I'm running Windows 7 on one of my computers (RC, with the retail edition already on pre-order) and I've noticed some strange behavior with PortableApps and the new Windows 7 taskbar/superbar. Particularly Firefox, but I'm betting this applies to any and all PortableApps.
The quick version of the problem is you can't PIN FirefoxPortable.exe to the taskbar and have it behave properly. It will simply act more like an old quick launch icon than anything. Additionally if you pin Firefox Portable's firefox.exe it will just fall back on the old problem of Firefox having no clue what to do when multiple Firefox instances open.
There may be a work around for this already that I'm unaware of. I'm aware Windows 7 isn't officially supported since it hasn't been officially released quite yet, but hopefully someone here will know of a way to get this working or perhaps someone on the dev side can give an ETA on when/if this issue will be addressed.
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This is mainly a Windows 7 issue as it doesn't understand apps that use multiple EXEs (so they appear as different icons on the task bar). This doesn't just affect portable apps. A workaround/hack was posted in one of the Microsoft blogs, but it looks like it may not be an option for our purposes... we are exploring it, nonetheless.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Well it's good to know that Microsoft is aware of the issue, though that doesn't give me a whole lot of comfort, being MS and all.. lol
I really love the programs and I'm hopeful you guys (or maybe MS will step up, who knows?) can find a working solution to this. I'm not sure if it's a big bug or not. On one hand everything works fine as long as you're not pinning the program, but then again pinning stuff to the taskbar is probably the single most useful feature in W7.
I'd also note that when you pin the program and it acts more as a 'quick launch' icon that you can't use it to open new windows for that instance of FFP. I'm sure this goes for prior versions of Windows/FFP as well, but I've been using CTRL+N for so long I can hardly remember.
I stumbled upon this article that talks about AppIDs.
http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/developers/archive/2009/06/18/developin...
Is it possible to specify the same AppID for the portable app launcher and the program being launched? The article says that two apps (and two windows) having the same AppID will be grouped together in the taskbar. I'm not a windows programmer; I just thought I'd pass this on for evaluation.
Since Firefox doesn't current set a specific AppID, we couldn't mimic it. And it looks like Win7 may combine your local FF and your portable FF windows since they would have the same AppId if it did.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Finally got FF Portable loaded up on my Win7 PC and found this issue as well.
Any hope on getting this resolved? Any work arounds in the meantime?
Thanks and keep up the great work!!
Does anybody have a link to the workaround? Has anybody successfully found a way to make FF function with the windows 7 taskbar? Thanks
There's another discussion on this topic with some workarounds.
Check https://portableapps.com/node/20322