today i had time to load up a new VM image to work with.
it took several hours but now i have a fast, light, responsive Windows image to work with

I also decided to make the jump to PAF format for my portable apps.

It took a while for me to take the plunge because i don't use PortableApps' Start Menu.
Rather, i make a shortcut and place it in "PortableApps" folder under my Start Menu.

I like PAF format because it's clean, and has that uniformed specification.

Another reason i didn't want to make the switch is because im so used to NSIS.

I was confused because PAF is just too easy.
There really is no coding.
Basically instructions for the launcher/installer.
Very cool..

Well i made my first paf app. today..
i wanted to start with an easy app. that did not require multiple objectives.
so i settled on MPlayer WW.

Here's the app. if anyone is interested.
Breakdown: it takes care of the '.dvdcss' folder created in USERPROFILE when watching DVDs.
It's the css script.

*LINKS REMOVED*

* tested .. of course
* i also looked into downloading it on installation but unfortunately it's in .7zip format.

any comments, suggestions, or questions.. feel free

That's a great start, Magibon. I have a few suggestions for improvement to get it fully compliant. For example, you can move the settings files like mplayer.ini to/from the Data directory so they get preserved on upgrades and backed up by the platform's built-in backup utility. You can do that just by adding this to your launcher's INI file:



All you need then is to create DefaultData\settings directories within App and move your default mplayer.ini there. The launcher will handle moving it to Data\settings on first run for you and then move it back and forth. If possible, you should check to see if there is a commandline switch to point to the settings to avoid the move. You can also set DirectoryMoveOK=yes in your launcher's ini since the app doesn't have problems when being moved between directories. That disables the warning users get (just to be safe) when that setting doesn't exist.

Since it's a multilingual app, you can set Language=Multilingual in your AppInfo.ini and that will give you a multilingual installer and remove the _English from the filename. You can have the installer set the language of that app, but that would require some custom NSIS code to do. We do it in a few of our installers like LibreOffice so you can see an example in there. Also, if you wanted, the PortableApps.com Installer has built-in support for extracting 7z files as part of the online installer setup, also automated and requiring no coding. AdvancedExtract and DoubleExtract both support it.

I'm glad you're enjoying trying our tools out. We especially love feedback from new users, so please be sure to post any feedback to our development forum. Thanks!

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PortableApps.com - The open standard for portable software

THANK YOU so much John!

I truly appreciate you taking the time to post such a detailed/helpful reply.
Now i understand the true scope of PAF format.

I have a lot of reading, testing, trial & error to do.
I just needed to actually build my first PAF application to get the hang of it

I skipped the language selection and live downloading.
I will save that for a rainy day, when im much more accustomed to PAF.

I did implement the DefaultData/settings to preserve the settings in case of updates.


MPlayerWWPortable_SVN-r34362.paf.exe | 9.76 MB
MPlayerWWPortable_SVN-r34362_FULL.paf.exe | 28.47 MB

Thanks again!