U3 Smart Apps / News: Recent posts

GIMP has been updated to 2.6.4, which puts us one step closer to being up-to date at 2.6.6. You can get it from the downloads section. There is currently a known issue with the launcher not working with user-specified paths, but that will be fixed soon, hopefully before updating to 2.6.5.

Q

We now have a blog that will serve as our project homepage. Check it out at http://u3smartapps.sf.net

The ZSNES package now includes the mencoder binary required for dumping in-game recordings to movie files. You can get it from the downloads section.

Up until now, the source for the portable launchers has been only been available via svn checkout. I am currently developing compile scripts that will work similar to a makefile in other languages. Compiling BuildU3P.nsi will rebuild the entire U3 package. All packages released after these compiler scripts have been completed will include full source code for the launchers will be included in Device\Other\Source\LauncherSource. This won't affect end-users, but will benefit anyone who wants to modify the source. The source for the original apps will still be released separately in the Source Code package, this is just for the launchers.

A major update to the PortableApps Launcher Wizard has been released. This is a stable prerelease on the 2.0 release track. While this is considered a prerelease, it is stable. It simply has not implemented all of the features slated for 2.0.

New features in version 1.9:

-Supports automatically parsing most information from official PAF applications.

-Major launcher bugfixes

-"Reinstalling" to U3 directory now works properly, as does the splash screen when doing so... read more

GIMP has been officially released for U3. The first stable release is 2.6.2. You can get it from the downloads page. Hopefully, I will be able to update to the latest GIMP release (2.6.6) soon.

-Q

I am in the final stages of bugfixing a major update to the PortableApps U3 Launcher Wizard. This update will automatically extract most of the information about the application from official PortableApps Format (*.paf.exe) releases. The GUI is still in need of cleanup, and the final stage of actually building the .u3p file is broken as of yet, but I should have that worked out enough to release a beta soon. Eventually I would like to be able to implement the actual installation process as well, rather than just generating a .u3p containing the shortcut. More to come.... read more

I am releasing the first official Uop3n package of GIMP. I realize the version I am releasing is several updates old, but it was what I had to work with at the time. Also, this is still considered a beta release for now, but it should have full functionality, I just have not had time to thoroughly test the package for bugs in the launcher. If you find a bug, please report it in the support forums. Please DO NOT report these bugs to the official GIMP forums, as this package is not supported by the official GIMP team, as well as the fact that it is an old version. I will be cleaning up the code in the coming weeks and should have a final release, as well as the current version, out soon.... read more

I have finally built a proper U3 Launcher for ZSNES, and it is now back online. I have uploaded 1.51 revision 2 and reactivated the package. I plan to get 1.42 online soon as well (for all of you online gamers out there).

Cheers.

Q

From version 2.5.5 on, I will be releasing Pidgin along with parallel releases of Pidgin+Encryption and Pidgin+OTR. These releases are the same as the normal release in every way except for the inclusion of the additional .dll plugin files. For those of you unfamiliar with pidgin-encryption and pidgin-otr, check out http://pidgin-encrypt.sourceforge.net and http://www.cypherpunks.ca/otr

If you already have Pidgin installed, you can install one or the other (but NOT BOTH, there is no reason to have both at the same time) by simply installing the package over your existing installation. I have increased the version number to 2.5.5.1. This does not reflect any change in the program, it simply allows you to "upgrade" from the normal package.

After Pidgin 2.5.3 was pulled due to an exit hang in Pidgin (which is a no-no in portable-apping), I experienced some strange problems with 2.5.4 which ended up being due to migrating settings over to a new flash drive. This problem has been fixed and I give you Pidgin 2.5.4!

...just in time to give you 2.5.5 as well!

I've known for some time that some of my releases were sub-par, but I released them on an as-is basis. While many people were probably content with portable applications that "Just Worked" I can't really justify unleashing such things upon the general public under the guise of working, stable programs. I believe that I may have even left some of my earliest releases with their PortableApps branding intact, implying tacit approval or even support for my apps from the good people over there. So now, as I'm in the process of updating my offerings, I am also taking this opportunity to remove several apps that I had posted in the hopes of getting around to a robust, stable release, but never did. If you have any of these apps and they work, great. If you have them and they don't work, sorry. If you don't have them you don't know what I'm talking about. I still plan to further expand my offerings (several of the apps I am removing are nearly ready to be released anyway) but I will no longer be hosting my hacked together early drafts. It's not fair to you as users and it could stand to get me in a lot of hot water. If you want a jerry-rigged "portable" app that "Just Works", google PackageFactory and may god have mercy on your soul...

I have been informed that I am in violation of the GPL on several accounts, and am in the process of rectifying the situation. In the mean time, I am removing all binaries (except for the PortableApps Launcher, which is ENTIRELY my own) for the time being. I will be reuploading as I am able, once I am in compliance with the applicable licensing (and the SF.com terms of service). Mostly, this just involves uploading source code for each app and including the license in each release, so we shouldn't be offline for too long.

Pidgin 2.5.3 has been released. I am currently considering parallel releases of Pidgin-encryption and Pidgin-OTR, if the interest is there. Let me know if you have an interest in encrypted-protocol messaging.

I have finally gotten around to setting the project up with Subversion. As of yet I have not finished uploading everything, as I'm starting from scratch so it requires starting with my oldest versions then committing one version at a time. Just to be clear, the source code I am hosting here is ONLY the portable launchers for the programs, not the programs themselves. If I'm right, all of the apps I have here are also hosted on SF.net, so just search for them if that's what you're looking for. If anyone is interested, the checkout URL is... read more

Pidgin 2.5.2 U3 has been released. This is a bugfix release. See the changelog, which was copied from the official Piding changelog at http://developer.pidgin.im/wiki/ChangeLog.

The only other change is a minor change in the U3 Package naming scheme for this project so .u3p files will be released as-is and will not be packaged into a .zip archive. .u3p files are already compressed so placing them in a .zip file does not make the file any smaller and actually takes up twice the space after unzipping.

This is somewhat old news, but I've been busy with school and haven't been able to update lately, but Pidgin for U3 is now hosted on the official U3 site! Check it out at http://software.u3.com/Product_Details.aspx?ProductId=405&Selection=12&Lang=en-US

The PortableApps U3 Launcher Wizard has officially gone stable. The user can now run the wizard to create a U3 installer package that will move all of the program files into the U3 install directory on the first run. By doing this, the U3 Programs Settings correctly displays the size of the installed program, instead of just the 130kb shortcut. Also, uninstalling the program via the U3 Launchpad actually uninstalls the entire program, not just the U3 shortcut.... read more

Yes, once again, you get to hear how Pidgin is doing. I am postponing the release of Pidgin 2.4.2 revision 2 for now for two reasons. First off, I am currently revising the launcher to allow for installation of plugins to the data folder so they can be retained over an upgrade along with everything else... an unfortunate oversight thus far. Also, Pidgin 2.4.3 and Pidgin 2.5.0 are both slated for very soon release, so I may just wait for whichever one of them to be released before I release the updated launcher. I'm also working on a plugins installer which will allow you to install Pidgin plugins, and will be easily retooled for other programs such as GIMP. Because of the fact that the older versions won't support installing to the data folder, I will have to implement installing directly to the .u3p, but this kind of installation WILL NOT CARRY OVER THROUGH AN UPGRADE. Anywho, there's my update for today. Cheerio.... read more

Well, for all of you that are tired of new Pidgin updates and are wondering when I might get around to updating some of my OTHER apps, let me just explain that I am teaching myself the NSIS language from scratch, so it's easiest to keep debugging the one program and adding new features and tweaking all on that one before I start work on another one. Basically, I've just been rewriting John Haller's PortableApps launchers to use the U3 environment variables and install structure, without really knowing what I was doing. So please be patient when I say that the other apps ARE COMING. But for now, I have yet another revision of Pidgin for you, version 2.4.2rev2. This is a bugfix that fixes the misspelling of the "Change Pidgin Theme" shortcut, as well as actually making it read the INI file as to whether or not to make the shortcut in the first place (it used to just make it no matter what). If you want to turn the shortcut off, go to the Pidgin install directory, then Data\settings\PidginPortableSettings.ini and change the CreateThemeSelectorShortcut to anything but true (most intuitively, make it false or null). Also, themes are now properly applied in Vista. There was a slight difference in the way Vista searched for files that ran into problems with the fact that GTK theme files are named "gtkrc" with no file extension. But that's fixed now too. I'll be uploading soon.... read more

I can see that GIMP is by far the most popular download, so I am planning to sit down and hash out a true-U# version of GIMP 2.4.5. The current release of 2.4.4 doesn't actually use the U3, but is rather just a U3 wrapper for the PortableApps.com version, which means it takes up twice the space on your U3 drive as well as other issues. I am working on this, and hope to have a true-U3 version out soon, although I may just wait for a portable build of 2.4.6. Keep checking in.... read more

Pidgin 2.4.2 is officially out, see the official website for the changelog. Starting with the 2.4.0 release, all of your logs and settings are saved and starting with the 2.4.1 revision 2 release, your theme settings are also saved, so you should see almost no immediate changes over the update.

Also, PALaunch is nearly ready for release.

-q

In the interest of not attracting unwanted legal attention to myself as well as to clarify things a little bit, I'm changing my copyrights in my launchers from "The U3 Smart Apps Project" to "The Uop3n Smart Apps Project". Just a little thing, most people won't notice any difference at all and there's no difference in function, it's just that I really don't feel like opening myself up to the possibility of problems in the future (even though U3 is being phased out at the end of this year). I'll leave the SourceForge page as-is so it will still show up when searching for "U3".... read more

I'm currently working on a program to create a shortcut on the U3 Launchpad menu to ANY program on your U3 drive, without having to create a .u3p for the program. The main purpose of this is to create shortcuts for programs downloaded from http://www.PortableApps.com but it can be configured to run ANY portable program (it's JUST a shortcut, so the portability is up to the app itself). It takes a bit of setup on the user-end before you can add the shortcut, but it currently works perfectly for the programs I've tested it with. ... read more

I just finished ironing out some kinks in my appstop.exe that stops and cleans up the apps when you try to safe-eject or manually eject the flash drive while a program is still running. The third-party plugin I was using wasn't Vista compatible, so you would always get an error message that Pidgin couldn't close (v.2.4.1 only, it's the only release of the only program to date that has used MY appstop.exe, previously I had used the one created by Eure.ca). So anywho, now it all works, I've tested it on XP and Vista, and from what I can tell, it should work on Win2k as well, since the function calls are NT based. I've raised the version number to 2.4.1.2 simply to allow "upgrade" installation over the existing version, and once again, it WILL retain your settings and logs through the upgrade, and now it will even keep your chosen GTK skin. The only thing that WILL be overwritten is the ini file in the exec folder, this is unavoidable at this point. If you turned the Theme Selector Shortcut off, you'll have to do it again. Enjoy!... read more