Long story short, sometimes an app becomes corrupt, and those of us "in the know" know that simply reinstalling the app will often fix it.
Now that the updater is part of the platform, it seems that it would be trivial to offer a "Repair" feature. Right click the app, choose Repair, and it uses the updater to reinstall the app (either through a cheap hack: set the version a point lower in appinfo.ini and launch updater, or by sending a switch/argument to the updater to update just that one app).
Also, there are a couple files in the Profile folder in Firefox that can cause issues; perhaps if the latter option were done above, an argument/switch could be passed to the Firefox installer (which would also have to be updated, of course) to make it delete the files in question, I think it's the .json files, but I could be wrong.
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Microsoft (not that PortableApps should use that to emulate) does this kind of thing with "repairing" Internet Explorer and also has the System File Checker process.
Being able to fix things is a very good idea.
It would be a very good feature to add to the suite.
neutron1132 (at) usa (dot) com
Microsoft isn't in a position to do it correctly. The PortableApps.com Format keeps the application (which should never be altered by the user) separate from the settings, and repairing a PAF'd app should be as simple as replacing the app. Maybe the system file checker is more like what I mean, but I don't trust Microsoft to fix its problems.
If Microsoft thought the same way as PortableApps.com, perhaps reinstalling Windows over itself would be just as good as reformatting the C drive and reinstalling Windows fresh. Sadly, it is not.
I thought I was agreeing with you, but I guess I was mistaken.
neutron1132 (at) usa (dot) com
I guess you were? Because that response was kind of out of left field, unless I'm missing something.
Microsoft ties everything up in the Registry, and that was a brilliant idea in 1995 -- not so much now, as anyone who uses PortableApps can tell you, the more modular design works better. I swear by it, anyway.
I think we are in agreement that the repair idea is good. But if your agreement in that is contingent in my faith in Microsoft's ability to fix random problems in their OS, well, I don't know what to tell you.
Agree to not disagree in agreement about agreeing? :S
Bottom Line: Although sort of redundant since repairing an app is as simple as running the installer, making the option more accessible (more obvious?) for the less tech savvy is a good idea. +1