So I manually deleted the entire installation. Tried downloading the latest version of the portable apps software whih is PortableApps.com_Platform_Setup_21.2.2.paf
Installed that. But it won't let me download any packages for installation.
Just the same stupid message: "Unable to download file. This could be due to a proxy server or network issue or..."
Yeah right. More like this software just doesn't work anymore since about a month ago. When it stopped letting me do anything because the required update failed with the above message too. It doesn't even work anymore lol. Used to work fine for years now it doesn't work at all.
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A change was made a few months back to switch the platform to https by default except for on very old Windows versions (XP/Vista). If you're using Windows 7 and later and the Windows internet components aren't working correctly, you won't be able to connect. The platform will attempt to fall back to insecure connections in this case.
The easiest way to check is to ensure you can browse the PortableApps.com website and download the platform using Internet Explorer on the PC that has the configuration issue. Note that only IE matters, no other browser does, for this particular test. So it doesn't matter if you can do it via Chrome. Firefox, etc.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
ok so whoever decided to make this rely on internet explorer i don't understand why they would do that? internet explorer is really old. who uses it anymore?
but i am using win 7 and when i tried to download the installer using ie, here is what it said:
There is a problem with this website's security certificate.
The security certificate presented by this website has expired or is not yet valid.
Security certificate problems may indicate an attempt to fool you or intercept any data you send to the server.
it gave me the option to ignore that warning and proceed to download.
No one uses IE anymore, you guys need to get with the times. so because you guys are stuck on IE, I can't use portableapps on windows 7. not that it ever worked perfectly though. for example autostarting portableapps programs would usually fail for me so i had to run them manually after bootting up the computer. another big pain in the rear end is how just to look at the list of apps you could install, it would have to connect to the server and take a long time just to get a list. every single time. seems like it would be smart enough to not need to do that every single time. i guess not.
Like many apps, the PA.c updater/app store uses Windows' built in internet components. The reason I had you test Internet Explorer is because that's something that's already on your PC that also uses the Windows internet components, making it ideal for running a quick test. As your test shows, you likely haven't fully updated Windows 7 to its last updates back when it was abandoned in January 2020. Due to this, Windows can't connect to servers that use Let's Encrypt secure certificates like our download server. If you run Windows Update and install all updates, it should work as expected. It does here on both Windows 7 32-bit and 64-bit. If you haven't updated to Internet Explorer 11, you should do that as well. Windows 7 has many internet components that won't properly update unless you have updated to IE11.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
ok if you say so but i thought the whole point of portable apps platform was portability that you could install it onto a usb stick and run it from there without needing anything else.
the other thing as i pointed out is how inefficiently this software seems to run where just to install any programs it requires you to re-download the entire list of available apps from the server. every single time you want to even see the list of apps to pick something to install. so inefficient and slow.
so i honestly don't miss it too much. but thanks for your help.
You at least need a computer with a compatible OS to run a specific app set - in case of PortableApps.com, to use it on ancient Win 7, this has to be fully updated. You cannot expect to run a portable app on every machine you find out there (try it on an old PowerMac...). Maybe it just does not fit your specific needs, that don't matter to most other people out there.
Downloading the list from the server (a small data package) is pretty standard. that's what most app stores do one way or the other. It's quite fast even on my 9 years old Win 8 convertible machine (that normally is ultra slow with most of its tasks).
What alternatives do you have in mind for an online app store that don't break when something changes on the server side?
Additionally - feel free to contribute. No doubt, the platform could use some functional changes but app maintainance is mostly run by John and the few volunteers left.
Like most software, portable software requires the Windows OS components to be functioning properly. Windows 7 was released before modern security (SHA2) and newer certificate authorities (Let's Encrypt) so it needs to be updated to properly function. If an OS hasn't had updates applied in years, some software won't function properly.
The updater database is only 49KB. The slowness is due to limitations in NSIS when accessing INI files and parsing the directories for updates and new installs. I'm working on some updates for it, but I'm the only one maintaining the platform, updater and app store at the moment.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
portableapp should not force users to migrate to another operating system and should respect each user's choice to keep their operating system.
In my case I use windows 7 and I don't want to migrate to windows 8,10,11 or whatever. I think that the purpose of portableapp is to remain isolated from any operating system.
By implementing "UNNECESSARY" security policies for the portable-app update within the portableapp interface, it puts users on the path to stop using portableapp and opt for other platforms that do not imply that a user has to download the applications one by one.
I think you are doing wrong and need to reconsider the update situations so that users do not have problems to perform them..
https://prnt.sc/4_ep1ZcL_odI
A fully updated Windows 7 install works fine with the PortableApps.com Platform. There is no requirement to upgrade to Windows 8, 10, or 11 for the platform itself. The update to Windows 7 that enabled TLS 1.1 and 1.2 was released 7 years ago. Please ensure that you've applied all updates via Windows Update as there are other issues that can occur. Windows 7 does not support TLS 1.3 but our website and download servers don't require TLS 1.3.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!