USB Portable version

[cyruslocal]

Dear Powerarchiver,

Will you make a usb portable version for your customers , anytime in the future. Lots of crypto now has support for the usb portable versions.


Sascha

[Luxor]

Hi cyruslocal

This request has come up a few times.
Here's a couple of similar threads.

PowerArchiver as a Portable App
PA for portable drives

[spwolf]

portable version is coming this year for sure...

[spwolf]

if anyone has any suggestion on what middleware to use, let us know :-)

[Sir Richard]

Originally Posted by spwolf

if anyone has any suggestion on what middleware to use, let us know :-)

Have you any idea's yourself? If so what are they?

[wulffra]

Will you be releasing in -both- U3 version and a single doubleclick .exe file ?

Personally.. I am not in favour of U3 software on my USB thumbdrive, but I do like to have PA as portable version.
(again, this is my personal taste, others may like to have the U3)

Maybe you wish to consider :
- release a portable version with a separate registration (for those not willing to buy the full version, because they wish to keep their system as clean as possible and want to carry around a portable version all the time), in both U3 and single .exe
version

- have a portable version created from within the (paid) full version: a kind of backup/export to a portable version on thumbdrive.
(some programs have this option, e.g. Directory Opus)
=

[spwolf]

U3 is dead so no U3 for sure...

[Micke]

Hi!

Originally Posted by spwolf

if anyone has any suggestion on what middleware to use, let us know :-)

How about as a Portable Apps version? Easy to use and very user friendly installation to the USB Memory stick and running from USB Memory stick. I know most of the programs released as Portable Apps are open source, but I don't see any problem release a commercial program like PowerArchiver as a portable version running in Portable Apps.



Kind Regards
Micke

[spwolf]

it is one we are looking at too... do you have any experience with it Micke, how about shell extensions support and associations?

[Micke]

Hi!

Originally Posted by spwolf

it is one we are looking at too... do you have any experience with it Micke, how about shell extensions support and associations?

I've been using it for about a year now. Have tested and used it in Windows XP, Windows 7, Ubuntu 10.04 and Linux Mint 10 through Wine. I find it very user friendly and I haven't got into any problem using it. Since all the Portable Apps programs are Windows versions, not all of them will work through Wine in Ubuntu, but that's something I can live with.

However, you can't associate a file extension to a portable apps program. At least I haven't tried to do that, because the whole point in using Portable Apps it that the programs don't get installed on the computer and that they won't leave any traces after running.

If I could for example associate .odt extension (LibreOffice Writer) to the Portable version of LO Writer, this would get problems after exit the portable apps program and removing the USB Memory stick, if no other programs on the computer could open .odt files. Instead I have to start the program and then open the file from the program.

Another point is that you should keep all the documents and images your are using with Portable Apps on the same USB Memory stick, since you want both the programs and the document to be portable. You can also from the running Portable Program open files that are stored on the hard drive.

I haven't seen any shell extension support and as far as I know, it's not supported because of the reasons I just mentioned.

I have also tested running Portable Apps on a computer that I have no admin rights on and it run without any problem. It takes some time to start the selected program from the USB Memory, but once it's started I really can't say that it feels any different from running it installed on the computer.

If it would come a Portable Apps version of Power Archiver, the user would have to first open PA and then from PA open the selected archive. I believe this is acceptable since we are not install or changing anything in the OS on the computer and all the programs will run directly from the USB Memory stick.

I'm not sure if all this answered your question, but personally I like Portable Apps a lot and I had no problem using it. It's also very convenient to have all the programs I need in my pocket and if I also would be able to have PowerArchives on a USB Memory stick, it would be even better.

Kind Regards
Micke

[spwolf]

Micke - i know how it works... i would still like both of those to work and to be able to automagically "uninstall" themselves once stick has been removed.

It may be possible to actually do that... i think only that would bring real portability to the equation - otherwise, what is compression utility without shell and associations? :-)

[spwolf]

so... do we make extra effort to make it work perfectly (shell, assoc), or do we just package it with 5 minute job like portable apps and lunch it?

[phil]

make the extra effort !
thanks !!!

[Micke]

Hi!

Originally Posted by spwolf

Micke - i know how it works... i would still like both of those to work and to be able to automagically "uninstall" themselves once stick has been removed.

It may be possible to actually do that... i think only that would bring real portability to the equation - otherwise, what is compression utility without shell and associations? :-)

Yes, that would certainly make it real portabillity, but the question remain, will it work on all circumstances, even when you don't have administrator rights to the OS?

Kind Regards
Micke

[spwolf]

Originally Posted by Micke

Hi!



Yes, that would certainly make it real portabillity, but the question remain, will it work on all circumstances, even when you don't have administrator rights to the OS?

Kind Regards
Micke

well it wouldnt when you dont have admin of course, just like anything else that requires admin access... but it could work if you do have it.

[Micke]

Hi!

Originally Posted by spwolf

so... do we make extra effort to make it work perfectly (shell, assoc), or do we just package it with 5 minute job like portable apps and lunch it?

I like the idea of using shell integration, file association etc. but for me personally, it's really not that important. I already have all that in the installed non portable version of PA.

When it comes to a Portable version of PA, I don't see it as a replacement for the non portable version of PA. Instead it's more like a supplement to the non portable installed version of PA.

Because of this, I personal really don't need the shell and file association for a Portable version of PA. It's good enough if I can run it from the USB Stick and open archives within PA.

But that's just my personal opinion. I'm not going to complain if you make a Portable version that works with shell intregration, file association and restore everything after the USB Stick is removed.

Kind Regards
Micke

[mwb1100]

Originally Posted by spwolf

so... do we make extra effort to make it work perfectly (shell, assoc), or do we just package it with 5 minute job like portable apps and lunch it?

You can do it in two steps.

1) Make a powerarc.exe that doesn't require information to be written to the registry, gets all of the required configuration information from files in the directory the executable resides in, and doesn't need COM information installed in the registry (there are ways to configure COM objects in manifest files instead). This is the basic portability requirement, and lets anyone use the program from a USB stick without admin rights on the computer and without needing to buy into any particular 'portability shell'.

Of course, you don't get shell integration. But sometimes I just want to look at or extract files from an archive that might not be supported on the machine I'm currently at. I can figure out how to open it from within PA - I'm not completely dense. Also, I happen to have a portable file manager (XYPlorer) that can be configured with portable file associations - I could configure that file manager to portably open PA's files.

2) create a package for Portable Apps (or whichever you decide on) that brings the bells and whistles for those who want them. As far as I know, the work done for #1 would help with integrating things into this step - it certainly wouldn't make things harder.

[spwolf]

good insights, thanks.