start.exe do if temp is inaccessible but tempforportableapps doesn't exist? Does it create it?
Temp not existing is rare but can happen if the end user adjusted their paths but then deleted the directory they adjusted it to. Corruption can cause it, too.
Yes, it's possible for your defined temp directory not to have write permission for the current user. Again, rare, but it can happen due to misconfiguration or corruption.
Currently, it will alert you with a message. Either...
"The TEMP directory on this computer (C:\PathTo\Temp) does not seem to exist. Most software requires a valid TEMP directory. Please ensure a valid TEMP directory exists and can be written to. You can create a folder TempForPortableApps next to Start.exe to use a custom one temporarily."
Or...
"The TEMP directory (C:\PathTo\Temp) can not be written to, likely due to permissions. A valid TEMP directory is required for most software to properly function. Use the Permissions tab of Folder Properties and add the appropriate Read, Write, Modify and Execute rights."
We've run into users with both of these issues over the years, usually on a machine like at a school, cafe, etc. So, those specific checks and alerts were added.
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OK. I think at this point it's clear that I in particular don't need these features. Thanks.
If you're using it on your own PC, you probably don't need it. When installed for all users in the C:\ root, the installers omits Start.exe because (1) Windows gets made about putting apps there and (2) the user will likely never need it.
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It's installed on D:\, but I agree.
Is there a possibility of putting the link to documents in the menu that directs directly to the documents folder? The thing is that when you click on it it takes you to the folder where you see the folders, music, photos, videos, and it doesn't make sense because those folders also appear in the menu so you can go directly to them.
Libritario
Those three folders are within the Documents folder as was the standard in legacy versions of Windows.
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