What tools do you use to test Portability?

Discuss anything related to portable freeware here.
Message
Author
User avatar
guinness
Posts: 4118
Joined: Mon Aug 27, 2007 2:00 am
Contact:

Re: What tools do you use to test Portability?

#16 Post by guinness »

This forum post should ideally be added to the FAQ.

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

Re: What tools do you use to test Portability?

#17 Post by guinness »

Has anyone's setup changed? I'm looking at moving to Sandboxie (away from my custom VirtualBox setup) and I was wondering what to use for comparing registry entries and files?

robertcollier4
Posts: 39
Joined: Fri Apr 12, 2013 3:20 am

Re: What tools do you use to test Portability?

#18 Post by robertcollier4 »

Nothing beats RegShot Unicode 2.0.1.70
http://www.portablefreeware.com/index.php?id=2505

Does before and after registry comparison - along with producing REDO.reg and UNDO.reg files.
Does before and after file comparison. (very fast if in Options>Common Options you select only checkbox "Check files in specified folders" which means only compare via filesize. Of course if you instead choose to compare via CRC32 or MD5 then it takes more time.)

Steps:
2. Run RegShot Unicode 2.0.1.70 (this version has both registry change detection and file change detection capability).
3. In RegShot Options > Common Options Tab - check "Check files in the specified folders", uncheck "Using CRC32 contents", uncheck "using MD5 contents".
4. In RegShot Options > Folders Tab - remove all entries in "Checked Objects" and then right click > Add > C:\
5. RegShot - 1st Shot > Whole Registry
6. RegShot - 1st Shot > Save (make sure it is Save and not Save As) > enter filename beforeappname.hive
7. Close RegShot (optional, only required if you need to restart computer)
8. Install Application to test.
9. Run RegShot again, 1st Shot > Open > beforeappname.hive
10. RegShot - 2nd Shot > Whole Registry - an automatic comparison should now be triggered between the before and after state of your hard drive and registry.
11. Now you can see the registry keys and files that have been changed in an HTML report. You also have a Redo.reg and Undo.reg file made for you automatically.
Last edited by robertcollier4 on Wed Jul 10, 2013 6:26 am, edited 3 times in total.

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

Re: What tools do you use to test Portability?

#19 Post by joby_toss »

Sandboxie + Windows Registry Recovery + PeStudio + a tiny bit of experience... Not foolproof, though... :(

billon
Posts: 843
Joined: Sat Jun 23, 2012 4:28 pm

Re: What tools do you use to test Portability?

#20 Post by billon »

joby_toss, what is Windows Registry Recovery? Thanks

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

Re: What tools do you use to test Portability?

#21 Post by joby_toss »

It's a MiTeC software: http://www.mitec.cz/wrr.html

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

Re: What tools do you use to test Portability?

#22 Post by webfork »

guinness wrote:Has anyone's setup changed? I'm looking at moving to Sandboxie (away from my custom VirtualBox setup) and I was wondering what to use for comparing registry entries and files?
I'm mostly using ZSoft Uninstaller because too often there will be registry/disk entries that I want to know about as well as quickly delete.

lastaltoid
Posts: 20
Joined: Sun Dec 16, 2012 8:41 pm

Re: What tools do you use to test Portability?

#23 Post by lastaltoid »

robertcollier4 wrote:Nothing beats RegShot Unicode 2.0.1.70
http://www.wincert.net/forum/topic/1079 ... ode-20170/ [moderator note: French language link][/c

For us French language impaired people, here is the link to the English post: http://www.wincert.net/forum/files/file ... 2-unicode/

I seems that one must be a forum member to download the prog. Google search finds several links to download.

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

Re: What tools do you use to test Portability?

#24 Post by guinness »

joby_toss wrote:Sandboxie + Windows Registry Recovery + PeStudio + a tiny bit of experience... Not foolproof, though... :(
Thanks, WRR was what I was looking for.

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

Re: What tools do you use to test Portability?

#25 Post by guinness »

webfork wrote:I'm mostly using ZSoft Uninstaller because too often there will be registry/disk entries that I want to know about as well as quickly delete.
I will check this out as well.

I found that my VB has become corrupted from updating VB over the years and using Sandboxie with SystemExplorer on Windows 7 is so slow and creates a large amount of CPU usage when taking a snapshot. I'm looking for alternatives for now.

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

Re: What tools do you use to test Portability?

#26 Post by guinness »

Like joby_toss (and I guess I am Baas) I too am using the Sandboxie + Windows Registry Recovery combo, plus searching through the Sandboxie directory structure for new folders.

User avatar
I am Baas
Posts: 4150
Joined: Thu Aug 07, 2008 4:51 am

Re: What tools do you use to test Portability?

#27 Post by I am Baas »

guinness wrote:Like joby_toss (and I guess I am Baas) I too am using the Sandboxie + Windows Registry Recovery combo, plus searching through the Sandboxie directory structure for new folders.
Very close.

lwc
Posts: 185
Joined: Tue Jun 26, 2012 10:40 pm
Contact:

Re: What tools do you use to test Portability?

#28 Post by lwc »

I used to use the freeware InCtrl5. I even built my own program that prepares uninstallers based on the leftovers which InCtrl5 found.
InCtrl5 is the best checker I've found because it offers a unique combination of:
  • Registry comparison of before/after
  • File checker of before/after
  • Registry filters! Without them you get too many unrelated entries and/or loops
But I wrote "used" because it's an abandonware that's not supported in anything above Windows XP.
It does work in compatibility mode, if you still want to try it...

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

Re: What tools do you use to test Portability?

#29 Post by webfork »

lwc wrote:But I wrote "used" because it's an abandonware that's not supported in anything above Windows XP.
Bummer. There's a very warm review of the program over at PCMag from way back when: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,25198,00.asp

lwc
Posts: 185
Joined: Tue Jun 26, 2012 10:40 pm
Contact:

Re: What tools do you use to test Portability?

#30 Post by lwc »

Well, it's their program, you know...

But in this case, it really is a shame there's no XP+ update.

Post Reply