Some applications, like Firefox, will alert you when a new version is available. As a rule, is it OK to update the application in this manner or should I await a notification from portableApps.com that a new version is available? Seems like the later, as the application itself may not be written to preserve the portable configuration.
Thanks.
Visit the Community page
Join our forums
Subscribe to our email newsletter
Subscribe with RSS
Follow us on BlueSky
Follow us on Facebook
Follow us on LinkedIn
Follow us on Mastodon
Follow us on Twitter
As a rule, it is almost never OK to apply the automatic updates from within the program. The vast majority of such updaters actually just download and install the standard full version of the app onto the local PC. This is not what you want for a portable app.
Some apps are safe, since either they download a true update and apply it into the current running version, or the installer that they run is smart enough to work out where it was run from and only modify the files there.
Even if the updater is safe to run, though, there is still the chance that the app itself now uses additional or different files or registry keys that the portable launcher will need to be made aware of for the new version. This will be tested for and fixed by the developers as they produce the updates here. (It is one reason why sometimes it can take them a little while. They have other paying jobs, and sometimes the updates can be more complex than people assume.)