Writing a non-portable app converter: need apps to test with

[Andrew Lee]

No problems with me. If you want a separate forum section, I can do that too. Let me know.

But let's pick a name first, OK?

I suggest PortaStar. Star => * => Anything.

[redllar]

Thanks for the okay Andrew. I don't think a separate section is needed.

And thank you both for the name suggestions. As usual I can't decide on one. Maybe we can have a contest if this thing turns out to be useful. It already is to me but you never know. But that's what I'm here for, so...

Here's a direct link to the first version of the utility. It's only for 2K or newer and it's very limited in functionality and bogs down the app during heavy registry access. There's a readme in the zip in which I tried to cover everything I could think of. Please post useful feedback here whether it works or not and whether you have an account here or not as I really want to continue to develop it further.

[redllar]

Fluffy,

If you don't like email, feel free to PM me here or at Virtual Plastic (I think you can do that there.) I also have an account at Neowin. I don't "hang out" on the net as I have two jobs and what little free time I have I try to devote to working on these apps in the hopes that someone will like them enough to hire me back into the programming.

I'm always interested in bugs of the apps and in return I can guarantee you that you'll get a new version of whatever apps you want. I currently have new versions of FGWndGrab, fungusClock, fungusTabs, RegPad, and YaZZle. And several others as well because I haven't had the time to test them enough or update their docs or web pages. I also have other apps (a few of the fungus vein) that you may be interested in that I'm willing to share as I do plan on getting them onto the VP site eventually.

The only thing I request in return is eventual feedback, because without it the app goes stale since I only work on the things I'm interested in or on bug fixes and feature requests for those that work with me in the development process, i.e., provide feedback.

[Fluffy]

Good heavens man! New versions of fungusClock and YaZZle would be very welcome indeed. I'll PM you with further bug reports/suggestions and the like on here since I can't really keep track of multiple forums (I have enough problems staying focused with these forums and Future Pinball forums). I'd be glad to help test any new versions of your applications as well.

I sure hope you do get hired back into programming, as you have quite a talent for it.

[Andrew Lee]

How about creating a poll to vote for the name?

Just tried it out on my favorite non-portable app xplorer2lite, and it works flawlessly. This proggie is amazing!

Is there any way to make apps that write settings to the user profile folder write to the application folder instead?

[Fluffy]

How about creating a poll to vote for the name?

Just tried it out on my favorite non-portable app xplorer2lite, and it works flawlessly. This proggie is amazing!

Is there any way to make apps that write settings to the user profile folder write to the application folder instead?

First: http://www.portablefreeware.com/forums/ ... .php?t=479

Second: I already asked about the user profile stuff, he's trying to focus on registry redirects right now, but if that works out well enough he'll focus on that aspect as well.

[Fluffy]

I just tried this with Future Pinball and that gave it some problems. Also, I tried building a portable launcher for ImgBurn and it crashed as soon as it was run.

[nycjv321]

This is cool im gonna start trying it out

[redllar]

Hey Andrew, I'm glad the app worked on xplorer2lite. Thanks for the feedback. Did you try and make a standalone out of it?

Fluffy, I already tried making a standalone of ImgBurn. For some reason the Detours library I'm using can't see the exe's IAT (basically, the list of dlls that the app needs at runtime, e..g, what you see when you open up the executable with Dependency Walker.) I'm going to modify the PortaPotty app so that it lets you know what the problem is. I also have an email into MS but since I'm a nobody I don't expect any response. There is a new version of Detours though so I'll give it a go when I get the chance.

Thanks for the failed test feedback on the pinball app. That's what I'm looking for. If it has a setup, did you run that as well as the app through PortaPotty, or just the app? The app might be looking for reg entries created by the setup. Anyway, I'll download it and see if I can fix the problem(s).

Thanks for the poll as well. Looks like not too many people are interested in the app though. I sure could use a lot more attempts to find out just what this thing can and can't do and what if anything I can do to correct the failures.

[Fluffy]

As far as Future Pinball goes, it does have a setup but I've only set it up once. There isn't any kind of installer magic, all that happens when the registry is cleared is you lose your settings/MRU list. The strange part about FP is that it ran just fine through PortaPotty the first time I ran it, but the second time I tried running it through it crashed the second it got past the loading screen. When I tried making a portable launcher for FP, I got the error "No application found on the command line."

Another thing I found slightly misleading about the readme:
o Look for a portaPotty.ini file in the same directory as the executable. If one exists then the next time the application is run it should access the portable registry first and the system registry next (only for queries), and should not modify the system registry except for a few low-level keys.

This leads the user to believe that they can run the application normally and the registry will remain untouched, but in actuality they have to run it through PortaPotty again in order for the app to use the portable registry. At least, that's been my experience.

[Fluffy]

On another note, should I start testing this with less gaming apps and more general-purpose apps? In the readme you indicated that there might be some problems with games ("such as hardware-related or gaming api-related settings"). Just wondering if testing more games will result in you pulling out your hair in frustration or not, because if it's okay to test games you're going to get a LOT of feedback from me.

Andrew: after testing this app out a bit, I think I've found a replacement for Regshot.

redllar: how difficult would it be to add a small application to create a "drop target" window for PortaPotty (a small, floating window to drag an executable into and run it through PortaPotty automatically)? At least for testing purposes, it would make the process a lot quicker and easier.

[JohnHolland]

I do not quite understand. For quite some time i have been using a portable version of xplorer2lite. Am i missing something? Is my version not considered portable? It will run from my USB-stick on any pc.
cheers,
JH

Hey Andrew, I'm glad the app worked on xplorer2lite. Thanks for the feedback. Did you try and make a standalone out of it?

Fluffy, I already tried making a standalone of ImgBurn. For some reason the Detours library I'm using can't see the exe's IAT (basically, the list of dlls that the app needs at runtime, e..g, what you see when you open up the executable with Dependency Walker.) I'm going to modify the PortaPotty app so that it lets you know what the problem is. I also have an email into MS but since I'm a nobody I don't expect any response. There is a new version of Detours though so I'll give it a go when I get the chance.

Thanks for the failed test feedback on the pinball app. That's what I'm looking for. If it has a setup, did you run that as well as the app through PortaPotty, or just the app? The app might be looking for reg entries created by the setup. Anyway, I'll download it and see if I can fix the problem(s).

Thanks for the poll as well. Looks like not too many people are interested in the app though. I sure could use a lot more attempts to find out just what this thing can and can't do and what if anything I can do to correct the failures.

[Darkbee]

I do not quite understand. For quite some time i have been using a portable version of xplorer2lite. Am i missing something? Is my version not considered portable? It will run from my USB-stick on any pc.
cheers,
JH

Just because a program runs from a usb drive doesn't make it portable. I'm sure many programs can run from portable drives but if you look closely you'll observe that the settings are mysteriously 'lost' between different computers (because they are stored in the registry and the registry is machine dependant). One classic example of a program that can be run without 'install' but ISN'T portable is TreePad Lite (as of 08/10/2006). The wording is a bit misleading, but essentially the behaviour that I described above applies, whereby TreePad Lite will simply create it's settings in the registry if they are not found upon the first run of the program (which they won't be if you use different computers all the time).

[redllar]

As far as Future Pinball goes, it does have a setup but I've only set it up once. There isn't any kind of installer magic, all that happens when the registry is cleared is you lose your settings/MRU list. The strange part about FP is that it ran just fine through PortaPotty the first time I ran it, but the second time I tried running it through it crashed the second it got past the loading screen.

You know, I just read your post a few minutes ago and it dawned on me what the problem was when I re-read the "ran fine the first time and crashed the second" bit. It's the same problem I had with HDTune that I put a fix in for but then took out because HDTune seemed to "correct itself" somehow. So I now know where the bug is and how to fix it. If you want to play around with it before I get the next version uploaded, edit the portaPotty.ini, find the [...RecentDir] section, add " 00" (w/o quotes; don't forget the leading space) to the end of the LoadDir and TableFileName0 values, save & exit, and re-run. You'll need to do that for each new table that you load up. I also noticed that the File->Table Launcher usage doesn't work and that's another problem that I need to fix (I never coded up 3 of the registry api re-direct functions.)

When I tried making a portable launcher for FP, I got the error "No application found on the command line."

I'm assuming you used the supplied cmd file to attempt this? If so, the error's due to the space in the app's file name and the use of that cmd file. I think I can fix the cmd file to take spaces into account though.

Another thing I found slightly misleading about the readme:
o Look for a portaPotty.ini file in the same directory as the executable. If one exists then the next time the application is run it should access the portable registry first and the system registry next (only for queries), and should not modify the system registry except for a few low-level keys.

This leads the user to believe that they can run the application normally and the registry will remain untouched, but in actuality they have to run it through PortaPotty again in order for the app to use the portable registry. At least, that's been my experience. ;)

Good catch. I'll reword that on the next upload's readme.

[redllar]

On another note, should I start testing this with less gaming apps and more general-purpose apps? In the readme you indicated that there might be some problems with games ("such as hardware-related or gaming api-related settings"). Just wondering if testing more games will result in you pulling out your hair in frustration or not, because if it's okay to test games you're going to get a LOT of feedback from me. :)

Please do whatever suits you best. I don't have any hair left to pull out anyway. :) And I really want feedback. I think Future Pinball is kind of a worst-case-scenario anyway, as it combines a lot of COM objects usage with a game.

Andrew: after testing this app out a bit, I think I've found a replacement for Regshot. ;)

I think RegShot is perfect for its purpose. I can't see replacing it myself.

redllar: how difficult would it be to add a small application to create a "drop target" window for PortaPotty (a small, floating window to drag an executable into and run it through PortaPotty automatically)? At least for testing purposes, it would make the process a lot quicker and easier.

Not hard at all. I had the same idea and almost did that with the first version but decided I didn't want the app hanging around so I made the cmd file instead.