I love the launcher but there is one thing that i think might make it easier to use. When it first scans the drive, it picks up all the exe files. It may show 3 programs in one directory or more. The user does not know what program is what (it shows the directory title, not program name) Is it possible to add to the right click menu a properties option to show the full file name assigned to that slot or to add Show full filename. It will make it easier to decide what to hide when starting up the program.
thanks.
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Does it not scan only 1 directory deep?
Already implanted. How those items behave depend on how the developer wants them to. You can change it by modifying AppInfo.ini in App\AppInfo.
Even apps that don't have an appinfo.ini will show the path when you hover - which is nice, but not anywhere near as useful as showing the target of the shortcut.
There are a good number of apps that are natively portable, and it's a bit above and beyond to require that the EU write an appinfo.ini for these apps.
I made this half-pony, half-monkey monster to please you.
exist and you can hide the unwanted items in the case you install natively portable apps which contain more then one exe in their primary folder. The exact name is shown when you hover over that exe icon, so you can decide which one is the one you want keep and which one to be hidden.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
is that for non-PortableApps.com apps, that don't have an appinfo.ini, then the only extra detail in the mouseover box is the path to the folder, so if you have two .exe files in the app folder, which both have the internal program name (which is shown on the menu), they will also both have the same mouseover text, since it is only the folder, and at that point you can't tell which one you should hide from the right-click menu.
The OP's suggestion is that rather than just the containing folder path being shown in the mouseover box, could this be extended to also have the filename of the .exe file, which would allow you to correctly choose which one you wanted to have, and which one you wanted to hide.
I have never met this in practice, but admit it can exist. I have met 3 exe with same icon, but they tsill were called differently, so it was rather clear what to get rid off. And when some of my utils tried to call themselves Microsoft windows 3.1
, well those I changed the name sometimes even when hexeditor was neede for that.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
More information must be good, however having a way to "exclude" items from the menu other than merely hiding them would be in my view even better.
The PortableApps Menu is designed to work with the PortableApps format.
It does work fairly gracefully with non-PA-format apps, by automatically showing any exe file that's in the top level of the app folder as an icon in the menu.
But if you have a multi-executable that's not in PA-format, you're better to put it into the folder structure of the format and control what's shown using the ini file.
I made this half-pony, half-monkey monster to please you.
I hope to clear up my recomendation with a simple example
AUTORUNS, its a simple program that show what is running on your machine.
It comes in 2 flavors
Autoruns.exe - windows executable
Autorunsc.exe - command line version.
When Portable Apps scans the drive i have 2 entries for
autoruns
Which one Do i hide?
Right now I must execute each program to see what is what
It would be nice If I could right click on the
entry in the menu and see what program it was going to run
i.e. Autorunsc.exe or Autoruns.exe
You can rename any shortcut, so name one Autoruns1 and the other Autoruns2.
Now, as you execute each, you can tell which is which.
When you figure out which one you don't want, then hide it, and you can then reset the name of the one you didn't hide.
I made this half-pony, half-monkey monster to please you.
I thank you for your recommendation, but my point is this would be a nice feature to have. That way you would not have to rename, run and test, just right click and see the filename that would be executed.
I think the point is that this type of app is exceedingly. Rare. Not only would there have to be multiple exes, but they'd need to have the exact same dispalyname set (which I've never seen in another app). So it's not really needed other than for this app, in which case, it makes more sense to just to the rename workaround for it.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I have at least 1/2 dozen programs that have show this "RARE" property. Look down your nose at me if you want to. I have seen something that I feel could be improved. You act like I am trying to change the Bible. More Information is always better. I am not some slob that likes to nit-pick. I am a senior software engineer with 25+ years playing this game and face it buddy, change is a way of life for us.
Don't worry, instead of making any more recommendations for changes to this program, I will do what I should have in the beginning, Stop using it, delete my membership from this board and purge this menu system from my thumb drives. Its apparent that change is only good if it meets with your approval.
I'm sorry if it sounds like it, but I am not ganging on.
It would be great if you could give the names of these 1/2 dozen programs. It would certainly buttress your claims, and actually provide more legitimacy than a rant with no substance.
neutron1132 (at) usa (dot) com
Don't take it personally...
There have been numerous petitions for Additions/Modifications of existing features in the platform. Only like may have underestimated the number of apps like that doesn't mean that he might not add it in the future.
And, well, your a senior software engineer... I'm sure you have enough knowledge to create a menu that will suite your needs.
Just because someone doesn't agree with you or is completely unfamiliar with your dataset (which you didn't originally state) doesn't mean it's a personal attack on you. I've just personally never seen a program with multiple EXEs where they were all named with exactly the same display name (which would seem to be poor layout and organization of an app). If you can show a 1/2 dozen apps with decent distribution with this issue, we'd definitely look into coming up with a way to make them distinguishable. But I'd rather not add a feature and complexity to the menu just for a single rare program.
That's my point. The mark of a well-designed piece of software isn't what's put in, but what's left out. Any app can add every feature under the sun, making it nearly impossible to use. With our software, we keep everything as simple as possible, and don't add features unless they serve a decent segment of the userbase and are applicable to many circumstances (or in this case, many apps).
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I agree with you on 2 things.
First, instead of displaying the path, the menu could display the exe name instead. It's the same "complexity" but more usefull than the path.
Second, it may be difficult to ask for improvments because "People" are trying to prove how the platform fits your needs (even with a complicated solutions :)).It's natural...
In this case, you discussed about how often it happens (ok, it's rare) instead of the feature request, which is usefull anyway (even with single exe, for information).
my 2 cents...