New to JauntPE, need advice

[grannyGeek]

ok, I'm just getting my toes wet with JauntPE, so please have patience. (I'm old and slow, but I do learn.... eventually.....)

Thanks to Chris who gave me a jump-start to begin using this great tool, I used JauntPE to portablize Crypt Edit, and got (I think) good results.

According to RegShot, one registry write got through

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Cryptography\RNG\Seed:

and some log files (which might not all be from Crypt Edit)
----------------------------------
Files [attributes?] modified:12
----------------------------------
C:\WINDOWS\DomainFW.log
C:\WINDOWS\system32\CCM\Logs\mtrmgr.log
C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\software.LOG
C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\system.LOG
C:\WINDOWS\system32\wbem\Repository\FS\INDEX.BTR
C:\WINDOWS\system32\wbem\Repository\FS\INDEX.MAP
C:\WINDOWS\system32\wbem\Repository\FS\MAPPING.VER
C:\WINDOWS\system32\wbem\Repository\FS\MAPPING1.MAP
C:\WINDOWS\system32\wbem\Repository\FS\MAPPING2.MAP
C:\WINDOWS\system32\wbem\Repository\FS\OBJECTS.DATA
C:\WINDOWS\system32\wbem\Repository\FS\OBJECTS.MAP
F:\PortablePax\_OFFICE\CryptEdit\App\CryptEdit_registry.reg

----------------------------------
Total changes:13
----------------------------------
Do those results seem pretty normal to you guys??



So I decided to try on PDF X-Change reader. (I wanted that for its commenting feature -- too cool!)

JauntPE seems to trap the Registry writes ok.
But some odd things -- I saved some commented pdf documents, and instead of saving to my hard-drive, JauntPE re-directed them.
This happens on my home pc, and on a pc at work without admin rights.
I tried to save to >>
My Documents\Guides folder
but it made a folder inside the app folder >>
"User\Documents\Guides" and saved the document there.
Then when I try to open and/or save other documents, PDFXC can only access the folders that JauntPE created. If I want to open from other folders, I have to use Explorer>Open With dialog.


On another work pc WITH admin rights, but probably different policy settings, if I open PDFXC using the JauntPE exe, PDFXC locks up as soon as I try to open a file. But the app works fine if I open it with its own executable.

So, in summary, JauntPE is having some strange behavior with this particular app, but I don't have enough experience to know how to isolate the bug. (if it is a bug -- maybe it is something peculiar in PDFXC)

Any thoughts?

[acgrego]

Hi,

I think you're talking about PDF-XChange "Viewer" and not "Reader"....

Am I wrong?

So.... quote from the Tracker Software about future portability forPDF-XChange Viewer....

"We do intend a little later this summer to address the portability option - just as soon as we get some other key functions and features plugged in and all settles down."

Maybe wait a little while.....

Greetings,

acgrego

[Firewrath]

...
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Cryptography\RNG\Seed:
...
Do those results seem pretty normal to you guys??




...
JauntPE seems to trap the Registry writes ok.
But some odd things -- I saved some commented pdf documents, and instead of saving to my hard-drive, JauntPE re-directed them.
This happens on my home pc, and on a pc at work without admin rights.
I tried to save to >>
My Documents\Guides folder
but it made a folder inside the app folder >>
"User\Documents\Guides" and saved the document there.
Then when I try to open and/or save other documents, PDFXC can only access the folders that JauntPE created. If I want to open from other folders, I have to use Explorer>Open With dialog.


On another work pc WITH admin rights, but probably different policy settings, if I open PDFXC using the JauntPE exe, PDFXC locks up as soon as I try to open a file. But the app works fine if I open it with its own executable.

So, in summary, JauntPE is having some strange behavior with this particular app, but I don't have enough experience to know how to isolate the bug. (if it is a bug -- maybe it is something peculiar in PDFXC)

Any thoughts?

that registry entry looks ok,
if i had to geuss, id say part of Crypt Edit uses a random number and calls that entry for its seed to generate it,
(or its windows writing a need seed to the entry after use, ...not really sure about that, but i do know its a normal entry, )

the log stuff and all im not so sure about, they Look ok to me though,
and the .reg is JPE catching the Crypt Edit reg changes and redirecting them,
but yeah, you prolly knew that,


Anyways,
"My Documents" is one of the folders that JPE redirects any changes to its own folder,

if theres no other folders, like, 'windows' 'system' 'user' or 'programs' in your PDFXC, then chances are, it doesnt make file changes on your system and you can build a portable.exe and tell it Not to redirect files,

but you might want to check all the folders first and be sure before you do that,

Also,
it only opening redirected files/folders is an old bug, it happened with FoxIt Reader and a few other programs, but redllar was pretty sure he fixed it and we havnt ran into it since,
so i dont think i can be much help there, =/
might be that PDFXC has its own way of opening files/folders that JPE misinterprets and redirects it,
OR
JPE doesnt know what its doing and is redirecting it just to be 'safe',
most likely its the first one though,

And when your doing 'open with' are you pointing that at the portable.exe of PDFXC? O_o



Now, if you Have to redirect the files due to PDFXC writing to some system folder, you Can make an .ini file for the program with this in it:

Code: Select all

[Registry]
Use=1

[Filesystem]
Use=1

[FilesystemExclude]
1=5
2=12
3=46

those excludes are:

5=Files\Documents
12=Files\Documents
46=Files\Documents

which you can look up in the "JauntePE_jauntePE.ini"
if i remember, they are default excludes and work for Any computer,
and yes, you need all three of them, ...and no, i dont know why,

if you read my guide in the JPE zip, it explains how to make an .ini file for a program,

basicly, the easiest way to get the name, is the program name from the redirected registry, and then make the .ini as <name>__jauntePE.ini

and that SHOULD work,
if not, try calling it "JauntePE_jauntePE.ini" but ONLY if your using a portable.exe, and Only if that portable.exe is never going to be interacting with other JPE apps*, because i dont know what would happen if it tryed to read setting from two files with the same name,
(*IE: like going to be using another JPE_portable.exe'd app that might somehow open PDFXC_portable.exe,)
just to say i think it would be bad and such,


As for the program locking up,
uhhh,
ive no clue, >.<
it could be that since it redirects where you save/open stuff, its looking in its Own redirected folder for the file, and not finding it, which is most likely making the program loop and either PDFXC or mebey even JPE doesnt have the error call to break it out,
(Id say PDFXC Should have it, so its most likely a bug/error on its side,)

IF you can tell it not to redirect files 'safely' (IE: if PDFXC doesnt write to your user folder or system files,) then it should take care of your last two 'bugs',
But, if you use the exclude method, it would most likely only 'fix' this problem for 'My Documents' folders,

Hrm,
thats all i can think of right now,
Hope it helps,

[grannyGeek]

Hi Firewrath. Thank you for responding.
And thank you guys for resurrecting JauntPE --
I took a look at the NSIS templates over at PortableApps.com and ran screaming in terror -- much too complex for this newbie !!!!

I've been playing around with this and conclude that my work pc's are to blame for most of my problems.

I tried your ini file, with and without some or all of the FileSystem lines, and set in all possible combinations of use= 0, use = 1, (and I deleted reg file and subfolders in between tests to try to kill any persistence) and if I open pdf files from this hard drive and save them, JauntPE immediately makes a User folder to save them, and then that is all PDFXC can see.

If I open documents from my USB drive, no problem. Everything works normally.
So it might be some kind of policy setting blocking the write (maybe like blocking activeX controls and scripts), and JauntPE is coping the only way it can. So if I need files from the hard drive, I'm ok as long as I copy them to my usb and use them from there.

As to the lock-up --- If I use Open With and point to the portable exe, I get the lockup as soon as I click File Open, I don't even get as far as the dialog to choose a file.
If I point Open With to the actual app exe, no trouble.

I couldn't trap the "send report" dumps (was using the off-line pc where I have admin rights, and maybe the dumps self-delete when no internet connection is found).
The initial message window displays this unhelpful info:
szAppName : PDFXCview.exe szAppVer : 1.0.0.16 szModName : hungapp
szModVer : 0.0.0.0 offset : 00000000

I will fool around with this thing some more this weekend, but now at least I know how to work around the glitches.

Thank you for letting me babble on. Maybe some of this information will turn out useful to someone, somewhere.

I'm going to go portablize some more stuff, this is fun! You have a good weekend.

[grannyGeek]

just popped back in to say HOORAY !!!!

I got flustrated after tootling around with this thing, and wiped it all out and started over from scratch, and now ----

Everything is working perfectly !

I may have had an un-noticed error in the ini file, or corrupted a file with all my fiddling, or gave the resident gremlin an upset tummy....
who knows.

I can use the viewer with no lockups or glitches.

Ah, life is good.

Thanks, guys.

[Firewrath]

Yeah,
its amazing how many times that works on computers, >.<

Glad you got it all working though, ^-^