Portable version
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#7 Portable version
Please create a portable version like, for example, http://www.sordum.org/8705/simple-vhd-manager-v1-3/ has. It will be a great feature.
Many parts, including the driver itself, require a fixed path to work properly, because these paths are registered for loading some things at system startup or for context menu entries.
There is a feature in the General Settings panel to save all the parameters, and with these parameters in the registry, the installer is able to recreate everything automatically (there is also a command line switch for silent installation). So if your aim is to save your configuration for future installations, you already have everything.
Agree, a driver is installed, so offering a portable version would also give the wrong impression that it does not install something.
Portable apps occasionally handle drivers as well. They clearly announce they're about to install a temp driver. One example is https://wincdemu.sysprogs.org/portable/ which worked great for me.
Ah okay this is kinda pseudo-portable then, like Windows Firewall Notifier when used for notifications. The software itself does not need to be installed at first, but to be (fully) usable it needs to install some driver/hook/whatever. Yeah not what I interpret as "portable" software somehow, since there are more than traces left if you just dettach/remove it. So not sure if the effort of realising this is worth it. But this is up to v77 of course :).
Do you mean w77?
In any case, I think it's worth to have a driver for 5 minutes with an easy on/off switch over a permanent installation.
What you originally interpreted as "portable" is actually "stealth", which is the preferable portable type, but just preferable. Keep in mind even "stealth" doesn't mean "non-traceability". It's quite impossible to hide activities on Windows.
Last edit: lwc 2019-06-09
Ah lol jep w77 is who I mean and in case other devs, didn't have a closer look ;).
What makes a real portable program IMO is one that does not actively write to any location outside of its own directory (or to temp/RAM of course), so that no things like configs/settings/registry entries and of course no heavier installed drivers/hooks and stuff are left on the system, e.g. after detatching a USB flash with the portable software on it.
Not sure if this meets what you call "stealth". That it leaves traces created by the system itself, e.g. in system logs and such, is out of control of course.
However not every kind of software can be made to behave as above.
I personally don't like it when software installs/writes files to the system without running an installer first, so you have an uninstaller (also available via Windows control panel) to remove everything at once. Otherwise it will likely happen, when you run many such portable executables, that you have several files and stuff installed accross your system that cannot be accotiated with any installed software any more. I personally hate it that even most ordinary installed software do not fully uninstall all their traces, but having not even an uninstaller available will just make it worse, even if there is an on/off install/uninstall switch in the portable executable << One has to remember and use it before detaching the USB flash e.g.
Last edit: MichaIng 2019-06-09
This is "v77". But it was not available on SourceForge, so I had to register "w77". :)
Making the driver portable would not be very difficult. We can simply add batch files to load and unload the driver.
For the whole Toolkit, it's something else. The registry is heavily used, and some parts would be difficult to adapt to a configuration file.
And as I said above, the whole configuration can be saved (in a .reg file) and instantly restored by the installer, so I don't see what could be the advantage of a portable version over that.
Now I see the difference in user name vs display name :).
Benefits of portable software:
No install/uninstall (of the software itself) required, a slight time saver and it "feels" more handy.
All files in one place, so you can have an external drive/USB flash with software on it to plug into different systems and run OOTB. Also system backups/migrations are easier. Jep having a single-click settings.reg is already great, but it is even easier to backup/migrate a whole portable executable directory with all software+settings at once.
* I think for many users its also the "feeling" that with installers an overhead of files/data is spread onto the system without exact knowledge of the user what and where.
However since, in case of a RAMdisk implementation, driver and autostart functionality is required/wanted, it is a question if one wants to have this placed on the system without having an uninstaller placed to accociate to the software title and allow removal.
It's nice to see this ticket generated so much interest after all these years. :-)
I think you explained it well.
I'll just mention many apps offer both a regular and a portable version, and that part of the whole portable movement started because the registry became bloated (and it's in the background all the time).
w/v77, a quick and dirty solution is to use the portableapps.com's portable maker. They'll be more than thrilled to have you on board. But nothing beats being portable in the first place.
Last edit: lwc 2019-06-10
Jep, just note that a bloated registry does not have any influence on performance and just consumes tiny disk space anyway. So it's more about the feeling of a clean OS with portable software.
And indeed there is portable software that still writes to the registry, which is what I blamed above to be not what I expect to be fully portable. But that's a question of definitions and expectations ;).