Symenu - USB Disk Program Launcher

[SymoPd]

[Moderator note: this is the primary SyMenu program thread. View database entry]

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Hi there!

I'm new here and I think that this is the right place where find people interested to my little work.

I use everyday an 30 Gb Usb disk, to take my stuff from home to work and reverse, and I use with it many of the programs you submit on this site.

My need was to have an easy way to launch them and to have them working almost the same way regardless the host machine.

So I write SyMenu, a usb program launcher that can be configured to lanch application from the usb disk by a little menu on the systray, providing them references to the same usb disk, so profiles, temp files and other would be always on it.

This enables many application to work even if they aren't designed for usb disk.

Anyway that's the site with description and download:

http://symopd.100free.com

It's written in C# and requires Net framework 1.1 installed on the host machine.

I'd like you people to tell me what you think about it, errors and some feature i could add to make it helpful.

10x a lot!

...and, by the way, portablefreeware.com Rulez!

[cmmehl]

Ciao Simone,

I was very curious and downloaded your little prog. It looks interesting.

So far I haven't tested it with a non-portable application (I rather try to find applications that are truly portable). However, your concept has given me some hope that it may allow for one of my biggest wishes to become true: portable interoperability

I'll explain: I have a portable browser, a portable email-client, a portable PDF-reader and so on ... and I would like these programs to start when launching a file of a given extension. For example, clicking on a link in an email should launch portable FireFox from my USB stick on the guest-computer I'm working on, at least as long as I'm working there. Of course it usually only starts the Internet Explorer.

I could probably achieve that goal by modifying the registry each time (although not sure whether this is possible when one doesn't have administrative rights on the computer) and put it back to the previous state when leaving the computer. But it would be so much better if a launcher could take care of that, so that all extensions could be temporarily assigned to the desired portable application on the stick. For as long as the launcher is running only, of course ...

Well, you have asked for suggestions - would that be feasable with your program?

Looking forward to your reaction on this challenge

Chris

[SymoPd]

Hi Chris!

Thank you for trying my app!

You suggested a very nice feature and I'll think about it!

My application, now, intercept every text cut/copied to the clipboard: i think that there could be a way to intercept even the event of clicking/selecting a link, or a file....

I really take a look to it asap!

Thank you again!
Stay tuned!

[cmmehl]

Hi Simone,

I sure will stay tuned, it would be fantastic if you could get it to work!

I feel that this forum is maybe not the best place to discuss developments (rather to announce succcess ), so until you set up (?) a place for discussion in your own site, you can contact me by email cmmehl (AT) gmx (DOT) net.

Your eager betatester
Chris

[UGMFree]

Hello.

Let's try again.
Three years ago my friend and colleague Simone tried to submit at portablefreeware his software SyMenu but, since it was written on .NET, it wasn't included in program list.

Now it seems that .NET based programs (even Java ones) are allowed, so here it again.

We have rewritten SyMenu from scratch.
Now it requires .NET 2.0 and has become more trendy and full features.

First it's perfectly portable (it doesn't write anything on registry or file system except for its folders).
It's translated in four languages (English, Spanish, Italian, Traditional Chinese).
It can launch configured programs through a traditional hierarchical menu or even with a search bar similar to Win Vista's one.
It supports RunAs, open containing folder and shows property for any item.
It allows to completely customize every item (name, icon, description as far as launch parameters and environment variables).
Adding a new item it's the easier part: just drag and drop your executable file from file system to configuration form.

We invite you on web site to discover every other SyMenu features.

So if you want to test SyMenu (and give us feedbacks on it) here there are some links:
http://www.ugmfree.it/SyMenu.aspx (general information)
http://www.ugmfree.it/SyMenuDownload.aspx (download page)
http://www.ugmfree.it/SyMenuManual.aspx (manual)
http://www.ugmfree.it/SyMenuScreenShot.aspx (screenshot)

Thank you

Gianluca

[ashghost]

.NET and Java apps are still not added to the database. If you're thinking of the thread I started here, I just thought that there should be a separate forum for "submission" and discussion of .NET and Java apps, I wasn't suggesting that they should be added to the database (nor do I believe they should be).

I was going to give SyMenu a try but it looks just like PStart, missing a few features, but with the addition of C.A.F.E.-like file associations.

Path portability is not relative, but drive-letter-free (done with "#" in place of a drive letter). I have changed my setup so that that's not a problem for me (I synchronize a directory of portable apps between my desktop and laptop hard drives and with my flash drive), but I still greatly prefer relative paths.

[webfork]

So I've been trying hard to find an alternative to Pstart for a while now. PortableApps platform has come a long way (and I recommend it to people), but its focus on the average user means that it can't match all the functionality of Pstart. SyMenu requires dotNET 2.0 and has a lot of great stuff, but its a mixed bag.

First, it looks portable (to the extent that it writes settings locally) and uses relative pathways. It supports many languages and has some really cool additions. It also looks very good.

The program is clearly built in the vein of Pstart, but unfortunately I find its not as cleanly designed. The main window has too much garbage right up front. I really don't need Options, Recent, and Search all on the main window. Although I do like the "Recent" menu, I wish there was a way to disable the other options. I like that Pstart is just a menu with all the other options under the hood. That minimalist approach means that the software doesn't get in the way of what I'm trying to do.

Additionally, SyMenu also has an options menu which itself has an options menu, which was very weird. How advanced options were set up just seemed very non-standard and awkward.

There were a few really cool elements that I think other menus should adopt: at the top of the small window, there's an item that cycles through a few options:

1. Run item
2. Open Folder
3. File Properties
4. RunAs Item

... and as someone who's frequently tweaking my settings, this is helpful and pretty innovative. I definitely wouldn't have thought of it. As mentioned before, this should be optional; if I don't end up using it, I'll want to turn it off.

There is some customization: you can modify the menu colors at least if not the elements that show up in the main window, it supports transparrency, and themes. Sidenote: the "black" theme is unreadable on my XP SP3 screen.

The extension manager is fine, but manually entering in ALL the different extentions could take a while. The config files are XML documents stored in zip files, so I'm not real sure about how to tweak that without breaking the program. This is a great idea if you want to keep your config files from getting huge (they do that) but if the built-in zip compression disagrees with my program's slightly different version, the program might discard my changes or not start. Not sure what to do with that.

So those are some impressions of the program since it was first mentioned. If you can get around some quirks and the dotNET reliance, this is the first real Pstart competitor I've seen in a while.

[MiDoJo]

So you would call this an alternative to PStart, but not (at least in your opinion) a replacement for pstart (yet).

I love PStart so I plan to watch your search for a "better" menu closly to make sure I'm not missing out on anything by keeping Pstart

[webfork]

So you would call this an alternative to PStart, but not (at least in your opinion) a replacement for pstart (yet).

I love PStart so I plan to watch your search for a "better" menu closly to make sure I'm not missing out on anything by keeping Pstart

Launchers have a difficult job of staying out of the users' way, while at the same time giving better controls over the software. Its a neat trick to give users all the options they want but layer them below submenus effectively. Its one place where software requires a certain elegance and attention to users.

Pstart does an excellent job with this in most respects (big kudos to its authors), but its not without its flaws and certainly not beginner-friendly.

[I am Baas]

SyMenu was added to the db at http://www.portablefreeware.com/index.php?id=2394

I made a few changes to the entry but did not test it for portability/stealthness.

[webfork]

SyMenu was added to the db at http://www.portablefreeware.com/index.php?id=2394

I made a few changes to the entry but did not test it for portability/stealthness.

I think I overlooked this because of the dotNET requirement, but initial testing suggests I've been missing out. Might have finally found an alternative to Pstart on my Win7 system.

[joby_toss]

Very good launcher; it's portable and stealth as far as I could test it.

[starstuff]

Version 3.04 is out! very great program launcher

http://www.ugmfree.it/SyMenuDownload.aspx

[TP109]

Most sophisticated USB launcher I've seen yet. Impressive effort. Going to test this out. Uses about 50x more memory than my default launcher, Portable Start Menu (uses 1k); however, PSMenu doesn't even come close to the options this thing has.

[webfork]

Ghacks talks about Symenu: http://www.ghacks.net/2015/03/06/progra ... -programs/