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I'm a fan of portableapps.com -- their setup I believe is based on NSIS, uses a separate launcher per app, redirects whatever app to local files when it wants to read/write to a file or files in Docs & Setting, does the same for registry keys/values the app needs, &/or creates/uses/deletes temp files &/or reg entries/keys. There's a menu/prog launcher, they've got a fair selection of apps, & there's a tool I often use that you can find in their forums called Portable App Creator. And it seems to work well with the ppApps setup I think is so great with these 2 LiveXP projects. Since the PortableApps .exe & folder needs to be at root, same as the ppApps folder, I added a PortableApps sub-folder & simply stuck a shortcut to the .exe in it along with a very simple setups.cmd I copied from one of the base packs -- it lists the shortcut rather than the app's .exe file. [the ppApp.ini method for whatever reason didn't work] At any rate, this seems very close to ideal as I can have the portable apps on an external drive or USB stick, use it that way in Windows, then have the same available in LiveXP. Portable-VBox running a 7 Ult 32 trial VM seems to work great too.
For tracking changes to a system from an app install, &/or figuring out just what it needs, I've come to rely on InstallWatch Pro, though it may be a bit harder to find now days. It doesn't work in 64 bit, & it can be slow in a regular Windows install, but in something like XP mode [&/or a bare install of 7 trial in a VM] it works very well, giving you a breakdown of files & reg changes, deletes, & adds, each category broken down by HKCR, HKCU, HKLM, & HKU -- all are exportable as reg files. Then I put the registry back, either restoring an ERUNT backup or just copying over the XPMode vhd, & monitor what happens to the registry [using regshot] when I run the app without any prior registry changes... Quite often the app will add just what it needs, & for the purpose of running it in LiveXP I'd guess no further work required since any reg changes are by nature temporary -- I'm used to recording changes for conversion to the portableapps.com format, where I'd want to prevent them. When just running the app isn't enough, I've got the exported reg file to work with, & I copy/paste entries into a fresh .reg file & merge till it works. Once I think I've got it nailed down, I'll go into XP Pro SP3 32, fire up & activate TimeFreeze, merge my .reg file, start regshot, take the 1st shot, then try the app. There is a very real difference between running a bare VM & my regular install, so I've found the 2nd step in XP Pro necessary, just like I've found I needed the bare VM step because if an app wants to install something I've already gotten installed, those potential changes may never get recorded. TimeFreeze re-directs any hdd writes to a temporary swap file, so on re-boot everything's as it was -- I use it because I grabbed it on GOTD, but before that found ERUNT worked well enough for testing on my regular install [I already know about any file changes from monitoring in the VM]. For tracking registry changes in 7 64 I use Regshot2, which works very well.
Other than that I'm slowly working my way through my small collection of regular portable apps to see what works in LiveXP & doesn't, & haven't gotten terribly far along. I know working with older Paragon apps, mainly backup, copying "qtp-mt334.dll" from the system folder to the app's program folder was all that was needed for the app to run portably -- wouldn't have the hotcore processing, but as I'd be running LiveXP to restore a Paragon backup, not create one, that never mattered. Their latest GOTD, Paragon Backup & Recovery 10 Home Special Edition is a bit different... for one thing it runs if I use the app as Uniextract expands it, but not a copy of the installed folder. For another, the uim image mounting drivers come with a setup file & are stored alongside the app in the program's folder -- I haven't done any testing yet, but running that setup file in LiveXP seems to work fine, with the drivers showing up in Device Mgr same as in XP Pro. I mention it because Paragon apps seem highly regarded here, & hoped better minds than mine might want to check further themselves -- the app includes some virtualization & partitioning BTW.