home Communications Creating portable with the pickup of settings. How to Create Portable Windows Programs with Cameyo

Creating portable with the pickup of settings. How to Create Portable Windows Programs with Cameyo

In this note, I will make a brief overview of programs designed for .

I will write a more detailed video on working in one of the applications listed here.

So, as in most cases, there are both paid and free versions of such programs. I will talk about five programs that allow you to create portable applications.

And I'll start, perhaps, with the most powerful and functional program in this class.

VMware ThinApp

This program was developed specifically for IT professionals, so it has a very powerful toolkit. Initially, it is designed to separate the programs and applications installed on the computer from the operating system so that you can transfer programs from one computer to another without installing them. And as you understand, this is what we need, since in fact we get programs that are independent of the operating system, that is, portable.

But this program has a significant disadvantage - it is paid, although you can’t just buy it just like that, since it is not sold separately, but is included in a software package intended primarily for companies.

In any case, the program can be used for two months free of charge, since that is how long (60 days) its trial period lasts. You can download the program from the official website - http://www.vmware.com

Enigma Virtual Box

The undoubted advantage of the Enigma Virtual Box program is its freeness and the presence of the Russian language. Its rather simple and ascetic interface can also be called a plus, but ... this program works a little differently than other applications. It does not scan the system before and after installing the program to determine which program files are needed for its operation. These links must be added by the user himself. That is, the user needs to specify the application's executable file, and then add additional files or folders that the application uses to a special list. Not everyone will be able to figure out this issue on their own, which means that the program will be more useful for experienced users than for beginners.

Evalaze

And the final program in this short review is Evalaze.

The program has two versions - full for money, and cut down "for free".

A heavily stripped-down, but free version is quite suitable for creating stand-alone, that is, portable programs. It works, that is, it scans the state of the system before and after installing and running the program of interest to us. All in all, a worthwhile app.

Well, in conclusion, I want to cite two sites where you can find hundreds of already created portable versions of well-known programs and applications:

PortableApps.com is one of the most popular portable application libraries;

WinPenPack.com - the site provides a lot of portable applications and it is possible to switch the site language to Russian.

THERE ARE TWO WAYS:

1 .Easiest - using an archiver WinRAR.

2 .With the help of the program Thrinstall Virtualization Suite.

Who cares

Creating a portable in WinRAR.

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How to make Portable (portable) program.

This is perhaps the easiest way to make a portable version of a program from a regular application that will run from a flash drive or other removable media, does not require any rights in the system and does not make changes to the system registry. A lot of portable software was created using Thinstall Virtualization. To begin with, a “clean” system is taken into which the Thinstall Virtualization Suite application virtualization program is installed. You can download the Russified version here:
Deposit
Flybeat
Rapida
direct link
Archive size 4.8MB
And so, we downloaded it and installed it on a “clean” system. Now we launch the Thinstall Virtualization program, select which drive to scan (usually C) and wait for the system program to finish scanning. Thinstall Virtualization takes a snapshot of the system before installing the application that we will port.
After that, we install the program, the portable version of which we want to receive.
Without launching the installed program in Thinstall Virtualization, we press the "Next" button, and we scan the system a second time, and we see this window. We get a "snapshot" of the system after installing the portable program.
Again, click "Next", the program exits and closes. After that, we go along the path - My computer / C drive / Program Files / VMware North Star / Captures / Find the folder with the installed program, click on the build.bat file in it
We have another folder called bin, go into it and see our application already in Portable version.
It is worth noting that not all programs can be ported in this way, for example, antiviruses will not work. From experience I can say that out of 10 programs, 7-8 are quite efficient.
So try it. Good luck!

P.S Where can I get a “clean” system. The free VirtualBox program can help you with this. A program for simultaneously running several virtual operating systems on a computer. VIRTUALBOX allows you to install and run several operating systems on one computer, including 64-bit ones. Here is one of such guest systems and can be used as a "clean" only for the manufacture of portable programs.
You can download it from the virtualbox.org program website or from the link below.
Direct link VIRTUALBOX

Who doesn't you can close immediately.

Headings:

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INSTRUCTIONS (in English, but everything is clear ...)

Porting the application using VMWare ThinApp

Many Windows applications can be made portable using VMware ThinApp with the following exceptions:

Applications that require device drivers to be installed are not supported. The application will work if the required drivers are pre-installed on the system;

Applications with hardware copy protection are not supported. ThinApp only emulates some hardware properties (for example, device serial numbers; emulation of ethernet MAC address, CPUID, and other properties is not supported).

For porting, we need 3 things:

1. VMWare ThinApp itself (there is a paid and free version)

2. What we will dissect

3. A computer on which the program from step 2 was not installed

In general, the manual recommends that all operations for porting certain programs be done on a "bare" virtual machine, so that after the process is completed, you can roll back the virtual machine to a snapshot made in advance, thereby obtaining again a clean, not crap, axis.

As a test subject, I chose the smart and free Auslogics Disk Defrag. Consider it an advertisement or not - your right, I am pleased with its speed of work, compared with the standard Windows. (In general, earlier Auslogics posted 2 versions of the defrager, already ported and with an installer, something to be installed)

And so, let's start the process. The whole process can be divided into several stages.

1. Launch ThinApp and initial system scan. At the same time, it is recommended to turn off antiviruses so that there is no garbage access to the disk by third-party programs. More on that below.

2. Installing the target program and setting it up (setting up for maximum clarification of the system paths used).

3. Rescan the system for changes after step 2

4. Small adjustment of the project before the final build

5. Building the application.

As you can see, there is nothing tricky. Well, before starting, it is worth dwelling on point 1 and point 2 in more detail.

Point 2 - Why configure the program if it can be done later? The fact is that when setting up programs, they are very fond of saving their data to the most hidden corners of the operating system, of which the latter has enough. So, not all programmers make it so that during installation all the necessary paths for their offspring are created. Accordingly, when you make a ported program, initially, which is destined to work only after being installed in the system, it may not create all the paths it needs for subsequent work. Naturally, VMWare also does not have telepathy and cannot predict everything in the world. In short, at the output we get a program that seems to be ported in all respects, but with missing paths. There are at least a couple of ways to develop the situation. Firstly, all the settings are saved in standard ways on the computer where the initial setup of our program takes place, secondly, a mountain of errors begins to pour in and everything turns into a buggy hell. So it goes.

Accordingly, we select that hard drive / flash drive / floppy disk / punched card, or where do you put the experimental person there? The registry keys that are located under the media selection window, select everything at once - it will not be worse.

Click OK and boldly press on Prescan.

Today you will learn how to make portable programs yourself, easily and quickly. To help us in this matter will be a free thing called Cameyo.

Portable programs with a couple of clicks

First, I will very briefly remind you what kind of portable programs these are ( already described in detail). These are special versions of regular programs, only "packed" into one file. They do not need to be installed into the operating system, they do not leave "traces" in it after their work, and they can be freely moved from disk to disk or carried with you on a USB flash drive.

Recently, I prefer to place such programs in a fast ramdisk(in the RAM of the computer), where they work as quickly as possible (my system ssd-disk, at this time, nervously smokes on the sidelines, envious).

Cameyo copes with the creation of portable versions of programs in 95% of cases - the remaining 5%, for various reasons, cannot be "trained".

For example, let's make a portable version of the famous CCleaner cleaner - for me personally, it will be very useful for saving the computers of relatives and friends from "digital garbage" ("throw" it on a USB flash drive and will carry it with me to technical assistance sessions).

How to make a portable program in Cameyo

So, first you need to prepare (download) the installer of the program that we will turn into a portable one.

In our case, this is CCleaner ...

... select the middle item in the list, click "OK" and wait for a while while the program takes a snapshot of the system before installing the experimental software into it ...

After the appearance of such a window in the system tray area (near the watch) ...

…do not poke anything in it , but just start (and carry out to the end) the usual installation of CCleaner in the Windows operating system. A flashing red ball thickly hints that all changes made to the system directories and its registry are being tracked.

Important! Apply tricky patches, russifiers, change settings, put dots and checkmarks ... you need to immediately after installing the program and only after that proceed to the final stage of creating a portable version.

We press the “Install done” button in the Cameyo window and after a couple of minutes ...

... we receive a notification with the address of the location of the finished newly-made portable program ...

Let's move on to where the Cameyo program sent us ...

…And move (cut) folder with a portable version of the cleaner on a USB flash drive or on another disk. As I said above - I personally "threw" it on speed drive in RAM computer.

It remains to check the result - I already launch a portable cleaner and delete it with its help ... its usual version, which we installed on the system disk (have you already forgotten about it?) ...

…we no longer need this extra program in the system partition (why do we need a blacksmith extra duplicates?).

That's how easy it is to make portable programs yourself in Cameyo.

Download Cameyo

The size of the program is 14.4 Mb. Viruses and "useful" spy software it doesn't. As you noticed from the description above, it itself is also portable.

Instruction

Further actions will take place in the WinRAR window that opens, which is called " Name and parameters». On the General tab, select the maximum file compression method. In the right part of the window, check the boxes next to the "Create SFX archive" and "Create continuous archive" options. To make portable version programs with a name different from the main application, change the name of the target file by entering it in the corresponding field.

Click the Advanced tab and click the SFX Options button. In the additional options window that appears, on the "General" tab, specify the path for unpacking - "Create in the current folder." In the "Run after unpacking" field, enter the name of the main executable file programs with *.exe extension. Go to the "Modes" tab, check the box next to the "Unpack to a temporary folder" option. Specify the display mode of information - "Hide all". On the "Text and" tab, if necessary, specify the logo and icon of the final SFX file. Leave other parameters unchanged.

Click OK on both settings windows. The creation of the archive will also begin. Portable programs will be located in the working folder of the main application. Going into it, check the created archive. Run it. If all the parameters and settings have been followed correctly, you will see the usual main application window. Created in this way portable version programs can be flashed and run on other computers.

There are other programs with which you can easily do program portable. For example, Thinstall Virtualization Suite is widely known. Its peculiarity lies in the analysis of the changes that each new installed one makes in the system. They are taken into account when creating portable versions. Thinstall Virtualization Suite allows you to fine-tune, in comparison with the method described above, the configuration of a portable program:
Compression and ;
Isolation from the real;
Setting the working folder of the portable program.
All settings are written in *.ini files, after which the program is compiled into a single executable file.

Tip 4: How to create a portable version of Windows 8 without additional software

For a long time, only Linux users could install the operating system on portable USB drives. this function became possible in Windows in its latest version. You will learn how you can install Windows 8 on a flash drive without using additional software.

You will need

USB stick, Windows 8 OS

Instruction

Press the key combination Win + X and select Control Panel (Control Panel) from the context menu.

In the upper right corner, select View (View) Small Icons (Small icons) instead of the default categorization.

The last in the second column of the Control Panel you will see WIndows To Go (Follow Windows), on which we left-click.

Now we select the USB drive, which must first be placed in the USB drive to turn it into a portable drive. Click the Next button.

The wizard will automatically scan your CD/DVD discs and Removable media. Select the Windows version and click Next.

At this step, you can optionally set a login password, but we will skip it.

As soon as the Wizard completes its work, you will be warned that your USB drive will be formatted. Clicks the Create button to start the recording process.

A program for creating portable versions (portable) of programs from regular versions of programs that require installation on a computer.

The computer is one of the most indispensable items today. However, the PC itself is a bunch of pieces of iron, which only skillfully selected software makes really useful!

In fact, portable applications are the same programs that you are used to using in everyday life, but independent of the components of the system on which they run and do not require installation. Accordingly, we can run them on any computer from any storage medium (today most often flash drives).

Benefits of portable software

Does not require installation
Runs from any media
Does not depend on the components of the system on which it runs
Does not clog the Windows registry
Does not leave traces of its activities on the PC.

Not so long ago, portable versions of the required software could only be created manually on a “clean” or virtual OS. I had to take snapshots of the registry before and after installation, then collate them and (again manually) collect all the files and registry keys that changed into a heap ...

However, today there are applications that allow you to fully automate this long and tedious process! I want to introduce you to the program cameyo. At the moment, this is practically the only virtualization system of its kind that allows you to fully automate the process of building portable versions of any applications.

In terms of its capabilities, it competes with the commercial product of SPOON - SpoonStudio:

Comparison of the Cameyo program with the paid analogue of Spoon Studio

As you can see, Cameyo is almost as good as an expensive commercial virtualization system. Moreover, if you don't want to delve into the intricacies of optimizing the resulting portable application, then Cameyo will be your best choice, as it offers step-by-step user support!

Spoon Studio also has this feature, but in our free application, the wizard interface is much more convenient, clearer and never implies a double interpretation!

Another advantage of Cameyo is its portability and small enough size for a program of its category (only 6.7 MB - against 88.7 MB for Spoon Studio).

Installing Cameyo

You can run Cameyo directly from the archive you downloaded.

Attention! Before launching Cameyo, it is advisable to disable the Internet and applications that work with it and with the PC file system! (this will minimize the initial size of the portable application executable).

Cameyo Interface

After launch, we will see a window with two buttons: “Capture installation” (which means “Capture the installation process”) and “Edit existing package” (“Edit existing packages”). Since we don't have finished projects yet, we press the first button and in the lower right corner of the screen we will see the following message:

The inscription in the window means literally "Getting an initial screenshot of the system before installation." This is the first step in creating our future portable application. Cameyo collects data on such system components as the registry, system folders and file structure within 3 - 5 minutes.

Creating a portable version of the program

Upon completion of the information gathering stage, we proceed directly to the process of installing our application:

At this stage, we install the application we need and make all the necessary preliminary settings with it. Upon completion of the installation, you need to click the "Install done" button in the Cameyo window. If the program you installed requires a reboot, then you don’t need to press anything - feel free to reboot.

After confirming the completion of the installation, Cameyo will proceed to the third (and, in fact, the last) step - comparing system snapshots:

In the information window, you will see that Cameyo is rescanning the system and looking for changed components. After the difference between the state of the system before and after installing the application is revealed, Cameyo will automatically create an executable file with a fully working portable version of the application you just installed!

Reducing the size of the created portable program

In principle, we have achieved our goal - we have created a workable portable version of the desired application ... But not everything is so simple ...

The fact is that most often we cannot guarantee that any applications that make changes to the file system do not function on our PC in the background. Therefore, the final size of the executable file of our portable program may be "overweight" :).

To avoid unnecessary components in the portable application we have created, let's open it with the Cameyo Package Editor. To do this, let's return to the main window again and now press the second button - "Edit existing package". In the Explorer window that opens, specify the portable application we created and get into the following window:

Before us is the Cameyo Package Editor. It consists of 4 tabs, on each of which we can perform some action with our portable application. And the first tab that opens immediately when you start the Editor is "General". These are the general settings of our project. Here we can:

specify the executable file of our application;
application isolation mode (data exchange mode, fully isolated or fully available);
specify the type of media from which the application can be launched;
set an icon for the program;
set the name and description of the application.

In the second tab ("Files") we can manage the file system of our portable application:

It is here that we can minimize the size of the created program by removing all obviously unnecessary components. Also in this tab, we can add the necessary files (for example, plugins) to our project.

Tellingly, deleted files and folders are not deleted immediately, but are only marked with a red cross. They will be deleted after saving the project. However, in practice, I encountered some difficulties in this process.

Some files, it seems, are not deleted, but only hidden, which does not affect the size of the final executable file in any way :(. Therefore, I repeat once again: while creating each new portable application, try not to run third-party programs on your computer!

The third tab (“Registry”) allows you to edit the internal registry of the portable application:

Here, unnecessary branches are deleted without any problems, so we will not dwell on the process of cleaning the registry.

Fine-tuning the portable program

The last tab (“Advanced”) provides some “advanced” project settings functions:

These features include:

Ban on child processes
Configuring settings for saving application settings (full saving, preventing the registry from being saved and completely clearing data when the application is closed)
Setting the application expiration date.

When all the necessary edits are made by you, you will need to save our project. To do this, go to the "File" menu (upper left corner of the Package Editor window) and click the "Save" button.

The changes will be saved in the previously created executable file. If you want to experiment a little, you can click the "Save As" button and save the corrected project as a new file with a different name and different settings.

Advantages and disadvantages of Cameyo

free :)
full automation;
simple interface;
the ability to edit the created project;
setting the parameters of the created applications.

problems with cleaning the project file system :(.

conclusions

If you always need to have several specific programs on hand for work, but you do not know how to make portable versions of them, then Cameyo is the tool that will help you deal with your problem.

Moreover, Cameyo recently launched (and is currently actively testing) an online software virtualization service. You can find this unprecedented development at: http://online.cameyo.com/submit.aspx .

Be mobile ;). Feel complete freedom of action with homemade portable-software!

P.S. It is allowed to freely copy and quote this article, provided that an open active link to the source is indicated and the authorship of Ruslan Tertyshny is preserved.

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