This package has been updated. Please see here:
https://portableapps.com/node/13387
I've just posted a beta update of the PortableApps.com Platform (formerly, PortableApps.com Suite Base). This includes an updated PortableApps.com Menu as well as a new PortableApps.com Installer for the platform. This is meant to serve as, essentially, a quick maintenance release while we hash out the theming and functionality for the next full official release of the PortableApps.com Menu. It consists of the 1.0.2 Beta 3 release with some functionality and bugfixes from the upcoming releases backported to it so that we have a solid, stable release out there for everyone to use while we hack away at a new release and finalize a few things. Basically, it's a bunch of simple bug fixes and features resulting in a stable update that shouldn't need much testing and we can get up quickly so we can retire the 1.0.x release.
PortableApps.com Menu 1.1
The bundled PortableApps.com Menu includes some handy new features and bug fixes compared to 1.0.x releases:
- Draggable - The menu is draggable around the screen by clicking and holding on the PortableApps.com logo
- Localized - The menu has been localized into 17 different languages (see below)
- Tray Right Click - There is now a right-click in the tray to close the menu without having it show up again
- Global Hot Key - WINDOWS+P will show or hide the PortableApps.com Menu
- Wallpaper Swapper - Place a file call portableapps_wallpaper.bmp in your Documents\Pictures directory and the menu will swap it for the Windows wallpaper while the menu is running and swap it back when you're close it
- Video to Videos - By popular demand, the Video directory has become Videos. The installer will automatically adjust this for you
- Single Instance - Launching the PortableApps.com Menu a second time will cause the currently running instance to show
- Uninstallers Filtered - Files called uninstall.exe are ignored
- Keyboard Accelerators - There are now keyboard accelerators on all elements within the menu. So, you could quickly hit WINDOWS-P and then ALT-D to bring up your Documents folder if you don't have the menu up.
- Page Up / Page Down - In addition to the arrow keys and mouse wheel, you can now use the Page Up and Page Down keys to scroll your list of apps.
- NEW IN BETA 4: Personal Picture - You can place a personal picture in the menu (much like on Windows XP/Vista). It appears in the upper right. Just click it to change it. 48x48 pictures work best but it will stretch or shrink others automatically. Very large pictures may cause the menu to start slowly.
- NEW IN BETA 4: Remain Visible - If you add a line reading RemainVisible=True to your PortableAppsMenu.ini, it will remain visible even when you click off of it.
- NEW IN BETA 4: Start Minimized - If you add a line reading StartMinimized=True to your PortableAppsMenu.ini, it will start in the system tray without displaying.
- NEW IN BETA 4: Fade Menu - If you add a line reading FadeMenu=False to your PortableAppsMenu.ini, it won't fade in and out.
- NEW IN BETA 4: Start Position - If you add a line reading StartPosition= to your PortableAppsMenu.ini, you can select the position the menu starts in. The default is LowerRight but you can also choose UpperRight, UpperLeft, LowerLeft and Center.
- BUGFIX: autorun.inf - The autorun.inf in the root directory is now set with normal attribute so it won't confuse people
- BUGFIX: Settings Remembered - The menu now remembers your settings (font size, language)
- BUGFIX: Working Directory - Applications expecting to be run from their own directory will now function correctly
- BUGFIX: Low Color Menu Icons - The menu icons have been improved to display properly on 16-bit and lower color depth displays
- BUGFIX: Low Color Logo - The PortableApps.com logo will now show up properly on 16-bit and lower color depth displays
- BUGFIX: Default Browser - The URLs for support and search will now fall back to the PC's default browser if Firefox Portable is not installed.
Localization - 17 Languages and Counting
Thanks to the work of several people, the Menu is now localized into 17 languages. I had to modify a few slightly to add in some new menu options (like Language and About), but they should be pretty good. We'll need our translators to choose appropriate accelerator keys and look over the strings to be sure all is well.
The available localizations are: Catalan, Chinese (Traditional), Czech, Dansk, Deutsh, English (US), Español, Français, Gjuha Shqipe, Hrvatska, Italiano, Nederlands, Norsk, Polski, Português, Svenska and Türkçe.
There are some issues around unicode languages. Some, like Chinese, have alternative encodings for them, so I've encoded it in the hopes that it will work on a machine set for Chinese as the primary language. On other PCs, it will show up as random characters (it's the nature of the encoding). I'd appreciate some help on testing that as I don't have a PC like that.
What's Next
In addition to the work I've been doing, both XRXCA and SmithTech are interested in working on the main tree PortableApps.com Menu. They've both come up with some unique features (and some damn interesting code) that, once combined, will produce a Menu that everyone can be happy with. (The current 1.1 release even uses XRXCA's code for handling multiple instances and dynamically adding to a menu as both were an improvement on mine.) We'll be flushing out how to work together once I get this release posted and SVN access setup correctly (by the way, could you please both email me your SourceForge logins so I can set you up).
Download
The update is packaged in a new installer that should automatically detect your existing installation. I'd recommend backing up just to be safe first.
Download PortableApps.com Platform 1.1 Beta 4 (775KB) [Delphi Source]
View a screenshot of PortableApps.com Platform
Please post back any feedback on your testing. I'd like to get this posted as a new release this week.
Known Issues / To Do List
I'm adding a list of known issues between beta releases that people find so that they don't get reported multiple times and so we can be sure and get them before the official release.
- BUG: Installer overwrites existing custom autorun.inf
- ADD: Ability to disable Personal Picture
Thanks,
John
UPDATE Beta 2: Fixed the Videos button not working bug and improved the tray menu.
UPDATE Beta 3: Re-fixed working directory bug.
UPDATE Beta 4: Fixed Video plural in localizations. Added INI options to start minimized, remain visible, fade and to select the menu's start position. Added a personal picture in the upper right with a placeholder.
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Finally, it has arrived, and apparently I'm the first one to try it out. Hahahaha!!!!
"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
Just first to comment!
It's out!
Videos link is not working in the menu
This is fixed in beta 2.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
works fine,
but my big missing is an Categories and Sort option and an option for more themes (like r23)
but very good work
Greetz
NeoRame
Hell was full, so I came back!!!
Sorry for my lousy English!!!
As already stated in the announcement, this is a maintenance release. The theming and categorization features aren't ready for a "stable" public release that will be downloaded by a quarter million people a month and supported for months and years to come.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Sorry this was also none criticism. only one states and pleasant anticipation.
NeoRame
Hell was full, so I came back!!!
Sorry for my lousy English!!!
I right click, see that my only option is exit, so I change my mind and decide I don't want to exit. But the little "Exit" box does not disappear, unless I left-click the icon again; and even then, it doesn't always disappear.
"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
That should be fixed in Beta 2 now.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
This is great. I'm glad to see it finally hitting 1.1
I also have the same problem of the Videos link not working in the menu.
Windows Vista Business with all the latest patches, installed PortableApps over the 1.0.2 Beta release.
Thanks for this long-awaited update!
The working-directory fix does not appear to be working. When I run Calendar (http://home.mnet-online.de/horst.muc/wrem.htm#calendar), it does not read the settings from the app dir, and it writes a new settings file to the drive's root directory. Running Calendar by double-clicking the app directly has the correct behavior. (This is under Win XP Pro.)
Thanks.
It was accidentally broken by a regression. It's fixed in Beta 3.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Confirmed. Thanks!
Can you localize the PortableAppsBackup Programm?
The new Version of the PortableAppsMenu works fine. But I don't can download the Beta 2 of it.
It takes a few minutes to show up on all the mirrors, I just posted it. Localization of the Backup program will happen in the near future.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
It really paid off checking the Forum at that late hour!!!
Thank you so much for this long awaited update. It works great and I really like the new options (dragging!+right-click). Especially the HotKey is a big improvement! And I think its a very good idea to get SmithTech and XRXCA into the "development boat" cause I think that will speed it up.
EDIT:
I just downloaded beta2 and after 5 minutes I come back here and a new beta is there...!!!
That's fast.
Thank you so much, John.
Suggestion:
Make HotKey changable via ini file.
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
In a later release it will be configurable within options.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
The day my internet goes down, the menu is released, gees. Oh well, I'm only two hours late.
I can't wait.
For working with xrxca and SmithTech, things will be much easier on you now, and you'll have a better platform.
I wonder what sort of menu they come up with. Both of them have very cool stuff in each of their menus.
"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
It says "Video" and not "Videos.
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
Great! The one thing I could suggest is the hotkey should be something closer to the windows key or make it customizable.
cowsay Moo
cowthink 'Dude, why are you staring at me.'
If it is going to be changable in the next release, great! But if you are taking suggestions for a new, closer location, why not Windows + Shift? I was thinking of upper and lower case, and that portable apps are like a lower-case version of the normal upper case.
By the way, what do the other OS do for hotkeys w/o a window button?
Just musing, of course.
Don't be an uberPr∅. They are stinky.
Apple has the same key with a picture of the apple logo instead of the windows icon.
Release Team Member
Linux uses the windows key (through most hotkeys use the ctrl/alt/etc, depending on your window manager)
Hmm?
I agree, I already have a "Winders - P" hotkey combo. Please let me set what the hotkey is.
Michael D. Shook
Can you add an option to not install an autorun.ini file? I put it on my test hard drive and Windows doesn't like having a autorun.ini on it.
Other than that, all looks good.
Edit: Why can I see the window underneath when I click on a button to open a menu (such as options)?
Edit 2: Shouldn't it silently install apps?
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
I'll be darned if I can remember my SF id, not even sure which email address I used, when I get back to my home office (Late Wednesday night) I'll send it (it'll be on the laptop I don't have with me which isn't turned on so I can't connect to it remotely, and it ignores wakeup packets over the network (I just tried)) I suppose I could setup a new one...
_________________________
* programmer (noun) : a predominantly nocturnal creature fueled by either Caffeine or Sugar (Or Both).
I've just posted an updated beta. This update fixes the localization typos where video was single (the ones I understand anyway). It also adds in a few new features like the ability to remain visible, start minimized, disable fade, etc. You can also select the position the menu starts in (corners of the screen or centered).
I also added in the ability to select a personal picture to be placed in the upper right. It's similar to the Windows start menu pictures. 48x48. It'll stretch or shrink them for you. I've put a placeholder picture in there for now (it's not the final version). I'm debating whether to leave it blank for the actual release or include a default picture. If I include a default picture, I may have a quick 1 day design contest for the included picture (don't post any yet, but design something if you'd like to).
I also added what I think is a cool looking about screen to give the menu a little more polish.
Please post any feedback or comments.
Regards,
John
PS - I need sleep now, it's 4.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
4 O' Clock in the morning, yes you will go to sleep!
Edit: I LOVE the default pic! That is a cool looking about box.
Omsoh, click and pick a picture, that's EASY
I just kept working because I was enjoying it. Now I'll be beat tomorrow.
I posted the current default pic since I'll probably change it. It's one of Everaldo's from the Crystal set. I put it over the background from the splash screens I use.
Glad you like the interface. I figured that would be the simplest. The goal is to make everything so easy that users don't have to think about how to do something, they can just do it. That's why I have the mouse cursor change on the logo and picture to let you know you can do stuff.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
And I figured the case was you were enjoying it, that's why I'm still up, working on apps.
And I know everyone's going to be begging me later, so, here's a personal display picture of my logo.
Feature requests:
Bugs:
Oh, and get to bed. We don't want you getting sick
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
1. No option for autorun.inf. Remember, this is designed to be installed to a portable drive. And Joe user has no clue what an autorun.inf is. For testing, just install it in a sub-directory and the autorun.inf has no effect
2. The reason the new options aren't in the menu is because I have no localization strings for them and that will hold up the release a lot. I forgot to mention that in the original post.
3. It looks bad when partially transparent images are used. And you can't use a transparent color for just the image (it doesn't work that way). Plus, there's no GIF support in Delphi.
4. I don't think it's worth the effort. If someone wants multiple images to use, they can keep them on the drive within the Documents directory. Having a cache and a panel of images is unnecessarily complex both code-wise and interface wise, I think. Though, I may keep a set of default ones on the drive and initially set the directory to that.
5. The tray icon is unchanged from previous versions. Do you have a lower color depth display or Win 2K?
6. Eventually, I may do silent installers. Some can't be, though (EULAs must display). I think you mean unattended, by the way, not silent. On slower drives, it can take 10 minutes for a big app like OO to install... and we'd want feedback. Also, I need to update all the installers to do this... and I'd want an option in the menu to turn it off before I do.
7. I have no idea what you mean about the transparency underneath contest menus. What OS, color depth and animation style are you using?
Sleep soon...
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Five to 5, either send me an e-mail back, or go to sleep.
No blackmailing here, ok?
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
Well FINE!
Good night John.
Edit: Oh, and when you have time, please reply to the email I sent you about AMP
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
Is there any way to allow the personal picture to be transparent?
Don't be an uberPr∅. They are stinky.
3. It looks bad when partially transparent images are used. And you can't use a transparent color for just the image (it doesn't work that way). Plus, there's no GIF support in Delphi.
There is no PNG support either for Delphi.
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
and was editing my post, but you beat me to it.
I guess I will be mucking around my icon to match the backgrounds then. 
Don't be an uberPr∅. They are stinky.
shouldn't be hard to match.
1. take a screenshot of the menu, with some pic in place
2. copy a section of the top part of the menu that is at the same vertical alignment as the picture
3. paste that into the picture you wish to use
4. move that layer behind your image.
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
make the background_top.bmp file the full size of the menu, then use color code 255,0,255 for the transarent color. I have one like that on my themes page
Too many lonely hearts in the real world
Too many bridges you can burn
Too many tables you can't turn
Don't wanna live my life in the real world
iu know i posted this already, it was an accident. sorry!
Is there a way that we could have a options dialog to change sttings in? the portable apps menu is much like the smithtech portable menu, located at smithtech.com. if we could get a options menu dialog like they have, it would be able to be much more customizeable.... i would also rather be able to add my own specific apps instead of warping my folders on my drive in to the special folder for documents or for programs.... i like the menu, i just wondered if it could be more customizablke in the ways i said. thanks.
NightFlash
Yours Truly,
NightFlash
Hi,
for the last Version of the Suite there was a German version.
I'll have a little look at the new version (Menü works fine!) and then I'll post a link to the actual German version.
Regards
Marko
Paid for Software more or less?
What You need is OSS!
Before the Platform is release, can you (John) make a thread for people to suggest what should be in the different versions of the Platform? Like which applications are the most necessary, unless you have some crazy idea where you download the menu, and then there's an installer which connects to the internet and downloads the applications you choose. *cough*
Erm, no, that's not going to happen *looks around*
(Damn Patrick, reading my emails again)
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
Actually thats a good idea.
It could then also be tied to the Get More Portable apps on the options menu.
It could keep track of what you have installed and what version etc.
"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)
I'm the brilliant one.
And humble too
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
That too. I am VERY humble.
Sound pretty humble to me. Hmmm, a humble person bragging about being humble?
Oh, and I have a signature and I'm cool :cool:.
"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning." - Rick Cook
I think we should get everyone's input on what to include in the Suite. Here's a topic on it:
https://portableapps.com/node/8469
I plan to have the ability to pick and choose apps from online. Not sure if that will make it into the 1.5 release or not, though. I have a start of some stuff for it, but I need to build some server-side things for it, too.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Hi,
Using 1.1 Beta 4 on WinXP SP2. Everything seems fine and stable (not fiddled with the .ini file yet tho). Only problem I've found is that while the hot-keys work (great!), the navigation keys (arrow keys, PgUp/Dn and indeed mouse scroll wheel) don't seem to work for me (although e.g. Alt+D to explore docs directory works fine). Not a make-or-break bug, but it's a great feature for fans of the keyboard like me!
Thanks for all your work,
J
Did you try to click on the menu to ensure it has focus? Try just clicking on the logo and then try using the keyboard. Running anything else that may steal focus?
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
...that I can see or think of. I do have TweakUI's 'prevent applications from stealing focus' setting, although I've tried it both enabled and disabled, with the same result. I've tried clicking on the menu/logo/hovering over items and trying the nav keys, but no dice... I'll try it on my other system at home, and as no-one else has reported a problem, it may just be a problem unique to my set-up. I'll let you know if I have any problems with it on my home XP systems. Thanks, J
Hey guys:
Check out the locale files.
There are much more Shortcuts (M for Music, P for Pics) and you can even localise them by adding a & before the letter you want.
Example:
if I want the folder "Bilder" to open with Alt-B, I have to change
ICON_PICTURES=BildertoICON_PICTURES=&Bilder.Its that simple.
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
And if you can get me an updated German locale file with the shortcuts in it... I'll add it
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
here it is:
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
I didn't see anyone else post about this so I'm sorry if I'm repeating but the menu no longer takes the name of my drive and put it at the bottom. Is there a way to change it back to a custom name? I really appreciate all the work you're doing John. I use these suites every day and I know you put a lot of hard, and apparently late night time into them. Just trying to be a helpful beta tester.
Is the name of your drive changed?
Just change it back by editing the autorun.inf file.
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
I think he's saying that in the Free Space section of the menu, it used to display his custom drive name instead of only the drive letter.
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
Mine displays the whole drivename and changes it (after restart) if I change it in the autorun.inf.
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
My drive doesn't have a custom name, so i'm not positive. That's just how I understood his post.
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
It was the autorun. Didn't realize he overwrote it. Since I have my autorun a little customized, it would be nice if the installer asked to overwrite or not though. Thanks for the help.
It actually overwrote your autorun.inf on install. I forgot to have it check for an existing one. I'll update the installer to properly handle that in Beta 5.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Great update, love the new features. Glad to hear you're bring on some other developers.
2 Questions:
Is it possible to use an image other than a jpg for the display picture, like a bmp or something?
Is it possible to use an image other than a bmp for the wallpaper swapper, like a jpg or something?
_________________________
I don't believe in signatures
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
I just picked JPG as it was easier to setup. I think I'll add BMPs in, too (doesn't Windows use BMPs for its personal icons?)
Windows only supports BMPs for wallpaper. Surprising, huh? It's true. Even XP. When you select a JPG, it actually converts it to a BMP and then stores that on your hard drive. So, even if I give people the ability to choose a JPG, I'd still need to convert it to a BMP and store that somewhere (probably in the Data directory of the PortableAppsMenu). Now, that would pose a slight dilemma as a pretty big file could be created without the user knowing why.
Now that I think about it... not everyone knows how to make a BMP from a JPG... so, I could have the Menu convert it for you and keep it in place. So, you could place a portableapps_background.jpg in your Documents/Pictures directory and it could create the bmp for you. It's relatively easy to code.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Yes, the windows personal icons are BMP. Thanks for the info on wallpapers I did not know that. If you can get your idea to work, that's great, if not, thats fine too. Thanks for all your hard work.
_________________________
I don't believe in signatures
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
Here's a suggestion:
I've modded the new menu to actually search for a \Documents\Pictures\wallpaper folder and randomly select a JPG from that and convert it to a bitmap for the desktop. Here's the code (it uses the JVCL, but could be modified easily)
if directoryExists(ExtractFileDir(ExtractFileDir(ExtractFileDir(Application.ExeName))) + '\Documents\Pictures\wallpaper') then
begin
jvSearchFiles.rootDirectory := ExtractFileDir(ExtractFileDir(ExtractFileDir(Application.ExeName))) + '\Documents\Pictures\wallpaper';
jvSearchFiles.FileParams.FileMask := '*.jpg';
jvSearchFiles.Search;
if jvSearchFiles.Files.Count > 0 then
begin
randSeed := GetTickCount;
imageIndex := random(jvSearchFiles.Files.Count);
jpgTempImage := TJPEGImage.Create;
bmpTempImage := TBitmap.Create;
jpgTempImage.LoadFromFile(jvSearchFiles.Files[imageIndex]);
bmpTempImage.Assign(jpgTempImage);
bmpTempImage.SaveToFile(ExtractFileDir(ExtractFileDir(ExtractFileDir(Application.ExeName))) + '\Documents\Pictures\portableapps_wallpaper.bmp');
end;
end;
As mentioned, converting JPG to BMP is pretty slow on a flash drive, that's why it was left off. It would slow down the menu startup significantly.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I've updated the code of PAM to include a search/execute bar with history. It can be used to search the net as well as execute apps. It causes some havoc with existing themes, as it adds some height to the menu, but I find it useful myself.
I've got a screen shot of this here. Ignore the super huge height- of the menu, I went a little crazy with it.
I'm also thinking you could use this to drive some traffic towards your new portable apps search site. Let me know if you're interested in the code.
What's the dealie-o with the Robocopy stuff in the lower right of the menu screenie? I use that for projects at work so I may be able to reuse what you're doing there.
Cancer Survivors -- Remember the fight, celebrate the victory!
Help control the rugrat population -- have yourself spayed or neutered!
I have modded the menu heavily towards my own needs- one thing i've done is create a bunch of robocopy batch files to move files onto/off of my drive- I used to have a popup menu appear from the button with all of those batch files, but now I've moved them onto the backup menu- they get appended to the bottom.
I'm debating posting my mods of PA for general download - they are heavily oriented towards the hardcore geek, rather than the average user, so there are probably many things that would never make it into the official release, but would be of significant interest to many.
My main reasons for not doing so so far have been 1) the PITA of re-branding everything (new icons, graphics etc that I don't have to worry about with a personal mod) and 2) uncertainty regarding PAM 2.0. It seems worth holding out for PAM2 (a pretty significant re-write) rather than investing time in things like submenus that may be totally incompatible with upcoming innovations.
maggotb0y, can you send me a copy of that code, and then tell me where to put it? i dont realy like the portable apps look at the moment.
I can't believe it's here!!! I'll test it.
EDIT: Works great! Can't wait for the new theming, though.
----
"Pray as if everything depended upon God and work as if everything depended upon man."
Francis Cardinal Spell
-Please search before posting.
"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning." - Rick Cook
It´s a powerfull software!!!!....
The menu is written in Delphi, a C++ builder won't do anything with it.
_________________________
I don't believe in signatures
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
Just tried beta 4 and it works like a charm.
Great work!
Had a couple of questions:
1. Is there a way to change the title displayed when you hover over the portable apps tray icon. Currrently it says "PortableApps.com Menu (X:)" and I would like it to display my drive name or just PortableApps (J:).
2. The wall paper swapper. How exactly does this work. Do I actually need to copy a file into the documents/pictures directory or can I just create an empty file named portableapps_wallpaper.bmp?
Thanks,
Zack
The tray icon is just the name of the app (PortableApps.com Menu) -- which is pretty standard for a tray icon -- with the drive letter appended to the end because I thought it would be handy. It can't be changed by the user yet.
For the wallpaper, you place the file you want to use as your wallpaper in the location indicated and named portableapps_wallpaper.bmp. How would creating an empty file allow it to load wallpaper?
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I am an idiot.
No need for further explanation, my mind is working backwards. Need sleep. Thank you for the help and the cool menu/apps.
Zack
well my first time posting. Just 1 thing i realize is when u press windows key + p it will open PAM but when i have more than 1 USB drive with PAM it only opens the 1 with the most app on it. it there a way or could u make it like alt and tab to be able to switch between each PAM drive. other than every thing else works fine good work And if it is too much trouble u don't have to do it. don't get gray hair over it.
Never curse the alligator till you done cross the bridge.
Never curse the alligator till you done cross the bridge.
Hi @all,
in the past there was a lot of questions, how to use the folders with the lang specific names or special folders with John's excellent PAM.
Some mod still exists with solutions for that.
With the support for the locale files John have created a good base for a simple and
secure solution with minimal changes on the original code.
You'll find a 'demo' of the modified PortableAppsMenu.exe here.
The sourcecode You'll find here
The Menu uses the names of the label objects for Documents, Music, Pictures, Videos instead hardcoded strings.
The benefit is, that You can use customized Folders for each Language, or if You want special ones for You.
More information are in the reame_mod.txt in the zips.
If You like it, John please feel free to include it in the final pam version the way You like :-).
Regards
Marko
Paid for Software more or less?
What You need is OSS!
Actually, this is planned for the next release. The problem is that I have to build support for this into the menu, the backup utility and the installer. I'm also going to have the Menu automatically rename the directories for you, but need to expose an option to do that within the menu as we don't want to do that for someone who is just playing with the language switches (which means the translators will all have to work on it, too, which will take weeks). The same code will allow users to rename the folders individually as well. But it's not quite ready. And I don't want to hold up the 1.1 release for it as we need to replace that aging 1.0 release.
I'd actually done the EXACT same code you did (except it was stored in a variable) before deciding to remove it due to the above issues. I could expose it via an INI option with no interface for the 1.1 release, though, so folks that really want it can use it... but again, that would mean that when 1.5 comes out, upgrades of their installation will fail... or I'll have to build a more complex launcher to handle it.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Hi John,
thx for the quick reply ;-).
Would You be so kind to enable the support over ini for 1.1, because so we can use
it for the German version without any change on the Menu, cause we has there the
German Folders.
The German version of PABackupRestore is ready too, so I could create a German Beta version of the platform if You want, including a German installer.
We will support the users of the German version like we do that in the past, also if problems with the update to 1.5 will appear.
Regards
Marko
Paid for Software more or less?
What You need is OSS!
Thanks John, thanks for the step ahead..Thanks a lot.
I am in love with technology, but I am a master of none !!
I'm going to add a couple things to the end of the installer for both the platform and the Suite. The ability to launch the platform, set your Firefox Portable homepage to Start.PortableApps.com and a link to get more apps. I've created a new thread to discuss this: PortableApps.com Platform / Suite Installer Finish Page Options (Opinions Sought).
Please direct any commentary over there, thanks!
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Win-P Alt-D all the way! Love it. Overall, no problems or bugs that I could notice. Drag-able was a nice addition as well as the the Windows backdrop change. Though I will be looking forward to being able to remove the personal pic--never really liked the idea even for my windows start menu.
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