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Currently, if a PortableApp isn't closed properly (computer crashes, or re-boots without closing all portable apps), the next time it is run you get a dialog saying:
"AppName Portable did not close properly last time it was run and will now clean up. Please then start AppName Portable again manually."
I think the launcher should be able to automatically launch the App after it does the necessary clean up.
P.S. is this the best place to post this?
We have no plans to do this at present. In normal usage, this message should NEVER show up. Modern Windows doesn't crash anymore, and you should always close your apps before shutting down or rebooting. We don't want to make it easier for users to do Very Bad Things(tm) to their apps.
Plus, from a technical standpoint, relaunching PAL from itself gets dicey when dealing with passed environment variables from the platform and itself. So accomplishing it properly would take a bit of work.
Universal solution:
FOR /F %%i IN ('dir /b "*.exe"') DO SET APPNAME=%%i
SET APPNAME=%APPNAME:.exe=%
DEL .\Data\PortableApps.comLauncherRuntimeData-%APPNAME%.ini
START .\%APPNAME%.exe
This will cause the apps to NOT clean up and move settings back to the appropriate place which will result in data loss for dozens of different apps.
Maybe it's better than every time manual to restart app.
It's really very annoying.
Make auto-restart.
Rebooting manually does not guarantee data loss.
I had data loss and without this.
With this while never data loss.
Deleting these files will *absolutely* cause data loss in some apps. If you crash an app or shutdown Windows without closing it, some files will be left behind. For apps that move data back and forth between Data (for backups) and App (for use by the app while running), the file you are deleting is what the launcher uses to determine if it was closed properly. If it wasn't closed properly and that file is missing, the launcher will assume there is no data for the app and start fresh. Poof, your data is gone for that app. That's why you don't manually mess with an app's internal data files.
As for why and how this works, it's been discussed ad nauseum. The final word on it is here: https://portableapps.com/node/28953#comment-207031
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