Portable App Development

What is the difference between the built-in NSIS Getparameters function and the custom GetParametersUnicode function used in many portable apps?
GetParametersUnicode.nsh says: "This function handles getting parameters when the EXE's path contains CJK characters".
The NSIS 2.40 changelog says: "Fixed GetParameters handling of MBCS characters"
So has GetParamtersUnicode any advantages or are they equal?

The app I'm trying to portabilize (Baralga) only requires that the variable "user.home" be overridden. I currently do that with a simple Windows shortcut that executes:
$ javaw -Duser.home=Data -jar baralgaXXX.jar

it would be nice for portablapps menu to have the ability for the user to place some program launchers from the menu into user creatable folders, same as in windows, this way we can group programs that do similar things into the same folder for easy accessibility

The background for the PA Menu should be a PNG file, so that skinners can use transparency to create very cool effects.

I have noticed that one of my favorite features of PA is that I can install programs that are not formatted as portable apps, and they will still show in the PA Menu. However, PA searches for any exe file, and includes unintallers and supporting executables in the menu, making it quite dificult to use as it is very cluttered. I propose adding an options menu that can "hide" certain applications from appearing in the PA Menu. Who agrees?

I've read all the development docs and the Guerrilla Guide and I still perceive a significant gap when it comes to figuring out exactly what code I need to write and where.

Hiya chaps.

Would it be possible to provide an "advanced" option for download of the PortableApps suite where you choose exactly which software you want from the complete list?

Because that would be so much more convenient than downloading all the extras I want like InfraRecorder or Notepad++.

Cheers,
Robin.

Don't you just hate it when things don't work the way we want them to? I had this problem, trying to get Firefox or Chrome to play nice and be able to use Java. The same goes for my Eclipse.
As nobody has made a descent solution, I figured I'll give it a shot, so I created this for everyone.

What does it do?
It temporarily tells your machine to get Java from your stick. It will "register" the JRE in the registry, so every tool that uses the registry to find Java, will now point to your JRE.

OK, So I recently got the portable apps menu and I love it. I also love how it recognizes other applications that are put into the PortableApps folder, even if they're not 'official' portable apps.
I did that with several of my stand alone programs, and now I want to use a more complex launcher.
I have the program's exe file and it does everything that it is supposed to, I don't need help with that.
I am trying to get a custom PortableApps menu icon and name to show up, but that won't happen.

here's the directory structure:

I've noticed that apps that are taken from portableapps.com are usually slower when run from a flash drive (for example firefox 3 takes a whopping 30 seconds to load but on the hard drive firefox takes only a second to load). I have my own version of audacity on my flash drive and it loads faster than audacity portable from portableapps.com. Why? Maybe in the future you could make the programs run faster. Do you know why this happens?

EDIT: I mean on startup the apps are slow. Sorry for the confusion.