I updated my PA frameworks copy of IrfanView four days ago, and soon found I couldn't save any updates to my preferences. IrfanView warned me of this as soon as I entered the Options dialog, saying
Your INI file 'D:\Development\Portable Apps\IrfanView\Releases\IrfanViewPortable\Data\IrfanView\i_view.ini' is read-only.
I don't even have a D drive. I think the PA packager has inadvertently left a trace of their system in the released code.
I fixed this by finding the file which specified that file path. It was in a plain text .INI fle at
(my install location)\PortableApps\PortableApps\IrfanViewPortable\App\IrfanView\i_view32.ini
where one line contained:
INI_Folder=D:\Development\Portable Apps\IrfanView\Releases\IrfanViewPortable\Data\IrfanView
Once that was changed so that it pointed to
(my install location)\PortableApps\PortableApps\IrfanViewPortable\Data\IrfanView
everything worked again.
If you run IrfanViewPortable.exe, which makes it fully portable, it updates that INI file on every launch. If you run irfanview.exe directly, you're not using any of our stuff and it won't work right.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Ah... thank-you. I've found that my shortcuts were all correct, but that I'd inadvertently got file associations for .jpg etc pointing directly at ...\IrfanViewPortable\App\IrfanView\i_view32.exe rather than - as you say - the frontend. Sorry for wasting your time.
No worries. Look at it this way, if someone runs into something similar, your post will help them. Glad it's working for you now.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!