Hello,
I use PortableApps for a while now and my PortableAppsMenu.ini is quite long (>2000 shortcuts).
I add "personnal" portable apps (i.e. without the "portableApps" format) just have them in the PortableApps menu and to synchronize all in a personal cloud.

The thing is : PortableAppsMenu.ini contains a lot of obsoletes links, and PortableAppsMenu takes a long time to start.

Is there a way to clean up the shortcuts in PortableAppsMenu.ini ?

Thank you in advance.

Fanch

I searched this and found many old threads on it, but no actual answers. One even said it was planned as an upcoming feature to be able to change it, that was from 6 years ago. I'm not seeing any setting for it in the platform.

Am I missing something? Is it possible to move the location of the Documents folder to inside the portableapps folder so that it's not cluttering up the root?

I was wondering if it is possible for an organisation to create a custom installer / updater which instead of getting the list of applications and updates from your site, it uses its own server to distribute the installation packages.

Reason for asking is that in big organisations what staff can install is often restricted and controlled. And even once an application has been approved for installation, keeping it up to date is a nightmare as each application has its own way of doing this.

It would be great if an IT department could provide people with a portable app platform and makes a server available where approved applications are kept. This way, the IT department can stay in control of what staff can install and make full use of your great system for updating and installing apps.

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I use the PortableApps.com Platform mainly to use fonts without Administrator privileges, as well as a few minor games. As this is the only use for me, I have no use for getting new apps most of the time. However, the Platform asks me about new apps every startup. Is there any way to disable the process and only ask about new apps when I tell it to?

Thanks

Hi!
I'm having a weird issue with the updater... it started doing this about a week ago and it's starting to annoy me.

The problem is evident when I try and close the portableapps launcher. I get the "

The following app is still running:
PortableApps.com Updater
Please close all portable apps and try again.

but when I get this message, the updater is no longer visible and has done its job. But when I check the task manager, it's still running in the processes.

I tried killing it but Windows refuses to do so because it's a part of the launcher (I guess). So I have to kill the launcher in order to get rid of the updater so I can unmount my key...

I tried updating the launcher menu but it didn't help.
Anybody has a clue?

Hello!

At first, great work here! One thing i´d like to do, but can´t figure out:
Is it possible to resize the Launcher with the app listing? For me its a little to small.

Can anyone help me?

Jhag

I had the platform installed on a Sandisk Cruiser, everything worked wonderfully. Then I tried installing Wine on my Linux Mint machine ... never did get it working. Now I'm back at work on a Windows 10 machine, open my PortableApps Platform just as I've done for weeks now, and all I get for a PortableApps launcher is a big green box, with "lblAppButtonxx" where my app buttons would be (xx being 01 through 20); if someone can tell me how to add an image to my post I'd be glad too.

I tried a "quick format" of the drive, reinstalled PortableApps, no change. Did a full format of the drive, reinstalled, no change. What the ...???!!!

================

An update: The PortableApps drive described above works fine on my Windows 7 laptop. The problem appears to be with the Windows 10 machine on our corporate network. It worked fine a week ago, so I'm at a loss.

It appears that I can browse to the PortableApps directory and manually run the programs; it's just the PortableApps Platform that's having this bizarre problem.

I am writing a launcher for Zoner Photo Studio 18 (free version), it runs but few details must be set.
This application store preferences in the registry, and some of them reference the system disk path (%windir%).
In order to manage the system disk path (as %PAL.LastDrive%), I have added a LastWinDir entry in the AppNameSettings.ini.
I need to use the LastWinDir entry in the AppName.ini in [FileWriteN]:Type=Replace section.
How can I get LastWinDir entry in a %VARIABLE% (%PAL:LastWinDir% doesn't work) ?

Appears to be a big problem with apps not being found when attempting to download them. A "redirect error " appears. Looks like trouble with Sourceforge....... I have a screenshot of the error but do not see a way to include it with this report.....

There have been a few requests over the years to have the PortableApps.com Platform scan additional paths for apps. The rationale is usually that users want to keep non-PAF apps separate from PAF apps or apps that are updated automatically by the platform separate from those that are not. I'm planning on implementing this within a future release of the PortableApps.com Platform and wanted to layout the setup and see if there are any comments or suggestions.

Since some people want to keep non-PAF apps separate and some want to keep unofficial apps separate, I think using 3 separate paths would make the most sense. I'll be talking about this as if the user has the platform installed to the root of a drive, but this will work with other relative paths as well.

X:\PortableApps - The PortableApps directory we have now which will be scanned by the platform for PA.c Format apps as well as non-PAF apps. Apps will automatically appear in the PA.c Platform and will be automatically updates.

X:\PortableAppsUnofficial - Apps in PA.c Format that have not yet officially been released from our forums and from publishers who have posted versions we do not yet officially update. Apps in this folder will be found by the platform's menu but will not be checked for updates by the PA.c Updater. Only PAF style appinfo.ini files will be scanned for existence in this folder.

X:\PortableAppsOther - Apps not in PA.c Format that are portable. Apps in this folder will be found by the platform's menu but will not be checked for updates by the PA.c Updater. The platform will only scan for EXE files and will not search for appinfo.ini configurations within this path.

For users who have no wish to separate things out, nothing will change from the way it currently works. It's entirely optional and these other two paths will not exist by default. This is strictly an option for power users.

Any thoughts or suggestions? The one thing I'm considering is the name of the last path. Possible PortableAppsNonPAF instead of PortableAppsOther.

So I tried installing the latest version of Portable Apps on my 32GB brand new flash drive with no result. It always shows an error. I thought I'd install each application individually, cause I don't really need the platform but I was wrong again. The only one I have managed to install in KeePass. I've also tried Mozilla, VLC, 7-zip and LibreOffice and they always give me an error too, for example 7-zip gives "Error extracting 7-zip.dll" or something similar. Any ideas?

I am sure this is simple, but I need some help quickly before leaving work today (I hope.)

I keep trying to install PortableApps.com Platform on a drive that previously had it. The intention is to fix an issue that was preventing apps from running earlier. (Every app was showing "cannot start - app already running", although it was not. Due to a removal while the drive was in use, surely.)

I have deleted the PortableApp.com folders - formatting the drive is NOT an option - there is data on it too big to relocate. Each time I attempt to run the installer, though, it does not give me a destination folder option. The details window shows, "Preparing to upgrade PortableApps.com Platform.." and then gives me errors trying to read/write files that do not exist.

Where is it pulling information from stating it is already installed that I can clear out or repair? I have multiple drives with this platform installed and this is the first time I haven't been able to fix it responsibly. Please, any ideas that may be able to help?

I'm getting the following error on application updates in a machine with XP SP3
Unable to download the file. This could be due to a proxy or network issue or the hosting server not permitting downloads from your location. File:http://dowloads.sourceforge.net/portableapps/kritaportable_3.1.2.1.paf.exe
and it goes on with the next apps.

What should I do to fix it.
Reinstalled IE8, no improvements doing so.

Hello
Google Chrome says that this site is not secure. It says "not secure" next to address bar. Should i be afraid and leave?

I couldn't find this in the "Bug Report and Feature Tracker" thread, and all the threads about this were dead ends. Apologies in advance if this is the wrong place to post this.

Feature request: Option to periodically check for updates (currently it can only check on platform startup).

Description: Perhaps this is out of scope of the intended use case but it would be very convenient to have the ability to check for updates without having to launch the platform menu manually.
Personally I use PortableApps as a convenient locally installed app manager of sorts. (which also makes migrating to new windows installs or new computers easier). I'd imagine some others probably do too. Sometimes I will go weeks without rebooting or starting the platform menu (shortcuts or file type association to the portable launchers) so it would be nice to have an option to check for updates periodically (like LiberKey does) or an option that can set up a scheduled task (though maybe that part is not so "portable").

Workaround: I scoured the source code a bit and found the (assumably) appropriate command switches to run the updater alone and on-demand from a command window, script, or scheduled task (Unsure if all of the below command switches are needed, I used ones matching my own configuration.)
The only mandatory switches appear to be /CONNECTION=Automatic and /MODE=UPDATE, but I'm unsure if ran standalone whether it reads and applies your configuration from the portableapps platform.

Sauce:
Workaround command for standalone update check:
DriveLetter:\path\to\portableapps\PortableApps\PortableApps.com\PortableAppsUpdater.exe /CONNECTION=Automatic /HIDEPORTABLE=true /STARTUP=true /STARTUPSHOWERRORS=true /BETA=false /ADVANCED=true /OPENSOURCEONLY=false /MODE=UPDATE

Your path to portableapps will be different than mine so you'd need to change your install path and enable or disable any of the additional flags to suit your preferences.

What this does is silently check for updates similarly to how the option "Check for updates... On platform startup" works when launching the platform. If updates are found, the updater window will open prompting you to install updates as usual. If none are found then the updater will silently check and then exit without any windows appearing (unless STARTUP= is set to false).
When using this command, the menu does not start (unless you run the menu manually). Only the updater will run to check and then exit (or remain open waiting for user input if updates are found). The menu only seems to start if you perform a platform update.

Description of above command switches (more in the source code file "PortableApps.comUpdater.nsi"):
•/CONNECTION=Automatic: Options: Direct, Proxy, Automatic. Mandatory command switch otherwise it fails to connect. /CONNECTION=Direct connects directly without any proxy detection. /CONNECTION=Automatic performs automatic proxy detection and falls back to /CONNECTION=Direct if none found. /CONNECTION=Proxy seems to require additional switches to specify your proxy details.
•/MODE=UPDATEOptions: ADD, ADDALL, UPDATE. Unconfirmed but I suspect the platform uses /MODE=ADD with another command switch to install a specific package. Not sure about /MODE=ADDALL, maybe it installs the entire library of PortableApps? I recommend leaving these options alone, could be very dangerous to use the others.
•/HIDEPORTABLE=trueOptions: true, false. Hides the name "Portable" appended to apps. I believe this is just used in the menu itself and not the updater, but it may also display update lists without portable affixed to the names.
•/STARTUP=trueOptions: true, false. If set to true it runs the updater silently unless updates are found. The platform uses this on startup so it doesn't spam you with the "All portable apps are up to date" dialogue box. If set to false it will show verbose output; a short progress box as it checks online and then another dialogue box upon completion such as "All portable apps are up to date." just like the platform does when you do a manual update check from the menu.
•/STARTUPSHOWERRORS=trueOptions: true,false. Not entirely sure, I guess it just adds additional error output if any errors are encountered.
•/BETA=falseOptions: truefalse. Tells updater and/or platform whether or not to install beta apps.
•/ADVANCED=trueOptions: true,false. Shows advanced options in menu from what I can tell, but using this command doesn't launch the menu so I don't know what advanced options there may be in the updater compared to non-advanced mode. Probably less information if there is any difference.
•/OPENSOURCEONLY=falseOptions:true,false. Restricts apps to open source apps only if set to true, which significantly reduces the number of available apps (but some people prefer FOSS only, matter of preference here).

If using this as a scheduled task, configure it to run as your user and the working directory to
DriveLetter:\path\to\portableapps\PortableApps\PortableApps.com\
(And I'd suggest NOT spamming the update server constantly for update checks, once or twice a day is enough)

DISCLAIMER: The updater was not meant to run standalone like this. This is an unsupported/unintended use of it and likely not tested. However, in my short but limited testing it seemed to work fine but I can't guarantee it won't burn your house down or anything (tested on a few different installs and it updated fine, including platform updates, followed by individual app updates afterwards)
It's important that people realize if you do choose to run the platform in this unintended fashion you do so AT YOUR OWN RISK so backup your portableapps folder and potentially anything else of value, though I doubt it will harm anything outside the portableapps folder if anything ever did go wrong. Also realize that future updates could change the updater's behavior so this may no longer work in the future or would need different command switches (though I hope the dev(s) don't intentionally try and block this type of usage).

I'm getting the following error when trying to update:

"Unable to connect to PortableApps.com to retrieve portable apps. Please try again later. [Open Internet Error]."

Here's what I've tried:

1) Allowing the platform and updater through my firewall.
2) Enabling it in my other security software.
3) Changing the connection settings from "Automatic" to "Direct Connection (No Proxy)."

Oddly, as I was posting this, the app froze and I couldn't close it so I'm not sure what that's about.

I'd appreciate your help.

Thank you.

I am using the PortableApps platform on Windows not be portable but to keep all my data in one well-defined place (on drive D:\). This includes the data eclusively used by the apps (e. g. user profile data of Chrome).

For quick access I would like to start, e. g., ChromePortable by clicking a Windows task-bar icon, instead of having to start the Platform first. I know, that I can simply start the GoogleChromePortable.exe directly, but this way Chrome will not save the profile data in the PortableApps file hierarchy, but in my local folder in c:\Users\username\AppData, which I want to avoid. It shall save the profile data in d:\PortableApps\GoogleChromePortable\...

Is there a way to start a portable app such that it is launched by the Launcher, but doesn't require the Platform Menu to be started beforehand? I am thinking of something like

PortableAppsPlatform.exe -app d:\PortableApps\GoogleChromePortable\GoogleCromePortable.exe

to be placed in a .bat file. Please note, that I would like to place a number of portable apps on the task-bar, not just Chrome.

I have searched the forum already, but all I could find was information about how to pass command line arguments to a portable app, which is not, what I want. I want to start the app itself as a command line argument of the platform.

Edit: I don't have a local install, but a portable one on drive d:\ because I would like to keep the possibility to be portable (sometimes I use a copy of PA on different computers).

Any help is appreciated,
Thomas

Dear All,

it may be related with special "corporate policies" which apply definitely to my hardware used mainly with PortableApps, but I'm facing an annoying issue. First of all, my configuration:
- Dell Lattitude E5570 w/ Intel i5-6300U @ 2.4 GHz / 16 GB RAM, full touch support
- Windows 8.1 Enterprise x64, german locales
- PortableApps 14.4
- Kaspersky Endpoint Security 10 v10.2.4.674
- PortableApps Installation Folder: %UserProfile%/Tools/PortableApps

PortableApps platform isn't started automatically w/ the operating system or user logon, so I start it manually when needed. Since this release (14.4) or the release before, I encounter the following issue: at exact the point I start PortableApps platform (PortableAppsPlatform.exe) all of my Windows desktop icons disappear and reappear by PortableApps platform close. Funny, eh? I can make the desktop icons appear again and with platform running, by use of the Windows desktop context menu: de-select "View > Show Desktop Icons" and click "Show Desktop Icons" again -> the icons are there as expected before.

With another Notebook I've got access to running Windows 10 Enterprise x64, there's no desktop icon issue w/ PortableApps platform 14.3 and 14.4.

Any hints? Any idea what's going on there?

Regards,
Jochen.

Is there a way to disable the unexpected DLL check for certain apps? After the latest platform update, Audacity won't start because I put lame_enc.dll into the AudacityPortable directory. This file is required for exporting MP3s from Audacity.