Compatibility of portable softwae with Windows 7?

[quest221]

Hi,

When I use some portable application on Windows 7, I found that they don't "compatible" with Windows 7, the description "compatible" maybe not accurate, so please see the following screen shot.


The first skype icon on the superbar is the SkypePortable.exe, after I click it to start the skype, it will launch the real skype.exe and show a icon of skype as the second icon on the superbar.

So what I concerned is that how can we make it just one icon showed on the superbar if I start a portable appliation.

By the way, this symptom comes with all the portable applications.

[MiDoJo]

I've not noticed this with any of the Portable programs I use. Have you seen this on anything else besides Portableskype? are you running the latest version (4.1)

. . .
Wait do you have skype portable pinned to the taskbar?

then the reason for this occuring is that skypeportable.exe is not the same as sykpe.exe which it launches
pinning any {launcher}.exe will result in what you describe occuring
I have tested this theroy and that is EXACTLY what is occuring

of course, I would have to say that it is a portable program, and isn't designed to run off your harddrive and, thus, was never designed to be pinned

[infimum]

By the way, this symptom comes with all the portable applications.

You mean PortableApps applications?
http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/skype_portable

It can't be "all."

[quest221]

Hi All,

Thanks for your reply.

I use a program in this forum to create a portable skype myself.
http://www.portablefreeware.com/forums/ ... ype#p19901

Yes, I know skypeportable.exe is not the same as sykpe.exe, however, we have to click skypeportable.exe and then let it to launch the real skype.exe, right? Or we can just click the skype.exe?

I have some other portalbe applications such as Firefox, they all have this symptom.

By the way, I have a post in another forum and a guy had replied to it, you can refer to:
http://portableapps.com/node/21936

Seems there is no workaround, but I still want to konw how to only get one icon showed on superbar, is there a way to bypass the skypeportable.exe and just start the real skype.exe but never miss the portability?

[ashghost]

MiDoJo gave you the answer, more or less: don't pin it to the taskbar, use something else to launch it.

If you haven't pinned it to the taskbar and you're still getting this behavior, I don't know what to tell you.

[MiDoJo]

Yes, you are not pinning Skype (or firefox or or or ) you are pinning the launcher app this is why you see this behavior. End of Story

[teobromina]

I have tested Windows 7 for about a month and I have to say that I can run all my portable apps. without any problem with the only exception of those that use drivers which seem to be WinXP-specific. Example: Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel ( http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4402.html ) does not run in Win7 because has a "non valid controller" ("controlador no válido").

The great majority of programs, portable on WinXP, run on Win7.

Win7 is very 'tolerant' with non standard 'intallation methods': when you usually run a portable program from the same place in the files-tree, you may 'pin' the program launcher as you can do with the regular installed programs. This makes easy to run programs that you use frequently in your own computer.

I think that Win7 is the best OS made by Microsoft ever!

[teobromina]

I want to rectify my last post on this item: To run a program like Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel in Windows 7, it is enough to activate the compatibility with Windows XP mode for running the program. Just point and right click to the executable and choose <properties/compatibility> with the appropiate option.