Application: FrostWire
Category: Internet
Description: FrostWire Portable is the Frostwire peer-to-peer (P2P) filesharing application packaged as a Portable App, so you can take your filesharing with you. Frostwire is written in Java and includes gnutella, bittorrent, and similar capabilities. And, as with all PortableApps.com apps, it leaves no personal information behind on the machine you run it on.
Download: FrostWire Portable 4.17.2 Development Test 1 [7.8MB download / 33.7MB installed] (MD5: 9884e00bfafbc66b27ddf48ac8c5126a) Past downloads: 434 License: GPL
Note:
- This is a java app. Use of the Java Portablizer is recommended.
- It looks like it puts its settings into the Data directory tree, but that's one thing to check during beta testing.
- The launcher creates Shared and Downloads under Data, if you'd like to use them (change them if you like).
- The launcher updates the properties file that points to the downloads and shared directory, if you move your drive and the drive letter changes (assuming you put your downloads and shared on your USB drive).
- If you are updating from a previous beta, please remove all directories (after saving any downloads) and reinstall from scratch.
- When first installed, the app currently asks for a chat room nick; please supply something there, even if you never expect to use the chat features.
System Requirements:
- 128 MB of RAM (256 MB Recommended)
- Windows Vista, XP, 2000, NT
- Java 1.5 or later (1.6 Recommended)
- An active internet connection
Release Notes:
4.17.2 Development Test 1 (2009-01-02):
- It looks like it doesn't ask for a chat room nym in the current version, but please do go and enter something for it on the options page.
- Sorry, I haven't taken the time to bring it up to the latest PA Platform installer and launcher standards. If the beta team were to take an interest in this project, I would make that a higher priority. As it stands, it seems to work pretty well.
4.17 Development Test 1 (2008-07-13)
- Because it is quite a bit different, I've started it back at Dev Test 1
- Uses PortableApps.com installer 0.9.9.5
- Uses PortableApps.com launcher 1.5.7.0
- Includes support for the PortableApps.comLocaleglibc environment variable
- Frostwire has separate ways to indicate language and country, so I had to come up with a way to separate "en_GB" into a language variable and a country variable using NSIS -- might be something someone else could use
- I left the "country flag" icon showing up on the status line, not because I'm super-patriotic or something, but so non-English speakers might have an easier time figuring out how to switch languages (click on the flag to get the language picker)
- In this version the developers included a bunch of upgraded stuff from the Limewire repository, and neglected to rename all the Limewire variables to Frostwire. The launcher now sets up both (the program only notices the one it is looking for) in case a future version reverts to using the Frostwire name for the variable. (LIMEWIRE_PREFS_DIR vs FROSTWIRE_PREFS_DIR)
4.13 Development Test 1 (2008-03-23)
- made recommended changes (I think)
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I've just downloaded it I'll post tomorrow with my results.
Release Team Member
ive really found nothing wrong with this its actually works prett good. Ill try it on a fresh cpu and see if anything is left behind, even though i did that before and i found nothing.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
MC
very nice thanks you very much
beat the heck outta copying the folder and leaving traces in program files like i was doing, PITA to remove it all
i did find 1 issue
when you get disconnected form the net, while Frostwire is running the error message, pops up like once a second and keep piling up and get's really annoying and it also had trouble reconnection after that, and usually has to be restarted to work properly again
btw that problem was on a Dell Latitude D810 running Win XP PRO
it did not notice that on my XP home machine but the internet never went down while using it on that box
Lead, Follow, or get out of the way.
About what u told me in a forum i posted, how did u know there was an environmental variable that would change where Frostwire saved its app data? Just wondering cause i have made some progress on making DVD Shrink portable but i just dont know how to redirect where it saves its appdata.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
Well, there is an APPDATA environment variable that is set by default. Sometimes, well-behaved programs use it to find where to store things. If you happen to be working with a well-behaved program, if you change the environment variable that the program inherits to point somewhere else, it will store its data there.
I "knew" that there was such an environment variable (from experience) but I had no idea whether the program you were working with would honor it. If not, well, it's usually worth a try.
If you change the APPDATA environment variable that gets inherited, you don't have to worry about other programs, because they will see the regular version of that environment variable. The inherited version is only seen by the program that inherits it, plus any programs it in turn launches. When it exits, the environment variable goes with it.
Does that make sense?
MC
Sorta makes sense. would this variable still apply if the data is stored in the %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data hmm i think ill look at the script for firefox and try to figuire out how it stores data on the host cpu then deletes it.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
I think you've put your finger on it. Unless you poke around inside the source code, the only way to tell for sure where it is looking to find APPDATA is experiment.
The USERPROFILE would be a more likely place to look than ALLUSERSPROFILE, but it's possible. It is also possible it is looking at
and ignores the environment variable completely -- which would make things harder, but not impossible. So try different things and see what you come up with.
Sometimes ProcessMonitor from Sysinternals can give you a clue. I saw a program going through a list of different folders that way, and it only took a few moments to realize it was looking at each folder on the PATH in turn. The fact that the file was right there in the same folder as the executable made that exercise seem bizarre. But of course, that discovery suggested appending the . directory at the beginning of the PATH, so it would find it right away. That's the sort of detective work that's needed.
MC
yes finally it worked, i got the app data to save in my data directory. Thanks 4 your advice it really helped me. Im gonna go through my script and clean it up a bit and maybe ill try to get it on the beta testing soon.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
Seems to work fine here, according to RegShot there was nothing left behind at all. You can delete the extra splash screen files from the source directory, other than that things look fine to me. We'll let Patrick get picky about other details lol.
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
I actually tried installing FrostWire on my usb a few weeks ago. Didn't work so well.
Thanks for portalizing FrostWire. Seems to download files fine. There weren't any problems that I could detect.
Infection of the Mind
It's lookin' good, lookin' real good.
Here's the usuals.
Add your copyright in the source.
It's lookin' good, lookin' real good.
Here's the usuals.
That's it. The drive letter seemed to update well, and my registry and PC are fairly clean. Nice work!
I have been looking for a good one to use also. The 7Zip Readme is way out of date, so I recommend using the Audacity Readme.txt.
Dell XPS M1530 Laptop
Intel Core 2 Duo T9300 2.5GHz
4GB Ram
256MB GeForce 8600M GT
What application is insisting that we fabricate a fourth number for version? I've not seen anything yet that balks at using two or three if that's all it's given.
MC
NSIS, in some places requires a 4 digit long version number in order to compile properly
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
NSIS doesn't use appinfo.ini does it? And even if it did, it could handle it as a string not as its own version format.
MC
In most applications, the package version is something like.
2.3.2.583
Where as it's shown as (Display Version)
2.3.2
Or sometime's is just
4.5.3.0
Shown as (Display Version)
4.5.3
If the original application only comes with 2 or 3 numbers (e.g. 4.2 or 3.2.23) what is so important about fabricating out of whole cloth a third and/or fourth number to go with it?
MC
For display version it isn't needed, but for the internal version it is...i have no idea why....
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
Here is the definitive word on version numbers ... posted here because I can't remember it from one day to the next...
MC
When it starts up the first time it asks start up when windows starts up....It should be default no.
"It's just an online installer. It's not going to mug you.", JTH
"The shell is the key to unlock Linux's greatest advantages."
Something i have noticed is that in the Data\downloads" folder it is never used, so i dont think there is really a need for it, or did u put it in there so u can manually move the content u download into that folder?? Other than that i have had no problems with it.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
It does offer to use Data\Shared for shared files.
It's always better to put your downloaded files into a separate directory until you are sure they are okay, before moving them to "shared". It may violate the philosophy of file sharing to leave your downloaded files there permanently, but it is worse (in my opinion) to share files that are incomplete or corrupt.
If I can figure out how to get it to use them by default, I'll certainly change it, but so far no.
MC
1 suggestion. Make it automatically close when the window is closed. Many users may forget it is running from the sys tray and unsafely eject, or just not be able to safely eject.
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
Getting an error right after the portable apps splash. It reads "Could Not Find Main Class. Program will Exit." I am on a computer on my college campus running XP Professional. Don't know if this is expected or not, but figured I would tell just in case. I will try it shortly on another computer that has much more lax security, and hopefully that will let me run it.
Apparently too many power splitting cables are bad...
Do you know of the campus PCs have JAVA installed? If they do not, that is the issue.
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
Nope don't know or not... probably should have checked that, but I didn't think about it.
The second computer allowed the program to load just fine... now if only the campus didn't block the ports required.
*UPDATE*
Just checked and the computers do have java installed. Here's the Java -version results...
java version "1.4.2_01"
java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.4.2_01-b06)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.4.2_01-b06, mixed mode)
Apparently too many power splitting cables are bad...
Did you by chance use the Java Portablizer to put Java on your USB drive? If the version that couldn't find the "Main Class" is incompatible, putting the latest version on your USB drive might be just the ticket.
Do you happen to know what version of Windows and which Java version were installed on that other machine?
If you happen to get to another machine and have the same or similar problem, could you paste the debug section of
Data\settings\FrostWirePortableSettings.inihere? You can open it with Notepad.MC
[FrostWirePortableSettings]
LastExePath=E:\PortableApps\FrostWirePortable
[FrostWirePortableDebug]
ProgramDirectory=E:\PortableApps\FrostWirePortable\App\FrostWire
ExecString="C:\Program Files\Java\j2re1.4.2_01\bin\javaw.exe" -DFROSTWIRE_PREFS_DIR="E:\PortableApps\FrostWirePortable\Data" -Duser.home="E:\PortableApps\FrostWirePortable\Data" -jar FrostWire.jar
3=
4=
Apparently too many power splitting cables are bad...
The Frostwire page says it needs 1.5 or above.
This would be a good reason to use the java portablizer if you have 100MB free on your USB drive. If you have the latest version there, it doesn't matter which version is installed on the host PC, of if it is installed.
I've updated the "System Requirements" section at the top.
MC
Seems like a great program, and I will use the java portablizer. It will be nice to have a this on my flash, as I go out of town to visit relatives all the time and don't want to install limewire on any of their computers.
Apparently too many power splitting cables are bad...
I remember reading in the forums a while back that said everything was supposed to go in the settings folder, so maybe thats what u should do in your next release. Thats the only thing that probably needs to be done. Oh wait there are a few things in the Other folder u can remove, such as "splash.jpg" that shows Freeminds, "SplashDevelopmentTestRelease.jpg" that is a double of the FrostwirePortable.jpg, and in the root of "FrostWirePortable" remove "FrostWirePortable.exe.sig" then i guess when this is all done make another FrostwirePortable.paf. Good job on this release
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
Frostwire makes several folders where it stores its own settings. I thought it might be good to keep the PA Launcher settings in settings, and let FW manage its own settings. If people would prefer to see all those FW settings in Data\Settings, I'll make the change. Shouldn't take too long.
I think I've cleaned up everything else to make Dev Test 2.
The sig file is a detached signature, it lets people know that the file hasn't changed since I made it. When John puts his own signature on the file, we can take out the detached sig.
MC
The settings should all be in the settings folder. All our other apps are structured this way as well.
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
Why is there a Data directory then? Why not just make it FrostwirePortable\Settings instead of FrostWirePortable\Data\Settings?
When is something that the program or user creates data and not a setting? Frostwire saves a bunch of things, some of which might not be called settings; does that mean I have to sort them out into separate directories?
MC
I don't know why the dir structure is set up like that, but that's how it is. It shouldn't be a hard change in the launcher code, should it?
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
Look at FirefoxPortable's Data\ directory.
MC
Ok, even though the files I am talking about are more like FirefoxPortable's "Data\Profile", I've told FW to put them in Data\Settings.
Dev Test 3 should be available for more compliance
as soon as SF.net updates its mirrors.
carpingsuggestionsMC
Dev test 3 doesn't work right....maybe you should go back to the other setup lol....
When I run it, it automatically loads, instead of going through the initial setup wizard, then just prompts me to create a username for the chat rooms.
Also, the processes don't seem to close completely, i can't move or delete the folder, even 20 minutes after closing the app.
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
Are you trying it from a clean setup (no folders from the previous setup)?
MC
Clean setup, skipped right past the setup wizard and just prompted me to enter a username for Chat.
After a reboot and reinstall, all other aspects work correctly.
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
I get the same problem as Zach. You should just go back to ur previous release and experiment a little with dev 3. It might be a typo or something that was needed might have gotten deleted.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
In order to keep the application from asking if it should autostart with Windows, I pre-seeded the config file with as much stuff as I thought I could get away with. It seemed appropriate to let the user get prompted for a chat nickname, rather than creating a random one. I could probably seed a random one there if people thought that would be helpful.
But the question is, what does this have to do with the errors you are seeing?
It should only ask about a nick once, if you put an appropriate one there.
MC
The errors stopped after I rebooted my computer. I thought I had mentioned that. Now the only issue is that it skips all the wizard stuff. I understand your point about pre-seeding the config file. I'll test again and report back.
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
I would just love and use this a ton more if it had some sort of way to get around firewalls. I am no network security professional but I have seen people use proxy servers or something and somehow got it to work. So that would be helpful. Thank you. Other than that, Great app!
Since it is a firewall's job to block things like that, the folks who run firewalls prefer that firewalls not be too easy to bypass.
There are proxies that sometimes work... I've heard that Tor is one. But it's also the case that it sometimes takes a few tries to find one that works for one firewall, without confidence that it will work for another. The other thing about proxies is that it requires some control over an Internet-connected machine with some inbound ports not restricted by a firewall and/or properly set up if behind a NAT router. I can frequently make ssh work with a tunnel, or set up a PPTP VPN, but that's with a server I rent, or my home computer, and I don't think I'd want to open it up to several million of my closest friends.
Frostwire should work to a certain extent if the firewall is restrictive. In most such cases, it will be able to make outbound connections, but won't be able to accept inbound ones.
The portable version of Frostwire is neither more nor less susceptible to being blocked by a firewall than the non-Portable version. In other words, the primary responsibility for making it work better is the Frostwire developers. If I could come up with something to help, I would.
MC
I was using this for quite a while and then I decided, why not try compressing it?
Yeah...that didn't work too well since it said the file or something couldn't be found and/or was corrupted.
So I guess it's not compression friendly?
Yeah, I'm the quiet one....
If you were using the PortableApps.com App Compactor and it failed, you might want to report it in that topic.
If you tried compressing it some other way, you might want to say what you did that didn't work, so other people don't try the same thing.
I think I did use the Compactor on the jar files already. In any case I would certainly do it when bundling it up for a pre-release or release version. Jar files are just ZIP files, so you can rename the something.jar file to something.zip, uncompress it, compress it with 7-zip at a higher compression level (but the ZIP format), and rename it back to something.jar. Is that what you tried?
You know that you shouldn't try to compact the launcher (e.g. FrostwirePortable.exe) right? It's already pretty well compacted, and NSIS doesn't like having UPX run against it.
The other thing to check is that you didn't accidentally move the jar files around. The program does expect them to be where it left them. But it should not notice if they are re-compressed at a higher compression setting.
MC
you can't compress the launcher, that will happen if you compress it.
"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
Actually, you can compress it, it just won't work if you do.
MC
no, actually what i did was compress everything in the App folder but when i tried to run it , it wouldn't work (just like i said before).
Yeah, I'm the quiet one....
i'll reccomend this one to my neice instead of her using limewire as it works the same and best of all its open source worked well on the country music files i downloaded once again good work
if you don't know-ee you should ASCII
Can you describe what it was you did that failed to work? If/when I get to package a release candidate I don't want to have to re-learn what you did.
Did you use John's Compactor? If so, you might want to report it in that topic.
MC
Okay, this is what I got using the default and the jar/zip settings in John's compactor...
...and it says this when I run the App directory .exe ...
Yeah, I'm the quiet one....
Not much you can do about either error. It seems Frostwire checks hashes, and does it in such a way that compacting the file makes the file unusable.
I suppose we could experiment with reverse engineering the GUILoader.verifyHashes routine, and set it up so it knows about the new hashes. But that is beyond the scope of John's compactor.
MC
This app works really great, it didn't crash by now, nothing. It works really perfect. I think it's ready for the next step.
John says he wants to take Java apps in a different direction, so apparently there is no "next step" until he tells us what it is.
Meanwhile, the DevTest 3 seems to be working fine. You're welcome to keep using it.
MC
I am aware that there is a new version of Frostwire available. There was a small change in how it handles its settings files -- I think it was unintentional. Anyway, I've got that working, now to figure out how to add language support to the launcher. I hope to have a new version available for your consideration in a day or so.
MC
The new 4.17 version is now available -- see the topic note up above for the download location and release notes.
MC
Installed nicely, ran nicely, but launched adware installer on attempting to play corrupted mp3 files so the media player must not handle bad headers correctly. I guess this is a buffer overflow problem?
This is something that you can replicate consistently with one file? Or does it happen with several files from different sources.
That'd be my guess. But running an adware installer must be something the MP3 file brings, not something in Frostwire that gets triggered by a bad header.
It's using the built-in Frostwire player, right?
I'm pretty sure that the player isn't affected one way or another by being portablized.
You might do well to go to the Frostwire web site and offering to upload the offending MP3 file so they can figure out what's going on.
I might like to have a copy of the file myself.
MC
I'm afraid I deleted it straight off. I think it also happened with another media player. As I recall I had searched for earth wind and fire and got something called changing times. Suspect something like this was going on
http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/comments/mcafee_trojans_and_...
i need to know how to keep this portable and still update it and it keeps saying
ERROR:
"Frostwire was unable to set up a port to listen for incoming connections. Some features of Frostwire may not work as expected"
and then it asks me to update it and i figure that might solve the problem so i click on it and it takes me to the download page from frostwire, and theres nothing for the portable apps and i was wondering i you were making an up date and if that would fix my original problem
i downloaded it and got a trogen from it
There are no Trojans in this release, I've been using it for sometime. This is called a false positive.
your friendly neighbourhood moderator Zach Thibeau
I tried copying in the newest version of FrostWire from a local install (since I got tired of it asking to update and there doesn't seem to be a way to disable the nag...), but it won't work. The launcher complains that it can't find FrostWire.jar and quits.
Did they change the way FrostWire works in the newer versions?
Not sure what the problem was, but the new download (link above) should update to the 14.7.2 package.
MC
I can't seem to install this one right. Is there an idiot's guide?
Can you describe what happens, like what you did and what kind of error message you saw?
It installs just like any other PortableApps program. That means you download the PAF file to someplace convenient (like your Desktop) then go into the PortableApps menu and choose Options and then Install a new app choice to get a standard Open File dialog. Navigate to the desktop and click on the PAF file, and the PAM should take care of the rest.
Let us know where in the process you run into problems.
MC
I seem to have unknowingly solved my first hurdle: It kept asking for something on startup, but downloading it again seems to have fixed it.
Now, it says my save folder isn't valid or I might not have permission. Do I need to create a separate save file, and how would I do that?
Under "Tools", you do need to specify a place for the program to save files, and the place (a folder) needs to exist. If setup didn't make you save folder that exists and that you can use, you can specify such a location yourself.
I generally make sure it is an empty folder separate from any folder that is shared. You probably don't want to share files until you have had a chance to check to make sure they are complete and not something nasty.
It would also make sense for the save folder to be on the portable drive, so you take everything you need with you.
It sounds like you have discovered a way to install the program that was not anticipated, since you are running into so much trouble. If, for example, you could be a bit more specific about the "something" it asked for on startup, we might be able to fix it for the next person.
If you have a chance, you might be able to help by using Notepad to open the FrostwirePortable\Data\Settings\FrostWirePortableSettings.ini file, and paste its contents into a message here for us to look at. That is, open Notepad, then from within Notepad, use the File menu and Open to get to FrostWirePortableSettings.ini (or drag the file from Explorer and drop it onto Notepad). Highlight everything in the Notepad window (ctrl-A), Copy, then Paste it here.
By the way, you used the phrase "save folder" and "save file" as if they were the same thing. They aren't. You need to specify a folder when it asks for a folder, and a file when it asks for a file.
Thanks for helping us get the Portable version working smoothly for everyone.
MC
I'm really happy with this app, except for one thing; When it starts up it creates a folder called "FrostWire" in My Documents.
I Have Tested the Application. It works fine. But the Folder called Frostwire is made in My Documents. But I have have heard that it is nessary becease Forstwire can not save his files with you want to Download
Regards,
Marcel v. Pinxteren
IT-System Manager
The Netherlands
It looks like Frostwire creates that directory whether it needs to or not.
If you tell it to save files there, it will. But it should try to save to the Data folder if you don't tell it otherwise. If not, let me know.
You should be able to control where Frostwire puts all its files. If not, it should be reported to the Frostwire folks.
I will look at what is happening with the "My Documents\Frostwire" directory. It does look like it is always created. I'll have to look to see what the best way is to remove it when it is created.
MC
Portable FrostWire 4.18.0 in PortableApps Standard using PortableApps.com Installer
8.05MB Download/36.9MB installed
http://rapidshare.com/files/238175393/FrostWirePortable_1.0_English.paf....
or
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=G5BCMA9P
or
http://www.filefactory.com/file/ag26cb4/n/FrostWirePortable_1_0_English_...
or
http://www.badongo.com/file/15178469
or
http://www.load.to/GSUtEMXK4U/FrostWirePortable_1.0_English.paf.exe
or
http://www.easy-share.com/1905402863/FrostWirePortable_1.0_english.paf.exe
Although the current version released of Frostwire is already 4.18.5, I'll download this and going to use it. Better use this paf than other format
Thank you for your good work
Finally, I can have a portable Frostwire with paf.
irwanwr
its nice, it work properly, and its fast, when is it going to be released
Any chance of an update?
PortableApps.com Advocate
Is this project has been cancel or there is a chance that it will be updated? I think Frostwire is a good application for filesharing. Wish you the best.
irwanwr
Hi. I stumbled back in here while looking for a replacement for KCEasy Portable - which is no longer supported and has pretty much become unuseable.
I found that the FrostWire build posted here basically works; but the app itself is outdated. Tired of continually being nagged to update, I found a way of extracting the binaries from the current installer (which is now 4.20.2). I have used them to replace the contents of the APP folder of this portable version.
The result is a current build of FrostWire using the old portable loader. A little risky perhaps but it does seem to work if you want to give it a try.
http://rapidshare.com/files/357871050/FrostWire_4.20.2_Portable.zip
According to the Frostwire forums, .skin files should be placed in the "Themes" folder to appear in the skin list. In Windows, the theme folder goes in "%appdata%\Frostwire\Themes", but I don't know where it goes in the portable version. Could someone help me out with this?
Thanks in advance,
Michael
What's the difference between just installing it to your flash drive with the current version form the site and the portable version??
If I remember correctly, the "regular" version stores settings and such in AppData. The "portable" version here simply redirects those settings to the USB drive. Much cleaner.
The portable version's launcher isn't magical. If you want, you can upgrade to the latest version of the Frostwire app by copying the new application files into the App\frostwire directory. Just replace the old version with the new version of the same name.
MC