I have installed portables.com platform onto my flash drive. I look forward to having many of my favorite apps - Firefox, Gimp, etc. - with me when I am away from my home computer. However, I have two questions regarding the platform.
1. There are portable apps that I am already using in my computer. These would include MusicBee, MediaMonkey, Foobar2000, Reno Uninstaller portables, etc.? Can and should I install these portable apps onto the platform?
1. What about the apps that are not officially portable, but that I have been using by clicking their exe files in their folder? These would include Microsoft Bookshelf 2000, and various versions of Corel Paint Shop Pro.
Whenever applicable, I am a licenses user of these apps. Thanks for your help.
Best,
Dik
Visit the Community page
Join our forums
Subscribe to our email newsletter
Subscribe with RSS
Follow us on Facebook
Follow us on LinkedIn
Follow us on Twitter
Follow us on Mastodon
Follow us on BlueSky
It is possible to use portable applications that you've found elsewhere. Note, however, that these may not always handle cleaning up after they've been used, depending on how the publisher has handled settings, etc.
To do so, follow the instructions here.
For the other applications, clicking the exe does not make an application portable, and will leave traces, if not settings, on every computer you've used the application on.
Thanks. I read your link adding portable apps that are outside of the portable.com platform. Please try to clarify:
Would the app's folder be next to the Portable.com Platform's directory, or within it? For example, my Portable.com Platform is now in this folder: J:\Portableapps.com Platform. Let's say I have app called Joe. I put Joe.exe inside a folder Joe. Do I put this Joe folder next to the J:\Portableapps.com Platform folder so that it is J:\Joe? Or do it put it inside the Portableapps.com Platform so that it is J:\Portableapps.com Platform\Joe?
Thanks.
When you install the PortableApps.com Platform, it places a Start.exe file where you select to install. In the directory containing Start.exe, you'll see two folders: Documents and PortableApps. Within the PortableApps folder, you'll see folders like FirefoxPortable and your other apps as well as a folder called PortableApps.com (note the .com bit) where the platform itself is installed. So, "along side" or "next to" the platform in this case would mean within the PortableApps directory. So, in your case, if you have Start.exe at the full path of J:\PortableApps.com Platform\Start.exe, you'd put Joe within J:\PortableApps.com Platform\Joe\Joe.exe. The platform would then find it automatically.
Note that if you manually change the PortableApps or PortableApps.com directories to something else, things won't work right.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Thanks, John. That was very helpful. Would these apps that are placed in the platform's folder be automatically updated as the regular platform's apps do?
Best,
Dik
No, applications that are not provided by us will not be automatically updated by us.