Procedure for testing an app's portability

[shnbwmn]

Is there a guide somewhere on the forum that explains how to go about this? Are there special programs used (registry checkers, etc), or do you guys just look in the usual places, so to speak, for new files/entries that pop up? There are many programs that I have uniextracted and that seem to work alright, but I'd like to go further. I know about the PortableApps format and yaP that can be wrapped around a program, but I have no idea how to use either properly. Some tips for a (relative) newbie to the portable world would be appreciated

[joby_toss]

http://www.portablefreeware.com/forums/ ... =6&t=21885

[shnbwmn]

Oh my, thanks very much! That thread really should be stickied though, and/or renamed to give it some prominence.

Edit: I went through most of the posts and compiled this for myself: portability_testing

[Midas]

I skimmed through your documents, shnbwmn, and I do think they're extremely valuable content.

My suggestion is you make them into separate posts here at this topic -- or better yet, at my specific topic as suggested by joby_toss above, in order to have all the info in just one place. Doing this will allow the community to review your info and expunge any hypothetical flaws. As Eric S. Raymond once wrote: "Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow".

Great work.

[shnbwmn]

Thanks Midas. Perhaps later I'll post a tidied-up software list into your thread. I still think a mod should sticky your thread and give it some official-sounding name A random visitor here won't find your post easily.

[JohnTHaller]

Testing for portability at PortableApps.com is done via clean installs of Windows 2000 through Windows 10 within virtual machines in VirtualBox. These machines are each updated to the current updates via Windows Update as determined by the default install settings. They are then snapshotted as clean and the portable app is copied in. A registry and file system snapshot is done using RegShot and the like. The app is run, standard functions are accessed including file open/save, options changes, and whatever functionality the app is used for. We then take another registry and file system snapshot and compare it to the earlier one to determine what the app has left behind. The virtual machine is then shut down and returned to a clean state for the next test.