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v16 update breaks previous setups

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December 10, 2018 - 5:39am
#1
robw
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v16 update breaks previous setups

Hi,

Had a broken portable apps setup on my desktop pc and two laptops I updated on.
In the end I got it all working again, and for other people and the devs I wanted to leave a note on this..

What I did was:
1. Rename the original portableapps folder to portableapps.old
2. Downloaded the v16 installer and installed as a Full version.
3. Moved all my installed apps over to the new install. Had to install a new app to see where it would end up...
4. Restarted the new portable app launcher.

Note:
Looking at the previous portable apps folder structure, and a fresh install, they are different. At least from my installed versions.
There seems to be some shuffling of data, and the location for the installed apps looks to have moved to the root of the portable apps folder install. Also, tne name of the .exe was changed as well.

It might be the thing that causes so many people problems, at least my shortcuts didn't work either Wink

On my end a clean install solved my problems, but I also had to set the preferences again. Luckily it's all in plain ASCII to read.

rob

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December 10, 2018 - 7:44am
John T. Haller
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Old And New Folder Layouts

What were your old and new folder layouts where you saw the problem? The folder layout of the platform has remained unchanged since its original release over a decade ago.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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December 10, 2018 - 9:07am
(Reply to #2)
robw
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Hi,

Hi,

I believe you immediately, but my folder structure was different. No idea how & why Wink

The new install now is like:
-portableapps rootfolder (has desktop.ini file)
- - contains all installed apps by FolderName
- - contains PortableApps.com folder with subfolder App, Assets, Data and Other.

old install:
-portableapps rootfolder, has executable called Start.exe
- - contains two subfolders named Documents & PortableApps
- - - PortableApps folder has two subfolders, named CommonFiles & PortableApps.com
- - - - PortableApp.com folder also contained all installed apps by FolderName

Old install worked & updated without a problem until now. -shrugs- Wink
cheers!

Rob

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December 10, 2018 - 9:47am
(Reply to #3)
John T. Haller
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Actual Names

What are the actual names? I've heard of some people who created X:\PortableApps themselves and then installed to there so Start.exe was in X:\PortableApps and then their app folders and the PortableApps.com folder were in X:\PortableApps\PortableApps which confused the upgrade installer. Was this the case with you? If you do the upgrade from within the platform it should work automatically. If you manually upgrade, you must be sure to manually select the folder that contains Start.exe.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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December 11, 2018 - 5:45am
(Reply to #4)
robw
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Hi John,

Hi John,

It might be that was the case, but as it was some time agao I'm not sure how I set it up back then. But it sound like similar to my 'problems' on this end.
Like I said, I did a full reinstall of the launcher, and all is working as it should again. No biggie. Wink

rob

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December 11, 2018 - 11:51am
(Reply to #5)
John T. Haller
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Upgrade Automatically or Download Installer and Run It

Did you let the platform upgrade itself automatically (which should handle the above layout without issue) or did you manually download the installer and run it (which could automatically detect X:\PortableApps as your upgrade location if you have it in a sub-directory of that)?

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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December 11, 2018 - 7:51am
(Reply to #6)
depp.jones
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Maybe the description during

Maybe the description during install should be reworded. I can imagine that it might be confusing, especially when the root folder of a drive is preselected for all users. You normally expect a folder to be created - what actually happens, but is not obvious at that point in the process. So a computer-savvy person might manually add the folder or select an existing one (PortableApps if already there Smile ).
I know, the installer uses the standard NSIS wording. Is it technically feasible to add a custom comment, like your advice to select the folder, that contains start.exe, or a hint, that the folder PortableApps (and Documents) will be created during the install process/upgrade? I think, that will greatly reduce confusing - not for novice users that click next anyway, but for tech-savvies.

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December 11, 2018 - 4:01pm
robw
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Two comments in one go

Two comments in one go Wink

@John: Yes, I did the automatic installer do it's thing, but it didn't work properly, and I ended up with an empty launcher and missing icons and a handful of error messages.

@depp.jones: Yes, that might be useful. I almost always create 'home' folders to collect apps I don't have to install with a regular install.
I probably did that a long time ago with the portable apps launcher as well.

rob

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