[Obsolete] Portable App Creator

I noticed a weird tthing about my portibalized version of hypercam 2. In the environment folder, the only file in the folders (Besides the ones PAC left there) is a firefox profile cache data thing! I have the suspition that even though it uses an installer, it may be portable. Would it be safe to delete the firefox settings and the PAC shortcut file?

PAC Community--help!

I'm admin for a distance learning college that uses Blackboard to teach classes to our online students. We provide an application called Agilix Backpack for our students to download and participate in classes while offline, then upload their assignments and discussions. This app works great at home where users have admin privileges. Unfortunately, it can't be installed on our locked-down machines across our global campus because it makes a registry change. The app's developer has given us permission to make and redistribute a portable version to our students, but I'm in way over my head with PAC.

Anybody interested in helping...send me an email at blackboardadmin@mjhower.com.

Thanks.
Dr. Mike

I have a few fixes for the readme.

It said the app is useful for those who have a PA drive. So I cannot use these apps if I have a flashdrive without the menu, or a U3 drive.

In the first paragraph of the story behind PAC, you should say you made portable versions of the app, not PortableApp versions.

In the first paragraph, you say "I", but in the second on, you say "the author of this program". Try to stay consistant.

I just tried to create a portable App of Unreal Tournament 2k4. When I did the run it said it completed it and it created the folders correctly with all the information need but it didn't create the .EXE for the PortableApp Menu. How can I create one that will work? Is there something that I am missing on this or not. I followed the instructions to a "t" and got nothing for the shortcut. I even double checked the readme just to be safe.

I am running Windows XP SP2

Edited: I already made one app before with no problem and I flowed the same instructions for that.

Hi

I have just tried this with Xilisoft iPod Video Converter and once I'd figured things out the conversion seemed to go ok however on double clicking the app I get this error and nothing happens....

Line -1:
Error: Unknown option or bad parameter specified

It's an AutoIt Error

Looking at the reg and ini files under the environment folder I see the drive specified as 'PA'. I was wondering if this was an Portable Apps menu specific code and if there is a way to convert the files for general use?

Has anyone got any thoughts?

BTW this is not using the PortableApps menu as I need a more discrete menu (PStart - not that I have bothered trying to launch it from there as direct launching does not work anyway ).

I had a Question as to why it places a folder called portableapps right in the top level of the drive I'm using for my portable apps. My portable apps menu is in

E:/Black Drive/Programs/PortableApps/

and the PortableApps Menu looks in this folder for the .exe icons. It would be nice if you made it so that we could tell it the directory we want it to place the App we are creating. I noticed I get the error:

Line -1:
Error: Unknown option or bad parameter specified

if I try to move the folder from the E:/portableapps/ folder to my directory. Maybe that's the problem, I don't know.

I had the same issue with Vista but, it works great with XP.

Thanks maroesjk for the update.

Is this better than the PortableApps Template?

Only gripe I have is it's not very portable, it leaves behind a few mb's of .exe and other files from regshot and the autoit applications.

Is there someway to make the program that makes programs portable, portable?

Wow, that sounds great! I'll have to try this!!

I've tried to build up a Portable version of Advanced Uninstaller 9.5 with PAC 0.96b4, but even if it creates in the Environment dir the entries to create some files in %allusersprofile% when runned, the Portable version doesn't copy there the expected files. If I copy them manually, the program works, and closing it, it deletes the relative dir and subdirs, but it doesn't copy them back when runned again. Seeing that there is a new version of PAC, I've downloaded, compiled and tested the same program with this, but with 0.97 there are some other problems. First, when I select the installer program that lies on my Desktop, in the previous version the file name was remaining all on one line in the box, with the left part of the path hidden, with .97 it shows it on two lines, and only a narrow band of the path is shown. Not a big deal, only not so nice to see it in this way, the old one was cleaner. The main problem with .97 is that, when after installing when it comes to select the name of the App to run, selecting it, I have a message that says:

"Line: -1 Error: "long_ptr"; "int_ptr" and "short_ptr" DLL Calls () have been deprecated. Use "long*", "int*" and "short*" instead."

and then the program crashes without completing the job. Now, I don't know if I'm doing something wrong or if the autoit version I'm using is not good for this, as it's the last one that you can download from their site. BTW, I've tested it trying to build up a Portable version of another program (nLite), and I have the same error at the same point, so it seems a problem with PAC .97 or my PC.

Hope this helps to find a solution for this problem. Apart this, your program is great. Thanks for making it.

Another thing that I think it should be different is the compression with UPX. From my point of view it should be deselected by default, but that's is a personal opinion, I think.

Hi maroesjk!

Nice app! I'd love to make EAC and Mumble portable, still I fail at selecting the launcher, what do I have to do at this point of the modification?

Thanks a lot for your help!

You didn't fix the grammer issues I pointed out earlier. D:

Well, looks like the problems I was having with my first try of 0.97 were depending of a corrupted downloaded file. I have re-downloaded it and the version built up with this one is not giving me anymore the previous error. Apart the glitches in showing the selected file in two rows as mentioned before, glitch that shows with all the boxes where you have selected a path name.
Another thing that I think was at least better in the .96b4 is where to input the Launcher Path. In the old version in the box there was already a " Portable" written inside, so you were just having to type the missing part of the App name, where in the .97 version it opens a Requester and you have to go and choose the dir where to save it and then type the entire name for the launcher. In the old version it was taking by default that it was going in the first level of your install Dir and that the name was the same given to the install Dir. That's the standard naming that almost 99% of the users will use, it'll be nice to have it as a default with the possibility to modify it if you want.
Another problem that I've seen and that is happening also in the previous version, is that if during the installation the Setup program that you want to make portable creates some files in %allusersprofile%\App Data\[some other dirs and subdirs], it will copy the relative files and paths in the Data (or in the old Environment) dir of your Portable app, but when runned on a clean machine, it will not copy these dirs and files in the relative system positions, so the Portable program doesn't find them. If I copy them manually, and then I run the Portable program it finds and uses them, and then when you close it, it deletes the dirs as it was supposed to do. The problem is that if you run again the program it will not find again these files unless you have copied them by hand. There is a problem somewhere but I'm not able to understand where, I was checking your sources and they look OK to me, but I'm not a programmer so my opinion is useless for this.
Apart these little problems that we hope will be fixed in the next version, your program is very useful. Thanks for sharing it with us and keep up with the good work.

It says you have to browse for the launcher but I don't have one. How would that work?

Why not upload the video on Youtube, etc. Maybe people might discover your PAC.

Thanks for this great app! It can even be run on Slackware Linux 11.0 using WINE!
2 questions: when's PAC going to use Draft 3 and how does one make an app portable with PAC if it's got more than 1 exe file?

Hello all. I am new to all this portable stuff, but I learn quickly, and I HAVE spent a lot of time seaching and reading these forums to try myself to find solutions to my problem, but without any luck, so as a last option I try to ask here for help.

I am into "mindmapping" and are very eager to get VisualMind from http://www.visual-mind.com/index.php portable. IF I can make it portable I will buy it.

I have a trial version currently expired, but it still works exerpt the fact it is no longer possible to save the mindmaps. This however is no problem, as it does not stop the program from running, or installing.

I have used PAC as described, and installed to USB drive x:\PortableApps\VisualMindPortable\App
All went well, and PAC created the laucher and all directories as it was supposed to.
When portableapp creation was finished, I then safely removed the portable drive, and then used Revo Uninstaller to unistall any traces of the VisualMind program from my computer. Then I mounted the drive, started newly created Visual Mind Portable from the geek.menu, and got the following error message:

"User directory (C:\Documents and Settings\[USERNAME]\Application Data\Mind Technologies\Visual Mind 10)is missing. Stopping application"

(My actual username is here substituted by [USERNAME]

I then went in to the USB stick, and copied X:\PortableApps\VisualMindPortable\Data\userprofile\Application Data\Mind Technologies\Visual Mind 10\ and it's subfolders into C:\Documents and Settings\[USERNAME]\Application Data\.......and VIOLA,the portablized program then started as normal.

So my question is:
Does anyone know what might have gone wrong with the creation of this portable app, since it does not seem to recognise the user directory is now located in the USB Stick instead of in the hostOS Application Data folder?

It currently works the way that on every computer I will use the program, I will first have to copy over that user directory from the stick and into the host computer before I start the program, and then delete the folder after I am finished, but this does not work exactly "portable". So I would appreciate any help, at least to TRY to fix it, if possible?

Anyone able to, or interested in helping?

I am aware that as a newbie I myself may be the one to blame, I may have done something wrong, or at least forgot something important. But also the explanation COULD be that this is just the behavior of "some apps" that make them troublesom to make portable. Could this program be one of "those". And if so, what can I possibly do to try to fix it?

Auto it is not to be distributed, but who is actual going to stop you from doing it if you have a look online their are many other websites. advertising mods to autoit. so it doesn't realy matter

im trying to use this to make Assault Cube v1.02 portable and when i reach the get shortcuts stage, i select the assault cube batch file (there is no *.exe) and as soon as i click OK or open or whatever in the get application location, PAC stops working and crashes. I tried it 5 times and the same thing occurred.

I'm running Vista Ultimate and have UAC disabled.

Also can I use PAC on my school computer or will it screw up and crash the network? Don't worry about the school policies or whatev, just will it mess anything up
(like reg-wise and stuff)?

Oh...and the 3rd stage of PAC...just under the one above where u select the launcher location....what is it? Is that where you want to make the portable launcher on your flash drive? if not...what is it?

Just noticed that when you click to see new comments from the recent posts page that it just takes you to the first page of your thread rather than the new post. Not sure if this is a bug in drupal caused by having 400+ posts in the one thread but this happens on three different pcs from three different locations for me. It may be worth starting a new thread and linking it to this one? First though can anyone else confirm this issue.

Hello,
I start to try to make a portable version of IncrediMail.
If I want to install via the App Creator, I can not choose the installation folder.
Do you have any idea how I can make IncrediMail portable?

"you can still (manually) edit PAC's regfile, but though its called *.reg, it has a bit of an other format than normal reg-files..."

It could just be this machine of course (probably is), something or other that I've got installed, but I get an error trying to run the new program launcher when/if I edit the reg file that PAC puts in the Data folder. I've tried it with a few apps to make sure it wasn't just a one-time affair.

"...but still I wonder why it won't work just using PAC..."

It does work most of the time. But I had a bit of an oddball situation yesterday for example when I was working on/with an app called Multiset... (It was a 1 day Giveaway [http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/] I thought might be interesting to play with for putting OS etc install files on flash cards)

The program itself was supposed to be portable already (the developer(s) said just put it on a stick), & it was in the sense that it didn't require anything in the registry -- it just tried to write to it. I was afraid that I couldn't accurately use PAC on the app's set-up file, since it was modded to phone home to make sure it would only install on that one day (& their normal trial set-up wouldn't work with the key file given). Using RegShot, the program also allegedly altered irrelevant reg keys/values every time it ran - seemingly random key/values from other software (Roxio & Nero Suites) I had installed. PAC uses RegShot, & came up with similar results. While I'm 99% sure that wouldn't effect anything on a machine without Roxio &/or Nero, that remaining 1% doubt prompted me to get rid of the extra baggage in the reg file PAC came up with.

I also find PAC incredibly useful for not just putting programs on an USB stick, but isolating them on my hard drives... Especially with a lot of the video utilities I try, which I've found not only add to registry bloat, but interfere with one another. Before I started using PAC I'd monitor any installation necessary using InstallWatch Pro [when I can get away with it I just use Universal Extractor to avoid the often huge number of reg changes from the install routines, & monitor the registry for changes the 1st time I start the app]. Then I'd save the critical reg entries, restore the registry from backup, and more or less be a good part of the way to a PAC PortableApps setup already. I've started using PAC to take things a final step further.

I could of course be wrong, but I figure some variation of the approach I posted might come in handy when/if anyone else has a problem using PAC the normal way on whatever particular app -- solely as more a last resort when/if nothing else has worked. I honestly don't expect anyone to share my bad habit of going to such lengths to minimize Windows & registry clutter. ;?P

I downloaded PAC onto my pc and it won't work. It won't even finish processing the first snapp shot. It like freezes or something. I would like some help I. What I did wrong.

How to make portable program not depending in which folder compiled exe is placed
How to move folder with created app into other folders in flash drive(which was created after portable app Portable App Shortcut?

Hi.

1 small prob: I've got 2 users on my xp pc. If user1 creates a "portable app" on the c drive, user2 can't use it, even if it's in c:\PortableApps\. PAC seems to "hard code" the user's folder into the .reg file in the Data folder.

If I try to change this manually I get this AutoIt error:
Line -1:
Error: Array variable has incorrect number of subscripts or subscript dimension range exceeded.

Can anyone tell me how to I fix this?

Thanks.

I think that the best way to make portableapps is to have a custom template made and then we can just fill in the blanks with the new program information that’s going to be the new portableapp (s) this way there's is no mistakes made and we can all follow general application format and installation method with miner mistakes. Unlike the portableapps maker at the moment that won’t let you move the app without you making a shortcut to the main .exe file in the program folder.

This is only going to be possible if some one does make a new portableapp maker that is based on Freeware or Opensorce under the GPL. This also has to work in both Windows XP and Windows Vista systems.

I would do it but I am not a programmer, sorry about that but thank you very much to the one that does makes it possible for the rest of us.

There is any way to configure PAC making it use a relative path command similar to the %~dp1 used in DOS shell to give the parameters for the various files? If the Portable App Creator uses a parameter like this there is no need to take care of PA and other things, everything is related to the position where you run the Portable Program.
Unfortunately I'm more or less a dog when it comes to programming, so I can only hope that you find this idea realizable. It will make life a lot easier to anybody trying to build a Portable App from my point of view...
Best regards...