WidgetsPortable Launcher

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February 20, 2007 - 1:31pm

SmithTech

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WidgetsPortable Launcher

I created a launcher for Yahoo Widgets using the PortableApplication Template.
This is the launcher only, but include instructions on how to download and extract without having to install to PC.
If you have it installed however you can just copy the files to the app\widget directory.

Updated the launcher for 4.0 version.
You will have to download the installer and extract the necessary files using Universal Extractor.
The widgets are stored on the flash drive and not copied to the local profile folder, it takes to long to copy all the widgets all the time.
so don't use the widget gallery widget.
Widgets Portable

February 23, 2007 - 12:09pm

John Bentley

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Looks Nice

I think that you need to copy the Widget user profile folder. eg. Local Settings/Application Data/Yahoo/Widget Engine

cowsay Moo
cowthink 'Dude, why are you staring at me.'

February 27, 2007 - 11:57am

harvey186

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Cool

I like the launcher very much. It works with my USB Stick and XP64. Thanks Harvey

Shit happens

February 27, 2007 - 12:32pm

arqbrulo

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I'm liking it

however, I think it leaves registry entries under HKCU\Software\Yahoo\WidgetsEngine\Widgets and HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-776561741-1715567821-839522115-1193\Software\Yahoo\WidgetEngine\Widgets. It's a list of the widgets you had opened with the screen location.
---------------
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

February 27, 2007 - 12:59pm

(Reply to #4) #5

SmithTech

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I'll post an update as soon

I'll post an update as soon as I get a chance.

"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)

February 27, 2007 - 1:39pm

(Reply to #5) #6

arqbrulo

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Dont worry about it

No rush what so ever, I know you have quite a bit of programs as well.
---------------
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

February 27, 2007 - 1:58pm

(Reply to #6) #7

SmithTech

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I just ran a few quick

I just ran a few quick tests, it doesn't appear to be leaving anything behind.
Did you by chance have yahoo widgets installed prior?
Are you "Quiting Yahoo Widgets" before you eject or remove the usb drive?

"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)

February 27, 2007 - 3:23pm

(Reply to #7) #8

arqbrulo

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Yep...

"quit Yahoo Widgets", close PAM, eject usb device, chech registry and there it is, the same registry settings that I already mentioned. Like I said, they are folders with the individual widgets that I ran, and the only entry that it has is "position".
---------------
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

February 27, 2007 - 4:39pm

(Reply to #8) #9

SmithTech

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What version of windows?

What version of windows?
Are you logged on with administrative rights?
Yahoo Widgets stores its settings in the registry.
The launcher makes a copy of any existing registry settings and restores them when the portable version closes.
Try deleting the entries, run the portable version, quit Yahoo Widgets, then see if the entries are still there.
Make sure you refresh the view in registry editor, it won't refresh automatically.
Let me know.
Did the PC have Yahoo Widgets installed on it before? I'm asking because one of the entries you mention.. HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-776561741-1715567821-839522115-1193\Software\Yahoo\WidgetEngine\Widgets doesn't exist at all on any of my test machines. Even when Widgets Portable is running so I'm guessing the registry entries are left over from a previous install and the launcher is doing exactly what it is supposed to which is make a copy of existing entries and restore them when the portable version closes.

"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)

February 27, 2007 - 7:20pm

(Reply to #9) #10

arqbrulo

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WinXP / Admin

I manually deleted HKCU... and apparently it's the same as KKEY_USERS..., 'cause after I deleted it, the second one was not there. Anyways, here's what's going on. I run Widgets Portable, chech the registry and see quite a few subfolders (my widgets). After I close it, some are removed, but not all.

FYI: I'm using some widgets that came with the program (PortableApps\WidgetsPortable\App\Widgets\Widgets) and others that I downloaded (same location).
---------------
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

March 1, 2007 - 7:10pm

(Reply to #10) #11

SmithTech

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Can you zip the portable

Can you zip the portable widgets folder and email to me?
Check my profile for the address.

Don't complain if you bought a Hyundai and it doesn't perform like a Porsche

"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)

March 1, 2007 - 6:50pm

#12

Sanicle

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Works Beautifully

I messed up and deleted a folder the first time, second time round was a complete success though. I haven't checked for registry entries, but I'm not that bothered to be honest. Works great not just with built in widgets but with additional ones too Tested using a guest account for the entire process, thanks to a broken laptop. This helps make the period between now and fixing it in a few monhths that bit more bearable

March 1, 2007 - 8:37pm

#13

cavedeamon

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download

I have tried to download the widget installer from the yahoo website but it doesn't allow me. I even use IE but it just auto runs the exe. I found that you have to go into your temp internet folder to get the widgetsus.exe file

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----

March 1, 2007 - 9:15pm

#14

scoutconnor

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Works Great But...

is there a way that you can save where your widgets were on the screen when you go to another computer?
P.S. cavedeamon what was your Eagle Project? I am a Life Scout looking 4 ideas

March 4, 2007 - 7:58pm

(Reply to #14) #15

cavedeamon

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Eagle project

e-mail me at cavedeamon@gmail.com and I will give you a list of eagle projects I attended
----
eagle scout

Technology can solve all our problems, like using a laptop for a space heater in a cold tent in the middle of winter.
----

March 2, 2007 - 11:54am

#16

SmithTech

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Apparently when I made the

Apparently when I made the launcher I used the U3 version which is 3.1.7 and the downloadable version is 3.1.4
3.1.7 works fine, 3.1.4 for some reason writes information back to the registry after the launcher has cleaned it.
But in searching, I found that yahoo widgets is released under the BSD license which I believe will allow me to distribute the binaries unmodified.
I will add them to the download and post it later today.

Don't complain if you bought a Hyundai and it doesn't perform like a Porsche

"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)

March 3, 2007 - 12:40pm

(Reply to #16) #17

Tim Clark

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Local Settings\Application Data\Yahoo\Widget...

First let me tell you I love this.
I have the U3 Version but was bugged by having to plug in the drive to use the widgets.

I am using the 3.1.7 engine that I snatched from the u3 drive.

The registry cleans up perfectly for me.

But, there seems to be a whole mess of data, 9.48MBs
in:
C:\Documents and Settings\Tim\Local Settings\Application Data\Yahoo\Widget Engine\

there seems to be a folder/directory for each widget I launch which implies it will grow with each different/new widget that I launch.

I'm really not worried about things left behind from a privacy point of view as much as from a "I just don't like things left lying around when I defrag" point of view.

I've never quite understood the relationship between
...\Tim\Local Settings\Application Data\...
and
...\Tim\Application Data\...

are the things in
..\Tim\Local Settings\Application Data\...

Like temp files, and I can just delete them?

My thought is to just delete the whole:
...\Yahoo\Widget Engine\... from the Tim\Local Settings\ tree from time to time,

Will this work?

or am I missing something?

Anyway I saw no mention of this situation in the thread so I thought I should bring it to your attention. If you were aware of it, and it is normal, just let me know what I should/can do with the files in
...Tim\Local Settings\Application Data\Yahoo\Widget...

Keep up the good work.

Tim

Things have got to get better, they can't get worse, or can they?

March 29, 2007 - 10:37am

#18

relequestual

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v 4

yahoo widgets has been updated to version 4. any chance you could make it so its the version 4 engine? this would be kewl!
love the idea though. i will use it alot probably

March 30, 2007 - 2:05pm

(Reply to #18) #19

Sanicle

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Follow the same instructions

I have tested this myself, and you can follow the same instructions to extract and use widgets 4. all you have to do afterwards is make sure that you set widgets NOT to be sorted automatically. (preferences - general - untick "consolidate widgets). Other pitfalls to avoid with portable widgets 4 are that you will have to download the widget gallery widget on its own if you want it, from here. Lastly, this widget is only good as part of the portable app for finding widgets - Do NOT use it to download them or they will go straight to the local documents folder. Use the view in browser option instead. I hope the author of widgets portable launcher finds ways of eliminating these problems soon, meanwhile I hope this has helped

April 17, 2007 - 10:00am

#20

SmithTech

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I updated the

I updated the launcher.
Works with v4 and handles the $Profile\My Widgets folder

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For those who have fought for it, freedom has a flavor the protected will never know.

"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)

April 25, 2007 - 11:54am

#21

scoutconnor

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Is there a way to have

Is there a way to have Widgets portable automaticly point to the Widgets folder on the flash drive?

April 25, 2007 - 1:03pm

(Reply to #21) #22

SmithTech

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The Widget Engine looks to

The Widget Engine looks to the profile folder.
As far as I know there is no way to change this.
The new launcher will copy your widgets to the appropriate folder after backing up any existing widgets.
The Widgets Engine will "remember" where it last opened a widget from, so you could open the widget from the flash drive, but if the drive letter changes it won't work.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For those who have fought for it, freedom has a flavor the protected will never know.

"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)

April 25, 2007 - 3:36pm

(Reply to #22) #23

scoutconnor

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When I launch the launcher

When I launch the launcher it copies files to the host computer. when it is done copying the "copying" screen still shows and gets "stuck". Also, not all of the files that you said to copy in the "List"'s files were in the installer

April 25, 2007 - 4:28pm

(Reply to #23) #24

Simeon

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the copyfiles command is just missing a /SILENT afterwards so it doesnt display the "copying files" window any more.
"There is a computer disease that anybody who works with computers knows about. It's a very serious disease and it interferes completely with the work. The trouble with computers is that you 'play' with them!" - Richard Feynman

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April 25, 2007 - 4:37pm

(Reply to #24) #25

SmithTech

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which version of the

which version of the installer are you using?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For those who have fought for it, freedom has a flavor the protected will never know.

"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)

April 25, 2007 - 5:26pm

(Reply to #25) #26

scoutconnor

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4.0

4.0, also is there a way to fix it?
Correction:
not all of the files were in the YAHOO! installer

April 25, 2007 - 7:41pm

(Reply to #26) #27

SmithTech

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Ok, I will have to look at

Ok, I will have to look at it.
Is there a way to fix what?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For those who have fought for it, freedom has a flavor the protected will never know.

"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)

April 26, 2007 - 9:56am

#28

scoutconnor

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Fix the fact that the

Fix the fact that the "Copying" box does not go away (and the fact that it even shows up because it would be nicer if it did not show up at all)

April 26, 2007 - 2:24pm

(Reply to #28) #29

SmithTech

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Seems alot has changed

Seems alot has changed between 4.0.1 and 4.0.2.
The VisualC runtimes have been updated to 8.0 versus 7.1 along with a few other changes.
I will work on updating the launcher this weekend and hide the copy window.

EDIT: Ok, I updated the launcher and changed the instructions for the new files.
I made them a bit more generic so if some things change the instructions should still be the same and still work.
Give it a try and let me know how it works.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For those who have fought for it, freedom has a flavor the protected will never know.

"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)

May 1, 2007 - 11:44am

(Reply to #29) #30

scoutconnor

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Works fine but...

...every time it launches you must agree to the terms and conditions again. also, if it finds a "backup" copy of your widgets it alerts you to change them

May 1, 2007 - 1:51pm

(Reply to #30) #31

SmithTech

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The "backup" alert is by

The "backup" alert is by design, this is so if the restore fails and the backup isn't deleted, it warns you so you don't make a backup of the backup and end up restoring the portable settings as the original settings.
But if your getting the warning its not completing the cleanup, could also be why you have to agree to the license every time.
What OS are you running it on? System specs etc.? Are you shutting down widgets bofore shutting down or rebooting your pc? or letting windows shut it down?
I haven't had this problem in my testing, I will have to find a couple other systems with different configs to test on.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For those who have fought for it, freedom has a flavor the protected will never know.

"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)

May 4, 2007 - 9:14am

#32

scoutconnor

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I use it on both Vista & XP

I use it on both Vista & XP and I get the same problems

June 6, 2007 - 5:57am

#33

alhakeem2001

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Download problem

But why I can't download the Widgets Portable to my computer ?

April 22, 2008 - 11:53am

#34

Unemployed Stor...

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v4.5

Is this compatible w/ version 4.5 as I went through the install process but get stuck at "Copy all FILES & FOLDERS from \widgetsus\$PLUGINSDIR\ywe_setup\$_OUTDIR to \PortableApps\WidgetsPortable\App\Widget Engine" as the folder does not exist.

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