[This project has been discontinued due to license compliance issues. Thanks everyone who assisted with your ideas and feedback.]
About
- What is this? - this was a project dedicated to building an up-to-date collection of great, free portable software for easy installation and use.
- What's in it? - list of included freeware
- v. 1.3 beta - note that this release is over a year old and contains very out-of-date software. I haven't worked out how to solve licensing issues. Download
NEWS
Saturday, November 28, 2009
.NET isn't portable
Thursday, October 15, 2009
SlickRun for Kitchen Sink
- Download KitchenSink QRS file
- How to import
- Exclusions: There's a few new programs that aren't in the 1.1.1 version including TeraCopy and NF Reader.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
On hold for job seeking
For now the project is unfortunately on the backburner.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
September update
- License cleanup progress - I'm about 3/5ths way through. As I'm seeking employment at the same time I do this, its slow going.
- Mac/Linux version - considering creating a non-Windows version for use in WINE and Crossover. I think a freeware package for those software tools would be very popular and those projects might even send users to me as a way to get started right away with some free software. Not containing Firefox wouldn't be a problem, since users would probably already have it. Seems like a good idea but easily 6 months away.
- No ads - After a discussion with a friend of the project (thanks Wes) I've decided to disable advertisements for this page. There are a number of licenses included that claim their software cannot be distributed for commercial gain and we decided even advertisements fit that criteria.
Update: After spending a huge chunk of my week on the latest update, I decided to bring back the ads. It was only a few dollars and I decided Google would just make the money if I don't.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Free portable Ashampoo Office software
Thanks to Joby and Ennovoy over at PFW.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
No-Moz
By this rationale, it looks like either my self-updating idea is going to happen or this project is going to hit too big of a snag to continue.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Self-updating program
It will be difficult but if I can pull it off, I can kill several birds with one stone:
- You will be able to download the core Kitchen Sink almost anywhere -- it will be tiny compared to the previous version
- I can get around almost any license issue I've come across so far
- It will self-update and (hopefully) keep all your settings the same each time it does
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Still not dead ...
with a temp job and not having much time, this is moving slowly.
Combined with updating all the increasingly old software, I hope to
have a fresh, license-friendly release sometime mid-September.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Portable GPG
- Easy to use
- Portable
- Cross-platform
- Ideally using Gnu Privacy Guard
This further highlights the importance of having Firefox in the Kitchen Sink: its becoming a platform for so many other great things.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
How to help
High priority / key stuff:
- Help fill out this spreadsheet listing licenses and homepage / source code.
- Discover if we need to remove programs or ask the author for permission if they don't allow for redistribution.
Other help:
- Help develop the wiki over at SourceForge. Just general updates and improvement. Once they've matured I'll remove the Google Docs pages that make up the current documentation. Note: I may need to add you as an editor -- can't seem to fix those permissions to allow just any SourceForge user.
- Send ideas, feature, and program suggestions. It might take a while, but I always read those carefully.
- Contribute ideas and bring power over at PFC Forums -- their work impacts this project more than any other.
Wish list / low priority:
- Everything from the Roadmap page
- Help me put together something to download and auto-install programs (such as windows scripting tool Auto-It). That way, I can just allow users to get programs that prohibit redistribution from legit sources.
- Develop a Secure Add-On Collection to share Kitchen Sink's Firefox security settings with everyone.
(I apologize to Guiness who left some comments and are no longer there. Please re-post if you can.)
Monday, August 17, 2009
Portable software gets a boost
Monday, August 10, 2009
Kitchen Sink graphics
Friday, August 7, 2009
MediaWiki conversion issues
I've tried 7 different converters for MS Word, OpenOffice, and others and having absolutely no luck.
This is why self-contained software is so important. They are so very lacking in BS: stupid file dependencies (you need Java! Oop wait that doesn't work either!), version numbers (wrong version of Word!), and out of date software.
Update: I directly installed OpenOffice with Java. It has an export-to-MediaWiki by default. That did the trick.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Move to MediaWiki and apology
This was partly spurred by problems giving people interested in helping out something to do and also because I found an HTML to Wiki conversion tool. Although I was annoyed that you have to be logged on to edit the sourceforge wiki, I suppose that will avoid problems with spam.
Also, I would also like to apologize for the recent political link posted here: its presence was purely by accident and this is not a forum for my views. I am very interested in the Kitchen Sink transcending that sort of thing.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Project Delay
Its also important for me to put out the best quality Kitchen Sink I can with all programs as up to date as possible, so it seems unlikely I'll finish by Sunday. More as things progress.
Update: I timed myself today and found that I completed about 10 entries every hour. Tracking down licenses is just hard sometimes.
With about 120 licenses still undiscovered, that's a lot of work ahead.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
The process and how to help
- Update a list spreadsheet of included software that now has a list of licenses and the respective web site where source code can be reasonably found (e.g. Audacity would be "Audacity , GPL , http://audacity.sf.net").
- Put the spreadsheet in the collection so there's a local copy on everyone's computer.
- Put links to information on the BSD, MPL, FDL, LGPL, GPL v2 and v3 licenses inside the README.TXT file just in case I accidentally delete the individual notice included in the software.
If you'd like to help out in this process, I can send you an invite to edit the document directly through Google Docs, or you can just download the spreadsheet, fill in the values, and email them to me. Its boring data entry, but there's no way around it.
I'm disappointed that this process is going to find a lot of programs that -- like Firefox -- are not redistributable. Not much of a "Kitchen Sink" at that point.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
One Mozilla trademark solution
Its unlikely I'll take the same track and spend a lot of time dealing with sourcecode. Instead I'll focus on encourage users at install to download and install Firefox and Thunderbird themselves with an optional pre-packaged and frequently-updated XPI file to put in the plug-ins for recommended security. (Similar to these collections of plugins.)
Saturday, August 1, 2009
License-friendly release due August 9th
Although I'm disappointed to be doing this without having cleared things up, its is important to continue development and improvement independent of legal questions. People not having the software because I have an emotional attachment to having all my programs how I want them is absurd.
That said, I'm not sad to be throwing out Winamp, which was on its way out anyhow. Foobar2000 is proving to be the replacement I've been looking for all these years.
On a side note, I'm deeply disappointed that Firefox is not as freely distributable as other GPL programs, which you are free to modify and distribute so long as you include the source code. Still, I understand Mozilla has a huge organization to protect and the good here obviously outweighs the bad by a substantial margin. Still, I find myself hearing RMS's words echo in my head about the four freedoms.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Firefox home page issue
One down.
Cleaning up license issues
Mozilla
I can't seem to figure out how to contact the organization about its licensing scheme. The web site info page is unclear at best and they don't have any contact information for additional questions on that topic. Its as if to say "lawyers only". Not very community oriented. I'm worried that if I can't get this cleared up that nobody will want the Kitchen Sink without Firefox.
The owner of PortableApps.com got special permission to redistribute Firefox but hasn't gotten back to me on who he talked to. Admittedly, its not his problem.
GPL
In the process of all this, I realized its possible that I may have deleted a GPL notice somewhere along the line, which is not surprisingly expressly against the GPL. So now I've got to go back and dig through all my programs that are GPL'd and verify that they have some kind of notice. I have a cleanup process with all the included software to remove useless information that sometimes catches good files.
One option is to reinstall EVERY program and at least attempt to read the included license and anything I don't understand or can't decipher will probably have to be thrown out. This could take weeks.
Other Programs
This is looking like an unending process: someone is always about to email me about one of the over 200 different programs asking me to take out or add some component. My collection is 400 megs -- who wants to download the latest version that's fully compliant when only like 4 kilobytes of data on one of the licenses are different? I don't have a CVS server to post nightly uploads and my users consistently ask for me NOT to distribute things via the web, but through Torrents.
Summary
A lot of unexpected problems but I'll try to get them cleared up. Lupo contacted me and invited me to work on his project (which is growing in appeal) but I still think Kitchen Sink has something unique and important to provide to the community.
I've taken down my donation page, since I'm not really distributing anything anymore.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Kitchen Sink currently offline
Unfortunately Kitchen Sink will need to be offline until I can get that ironed out. Here's why:
- I'm doing this for the love as I'm not getting paid. I've got some revenue sources (adwords and donations), but I have yet to make a dime off either one.
- I'm unemployed and don't make near enough money to hire a lawyer to help me make sure I'm totally in compliance with 200 different licenses.
- I'm a big fan of the GPL and violating the license even implicitly is not something I'm comfortable with.
"What is a portable sink?"
If you're not American or English isn't your first language, I realize that doesn't really translate. Its short for the euphemism "everything but the kitchen sink," which is to say as much as possible. The idea is that if you take everything with you, you're prepared for anything. This is sort of like the phrase "when pigs fly": an example in Spanish that means basically the same thing would be "cuando la rana crece el pelo" which means "when frogs have hair"; it doesn't make any sense to people not familiar with the saying but is equivalent.
The idea for Kitchen Sink is that I put as much in this archive as possible. Other portable collections only put in open source software (PortableApps.com), only very small tools (Tiny USB Office), or only tools that will tie into their internal system (Lupo). I put in EVERYTHING I can but avoid:
- Duplicate programs
- Anything buggy or overly obscure
- Games
Monday, July 27, 2009
Other Kitchen Sink security tips
Following my recent encryption post:
Prevent Viruses
- Virus check your files frequently using ClamAV. Keep in mind the false positives that usually come up.
- Discard any changes made to your flash drive using the "Mirror" function in Toucan. Make sure the "source" is the trusted location and "destination" is the USB drive
- Enable write-protect on your USB drive. Not all drives do this but if you use SD cards, there's a tiny slider on the side of the card. Many programs on Kitchen Sink require that they have read access, so for those programs just copy the files locally.
Prevent theft / data loss
- Keep your USB drive on you at all times. Being attached to a key chain, lanyard, or built into some other device you use frequently like a watch. Extremely small drives can fit in your wallet.
- Choose an inconspicuous flash drive such as a frayed USB cable or lipstick. This idea made famous by the coffee container in the less-than-great Al Pacino movie The Recruit.
- Back up your files daily using included Toucan (simple) or DSyncronize (advanced). DSyncronize will even do "realtime," or continuous, backups.
- Wipe sensitive files with CyberShredder or Eraser.
- Clean up leftover cache files using CCleaner before you close Kitchen Sink might help prevent any recovery of personal data.
- Take notes securely using only Crypditor. Be sure to save frequently as this program doesn't have an autosave function.
Paranoid
- Use multiple security tools together. For example: Firefox Secure with Tor for anonymity, PeerGuaridan with HTML blocking turned on as a mild firewall, and AAST to prevent shoulder surfing.
- Only use public terminals to be more anonymous, although this is not more secure overall.
- Track down and kill individual data files - See development for the "Cleanup - Privacy" ( Section II.C. ) for files that can be removed to improve privacy. (I plan to create a batch file to do this.)
Encrypting Kitchen Sink (part 2)
Additionally, I'm going to start testing FreeOTFE, as it doesn't require admin rights, unlike my TrueCrypt Howto.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Kitchen Sink 1.1.1 - Maintenance Release
Fixed a problem with the self-extracting installer and a bug with the Pstart menu. Also updated CPU-Z and USBDeview.
Download:
MD5: C2A41574D1AFDFC58EAF4BAE4425A911
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Serious bug
I think I know what went wrong in the compression process and I know how to fix it. Big thanks from me and Kitchen Sink's users to Guinness for catching the Pstart issue, the Self-Extract bug, and a lot of other work over time.
Monday, July 20, 2009
International status
- Over 1,200 people have downloaded the program in the last 8 hours.
- 121 people are "seeding," or helping distribute this software.
- Most impressive to me is that people all over the world now are using this software.
All told this has been a great weekend for me and portable freeware. I'm ecstatic.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Kitchen Sink 1.1 Release
- User interface cleanup (better icons, more intelligent folders)
- Fixed a number of problems in the 1.0 version with missing, out-of-date, and broken files.
- Updated, added, and removed ~40 programs.
- Dramatic CAFE update: A configuration to allow opening over 700 file types, enable only the "power" editors (OpenOffice and GIMP), or open any compressed file (including EXE / MSI files).
- Shortcuts/Hotkeys added
Download (445 megs, 1.22 gigs uncompressed):
Feedback is welcome!
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Look and feel update
Version 1.1 will be posted sometime tomorrow. Although there are over a hundred changes, one of them is the icon set:
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
More language edits and SourceForge
I'm on track to a 1.1 release this weekend with some more language files cleanup notes:
- Non-english files from OpenOfficePortable\App\openoffice\Basis\share\template\wizard\letter (save about 5 megs)
- PidginPortable\App\Pidgin\locale - non "en"
- PidginPortable\App\GTK\share\locale - non "en"
- Bonkenc\manual - delete everything except for images, style, gfdl, en, index_en.html, and index
- MP3tag\lang\ and mp3tag\lang\icons
- Going to leave VLC\locale alone as well because I'm worried this might be DVD encoding locales
- Also, leaving the languages set alone in Money Manager Ex just because of the possibility of dealing in international currency
Friday, July 10, 2009
Shortcut keys
Windows key + Alt + _
Pstart menu (these are defaults with the program itself - I didn't set these)
m = menu (the smaller, simpler one)
p = panel (more options, tabs at the top)
System applications
q = Close all kitchen sink programs and eject all usb drives
o = Start cafe - open any file config
s = SearchMyFiles
e = Everything search
x = Poweroff system power scheduler
Internet applications
1= Firefox
2= Firefox Secure
3= Iron Browser (cleaned up Google Chrome)
4= Thunderbird - Mail
5= Pidgin - Chat
6= Feedreader - RSS
7= Filezilla - FTP
8= Screamer - web radio
9= Weathermate
0= uTorrent
Note that if you use a Mac keyboard, the "Windows" key is the "Command" key.
Sound good?
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Firefox Error
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Questions!
- What those shortcuts should be (should probably be one unified sequence like ctrl+alt+shift)
- What they would activate (Firefox? OpenOffice?).
3. Recommendations These three programs are coming strongly recommended: Inkscape, Unstoppable Copier, Fastcopy, FreeFileSync . Anyone think they belong in the archive?
Thursday, July 2, 2009
1.0 Release issues
Look and Feel:
- Icons for "View Browser History" and "Web Editing" are the same.
- Decided I needed an icon refresh and get away from the cartoonish look.
- Added a background image for the freeware menu: eiffel tower by xAnotherPrettyFacex ... waiting on her permission to actually use this photo.
- Firefox 3.5 came out JUST after my release. This alone might be reason enough to update.
- Several programs (I didn't realize this) are out of date: Audiobook cutter, Bonkenc, Wavosaur, Mediainfo, GPU-z, ShowMyPC, as well as TED Notepad (which JUST came out), and TaskCoach, filezilla, and Xinorbis.
- Had some annoyances/problems on another machine with InfraRecorder, Money Manager Ex, and Tor. Going to try reinstalling.
- Need to clean up Winamp playlist menu - looks very unprofessional
- Hidden XP Utilities doesn't really belong in Support subfolder -- its not really a support program.
- Somehow I neglected to actually add PhotoRec and TestDisk to the menu. Sigh.
- Need to try and cleanup Audacity and Feedreader's language files.
- Noted in the menu that System Information Viewer is a "Dashboard"-style program
- Universal Extractor will open Stuffit files (which supports these formats). Need to add those to CAFE.
- Move Toucan from USB tools to "backup" because its definitely NOT exclusive to USB devices.
- Threw out FLACDrop since BoncEnc had a much newer FLAC encoder (1.1.3 compared to 1.2.1). Oggdrop is the same, LameDrop I can't tell if its up to date or not so I'll just leave it.
- Hash does what WinMD5Sum does -- I like the simplicity of the program but decided this was duplicate functionality. WinMD5Sum removed.
- Problems with DrvBackup -- going to switch to DriverBackup 1.3, which has better reviews and is GPL'd.
- Ant Movie Catalog. Their great "finder" feature that takes a little information and fills in the rest from the internet doesn't seem to work anymore. Very disappointing ... removed from the archive.
- Removed TCExplorer. Doesn't work with the current version of TrueCrypt.
- PlannerPortable was in the install but not actually on the menu. I was evaluating this program and decided to take this out but apparently didn't delete the home folder.
- CurrPorts has a plugin update that comes highly recommended. Going to test that out and put in the archive.
- Still don't know how to update Winamp
- AAST and Texter - giving a "update" notice but the sites don't have updates. Working on this.
- Pstart folder double-click problem (opens every file underneath)
- WeatherMate DLL file Not working in win2k - msvcp60.dll
As Vishnu says in the comments below, I missed 3 programs that should have been in the Pstart menu:
- JavaRa
- Opened Files view
- Mp3Direct cut
Monday, June 29, 2009
Try these also
Assigned drive letters problem
Your system is auto-assigning drive letters for your USB drive that are causing problems. For example with a file synchronization program that keeps expecting to see the drive on letter "E" but your computer keeps changing it.
Solution:
Control which letter goes to which drive with this program (non-portable). I haven't tested it but it comes strongly recommended.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Running in Crossover for Mac
Especially pleased with the performance of the 7-zip compression software with this setup.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Windows 2000 problems
Programs that won't start:
- WeatherMate -- DLL file missing - msvcp60.dll.
- Iron Browser
- DrvBackup
- Foobar2000 - I checked this out and there are no plans by their team to fix this
- Shellfish Anti-Keylogger Keyboard starts but doesn't work.
- Firefox Secure icon breaks but otherwise still functional.
- Winxmove - appears to open multiple copies ... repeatedly.
- Tor - won't start but may have had a conflict with my firewall, not Windows 2000.
- Hard Disk Indicator for some reason creates an all-gray background for the desktop. Very distracting.
- xp-Antispy and Config for XP - don't work for for obvious reasons.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Release: 1.0
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Lupo PenSuite vs. Kitchen
Bad about Kitchen / good about theirs
- Software that self-checks for the latest versions
- Installer that self-checks for problems and is smooth and clean
- A much more friendly rewrite of CAFE. Very pretty.
- "Photos", "documents", and other folders that all the programs automatically default to
- My menu is increasingly cluttered as I keep adding stuff
- Not very skinnable - theirs has great skins built right in
- I need a changelog.txt and license.txt -- maybe all under "readme"
- Their "starter" software rules -- it has a services pane that's fantastically detailed. Fortunately I can add this to future editions.
- ASuite - their version of Pstart -- is GPL'd and makes my menu system look cluttered.
- Smaller, lighter, leaner, and smoother.
- Has FAR fewer programs than Kitchen and much limited functionality
- My Pstart setup is much cleaner and more responsive than these menus - the fade in look of the menu felt clunky
- I don't put links in my software to online resources, which are useless if you're stuck without a net connection
- Their version of CAFE only has 35 file associations
- Mine has a more consistent look and feel-- the skins probably cause problems in documentation
- Folder Size is not as good as Folder Sizer (Kitchen Sink's version is WAY better)
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Reviews
Some of the best criticism for my project came from this five star review of a similar project, winPenPack:
- Multiple licenses, some of them only for personal use, meaning giving it to your employees isn't quite legal. Worse than PenPack, I haven't spelled out which programs have which licenses.
- Apps for almost every need but varying quality and usefulness.
- Not much of a way to customize beyond deleting the directory and PStart icon. Not difficult but by no means smooth.
- Only a few of these programs are daily use -- the others are "niche" or "occasional"
- There's some "fat" and repetition of uses on my program too and this stung to read: "there is no need for 3 calendar programs". I would contend that there is but the reviewer has a point.
PeaZip and SearchMyFiles
- After finding out that PeaZip could open many more compression formats than 7Zip, I added that program as well. Using CAFE, can now open 640 file formats just by double-clicking.
- Also just added SearchMyFiles, an advanced, non-indexing search program.
Other notes:
- After losing some data recently and getting really furious about it, I took another look at the Kitchen Sink and its autosave features. I updated TED notepad since the latest version now has an autosave feature. I also enabled autosave in PNotes, Task Coach, Notepad++, and Abiword. Finally, because it doesn't have any autosave capability, I removed QJot entirely and replaced its functions in CAFE with Abiword.
- Tested out ReactOS for VMware with poor results. Not going to bother with it in the future.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Other updates
- Added around 50 more filetypes to CAFE from all across the Kitchen Sink. Can now open 536 different file extensions!
- The "shred" trick has been present in the software since the February '09 release, but I've expanded it. Renaming a file with the ending ".xxxx", ".xxx", or ".wipe" makes it auto open with cybershredder and self-wipe just by double-clicking. Here's the CAFE entries to make that happen:
xxxx=..\cshred\Cybershredder.exe
wipe=..\cshred\CyberShredder.exe
- Finally got the autorun tool to run correctly. This is the autorun script that actually works that will go out in the next release:
OPEN=StartKitchenSink.exe
ACTION = Kitchen Sink Freeware Collection
ICON=StartKitchenSink.exe
LABEL=Kitchen Sink Freeware Collection
- Found out Keepass has an excellent password generator. Currently evaluating whether this should replace the present software "Strong Password Generator".
Next step: put everything in a /data/ subdirectory except for a few necessary files. Lots of work ahead.
Changes to Firefox - Secure
- Set the homepage to Scroogle (https://ssl.scroogle.org/) ... not as pretty, but much more secure.
- Added firefox plugins:
- Locationbar2 - really simple anti-phishing trick
- BetterPrivacy - an advanced cookie cleaner
- Panic Button - quickly minimize firefox to help prevent shoulder-surfing. Set the icon to something that looks like a minimize button, which seemed to make more sense.
- For simplicity, I put up the "temporarily allow this page" button up for the NoScript plugin. This allows users to -- if they decide they trust a page -- to allow the website to fully render.
- Just for consistency put the Adblock Plus (for disabling ads) and TorButton (for anonymous browsing) in the top bar as well.
Monday, June 8, 2009
CAFE customizations
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Pstart questions
2. Icons not portable - I'm creating my own Pstart menu for my own collection and trying to use the different icon for each folder idea you use. Unfortunately, its not showing up right on other people's computers. (paraphrasing Russ)
B. If I were you I would pull up the Pstart menu XML file and look at the code directly.
It should say something like:
<icon>web.ico</icon>
I would keep all the alternative icons in the same directory as Pstart. No reason really, just how I do it and it works for me.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Software list cleanup and additions
Hopefully a year from now it will be a really stellar project.
Other freeware collections
Free:
Non-free:
- PC Helper Utilities - (only on softpedia)
Monday, June 1, 2009
FastStone Image Viewer
- Prefer its image editing tools to shrink stuff for email as well as other effects.
- Keyboard shortcut settings are far better
- The right-click zoom in is SO convenient
Other config changes to adapt the software to my preferences:
- Was able to turn off the green text description up at the top so I turned that off. "Settings - Viewer - Show filename in Full Screen - Text"
- Setup MS Paint as an editor. This will probably only work for Windows XP and 2000 as the location for that software likely changes on other Windows versions.
- Also turned on "Smooth" in the same area to "before shown" just because it looks a lot cleaner.
- Increased default Thumbnail size.
- Here are the CAFE settings to switch over to FSV.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Flight delays due to lack of fuel
In the meantime, I'll be focusing on my portablefreewarereviews site, which will hopefully help me find new and better software to throw in.
Update: Of course right after I write this, both sites put out updates. Sigh.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Portable platform is here
Great job, PortableApps.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Software addition: Testdisk
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Recent Kitchen Sink support experiences
- Revo Uninstaller - the real star of the Support tools category, this program did an amazing job of pulling several notoriously hard to remove AOL programs off a very old computer. I love this program.
- StartUpLite - probably the best program in the Portable Freeware archive simply because of the memory and processor cycles saved over time. For me, its just nice to have clear explanations behind a program that wants to remove auto-starting programs. Has saved me huge time and effort researching weird programs I find on user machines. I hope the authors keep up this excellent program. A less descriptive but still cool program is of course Startup Control Panel.
- MV Registry Clean - Extensive testing of this program over time has just caused problems so I'm actively looking for another registry cleaner program that's not so destructive. EasyCleaner has a regcleaner tool, as does CCleaner although I haven't tested them as thoroughly. CCleaner has a fantastic reputation so that's probably going to be my #2.
Monday, April 27, 2009
On hold?
Whatever happens, the next release on the 3-month schedule is the end of May, '09.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Windows 2000 testing
Still need a Windows XP 64 bit and Vista tester but until I get a lot of requests from 64-bit users, its whatever.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Legal stuff
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Freeware Reviews
This wasn't integrated into this site because the purpose of this site is just to let people know what's happening with the development of my archive. Quite a few more people are interested in portable freeware generally than are interested in my huge archive of it.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
March 30, '09 updates
- Added Core Temp
- Added Kitty instead of PuTTy
- Added Artweaver, which I decided I really like
- Added a CD recovery program and created a Data Recovery subfolder
- Moved ZipRepair, which for some reason was under the Sysinfo/Testing folder
XnView shortcuts
- First File - Home
- Last File - End
- Next File - PageDown
- Next Page - Shift+PageDown
- Previous File - PageUp
- Previous Page - Shift+PageUp
- Zoom in (make larger) - + (plus)
- Zoom out (make smaller) - "-" (minus)
- Zoom to original size * (asterisk)
- Zoom lock (for next image) - Ctrl+/
- Fit image to window, all - / (slash)
- Fit image to window width -Numpad 1
- Fit window to image - Ctrl+T
- Fit image to window height - Numpad 3
Monday, March 30, 2009
Portablefreeware contribution
The process continues.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Torrent now available
If you already have a copy, please seed!
Thursday, March 26, 2009
QJot fix
- Go into the "qjot" directory inside the Kitchen Sink archive
- Edit QJot.ini using any text editor (including one of several in the archive)
- Change "FontSize=8" to "FontSize=10". If you have a high monitor resolution, you may want to increase this to 12 or even 14.
- For a more text editor look, you can change "FontName=Arial" to "FontName=Courier New"
Note that I set up CAFE to open "docpad" files using this program. So if you name a file with a ".docpad" ending, it will automatically come up in QJot. Other files, for compatibility, come up in OpenOffice.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Latest version is out!
Notes:
This is a maintenance release over the previous version. The reason its so much smaller is that OpenOffice has cut down on the space their most recent release takes up and I replaced GNUCash, which takes up 100 megs, with something much smaller. I had no idea until I compressed the archive overnight.
Please give me feedback and enjoy!
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Delays, delays
- OpenOffice works fully.
- The autorun feature either doesn't work or doesn't work under VMware.
- The compressed archive takes up HALF the space of the previous one. Since they both used similar compression levels, I'm looking into if something got deleted. This is going to take time to iron out.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Programs added, subtracted, and updated
- Everything is a terrific search tool that I added almost immediately to the archive. Anything faster than LookDisk is very welcome. More info on this program soon, as well as some customizations I figured out.
- Threw out the MLA generator. Programs like Zotero have killed any need for this.
- Replaced GNUCash with Money Manager Ex. Both programs are fully GPL'd and Money Manager is a little cleaner. I'm still not sure which I prefer but I decided space and fewer files was an advantage so I swapped.
- DeepBurner - didn't seem to work as well as other programs and certainly less updated.
- 7-zip
- SMPlayer
- xpass
- Bonkenc (NOT the portableapps.com version)
- Toucan
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Get e-mail release notices
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Release delay: waiting for torrent
So I've found someone to seed the torrent file so that will happen this weekend. Looking forward to getting the maintenance release posted. Its contents:
- Brought up to speed with current stuff on portablefreeware.com
- Fixed (I think) startkitchensink.exe path problem (thanks to m^(2)) as well as extras.exe so that Hotkeyz starts up minimized.
- Fixed the autorun.inf file
- Some minor internal issues, a few more language files deleted.
- Minor cafe.ini file fixes
- Figured out new Hotkeyz version out, even before PFW so I included that.
- Filezilla extras files cleanup
- Reinstalled Abiword, which was acting oddly, as well as PeerGuardian
- Pulled out PortBlocker -- my initial tests on it were very positive but I just don't think anyone will use it. Its also not very portable and very old.
Monday, March 2, 2009
OpenOffice issue resolved -- updated version March 7th
I still don't know what's wrong but I know how to fix it. Further testing will have to be done but unfortunately I'm doing this all at the same time that I'm trying to find a job so things aren't moving quickly. A full update should be posted soon and will be downloadable in 10 mb chunks. I can't find anyone to host the torrent.
If you can, please message me.
Also, m^(2) has come through big time with a whole bunch of great suggestions. This project belongs to him as well.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
OpenOffice issue
Update: I tested a fresh download of the latest OpenOffice and got a similar result. Looking into if this is a bug in my computer or a bug within the program.
CAFE issue
- Download this file: cafe.zip
- Unzip and replace this file: /cafe-manage_associations/cafe.ini
Monday, February 23, 2009
February release information
- 50+ program updates
- Added and removed some programs, repaired others whose install was wonky
- Fixed autorun.inf and exe icons.
- CAFE -- added support for 100s of file formats -- Kitchen Sink is now a glorified file-opener.
- Extras.exe will start both CAFE and HotKeyz to increase system integration.
- Much better web page support (mostly through Google Docs cuz its so easy to update and I can give others write access if I need to)
Friday, February 20, 2009
Release: 0.9.8.6
kitchensink-0.9.8.6.7zI should have solved the problem of people needing to download the DLLs (1) and (2) but users may still want them as they run a bit faster when they're on the local system.
I will make a torrent available if people ask for it. For right now I just want to get some initial feedback.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Updates: program start and blog
As for the portable archive, I generated some BAT files that I then converted into EXE format.
Contents of batch file (thanks to m^(2))
@start "" "%~dp0pstart210\pstart.exe"CoSince some users won't want the system shortcuts or CAFE program, I put those in a separate EXE file called Extras. Here are its contents:
@set path=%~dp0dll;%path%
@start "" "%~dp0cafe-manage_associations\cafe.exe"Unfortunately the created file comes up as a virus on ClamAV (but no other antivirus program). Sigh.
@start "" "%~dp0HotKeyz\HotKeyz.exe"
Where did these icons come from?
Attribution time -- all the icons I use are by some extremely talented people.
- The totally badass "official" icon as well as for "Network" tools
- A few icons also by this guy.
- Most of the Pstart menu is populated by these.
- Icon I use for Firefox - Secure version
CAFE config files for XnView
CAFE is an associations manager, which is a funny way of saying that when you double-click a file it opens a program to use that file. For example, Microsoft Word opening .DOC files. But lets say you don't like Microsoft Word and want DOC files to open with your editor -- but not perminantly.
CAFE uses a config file (cafe.ini) to manage itself. Well, I set up my previous version of Kitchen Sink with this config file but the latest version doesn't really use Irfanview, which I decided I don't like as my primary viewer.
However, for those of you that *really* like XnView, here's a config file to make CAFE open up everything that XnView can view with XnView.
Maybe someone will find a use for that.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Ready or not
Some missing pieces of note:
- Update the core software - create an autorun file, update the startkitchensink.exe, fix the doc icon)
- Official web site - Setup an official web site separate from Google Docs (might end up being this site -- not sure)
- Make software operate WITH the operating system, not as an accessory. Customized user interface settings for automatic virus-checking, system-wide hot-keys, and file associations manager.
- Improved WINE and virtualizations (like VirtualBox) testing
- Marketing - try to tell more people about it, get community assistance
Saturday, February 7, 2009
More virus false-positive problems
I'm also trying to find a way to make the archive self-update. Toucan has some options for this but I don't know how to personalize it to Kitchen Sink.
Lots to do before 1.0 comes out.
Additionally, Xmedia Recode is no replacement for MediaCoder. Bleh.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Blog and Program Updates
Updates:
- MediaCoder has been cut. Very sad to have finally removed it after a long list of annoying problems. I've tested it at length and love it but I just can't seem to make it work. I replaced the program with Xmedia Recode. If it works even half as well, I'm happy.
- Notepad++ is performing even better than PSPad so ... definitely going to add it to my next release. A user over on PortableFreeware told me to try it out and I'm glad I did.
- Office programs have gotten too big has been cut into two parts.
- PortableTor has been added and "TorButton" extension for Firefox Secure. I've just found too many uses for semi-anonymous, encrypted browsing lately.
- One of my favorite programs, PhotoScape, has been updated. Really happy about that.
- About 15 various program updates both from portablefreeware.com and portableapps.com that have been integrated. I also cleaned up the CamStudio install, which was very messy and turns out wasn't working.
- Minor tweaking of the Pstart menu -- organization, cleanup, etc.
- Been running almost all files under a compressed NTFS folder. Pleased to say its working fine and saves around 30 megs of space.
- Programs that are showing up as viruses. I still haven't deleted them and still don't know what to do about them.
- Pstart XML file seems to periodically get corrupted. Not sure what that's about and hoping users don't have this issue.