Is there an easy way to test whether a program is compliant with the PAF standards of portability?
I am one (of many) who does what John T. opposes, running portable software on my hard drive. Strictly because of ease of backup/reinstall. My recent upgrade to Win7 went incredibly easily because of use of a separate program partition and use of portable software.
I just rebooted my system because of installing another program. When I started Firefox it announced that I had installed the latest version. (3.5.5) 3.5.4 is the latest PAF version I've downloaded and I don't think I actually got around to installing that.
(1) Is there a way to test whether my FFX is still portable? (Not worried about stealth, particularly. Just portability.)
(2) If it is not portable and I install a PAF version over top of it, will that restore the portability? Or do I have to Add/Remove Programs and then install?
----Paul-----
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There is no easy way. To test for what may get left behind, though, I would recommend that you use Regshot. A lot of the ideas etc. on how to do testing are in the field guide. The Development section is also helpful.
John T. Haller does not oppose the running of portable software on the hard disk. Wherever did you get that impression from? If you use it, you use it, we don't care how
The Firefox auto-update feature leaves installation information in the registry. So long as you run it from FirefoxPortable.exe, however, it will still be portable. You can install a new PortableApps.com edition over the top of it again and it'll still be happy.
I am a Christian and a developer and moderator here.
“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs 15:1
I had some exchanges with John T several years ago and, yeah, he did have objections to using them on your hard drive. But apparently the forum database doesn't go back far enough to find them. Anyhow, doesn't matter. Thanks for the info.
There's just been a LOT more added to the database since then
Yes, we used to recommend against installing it locally and setting it as the default apps, but we've softened that stance and will be introducing new utilities to assist people with doing that in the future.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
But it's just the setting as default applications which we don't recommend; just using them locally is fine.
I am a Christian and a developer and moderator here.
“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs 15:1