Same comfort as with installed programms

There are a couple add-ons you can use like Portable File Associatior and Cafe/eXpresso that you can use to set these up. You can install them into the platform and set them to auto-run.

We'll be incorporating this into the platform itself shortly as well so it's much more automated.

File Association is when you associate a certain file type (such as .jpg) with a specific program.
Currently there are two programs that you can use to create these associations with PortableApps so that they work on any computer that you use. These are:
Portable File Associator https://portableapps.com/node/15583
eXpresso https://portableapps.com/node/27101
Of the two, it appears that only eXpresso is still being developed.
When you associate a file type with a PortableApp, make sure you associate it with the launcher, not the base app.
For example, if you want to use GIMP to open your .jpg files, you should associate .jpg with X:\PortableApps\GIMPPortable\GIMPPortable.exe.
Do NOT associate it with X:\PortableAppsSuite\PortableApps\GIMPPortable\App\gimp\bin\GIMP-2.6.exe. That would break the portability.

There are plans for this function to be built-in to the menu/platform, but that's still a long way off.

With respect to the authors, eXpresso and PFA are hacks that basically work. The problem with any real solution is first that it may require administrative privilege, which eXpresso and PFA do not require. The greater problem is that if the flash drive is yanked, the process is not automatically reversed and you've just broken the host computer. Sure, any geek worth his salt can fix it, but that's beside the point.

What would work very elegantly, perhaps requiring admin access (is that an issue?) is to make a .reg file that contains all your associations, and then one that contains all of the host machine's associations. You will have to do the host-side one for each host, or simply backup their registry, make your change, and then restore their backup when you're done. If it's your own machine, and you just want to use portable apps, you simply run the first .reg once, and be done with it.

Unfortunately for all the care Mr. Haller is taking to ensure the PortableApps.com platform is 100% legal, open source, and friendly to both novices and limited-user access, I would assume it's one of the hacks that makes it into the Platform. And I'm sure it will be good, he isn't known for software that isn't, but I'm still skeptical given what is available. In my opinion, the best solution is a portable shell (essentially, a desktop environment like KDE, Gnome, or Windows Explorer). This would not work for limited users, though. Only admins. But it has the potential to be cool as hell. I'm talking PA Platform as the Start menu with the real start menu as a folder, file associations, widgets, the whole shebang. And this would either unload Explorer and load itself, or load on top of Explorer. It could also have a listener to unload itself if the drive gets disconnected. The fact that nobody's done this yet (including PA's less than legal rivals) is a testament to the complexity of the issue. (Of course, if you're using an admin account, you could just as easily use a VM. Then you have all that and so much more.)