PortableApps.com Frequently Asked Questions

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At the moment, no. This is due to Bug 406335 which was introduced sometime within the updates to the 2.0 branch of Firefox itself. The Mozilla Software Updater no longer correctly updates secondary, standalone and portable versions of Firefox, Thunderbird, etc. The bug is discussed in more detail in this forum topic about the issue. You might also want to disable auto-updating under preferences.

Your profile may be corrupt. If the problem are the Addons then delete the files extensions.rdf and extensions.ini on Data\profile and try again. Also you may be running firefox.exe that is inside the App\firefox directory. Please run FirefoxPortable.exe file on the top of the installation of Firefox Portable instead.

If the USB flash disk has a slow read/write speed, then the applications will be affected by that. Please use a faster drive for better performance. If you have enabled cache in Firefox Portable it will be slower, as it has to write the cached pages to the drive. Please disable the cache for better performance. More hints on how to improve the Performance are on the PortableApps.com page

It depends on the license, and a lot of other things. For requesting an application check if:

• It wasn't already requested (use the search function);
• The license is Open Source compatible (GPL/LGPL/MIT,… see OSI for a full list.);
• It is free to download and use;
• It doesn't run on a Closed Source platform (Ex: Java/Flash/.NET Framework…);
• It isn't closely integrated into the operating system;
• It works on Windows and has support for running on an unprivileged account.

Most commercial applications have a restrictive license, so we can't create portable editions of them. Instead, there are applications that are Open Source and work as well as the commercial applications (sometimes better). Check the "Applications" page to see if an Open Source version of the application you want is already made portable.

There is some hope that appropriately licensed programs other than “open source” might be added in the future. At present, because PortableApps.com relies on SourceForge mirrors for distribution, it is limited to working on OSI approved open source licensed programs.

No need to post about this. The apps will be updated as soon as possible. Remember this is, for the major part, a one-man-project. As John Haller puts it: “It's done when it's done!™”

On the stable version of the menu there is not. But the 1.1 Beta version has support for basic theming and it is considered stable for daily use.

The PortableApps.com Menu is still very young. A lot of features are still to be added. Meanwhile there are some rough ideas about what is going to be available. Sub-menus support is expected. Better theme support too. Meanwhile there are hacks and alternatives on the Beta testing forums that allow you some of those options.

Certainly not! Just copy your entire (old) drives' contents to your new drive! That's all you have to do! It's that simple!

Modifying the name of the drive is easier than it seems. You only need to:

• First make sure that you can find “Autorun.inf”. It should be located in the root directory of your drive.
  • If you can't find “Autorun.inf” then you need to show hidden files.
• Open “Autorun.inf” with your favorite text editor (like Notepad++ or Notepad).
• Modify the line “Label=PortableApps” to “Label=[name]”.
  • You also might want to change the Icon of your drive. To do this just edit the line “Icon=[PortableApps.Menu path]” with a path pointing to an icon or an .exe file whose icon you'd like to use.
• Now save the file and close it. Eject your drive and reinsert it to make sure your changes were successful.

This is a function of a file called autorun.inf in the “root” of the drive. It is frequently hidden, so you may need to set Explorer so it can show your hidden files.

There have been a number of topics about how to set this up.

• This seems to be one of the more comprehensive and comprehensible ones.
• Here is how one person did it.
• Microsoft Autoplay Repair Wizard can sometimes help
• Autorun-check is another free program that might help

Note that there is a security concern. If your computer is set to follow the commands in the autorun.inf file, a rogue device that is plugged into your computer (e.g. a photoframe or music player) could run a trojan or virus automatically. Because of these security concerns, Microsoft has changed the way autorun.inf works on various versions of the operating system, making it harder to autorun programs. This is contrary to what many end users expect. Please note that this is a very real security concern, and expecting the autorun functionality to work could leave your computer open to compromise.

You just delete the folder where you installed it. PortableApps.com Applications come with no connection whatsoever to the registry, so for uninstalling an app you just need to delete the folder, never been simpler. Just make sure the Menu/Platform is close as it will keep an empty folder if its not.

Nothing is wrong. Your anti-virus probably found an false positive. Many anti-virus do this (AVG has a big reputation). Please check that alert with another anti-virus software and, if still positive, then post something at our forums. You can find more info here

Some Answer

Some other answer, which links to the first question

Any question that you need answered or any doubt about any question can be posted here.

Should we move ”How do I transfer my portable apps to a new drive?” to the Other Apps FAQ? 1)

Should we make a General Apps FAQ? 2)