Hi all.

[redllar]

Hey all.

I'm back for a bit, maybe for the summer, at least for the next month. I'm currently working with Andrew on getting the JPE download here re-packaged so that it doesn't violate the restrictive packaging requirements of the JPE licensing agreement. Once that happens I hope to do 2 things while I'm here.

One is to start a thread, on a roughly week-by-week basis, where I'll cover a JPE-related topic and then have a discussion with anyone interested enough to post. I'll try and keep the topic specific so we can stay on track. And I'll do my best to keep it as readable as possible, but no guarantees as I'm terrible at documenting, which also means I'm terrible at explaining things. Hopefully the end result is enough info so that some of the mistakes currently being made with JPE aren't repeated by any newbies that come along. And that you'll have something to refer to and add to without me.

The second thing I hope to do here is to introduce you to a new version of JPE that I've been messing with now and again. This new version is the start of the reason why I decided to rename PortaPotty to JauntePE. Because I wanted something more than just a portablizing utility. I wanted, instead, a kind of generic plugin platform that used the strengths of dll injection and api-hooking to do the things I used to use system-wide message hooking to do. And more. Things that weren't even possible, or were just too cumbersome to do with message hooking. Like the idea which first got me into api-hooking: converting any target app's window output to greyscale (or sepia or whatever.) And I also wanted to leave you with something that someone else could take and add to without me.

So this new version, in addition to an expanded launcher and other enhancements, and some bug fixes, has the beginnings of a plugin system designed to take advantage of what madshi's great MCH library has to offer. As a test I've created 3 plugins and the first one is pretty much usable right now, within limits of course. It's an attempt at a "virtual" drive system ala subst. I've been using it to portablize document paths for those apps that like to store full paths in their most-recently-used list, without having to result to storing them into a redirected special folder (a good discussion topic.) And last week I added the option to encrypt any document files saved onto one of these "drives." That's also working great with some apps, okay but a bit flaky with others, and still unusable with some. I think it's a pretty good start though and maybe can be used as the basis for some additional "nice to have" features such as secure file deletion or using an iso file to mimic a cd.

Anyway, more on all of this later after I get things worked out with Andrew.

[crownixx]

hooray, the big guy back in da house
welcome back redllar..hope you can stay longer. you can see how we really aprieciate your work alot and this thread is the proof. thanks for coming again

[Firewrath]

...the JPE download here re-packaged so that it doesn't violate the restrictive packaging requirements of the JPE licensing agreement...

Well, with all due respect to you and your license,
people were ask for where to get a hold of the program and i figured some documentation and examples were better then nothing,
and Techly, i did keep JPE to its own little folder and only put 'add here' text files in the subfolders for the examples,


But, yeah, meh,
(Though, i hope i didnt cause you and Andy too much of a problem with that,)


Anyways,
great to have you back man,
cant wait to try out the new stuff, ^-^

and as always im willing to test out anything you want me to mess with,
though, i might be a little slow on my emails due to comp issues for the past few months,

But other then that, all is good for anything else, ^-^

[Andrew Lee]

I am back. Sorry for missing in action for the past few days.

Anyway, I am in touch with redllar to settle the license issue. Will keep you guys posted.

[redllar]

Hello again crownixx. Thanks for making the changes. I'll post an answer to your question in your wizard thread about the in-memory stuff. Thanks for helping out the others.

fw, hey man. No problems on my end with what you did. It's all cool. I just wanted to make it "right." A license is no good unless you defend it. And I have reason to defend this one. Not against anyone here, but elsewhere. Also, the minor change Andrew's making will make it easier to update it in the future, if he wants to. Hopefully we'll both have more stuff to add to what you've already put in there. The Q&A idea you have sounds great. Let me know if I can help. And thank you too for helping out the others.

Also, no testing this time around. But bug fix requests are always welcome. I'm dropping the email accounts though, so they'll have to come here.

Thanks Andrew. I'll try and get the new version up soon.

[Andrew Lee]

redllar, I have updated the entry so that it downloads JauntePE10.zip.

Firewrath's docs have been packaged in a separate ZIP file which can be downloaded separately.

I don't have JauntePE 0.1.1, so I would be grateful if you can email me the latest version.

Sincere apologies for violating your license. Will be more careful next time.

[portackager]

Great job redlar, keep it up. Perhaps opensource is not an option now but maybe in the near future?

[redllar]

Great job redlar, keep it up. Perhaps opensource is not an option now but maybe in the near future?

If I see enough of an effort on the part of the JPE users to help each other out, then yeah, I would happily open source it on SourceForge. I even created a compile-time JPE-runtime-based library for C/C++ devs to use to instantly portablize any non-portable app.

But I seriously doubt the goodwill is there. Kranor had a great idea in his thread, but look how little it's been contributed to. Firewrath's request for Q&A questions has been almost completely ignored. I just don't see any sort of user community growing up around this app.

[nycjv321]

im here for u redllar. try the portableapps forums i bet u would get a lot of support there

[redllar]

im here for u redllar. try the portableapps forums i bet u would get a lot of support there

People there have pretty much ignored JPE-related posts in the past. They appear to either not be interested in figuring out how to make JPE work with the apps they want to portablize, or are only interested in portablizing open source apps via NSIS. Haller has definitely never expressed any interest in JPE.

[redllar]

redllar, I have updated the entry so that it downloads JauntePE10.zip.

Firewrath's docs have been packaged in a separate ZIP file which can be downloaded separately.

I don't have JauntePE 0.1.1, so I would be grateful if you can email me the latest version.

Sincere apologies for violating your license. Will be more careful next time.

NO apologies necessary Andrew. Thanks for all of your help. I emailed the 011 package so let me know if you didn't get it or there are problems with it.

[redllar]

A download for trying out the "fake drive/encryption" plugin is now available here (~360KB). Unzip with directory expansion to get a JauntePE020 directory. Make sure not to mix this stuff up with any other JPE stuff.

I pre-made 3 fake drives for you - J:, K:, and L:, one for each currently supported encryption method. You'll need to manually edit JauntePE_jauntePE.ini to change the drive letters if they're already in use, but I've given this some thought and think I have a work around. The fake drive's contents are currently stored in Filesystems->jpeCrypto->J, etc. if you want to first try and open the supplied readmes to see what the encrypted contents look like.

You'll only have launchpad usage so start JauntePE and try the included notepad entry to see if the drives show up when going to File->Open->My Computer. If they do, then browse to one and open up its readme.txt and you should be able to read the text.

A bug I'm still researching is if you do a File->Save As to create a new file. You'll need to create the file first by 1) right-clicking within the folder window, 2) selecting New->Text Document, and 3) naming it. Then select it, click Save, and click Yes to replace it. Just clicking on Save won't do anything.

If all of the above works then maybe try some apps you're interested in using the plugin with. After you add the launchpad icon you'll need to select the plugin from the icon's Properties->Executables->Plugins list. You don't have to select the jauntePE plugin if you don't need registry and/or file system redirection and only want the "fake drive/encryption" capabilities of the crypto plugin.

So far I've used this plugin with several text editors and a couple of different image file viewers/editors. I haven't completely reworked the encryption used on the L: drive, so it's the most likely to fail to encrypt/decrypt properly. The other 2 encryption methods have been working fine but they're pretty simple in terms of strength and would only be useable for low security files.

That's it for now. It's all still very rudimentary but I thought you might want a taste. Don't store anything you don't want seen on these drives as each drive's encryption pass phrase is currently stored in JauntePE_jauntePE.ini. I will be changing that to something more robust. Probably a separate app you run once to log into with a pass phrase that's not stored anywhere. It'll act as a "fake drive" server, allowing mounts, dismounts, etc.

[grannyGeek]

redllar, please don't be discouraged --

I just don't see any sort of user community growing up around this app

I think if you look at the number of views of the threads in this new JauntePE forum, you'll see that there is quite a bit of interest in this wonderful tool.

I can't contribute much except questions at this point, I am NOT a programmer, and too new to even using the wizard to do much more than follow cookbook instructions. But I check this forum almost every day in case I might pick up some useable info.
So, I would call the JauntPE community "small but growing, quiet but very interested".

Thank you for creating JauntePE, it is a gift for this old granny.

[crownixx]

Haller has definitely never expressed any interest in JPE.

But maybe Steve Lamerton interested because he currently develop the same concept as JauntePE. its called Lapwing

So, I would call the JauntPE community "small but growing, quiet but very interested".

Yes redllar, you are here right now, the JauntePE community definitely grow larger and larger over the time

[redllar]

I think if you look at the number of views of the threads in this new JauntePE forum, you'll see that there is quite a bit of interest in this wonderful tool.

Hey granny. I'm not discouraged because I really just don't care. That's a very freeing feeling. I'm here only to try and see that you all get as much out of JPE as possible. Mainly as a favor to Andrew since he set things up here. And to Firewrath since he took on the role of being something other than just a user. And to you and crownixx and some of the others as well. At least you guys are attempting to help each other out.

But maybe Steve Lamerton interested because he currently develop the same concept as JauntePE. its called Lapwing

I guess you weren't around back then, but been there, done that. No thanks. For me any involvement with anyone closely associated with PortableApps.com is a dead issue. We just have very different ways of looking at things.