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[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
Releases
  • v. 1.3 beta - note that this release is over a year old and contains very out-of-date software.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

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Questions!

Anyone have any ideas on these issues?

1. Shortcut Keys (for example Ctrl+Shift+F starts Firefox) I can set them up through PStart since the HotKeyz program doesn't work with relative path names and is only favored because it works with Winamp after its started.  Addicitonally, Winamp is rapidly losing status as making new versions portable seems impossible.  However, I'm not sure if:
  • What those shortcuts should be (should probably be one unified sequence like ctrl+alt+shift)
  • What they would activate (Firefox?  OpenOffice?).
2. Exceptions To this point I've had a policy against putting in software that PortableFreeware hasn't approved, with the exception of TightVNC Client and Server.  Unfortunately I'm really getting a lot out of WinSplit Revolution (did a review here) even though it hasn't been accepted by PortableFreeware yet.  Its just so fantastic.  Any thoughts?

3. Recommendations These three programs are coming strongly recommended: Inkscape, Unstoppable Copier, Fastcopy, FreeFileSync .  Anyone think they belong in the archive?

4 comments:

Neo said...

1.Shortcut Keys
I personally hate using shortcut keys especially when the string exceeds more than three keystrokes.
Ex: Ctrl+Alt+Shift+F for Firefox. One can do the same thing in two mouse clicks (One right click to open PStart submenu, navigating to Firefox and then clicking on it).


2.Exceptions
Don't know why PortableFreeware rejected the app. As long as the application does not leave obvious traces (like creating folders in /My documents/) or personally identifiable info on the host PC, it is considered portable in my book. I don't see anything wrong with putting WinSplit Revolution in the archive. Or may be you can group such apps under a separate category like "partially portable"


3.Recommendations
Unstoppable Copier - In
http://lifehacker.com/253437/download-of-the-day-unstoppable-copier-windowslinux

Inkskape - In
Replacement for Adobe Illustrator
http://lifehacker.com/5115354/manipulate-vector-images-with-open-source-inkscape

Fastcopy - Out
The point of using an alternate file copier is to do some kind of a "special" operation. Unstoppable copier can do the same thing. You have to manually enter the source and target directories.
On all other occasions the default windows file copier works for me (most of the time) ;-)

FreeFileSync - In
Dsynchronize is a lot simpler. But then again why not put both and leave the choice to the user.

guinness said...

This is going to be a short comment:
FreeFileSync and Dsynchronize should be both included in the package, for one Dsynchronize is excellent when you have custom ini files for different USB Drives or Specific Folders, it can be run from the CommandLine. With FreeFileSync I use this when I have to Sync only 1 folder that is over 4GB in size, as I know that the comparison it makes based on the file size and date is second to none.

Shortcut Keys
Don't use them, I prefer to use the CommandLine if I want quick access to various programs.

Exceptions
I agree with Vishnu keep it separate. There are some Apps that are Stealth as PortableFreeware would put it, but haven't been added to the database. So it's good to give the user a varied selection.

Folding Home said...

You are such a badass Vishnu. Thank you.

> I personally hate using shortcut keys especially when the string exceeds more than three keystrokes.

Agreed -- I'll try to manage that.

> may be you can group such apps under a separate category like "partially portable"

I may put a warning up front during install or on the instructions page about not-really-portable programs so users can avoid using them.

> Unstoppable Copier - In

Agreed and added but where does it belong? System? Support? Data Recovery? Its a pretty flexible program.

> Inkskape - In

The problem is this program is over 100 megs. That's okay for OpenOffice, which is a must for users trying to approach an MS Word replacement. Inkscape is for a pretty small user set. Its also not exactly easy to use. But I'll follow your suggestion and take another crack at it.

> Unstoppable copier can do the same thing.

Agreed. However, it doesn't have a speed dial like Fastcopy. Still, I'm not sure most users care about a transfer going faster or slower.

> FreeFileSync - In

Unfortuantely, this program was pretty crashy in even basic testing so I think I'm going to avoid it until it mature a bit.

Folding Home said...

> I agree with Vishnu keep it separate.

I've been trying to make the "one archive to rule them all" sort of program because I don't really know how to create separate tools. I guess I'm scared of ending up in WinInzo land where I've got like 14 different versions. Hmmm...

> CommandLine

Really? You use the commandline in Windows? Cool. How?

> FreeFileSync I use this when I have to Sync only 1 folder that is over 4GB in size, as I know that the comparison it makes based on the file size and date is second to none.

Really? Its better than DSync?