right. im really really new to this portable applications thing but it seems like a really good thing. so ive used the trial of ceedo, read alot about u3 and am now using this nice portableapps thingy.
I'm not sure which one i should pick, seems if i have u3 i have to buy a new u3 memory stick, and that ceedo costs something. So far portableapps looks lie the best option but the problem is, it doesnt have nearly as much applications as either ceedo or u3. Is there any other sites i can get portableapps applications? and also, on some of the college computers, there is no icon tray on the bottom right hand side of windows. Is there a way to bring it up through shortcuts? i know there is for ceedo. Ummm, oh yeah, also, when i click on the icon on the right-bottom of windows, its got my documents, music, videos and that lot, but is there any way i can add my own folders onto this list.
also i mconfused about what makes things portable, as ive managed to install quake 3 arena on my computer, copy and paste the installed files onto my memory stick, and i can play q3a by opening the exe. so why use these portable apps.
thanks
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No.
In other words:
Depends on your definition of "portableapps appliocations". As the Menu recognizes every App put in a sub folder of {yourdrivename}/PortableApps/ , you can put there what you want and use it with the menu.
But the definition of "portable" is pretty tight here. It means that the App doesn't leave any personal files/settings behind, neither in the registry nor on the hdd.
No.
Maybe in an upcoming version of the Menu.
No.
Hope that helps a little bit to lift the fog.
“Science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts” - Richard P. Feynman
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
"As the Menu recognizes every App put in a sub folder of {yourdrivename}/PortableApps/ , you can put there what you want and use it with the menu." But what classes as an app. i just want this menu to recognise quake 3 arena, ive put it into the apps folder on my memory stick
What is the path to your quake executable?
“Science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts” - Richard P. Feynman
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
hey thanks but i got it working anyway.
One of the main things that makes an application technically "portable" is that the propgram leaves no traces of it's work on any given host computer.
"Don't look now, but there's one too many persons in this room and I think it's you" - Groucho Marx
www.portablefreeware.com
www.framakey.org (it's mostly in French, but the apps are in English; there is also a link to English pages that should help you find the apps you want)
Vintage!
hey, thanks lot for these
hey, thanks for all the replies. ive sorted everything out that i wanted to, but i was just wondering if anyone has used that pstart program that i just discovered. and do you know all of these apps, would they work with u3 and ceedo aswell?
also, does anyone have an opinion of which i should do?
1) buy a new u3 memory stick
2) stick with my portableapps software which i love because open source rules! but its taken down by the fact that it doesnt have many apps and cant be run at my college where there is no icon tray.
3) buy ceedo cause its got good amount of apps but its baought down cause it will probably be outrun by microsofts new thing in 2008.
thanks for anyone who replies.
Since you asked...
I'd go with option 2 (basically what I do) and use the portable freeware to supplement the open source applications you will find here. You MAY want to use PStart, ASuite, or another launcher instead of or to supplement PAM, but I find most of the freeware apps will be found and run properly from being installed under the main Portable Apps directory/folder. Option 2 is cheaper and more consistently reliable than becoming dependent on U3 or Ceedo which might just disappear at Microsoft's whim ("new technology"). Remember, Microsoft isn't interested in you being able to use the same copy of software in multiple places; they want you to buy more copies!
hey, thanks alot for that, so portableapps is defenetely more reliable and futureproof. which menu should i use. pstart solves the icon tray problem but portableapps looks so dam nice. which you use?
I don't have the icon tray problem since I have Administrator rights to my work laptop. I simply chose to not install most of my personal software collection on the company machine (Palm Desktop is the only one installed). I use the current PAM beta (see the Beta forum) as my main portable menu. Right now, I'm playing with PStart as a supplemental for handling batch files, .com files, and other applications that don't conform to the standard directory structure (which is executables in the main subdirectory). I haven't finalized my structure, because I am waiting for the next version of PAM which, according to scuttlebutt and rumor will support batch files and allow me to select only the executables I want to appear in the menu when there are multiple executables in the directory (known limitation).
Is ok, but most members here who don't use the PortableApps Menu use ASuite. If you search around on this site you'll find places to download it. It's very similar to PStart, but with a few more/different features, plus it's open source.
If you want my opinion, stick with a normal key, use ASuite, and get your applications from here. The forums here have links to every piece of portable software imaginable. I've rarely (if ever) been to portablefreeware and framakey, and I have 50 portable applications on my drive. I got links to almost all of them from this site. Many of them aren't written by John, but the ones that aren't are made by knowledgeable PA.commies, such as Ryan McCue, Simeon, Tanisthalon, etc.
My opinion: ASuite + Whatever you find on the PA.com forums.
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chris
It is not your audience's responsibility to puzzle out what you intended to say; it is your responsibility to express yourself so clearly that no one with a modicum of intelligence and good will could possibly mistake your meaning.
__
chris
It is not your audience's responsibility to puzzle out what you intended to say; it is your responsibility to express yourself so clearly that no one with a modicum of intelligence and good will could possibly mistake your meaning.
so i will have in the removable disk - documents, portableapps and startportableapps and then have pstart inside portableapps and all of my normal memory stick stuff under documents?
Because you tell PStart where each menu item is (not a fixed directory structure), you can put the non-PAM conforming applications anywhere you need to. One possibility would be an 'Other' directory, either in the drive root or under 'Portable Apps', just so long as there are no .exe files directly in 'Other'.
For that matter, if you use PStart as your primary menu (because of the system tray problem), the structure is entirely up to you.
Even for non conforming apps, I try to have a unique directory for each application, just to keep the structure consistent.
"Is there any other sites i can get portableapps applications?"
Well, tanisthalon has some nice apps, Ryan has a couple nice ones as well, I see nothing wrong with my Portable Version of TTCalc, those and Johns are all quite good.
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I felt so different without a signature.
hey, thanks for the comments anyone.
so ive decided to have pam as my main thingy. but because of the icon tray thing i also use asuite like one of you suggested. so at college ill use asuite and anywhere else its pam. and thanks for all the sites for the apps and ill also use these nice forums aswell. thanks everyone
I have tried all three. PortableApps is by far the least invasive, and that is what it's all about.
With three different competing formats there seems to be a lot of interest in Less Complicated software.
I am tring to coin a new phrase to describe software that marks it's territory all over my hard drive.
"Dog-Piss-Ware"
Please use it and pass it on.
Moderation in all things; including moderation.
I just got a U3 drive yesterday, and tried it on my work computer today, and I already don't like it. I had to disconnect a network drive so that I could free up that drive letter to get it to work, and since every computer at work uses that drive letter for a network directory, I can imagine forever having to go through the routine of disconnecting and then re-mapping to the network drive again. What a blasted pain in the you know what! There MIGHT be a work around, but I'd have to search and search for it, and in the end there MIGHT NOT be a work around.
So now I'm faced with the decision to abandon the U3 framework, wipe the memory stick clean, and install something else for portable applications, or to stay with it and try and make it work for me. Of course, the stick came with all sorts of dire warnings about if you remove the U3 application starter then YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO GET IT BACK AGAIN!!
Yikes! What to do....what to do...
So this question came at an opportune moment for me!
The only positive thing I can say about that U3 drive, is that I was finally able to use Firefox at work. THAT was pleasant!
I had the problem many times so maybe I can save you some time:
Rightclick on "My Computer" and go to "Manage".
Go to "Storage" ->"Disk Management"
Then in the right upper section, rightclick on your USB drive, go to "change drive letter", select a new one and press OK.
That should do it.
“Science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts” - Richard P. Feynman
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
The IT department has disabled that function for us hoi polloi. I can disconnect the mapped directory, but I cannot rename it, or any other device.