Worked Example: 7-Zip

The AppID of 7-Zip is 7-ZipPortable, and so the launcher executable is named 7-ZipPortable.exe and the launcher configuration file is in App\AppInfo\Launcher\7-ZipPortable.ini.

The main 7-Zip executable to be launched is 7zFM.exe, and it lives in App\7-Zip.

7-Zip stores its settings in the registry, in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\7-Zip. In previous releases of 7-Zip Portable, it has stored this in Datasettings7zip_portable.reg (this is represented as [RegistryKeys]:7zip_portable=HKCU\Software\7-Zip).

Paths saved in this 7zip_portable.reg file are normal paths with a double-backslash directory separator and should be updated with a [FileWriteN] section in this way.

7-Zip itself can be run from a read-only location (this is why [LiveMode]:CopyApp=false).

From the information above, here is a fully functional sample launcher file, configured correctly for 7-Zip Portable:

[Launch]
ProgramExecutable=7-Zip\7zFM.exe

[Activate]
Registry=true

[FileWrite1]
Type=Replace
File=%PAL:DataDir%\settings\7zip_portable.reg
Find=%PAL:LastDrive%\\
Replace=%PAL:Drive%\\

[RegistryKeys]
7zip_portable=HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\7-Zip

To outline what this actually does: in the registry, HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\7-Zip is backed up if necessary, and the contents of Data\settings\7zip_portable.reg`` are inserted into the registry, after updating the drive letter. Then App\7-Zip7zFM.exe is run. After it is closed, the 7-Zip registry key is stored and deleted, and the backup of local 7-Zip settings is restored if it existed.