I have a Sandisk 16GB Cruzer, U3 enabled, with the Portable Apps platform in a sub-directory, meaning that it doesn't automatically launch on insertion, though the U3 Launchpad does load. When the U3 components load, it creates a "virtual" CD drive and a separate applications drive. My question is this: If I move the Portable Apps to the root of the applications drive, will the PA autorun.inf file overwrite the U3 Launchpad's autorun.inf, thus disabling the U3 capabilities? I´m not really sure how the U3 architecture works, so I want to ask someone here before I even consider this.
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U3 works by faking a CD partition and then loads the menu based on that. The autorun.inf on the non-CD partition is ignored and not used.
Keep in mind that U3 is discontinued and their website has gone dark. So it's best to uninstall it as soon as you can and transition to using PortableApps.com.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
The only reason I've kept it is because I have a subscription for McAfee´s U3 Virus-Scan with Real Time scanning, though I was planning to switch to Avast´s U3 scanner which also has real time, and fewer false positives. If Avast provided a version that ran under PA that offered real time protection I´d switch right now!
If you add a PortableApps entry to your U3 menu you can access PAM from the Launchpad.
Ed
There doesn't seem to be any way to do this. At least not that I can find.
You could try the SmithTech Shortcut Creator 4U3 at
http://usb.smithtech.us/projects/shortcut_creator.php
When I still used U3 I made a shortcut to the Portableapps.com menu. It was OK but a bit awkvard, so I decided to ditch U3.
There is a discussion about how to do this on the SanDisk forums:
http://communities.sandisk.com/sandisk/board/message?board.id=u3&thread....
Several posts down from the top of the thread.
Ed
that U3 leave files and folders behind on every computer you run the launchpad from, so if your trying to be "portable" get rid of U3.
I think you are interpeting the word "portable" as meaning "sneaky", "slick", "steal" and maybe "stealth". That is not the goal, or meaning, of PortableApps apps or U3.
Ed
be tidy, be polite, don't leave a mess on a borrowed computer.
Sadly, U3 fails in this since, as he says, it leaves copies of things behind it, and even installs a little stub-launcher app in some cases.
When Safely removed U3 does leave 2 small files on the hd, cleanup.exe and Launchpad Removal.exe (and why cleanup.exe doesn't remove this I have no idea), a little over 3 MB total, but they are in the Windows user's profile area and in a folder labeled U3 so I won't classify them as a mess. U3 was never designed to be stealth. And neither is PortableApps. Useful, convenient, easy, safe, nondisruptive of the host and in some cases fun are the design goals of both.
Sorry, I'm not trying to belabor the issue and we're getting off topic.
Ed