A lot of the available apps have functionality in the full versions that aren't present without an installer, namely shell extensions and file associations.
Is there any kind of program that automatically adds them based on the apps you have installed? I know they can't be added by the portableapps platform, but I figure they could be added by a separate program that can request elevation, store the existing settings, change to fit the portable apps, and revert them when you're finished.
I wouldn't require the revert part myself (I only use these on computers I own) but something that adds those features would suffice.
Does anything like this exist?
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You've been able to do associations for quite a while with addons here like PortableFileAssociator and eXpresso. Neither require admin rights. The next release of the platform will have associations built-in as well. It will also support adding additional right-click SendTo options so you can easily right-click files in Explorer and zip them using 7-Zip Portable, for example.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Don't suppose there's a beta of that with the right click menu additions? Some other things I'd like to see are e.g. open with notepad2, open with hxd, view sha1/md5 sum, etc.
Also, another question I forgot to ask, is there an easy way to pin the apps to the taskbar without using mkshortcut? And is there a portable app that is a text editor that can open large files? (1GB'sh)
The beta is coming. It was loosely scheduled for last week, but we've been a bit busy recovering from this: https://portableapps.com/blogs/johnhaller/2012-10-29--hurricane-sandy-po... It also killed our streak of releasing a new app every day.
In theory, one of the 64-bit text editors may be able to do it. In reality, you can probably forget about editing a 1GB file in a text editor.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
TextPad and UltraEdit can open files without any kind of size limit. There aren't any open source or freeware apps that can do the same? Not gvim or emacs please.
I have also been thinking about writing an app that will help with portable right-click menu modifications as I use one for "Command Prompt Here" (opens command prompt at the folder specified, does not appear for files).
Depending on how much the platform can do with John's suggested feature, I may write it, I may not.
I know you specified a text editor to open large large files. But just in case you really only need to view large files you can use Large Text File Viewer.
If it's no use to you then just ignore me
Edit: This is a stand alone program.
FYI I use this a lot for viewing large log files when remotely connected to clients sites. But I only keep the exe (discard the ini ect.) This will make sure the skull background on the viewer does not show up when your customer is watching what you are doing ;-).
It amazes me that on the internet you can be anything you want, and yet so many people still choose to be idiots.
Right-click menu extensions and file associations are possible with a portable app as they are simply modifications to the registry, and the Launcher has functionality specifically to aid in this, but most developers choose not to add them.
Automatic file associations are soon going to be a feature of the Platform, although for now you could use something like Expresso. (There is another one but the name has slipped my mind right now).