Follow Guide Possible?

[Eagle710]

If I followed this guide to make a portable application would I be able to use problem that are based off a CD/DVD?

http://technorati.com/videos/youtube.co ... RPyq6IHr9o

[Stone Tablet]

Yes -- The resulting single exe file (SFX) will run from a CD. Also called a LiveCD.

[fenixproductions]

OMG! I just can't believe how anyone could make such idiotic video. It's not the way for making application portable. Of course, it might work for some apps but definitely will not for others. Why?

Such archive will always run from portable device but an application might fail and show an error because it requires installing drivers, services or to have proper registry keys. Unpacking installer it's not often good enough.

Other thing is that running application this way can make real garbage from host computer's registry, if application does not write its settings to some configuration file.

One more thing (according to Wikipedia):

A live CD or live DVD is a CD or DVD containing a bootable computer operating system.

So you don't really need LiveCD. It might work (or give errors) from any device.

The best way to make it sure and have everything OK is to get an info from this site about which applications you can run using mentioned method.

Last thing: there is also a risk of leaving whole unpacked software on host's HDD.

If making portable application could be that easy no one would bother to make websites like the one, you're using now.

[Eagle710]

OK... thanks for the info. So how would be the best way to go about making an application portable?

[m^(2)]

Indeed, this is actually much worse than installing and copying the files to your pendrive.

Does not portabilize anything.
Can break some things.
Makes apps start much slower.
Leaves rubbish in temp.
Gives all programs the rar SFX icon.

How to do this then? You can find a brief here. If you need more specific things, search in reliable sources ( like this forum ) and if you can't find it, ask.
And don't ever go to technorati.com again.

[Stone Tablet]

Just to clarify…

Does not portabilize anything. – TRUE.

Can break some things. -- ???

Makes apps start much slower. – YES and NO, minor penalty at start up, not “much slower”.

Leaves rubbish in temp. – FALSE, Temporary mode/Unpack to temporary folder --This option forces SFX to create a temporary folder, extract all files to it, start the program specified in field and remove the temporary folder including all its contents after completing… (See "Temporary mode/Unpack to temporary folder" in WinRAR’s Help)

Gives all programs the rar SFX icon. – FALSE, can load SFX icon from a file (See “SFX options: TEXT and Options” in WinRAR Help)

[m^(2)]

Can break some things. -- ???

Can. In several ways.
1. Uses Universal Extractor. This can cause some files (particularly language specific ones) to be placed in some installer folder instead of the place where they were supposed to be.
2. Some portable programs maintain only drive letter portability. Installed on a pendrive - would work. Copied to temp - not anymore.
3. Ultimately, if program was portable before applying this, after you did - it's not anymore (as long as it has some important settings).

Makes apps start much slower. – YES and NO, minor penalty at start up, not “much slower”.

I've met a person wanting to apply this to a 1.6 GB game.
This is much slower for me.

ADDED: BTW, we apparently have different understanding of "much slower". For me NSIS / AHK / AutoIt launcher often makes startup much slower just because of their internal engines initialization times. Not that big problem in case of i.e. Open Office, but really awful with i.e. SumatraPDF. WinRar not making it much slower? Possibly, but never happened to me.

Leaves rubbish in temp. – FALSE, Temporary mode/Unpack to temporary folder --This option forces SFX to create a temporary folder, extract all files to it, start the program specified in field and remove the temporary folder including all its contents after completing… (See "Temporary mode/Unpack to temporary folder" in WinRAR’s Help)

Sorry, my bad. Good that you corrected.
Still doesn't prevent app from leaving any rubbish though.

Gives all programs the rar SFX icon. – FALSE, can load SFX icon from a file (See “SFX options: TEXT and Options” in WinRAR Help)

I've seen the guide, it's not there => using the guide breaks it.

[Stone Tablet]

If you can’t find the Icon option in help, try this:

As you are building an SFX…

(1) Pick the “ADVANCED” tab.

(2) Click the “SFX Options” Button. This bring up a second dialog box.

(3) Under “Text and Icon” tab you will find (at bottom) “Customize SFX logo and icon”
You can then browse to “load SFX icon from file”

[m^(2)]

If you can’t find the Icon option in help, try this:

As you are building an SFX…

(1) Pick the “ADVANCED” tab.

(2) Click the “SFX Options” Button. This bring up a second dialog box.

(3) Under “Text and Icon” tab you will find (at bottom) “Customize SFX logo and icon”
You can then browse to “load SFX icon from file”

I believe you. I don't have WinRar, so I won't try myself, but I think you're right. I just wanted to say that the guide doesn't say anything about it and as long as you blindly follow it, you get the problem with icons.