The Portable Apps programs have been extremely beneficial to me in my work environment, and couldn’t have come at a better time. I was wondering if there’s anything in the works to have a Portable Apps desktop environment? Although the PA program is similar with the available programs and documents folder, but I would like to see something that simulates the Windows XP/7 desktop. This way, I can work from the PA desktop without prying eyes noticing anything out of the ordinary, unlike the Portable Apps interface, which can cause some questions when this pops up since this is something most work place environments aren’t familiar seeing on workstation computers.
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Don't get me wrong. I would like to have a portable OS as much as anyone else. However, since it seems to be extremely difficult to make this possible, I thought the next best thing would be to create a portable desktop environment.
It would take a lot of work (I think) to do that, but it should be easier than making a Windows-on-a-Stick (to me). That also solve the problem with some computers not being able to boot to USB. My idea for it is to give the user the ability to drag portable apps onto the desktop of the new environment and save all the settings of the desktop. It would also be strangely hilarious to me to drop that in the startup folder of a random computer once it has been developed. And at the very least it'd be nice to see themes that look like the Start menu (Classic Start menu, XP Start menu of all three colors, and a Windows Vista/7 Start menu).
If you want to use (run) PortableApps progams without using the PortableApps menu you can (and in a way that would attract less attention then re-booting your computer with a portable OS that probably will look different enough to Windows XP/7 to get people curious
).
Just use Windows Explorer to start your PortableApps programs (yes, it's slower but there won't be anything out of the ordinary to attract attention)
*IMPORTANT* remember to start the xxxxxPortable.exe instead of the xxxxx.exe (otherwise you could be leaving information/files behind?)
eg: if I wanted to start Firefox Portable, I'd open Windows explorer, go to where PortableApps is installed (F drive for me), go into the PortableApps folder, go into the FirefoxPortable folder and run FirefoxPortable.exe
I hope that helps
[and if I've got anything wrong, someone will correct me]
ps: I'm not sure, but I think there are a couple of (portable?) programs being worked on to allow creation of shortcuts to programs/files on a portable drive. Maybe someone can say if they also might be helpful in a case like this?
Thanks for the suggestions. I have created shortcuts to avoid bringing the Portable Apps program onto the desktop environment, however when each program starts, it initiates the PA logo on the screen. The logo alone has had co-workers asking questions so I usually start PA programs when nobody is looking over my shoulder.
Although the Portable Apps have been designed to provide a ‘stealth’ environment for computers, it would be nice if the programs would start in ‘stealth’ mode as well, without bringing attention to each program by displaying the logos for each program.
I understand that programmers want to advertise their creations, but the Portable Apps program has got to be getting some good exposure with so much to offer!
If you want to get rid of the logos, go to your "...\AppNamePortable\Other\Source" folder, where AppName is the app's name (of course). Copy AppNamePortable.ini to your "AppNamePortable" folder and change DisableSplashScreen=false into DisableSplashScreen=true (we like to call the logo Splash Screens).
I think the menu will have a feature in the future that will let you disable all the splash screens with a couple of clicks (but I'm not positive).
Although I don't believe there are any full portable desktop environments, there are many alternative portable application launchers you can use. I prefer Codysafe: http://www.codyssey.com/products/codysafe.html. It looks similar to a windows vista start menu and actually launches applications much faster. PAL has a desktop mode though it is very limited: http://www.download.irohde.de/en/launchv3. Ther is also ViPad: http://lee-soft.com/vipad/ and Berokyo: http://www.berokyo.com/win/en/index.html, although I'm not sure about portablility. What I would most recomend would be Ceedo: http://www.ceedo.com/. Aside from the great GUI, it can actually install apps directly into a virtual sandboxed environment. You won't need to find portable apps online anymore. Simply download Ceedo, open Argo application installer, and install ANY application from the official installer directly into a portable sandboxed directory. All apps are packaged together, which means you could install plugins and runtimes without having to copy dll files for a portable browser. If you want a free alternative you can try Pstart JPE Edition: http://www.portablefreeware.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=4835&start=0. It has a desktop too, although it still isn't perfect. Otherwise you could also try cameyo(free): http://www.cameyo.com/. In the newest version you can install software directly into a temporary environment and cameyo can package it afterwards into a portable single .exe file without having to install on the actual system and capture the data.