Portable programs

[Guest]

[LeoniAquila]

Let's have a topic for portable programs, we can discuss particular programs - advantages and disadvantages.

I have a question for the portable CCleaner. The ZIP file contains many DLL files, all named like "lang-XXXX.dll" where XXXX are various numbers. Are these files language related? Can I delete them all, except for a particular one for the English language? Which one? I now have the installed CCleaner, but the folder does not contain a single DLL file. It only contains four files: CCleaner.exe, uninst.exe, winapp.ini and history.txt. That indicates that I should be able to delete all those DLL files of the portable CCleaner... right?

LA

[LeoniAquila]

Simple question, I easily found the answer myself: deleting all those DLL files made no difference. CCleaner still works great in English. There's also a file called unicows.dll which I tried to remove, and CCleaner still works as expected. I wonder what unicows.dll does? Anyway, this was a nice addition to my range of portable programs.

LA

[Byakuya]

LOL hairless.

I JUST googled on that unicows.dll file and the first result pointed out that unless you have a legacy OS (i.e. older than XP), you can delete.  I checked my CCleaner directory and it's now 837 KB with also 4 files, but I removed the history.txt.  You might wonder what's the other one.  It's ccleaner.ini, which is the settings file because the portable version doesn't save it to the user data directory or the registry

Other ones I also use are:
AbiWord - MS Word slimmed down clone.  Pro: Open-source can mimic the original in many aspects less the bloat.  Con: Dictionary file is not great ??
BonkEnc - Audio file converter/enconder.  Pro: Can re-encode various audio formats with great quality.  Con: GUI some what bland/basic and help info on a lot of encoder options are not explained.
ERUNT - Registry backup.  Pro: Backups all registry hives including files in use.  Con: 
Foxit Reader - PDF viewer. Pro: Non-bloated (like all the other portable apps ).  Con: Not as high-quality as the original bloat king and is slightly ad-ware (but can be disabled in the registry)
HijackThis! - Basic malware diagnostics tool.  Pro: Lets one view unexpected critters popping in the startup registries.  Con: Inactive development after being bought out
JKDefrag - Defragmenter.  Pro:  Various modes and receives great reviews.  Set & Forget or you can close it anytime.  Con: Really archaic GUI that doesn't even contain a built-in legend.
Media Player Classic - Windows Media Player 6.x remixed.  Pro: Can play almost all media formats (especially when combined with FFDShow video & audio codecs).  Con: Not developed by the original author anymore (but at least there are others still releasing updates from time to time)
MPTrim - An MP3 editor.  Pro: Can auto cut of beginning and ending silences and can boost/reduce volume levels losslessly.  Con: Requires a bit of tweaking and can be time-consuming if one wants to be exact in finding the best volume increase level of a MP3 file.
NTREGOPT - Registry compacter.  Pro: Compresses the registry empty spaces so that it's efficient.  Con: Always leaves behind 15 .bak and .tmp files that I have to manually delete.
PageDefrag - Pagefile defragmenter.  Pro: Pagefile is one of the hardest files to defrag since it's always in use, but this works.  Con: Don't really need to run it too often (but could be a pro )
uTorrent - Torrent client.  Pro: Light (just like all the portable apps I use ), fast, and doesn't contain many features that are useless to me.  Con:  Can't find any.
XMPlay - Audio player.  Pro: Indeed the best audio quality after extensive testing between other players.  Con: Requires a ton of tweaking to set everything up correctly, overall useability can be inconvenient because the GUI is awkward and small.

[giraffe]

There's a USB version of Opera.

For PDFs, PDF-XCHANGE VIEWER is quite good (can edit files) and I'm sure I've seen a portable version somewhere.

One thing I found out: quite a lot of apps., with a bit of a kludge, don't need to be installed (if there's MSI involved then installation is usually the only way). This doesn't make them portable but does stop all the junk in the Reg.
I  always try Universal Extractor on a download (extract to subdirectory) and in many cases it works. Move the directory then to where wanted, drop a shortcut on the desktop and 'tis done.

[giraffe]

What's the difference between the Opera USB and classic versions?

Pass - I just saw that it was available. Seemed like A Good Thing for secure browsing from an insecure PC.
I assume that it doesn't install anything on its host.

[LeoniAquila]

I JUST googled on that unicows.dll file and the first result pointed out that unless you have a legacy OS (i.e. older than XP), you can delete.  I checked my CCleaner directory and it's now 837 KB with also 4 files, but I removed the history.txt.  You might wonder what's the other one.  It's ccleaner.ini, which is the settings file because the portable version doesn't save it to the user data directory or the registry

So you do have the portable? I've also found the ccleaner.ini, which I now have a backup file of, so I can replace CCleaner portable anytime (after reformatting) and keep the settings.

What's portable.dat? It has not been changed since 24/10/2007.

...

You have a nice list there, and I understand why people use Foxit. I use Adobe because the interface is better and it handles transparency (like semi-transparent text boxes put on images embedded in a document), Foxit doesn't. But Adobe is crazily bloated... maybe I should try to live with the lack of transparency, there is much to be gained with Foxit!

XMPlay - Audio player.  Pro: Indeed the best audio quality after extensive testing between other players.  Con: Requires a ton of tweaking to set everything up correctly, overall useability can be inconvenient because the GUI is awkward and small.

I suppose you don't play MP3:s, else why bother to get quality...

---

Here's my complete list, directly from Program Files (P for portable):

7-Zip
Adobe Reader
Bryce
CCleaner P
CFP
DC++
Diino P
Google Earth
ImgBurn
Internet Explorer
JkDefrag P
Media Player Classic P
Mozilla Firefox
nLite
NT Registry Optimizer P
OpenOffice.org
PDF Split and Merge P
PDFCreator
RegSeeker P

=> Not enough portable programs.

I'm unsure how it would work to use Firefox portable. I've also seen a way to make ImgBurn portable but it seems tricky (or I'm just lazy). There is also OOo portable, but like Firefox, it depends a lot on settings so I don't know how it actually works. 7-Zip is available as portable, but the package comes from a site (like Portable Freeware or likewise) which do not accept. The same goes for GIMP, I launched the portable version but it contained a little text that said something about Portable Freeware (or whichever site it was).

Any experiences with OOo and FF portable? I'd like to use them, but I'm thinking of how it works with personal dictionary for OOo. I also wonder how addons and bookmarks work with FF portable.

Thanks for any advice.

LA

[Byakuya]

So you do have the portable? I've also found the ccleaner.ini, which I now have a backup file of, so I can replace CCleaner portable anytime (after reformatting) and keep the settings.

Anything more I classify as bloatware even if it is CCleaner itself .  Kidding.  Now why would you need to backup that file?  There are hardly that many options in CCleaner that need to configure

What's portable.dat? It has not been changed since 24/10/2007.

Not 100% sure, but I think it's part of the program's portable version core.  I've been replacing it with each new version. 

You have a nice list there, and I understand why people use Foxit. I use Adobe because the interface is better and it handles transparency (like semi-transparent text boxes put on images embedded in a document), Foxit doesn't. But Adobe is crazily bloated... maybe I should try to live with the lack of transparency, there is much to be gained with Foxit!

Your old clean-freaky blood is boiling again .  Remember the other disadvantage of Foxit (BTW, I use an old version because the newer ones nowadays are becoming bloated in terms of file size and it requires an installer, thereby relinquishing itself of portable title) is that you can only read pdf's, not edit or write them.

I suppose you don't play MP3:s, else why bother to get quality...

Wrong, my cleanly slickiness friend.  I play MP3's daily & nightly, which is the sole reason why I switched to XMPlay (after REBOL's constant forced recommendations on it).  The audio sounds more genuine versus WMP or Winamp even with the tweaked equalizer settings.

Edit: Added MPTrim and BonkEnc (Even though I'm not using the portable version.  A minute difference in the "full" version ) to above list.

Note: I also could've added the Event ID 4226 Patcher, but it might be flagged as a "virus" so I didn't officially include it .  It's not really a virus because it edits the tcpip.sys file to lift the default half-open connections setting from 10 in XP.  A necessity for p2p users.

[LeoniAquila]

Anything more I classify as bloatware even if it is CCleaner itself .  Kidding.  Now why would you need to backup that file?  There are hardly that many options in CCleaner that need to configure

LOL, I'm not sure you're kidding so I'm starting to suspect you as even more cleanliness freaky than me.
There are not many options, but e.g. I've added cleaning of the folder
C:\Documents and Settings\LL\Application Data\Media Player Classic\|*.*
and the file
C:\Documents and Settings\LL\Local Settings\Application Data\|IconCache.db. It's easy to make a backup.

Your old clean-freaky blood is boiling again .  Remember the other disadvantage of Foxit (BTW, I use an old version because the newer ones nowadays are becoming bloated in terms of file size and it requires an installer, thereby relinquishing itself of portable title) is that you can only read pdf's, not edit or write them.

Foxit bloated?! That confirms my suspicions above! Yesterday I tried the latest Foxit to make sure this version really doesn't handle transparency (and it doesn't), but it was really portable: one one .exe, nothing else.
(<off topic>I noticed that it scrolled through my PDF files faster than Adobe. Then I launched Adobe and I was captured by its GUI and the way it shows graphics in PDF files.</off topic>)

Note: I also could've added the Event ID 4226 Patcher, but it might be flagged as a "virus" so I didn't officially include it .  It's not really a virus because it edits the tcpip.sys file to lift the default half-open connections setting from 10 in XP.  A necessity for p2p users.

Who flags it as a virus?
I thought you tweaked this with nLite.

LA

[LeoniAquila]

What's so special about C:\Documents and Settings\<BLEEP!>\Application Data\Media Player Classic\|*.*    All I see is default.mpcpl, which I assume to be a MPC setting file.

The path of the last played file is stored in default.mpcpl, so for privacy, I clear it (even though I'm the only one who ever uses my machine - it's a principle).

Also, there's no point in clearing the icon cache file because from my observations, it may in fact grow the next time you reboot.  Besides, this file size can be reduced by adjusting a registry key.  Do you know what this file is for?  How many icons are stored in RAM to determine how fast your PC loads file icons at one screen.

Doesn't matter if it grows, I run CCleaner 5 times a day.
I don't like the file, thus I remove it all the time (along with much else) in CCleaner.

Anyway, now, this thread is supposed to treat the portable nature of portable programs.

LA

[LeoniAquila]

Yeah whatever.  I'm not a mod so I can be off-topic

But I am, so that puts me in the position of telling you how it works at this forum. *kidding*

Besides, I don't see giraffe complaining and no one else is participating/don't care/are too shy to post here

I don't understand why the interest is so little. I expected you to come here, but where are all the tweak-dedicated forum users, who dislikes bloated installations and prefer portable programs. Soon enough...

LA

[WaterWall]

But I am, so that puts me in the position of telling you how it works at this forum. *kidding*

I don't understand why the interest is so little. I expected you to come here, but where are all the tweak-dedicated forum users, who dislikes bloated installations and prefer portable programs. Soon enough...

LA

I care and I'm interested !  And thanx to former Soya for some great portable apps 

[LeoniAquila]

I care and I'm interested !  And thanx to former Soya for some great portable apps 

I appreciate you presence here.

LA

[giraffe]

I've tried CCleaner and it kept borking some things and causing minor faults.

I now use ClearProg (it's not all that good with History and Temporary Internet Files) which is configurable and can remove things like the entries in Agent Ransack.
Then I run Free Window Sweeper to remove almost everything, including Index.dat on reboot.
Winsweep might not be portable (I don't know, as I didn't try to install it), but it was just extracted to a subdir. with Universal Extractor and it runs OK.

As for off-topic: well, if a thread stayed on I'd lose track!

[LeoniAquila]

LOL, I guess that's a way to solve the problem. Thanks.

LA

[LeoniAquila]

I was hoping for more interest in this thread.

I've managed to increase the amount of portable programs at my system. Here's the current list of all my programs, installed and portable:

7-Zip
Adobe Reader Lite
Bryce
CCleaner P
CFP
DC++ P
Diino P
GIMP
InfraRecorder P
Internet Explorer
JkDefrag P
Media Player Classic P
Mozilla Firefox
NT Registry Optimizer P
OpenOffice.org
PDF Split and Merge P
PDFCreator
RegSeeker P

Still considering Firefox portable, but first I want to learn how it all works with bookmarks and add-ons. I know there are also portable versions of GIMP and OOo, but they come from PortableApps.com, and at least to the GIMP they added their own logo in the splash screen. I don't want that.

LA

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