I have a few apps which are basically portable (they run from a single directory, without saving anything to the registry or local disk). For example, ToME (roguelike game), 4NT (command processor, commercial, "inikey" version"), TCI (tabbed console interface, commercial, "inikey" version). They certainly don't make enough of a mess for me to be bothered working out how to write a full-scale "Portable" version.
I want to add them to my portable apps menu - I can do this just by putting them next to the menu, and refreshing it, as described in the documentation, but that's not quite good enough - the app directory contains a number of supporting EXEs, which appear on the menu as well, and the menu item text/icon isn't always quite what I'd like.
Is it possible to set up some sort of "shortcut", to point to the application, so I can have something like
...\PortableApps
MyPrograms
(shortcut to ToME.exe)
(shortcut to 4NT.exe)
(shortcut to TCI.exe)
ToME
Program dir, including EXE
4NT
Program dir, including EXE
TCI
Program dir, including EXE
I've tried Windows shortcuts (.lnk files) but they need absolute paths. I could write trivial EXEs, but that seems overkill. What file types will get noticed by the menu? Realistically, there's not much beyond .lnk, .exe and .bat which will be handled by any random PC, but in practice, any PC I'd be using would have at least Windows Scripting available, so VBS and/or JS would work. Alternatively, a trivial NSIS script template that launches the app and then quits would probably be enough. Is that easy to do? (I don't know the NSIS language at all!)
Thanks,
Paul.
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this one here.
Its a nsis "shortcut" who supports relative paths.
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
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This is exe to script, a piece of software ($40) that turns batch files into exe files that the portable apps menu can run. You can use resouce hacker (http://www.angusj.com/resourcehacker/) for free to change their icons.
$40 is a lot... but the freeones don't seem to do it so reshacker can change the icon (which is eye candy but something I like)
I used it to make exe links to tiddley wikis I wanted to run with portable firefox, my syncing program, open office writer only, etc... Just put your program folder in another directory (like programs in the root directory of your drive where portable apps menu will not find them), make a folder in the PortableApps folder (like More), make a batch file there to run your program, and convert it to an exe. Port apps menu will pick up the exe file and go from there.
Supposedly this feature will be in the next version of the menu, but I don't know how long that will take.
Rich
this one here.
Thanks, that looks simple enough. I didn't know enough NSIS to work out the relevant bits from the (much more complex!) template I'd found elsewhere.
This is exe to script, a piece of software ($40) that turns batch files into exe files that the portable apps menu can run. You can use resouce hacker (http://www.angusj.com/resourcehacker/) for free to change their icons.
Also good. I actually found AutoIt which does the same sort of thing (lets me create an EXE from a script) but I wanted to change the resources - ResourceHacker would be ideal for this.
Thanks for all the help,
Paul
Well, if they are already portable, why not just create a NSIS Launcher that loads the app's main .exe from a sub-directory?