Upgrade instructions

Discuss anything related to portable freeware here.
Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
webfork
Posts: 10818
Joined: Wed Apr 11, 2007 8:06 pm
Location: US, Texas
Contact:

Upgrade instructions

#1 Post by webfork »

Original Post:

Would like to propose providing upgrade instructions for this and other software on the site. For example with Filezilla, just copying over all the files from the zip archive is all that's necessary. The program will see the old FZDEFAULTS.XML file and use its settings.

In other words, I'm suggesting adding something like this to the Filezilla description:
  • Upgrading: move settings file fzdefaults.xml to root folder.
Any thoughts? Should this sort of this thing stay on the forums?


----------------------------------


Revised post:

Since the interest in adding to current entries seems a bit low, I'll just post to the forum here as I compile stuff over time.
  • AIMP - "data" folder
  • Any Nirsoft program a same-named ".cfg" file. For example: WirelessNetView settings file will be "WirelessNetView.cfg" Searchmyfiles would have "SearchMyFiles.cfg"
  • Any PortableApps program (Firefox, Thunderbird, Sunbird, etc.): the "Data" folder
  • CintaNotes - cintanotes.db for notes and cintanotes.settings for settings. Old versions import-export not compatible so you *need* the DB file.
  • ComicsViewer - ComicsViewer.ini
  • Dropupload - DropUpLoad.prefs
  • Filezilla - fzdefaults.xml
  • Foobar2000 - theme.fth, "configuration" folder
  • Free Download Manager - "Data" folder
  • GPG4USB - folders "keydb" and (optionally) the "conf" folder
  • Miranda (unicode zip version) - copy over all files. If you have any plugins installed, make sure they either don't get overwritten (save them to a temporary folder). Note that our old instructions listed a "Profiles" directory (not "Profile", which is what's up on the entry now). Make sure you change mirandaboot.ini to reflect this.
  • Networx - two files: networx.db, networx.db-journal
  • Opera - "profile"
  • Picpick - picpick.ini
  • PNotes - "data" folder, notes.ini
  • Q10 - q10.ini
  • Revo Uninstaller - settings.ini
  • Sylpheed - "profile" directory
  • TED Notepad - TedNPad.ini
  • Xenu - Xenu.ini
  • XnView - xnview.ini, default.bar, category.db. To start over from scratch, edit the xnview.ini to match the official entry.
How to determine settings files
  1. Run program, change some settings, save and exit program
  2. Any individual files mentioned in the portablefreeware.com official entry are probably relevant
  3. Note new files or changes in files, usually by date and time
  4. Optionally, delete any new files to verify them as settings files
Last edited by webfork on Tue Sep 07, 2010 10:54 am, edited 12 times in total.
Reason: updated "Miranda"

Tertius
Posts: 12
Joined: Wed Apr 22, 2009 3:41 pm

Re: Upgrade instructions

#2 Post by Tertius »

Would be very helpful. It is very frustrating to lose settings without warning.

User avatar
webfork
Posts: 10818
Joined: Wed Apr 11, 2007 8:06 pm
Location: US, Texas
Contact:

Re: Upgrade instructions

#3 Post by webfork »

Thanks for the feedback, Tertius.

On a related note, for programs like Firefox, Thunderbird, and others, why we shouldn't just link to PortableApp's listing? Here's an excerpt:

"...install a new copy of Thunderbird Portable right over your old one" (thunderbird)

Unfortunately, I can easily see a non-techy person overwriting their settings by extracting the folder to a temporary location and then copying the folder to the same location. Specifically telling them what folder to preserve is a more complex alternative, but also less likely to result in data loss.

Since portablefreeware seems to be a forum for the more hands-on users, going into more detail seems something we're more suited for.

User avatar
MiDoJo
Posts: 282
Joined: Thu Apr 17, 2008 2:36 pm

Re: Upgrade instructions

#4 Post by MiDoJo »

I agree with webfork

the way PortableApps puts it could cause what he said to happen

the proper instructions being "run the exe and point it toward your current installation"

User avatar
JohnTHaller
Posts: 715
Joined: Wed Feb 10, 2010 4:44 pm
Location: New York, NY
Contact:

Re: Upgrade instructions

#5 Post by JohnTHaller »

That confusion has never happened, nor could it. Install a new copy over the old one means *install* a new copy over the old one. It's a portable installer. It doesn't mean get some extraction utility and extract the files from it and then overwrite them over the old one... which may cause the app not to work right since the files in the installer are not laid out the same, but definitely can't overwrite the user's data, since that is in the data directory and there is no data directory in the portable installer. Among millions of users, it's never come up and it's never happened.
PortableApps.com - The open standard for portable software | Support Net Neutrality

User avatar
webfork
Posts: 10818
Joined: Wed Apr 11, 2007 8:06 pm
Location: US, Texas
Contact:

Re: Upgrade instructions

#6 Post by webfork »

MiDoJo wrote:the proper instructions being "run the exe and point it toward your current installation"
That makes sense, yeah. But I'm more interested in describing the internals of the file structure as this might also be used for backup purposes or to reset a program to its defaults. Again, information for the more hands-on users.

User avatar
JohnTHaller
Posts: 715
Joined: Wed Feb 10, 2010 4:44 pm
Location: New York, NY
Contact:

Re: Upgrade instructions

#7 Post by JohnTHaller »

webfork wrote:
MiDoJo wrote:the proper instructions being "run the exe and point it toward your current installation"
That makes sense, yeah. But I'm more interested in describing the internals of the file structure as this might also be used for backup purposes or to reset a program to its defaults. Again, information for the more hands-on users.
Ah. In that case it would probably make sense to have all the apps in PortableApps.com Format point to a single explanation as they all follow the same structure. AppNamePortable\App for the app code. AppNamePortable\Data for all user data and AppNamePortable\Other for source files (where applicable) and help files. Backing up \Data will back up all your user data (bookmarks, settings, email, etc), this is how our built-in backup utility works. Deleting \Data will reset the app back to base and the launcher will recreate the default settings for you.
PortableApps.com - The open standard for portable software | Support Net Neutrality

User avatar
webfork
Posts: 10818
Joined: Wed Apr 11, 2007 8:06 pm
Location: US, Texas
Contact:

Re: Upgrade instructions

#8 Post by webfork »

(this entry was added into the initial post to avoid confusion)
Last edited by webfork on Thu Jun 24, 2010 4:06 pm, edited 2 times in total.

User avatar
joby_toss
Posts: 2970
Joined: Sat Feb 09, 2008 9:57 am
Location: Romania
Contact:

Re: Upgrade instructions

#9 Post by joby_toss »

Maybe a collapsible field similar to the "What's new:" one, called "Upgrading instructions:", might be useful?

User avatar
webfork
Posts: 10818
Joined: Wed Apr 11, 2007 8:06 pm
Location: US, Texas
Contact:

Re: Upgrade instructions

#10 Post by webfork »

joby_toss wrote:Maybe a collapsible field similar to the "What's new:" one, called "Upgrading instructions:", might be useful?
That would work well, yeah.

Negatively, its just one more thing to maintain. If its in the official entry, people will get mad if its not up to date. If its in the forums, visitors will be a little more forgiving if its a bit out of date.

Positively, this is one of the biggest weaknesses and the most common requests I hear in regard to the Kitchen Sink project. If we don't address it here on PFW, its pretty clear nobody else will.
Last edited by webfork on Thu Jun 24, 2010 4:29 pm, edited 2 times in total.

User avatar
guinness
Posts: 4118
Joined: Mon Aug 27, 2007 2:00 am
Contact:

Re: Upgrade instructions

#11 Post by guinness »

It would be a great addition to TPFC database.

Post Reply