Making portable apps using WinRAR

I've made alot of portable apps with WinRAR in the past and mentioned it here recently in another thread.

For anyone who may of missed it and I know how popular portables are I thought I'd give it a heads up in its own thread.

Here is the nice youtube video I found explaining it instead of writing it all out again.

Have fun.

 

a quicker way i use
turn returnil2008 on
create new folder rename it
run the application you want to install
make sure to install into the folder you created
move this folder to your portable device
turn off returnil2008
works for most applications

 

Oh nice I use ThinApp, as I got a license for free, but this is a very interesting method.

 

Meriadoc, that is not the way to create portables. The complete guide is here http://portableappz.proxima.web.tr/tutorial.php

ps. A portable app is one that does not touch any other file than those in its directory and that uses ini, dat, etc. files to store its settings instead of the registry.

Panagiotis

 

As a VMWare registered consultant and VCP I find that quite interesting

 

Similar. You also use Universal extractor to unpack the files from the installer but obviously use WinRAR and make your portable.

 

Yes they are. But for making an app portable with winrar the user should create a bat that will:
1. extract the files in the temp (winrar covers this).
2a. backup the reg keys that will be modified.
2b. restore the custom settings of the portable (not necessary).
3. launch the app (winrar should launch the custom bat instead)
4. restore the reg keys that were backed up in step 2a, after the application closes.
5. delete the temp folders

Then it would be a portable app.

Panagiotis

 

Yes,.. everything is put out to temp and del afterwards.

 

Portable is up for debate. Portable can mean that you can run it from someplace other than the main drive, perhaps a usb stick. Portable is or is not restricted to installing on the client? It is or is not restricted to creating data or registry files?

The definition of a portable file is probably different for most. I see it as a program that can run on a USB drive, but whether or not it creates registry values etc that it needs, erm, that is not so big a deal maybe.

I also like to think of portable files as simple copy/paste files. You copy a program directory, paste it, open it and run it. Is that portable? I don't know, but I use them all the time. Why install something when you can use it, with its .ini files etc it may need in its directory, then copy it to a USB drive and take it with you. Portability is not simply restricted to a 'portable apps' approach with a fancy load screen and not writing to the registry. It all depends on what you want to achieve.

Nice topic though. I personally like to make copy/paste apps using .inf files. Universal to windows OS and fairly well documented, and besides I have written two little programs to make my .inf installs as it were.

But, we don't all like chocolate do we? I would like to see where this thread goes, it could have some pretty cool tricks in it for us geeks lol.

Sul.

 

Okay maybe 'making portable apps' is more of an apt title if you excuse the pun, to the thread.

So using Universal extractor and WinRAR we can make portable apps -

Now I hope Sully's right and we see some more artful suggestions.

 

How about next run without Returnil,if it has code to create registry entries then its obviously useless.

PS : do you edit the ini file ?

 

after turning returnil off they still work
no editing of ini file
i find it very useful

 

why does this work

 

it just does
i have no idea why