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[Shirin Zaban]

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Make Portable App Example Step by step in detail (Part 1)
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Hi

After writting an small tutor about making portable application by me (link below).Dear Numo had
special attention to this subject and added Portable Apps page.Thanks for Numo

http://www.boot-land...s/?showforum=73

And now other friends specialy "ispy" have send really good informations about this subject.and
ispy's tutors are really Useful and helpful.thanks ispy

I am going to show you how to make an portable software step by step,hope will be helpful.

Notes:
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There are several kinds of softwares:

1.Some programs are just one "exe" file and have all needs inside itself.this softwares are portable
and we can use them without any changes in our projects,for example Hedit.exe ,Res Hacker.exe ,
Perfect Icon ver.2.10.exe , QuickLock.exe and a lot mor....

2.Some programs put all files needed to run them in a folder inside ...\Program Files directory. this
programs are in one of two categories below:

a.Some of them does not make any changes in registry (or their changes in registry are not imprtant
when running them). for using this programs as portable software,we just need to copy their files
from ..\program files\installed directory ,and keep that some where.and we can put this directory
in our projects or scripts or even can transfer and use them in other computers without installing.
(Examples are ArtIcons Pro 5.17 , Paint Shop Pro 7.02 , VCDCutter 4.04 ,EVEREST Ultimate Edition
3.80.917 Beta , RCrawler 4.5 ,Belltech CaptureXT , and a lot more.....)

b.Some of them Make some changes in registry and for using this programs as portable software,we should
do as above and also we should detect the changes made by them in registry and apply the same changes
to new system before using them. (I will talk about detecting changes and applying that later).

3.Some softwares put files needed to run them , not only in a folder inside ...\Program Files directory
they also place some files in other directoryes of system.the most places that they may put their
needed files can be one or some of directories below:

...\Program Files\Common Files\
...\Windows\
...\Windows\system32\
...\Documents and Settings\

They may make some directories inside above places,and put some files inside them.
They also place a lot of changes in registry and also may delete some intries in reg.
using this kind of programs as portable software ,is a little bit harder and we should do as below:

A_ Detect the changes made in registry,and save them as reg file.
B_ Detect All directories and files made by them,and save that as they are placed.For example if a
program placed his files in:
...\program files\xxx\ and
...\windows\system32\yyy\

for using this program as portable we should make the same directories in new system or our projects
and place needed files inside them, then apply reg file we have made before,then the program will
work without installing.( I will talk about doing this processes in next part).

Note that most of this kind of programs will need serial number to work,so we should detect the
registry changes made by applying serial number and include that in our reg file. for example when
we install "ACDSee3.2" and apply it,s seial number,it makes changes below on registry:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ACD Systems\ACDSee]
@="3.1.1"
"InstallationDate"="DMGBDGJGGHCOLGOL07556096"
"InTouchConfigRemind"="NEIDLGJGGHCOLOMH176977A2"
"LicenseNumber"="403497896733230541"
"SourceID"="001"
"UsageCount"=hex:2F,00,00,00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ACD Systems\FotoAngelo]
"LicenseNumber"="403497896733230541"
"SourceID"="001"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ACD Systems\FotoCanvas]
@=""
"InstallationDate"="DKDLCHJGGHCOLGOL02BF0339"
"LicenseNumber"="403497896733230541"

so if we apply this reg befor installing acdsee3.2,it is registered and will not ask for SN no more.

4. There are some kinds of softwares that act the same as description on #3,but if we want to use them
as we did above , they will not work .this is because of several subjects as:

_They may need some programes (for example .net framework) have been installed befor installing them to work.
_They may have trouble with some programes inside new system (for example the program "InnoCustomize pro 3.0"
works in the way above if systems IE browser is version 6 and not works if it is "internet explorer 7".

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There is alot of notes that can be considered here ,but i am just a basic user and other friends may will
add more notes.
In part two of this tutor i will tell you all process of instaling a software,detectig files and
directories made,finding out regisry changes and making needed reg file ,and also making all our files
just an executing exe by our themes and our icon.

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have nice times

meet you in part 2 of this tutor

shirin zaban