In this note I will do short review programs designed for .
I will soon record 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'll talk about five programs that allow you to create portable applications.
And I’ll start with, perhaps, the most powerful and functional program in this class.
VMware ThinApp
This program was developed specifically for IT specialists, so it has very powerful tools. Initially, it was designed to separate programs and applications installed on the computer from 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 essence we get programs independent of the operating system, that is, portable.
But this program has a significant drawback - it is paid, although you cannot simply buy it, 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 for free, since that is how long it lasts (60 days). trial period. 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 that it is free and available in Russian. Its rather simple and ascetic interface can also be called a plus, but... this program works somewhat differently than other applications. It does not scan the system before and after installing the program to determine which program files are needed for it to work. The user must add these connections himself. That is, the user needs to specify the executable file of the application, and then add it to a special list additional files or folders that the application uses. Not everyone will be able to figure out this issue on their own, which means the program will be useful to experienced users rather than to beginners.
Evalaze
And the final program in this short review is Evalaze.
The program has two versions - the full version for money, and the stripped-down version for free.
Heavily trimmed down, but free version 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 launching the program of interest to us. In general, it is quite a worthwhile application.
Well, in conclusion, I would like 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 app libraries;
WinPenPack.com - the site offers many portable applications and it is possible to switch the site language to Russian.
On the Internet you can find a bunch of software and among the most popular programs there are many portable versions. And if you have some infrequent program that does not have anywhere portable version, what to do in this case? In such a situation, there is a very simple way out - you can make such a program yourself. And believe me, there is nothing complicated about it. We just need a special utility and an installation file for the program that we want to make portable.
Creating a Portable Program
There are many special utilities, which can create portable software (for example, Cameyo or P-Apps). We will not consider all of them, because the interface is practically no different everywhere. IN in this example let's use the utility Thinstall Virtualization Suite. And as a test subject, we will have the Firefox browser. Download to your computer this utility. It can be downloaded. After that, unpack the downloaded archive into any convenient folder and in it, run the file called Setup capture.exe.
The utility works on the principle of comparing system images before and after installing software that should become portable. First you need to analyze the initial state of the system, click on the “Next” button.
There is no need to change the settings, leave everything as it is. To start scanning the system disk and registry settings, click the “Post-install Scan” button.
Now you need to wait a little, this will take some time. Do not close the program under any circumstances, just minimize it. Next, take a program that is destined to be portable. As mentioned above, we will use the Firefox browser for our experiments. Install this software as usual. After installation, launch the browser and customize it for yourself. When the program is successfully installed and has all necessary settings, open the previously minimized utility window. Now you will need to re-analyze the system. Just click “Post-install scan” and select the exe file designed to launch the “experimental” software. By selecting Mozilla Firefox.exe, click on the “Continue” button to continue the operation.
Our browser folder will be created in the same folder where the utility is located. These files can be found in the following path: C:\Thinstall Virtualization Suite 3.358 portable\Captures\Mozilla Firefox
Now remove all empty and non-program folders. It’s best to move them to any other folder, just in case. So that you can easily return them to their original place.
After cleaning the contents of the folder, we proceed to editing the registry files. Launch the registry editor (Win+R => regedit => OK) and open the following files:
- HKEY_CURRENT_USER.txt
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.txt
- HKEY_USERS.txt
Here you need to remove everything that does not apply Firefox browser. At the same time, do not leave extra spaces, this may interfere with the program’s assembly. After that, edit the project parameters and special file with Package.ini settings (optional). This file contains several sections. A semicolon before any parameter turns it into a comment and it is no longer active.
Chapter
- allows you to configure compression. But keep in mind that unpacking and packing files will consume a lot of system resources.
CompressionType=None
CompressionType=Fast
Chapter
- is responsible for the interaction of the program with external elements systems.
WriteCopy- the parameter indicates that all changes and settings are stored inside the folder with the portable program.
Merged- and this parameter will allow changes to be made in the system.
DirectoryIsolationMode=WriteCopy
DirectoryIsolationMode=Merged
SandboxName- defines the name of the folder to store all changes and parameters. With standard settings, this folder is located in the following path:
Those who often use portable software can look into this directory and find a large amount of unnecessary garbage there. Agree, this is not very good.
The SandboxPath parameter determines the path on which the this folder. By the way, this parameter may not be in the settings file. As we have already shown, all parameters are initially stored in the system, as above specified path. To store all this in the same folder, along with the portable program, specify the following parameter value: SandboxPath=. In chapter . It can be placed immediately after the description of this parameter. Thanks to this, all files will be in one folder and the system will not become contaminated with all sorts of rubbish. Has everything been cleaned and set up? Okay, now there is only one final step left - run the file named build.bat and get a ready-made program that can work without installation. Look for it in the bin folder.
Today you will learn how to make portable programs yourself, easily and quickly. A free thing called Cameyo will help us in this matter.
Portable programs in a couple of clicks
First, I’ll 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 flash drive.
Recently, I prefer to place such programs in a high-speed ram disk(V random access memory computer), where they work as quickly as possible (my system ssd disk, at this time, nervously smokes on the sidelines, envying).
Cameyo copes with creating portable versions of programs in 95% of cases - the remaining 5%, due to various reasons, are not amenable to “training”.
For example, let's make a portable version of the famous CCleaner cleaner - I personally find it very useful to save me from " digital trash» computers of relatives and friends (“I’ll throw” it on a flash drive and 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 for the program that we will turn into portable.
In our case, this is CCleaner...
...select the middle item in the list, click “Ok” and wait a while for the program to take a snapshot of the system before installing the experimental software into it...
After such a window appears in the system tray area (near the clock)…
…we don’t poke anything in it , but just start (and carry out until the end) the usual installation of CCleaner in the operating room Windows system. A flashing red ball strongly hints that all changes made to the system directories and its registry are being monitored.
Important! You need to apply tricky patches, Russifiers, change settings, put dots and checkboxes... you need to immediately after installing the program and only after that move on to the final stage of creating a portable version.
Click 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 created portable program...
Let's go where the Cameyo program sent us...
…And move (cut) the folder with a portable version of the cleaner on a flash drive or another disk. As I said above, I personally “threw” it onto high-speed disk in RAM computer.
All that remains is to check the result - I launch a portable cleaner and use it to delete... it regular version, which you and I installed on system disk(Have you already forgotten about this?)…
...we don't need this one anymore extra program in the system partition (why do we need a blacksmith extra duplicates?).
This is how easy it is to make portable programs yourself in Cameyo.
Download Cameyo
The program size is 14.4 MB. Viruses and “useful” spy additional software it's not in it. As you noticed from the description above, it itself is also portable.
Hello, friends! In this article we will figure out how to create portable programs (those that work without installation). And, as you understand from the name, we will use the service www.cameyo.com. Using this service, you can create a portable program on your computer (by yourself), or you can make a portable program online. In this article we will try both.
Let's create a portable program on your computer. Download the cameyo program. Go to the website http://www.cameyo.com/
Scroll down the page a little and click Download Cameyo
While Cameyo is downloading, open the MY ACCOUNT menu and select REGISTER to register an account. The latter is needed to access all functions of the service.
To find the created portable program on our hard drive, click on the icon right click mouse and select Explore on disk.
All is ready. You can copy the program to any external media and run on any computer or laptop.
Creating a portable program online
Let's try to create a portable program (for example TakeOwnershipEx to obtain full rights to a file or folder)
Opening Cameyo, go to the tab Studio and click Capture app online
or on the website cameyo.com open the menu MY ACCOUNT and choose LOGIN
If you don't have an account yet, click Create account. If yes, enter your Email and password in the Login form
After successful login, click Online Packager
Click Installer upload. Select the bit depth of Windows XP. If you need a portable program to work in - choose 64-bit. Click the Select file button to select an installer (exe or msi file) and Submit(Send)
After a few seconds (or minutes) the portable program is ready. You can download or view how it works
It was not possible to view it because the license file was launched. So I downloaded it and ran it as administrator
The program has started
And it’s immediately in Russian.
Conclusion
I hope you were just as interested in discovering the world of Portable programs as I was. Some programs, including PicPick reviewed here, can work portable (without installation) and without processing special programs. The entire folder with installed program Transfer from Program File to a USB flash drive, for example. Uninstall the program itself and run it from the flash drive. If the program is simple, it is high probability will earn. It's inconvenient that there are a lot of files in the folder. Since Windows XP is no longer supported, and it is still used as a system for creating portable programs online, I will create it locally. I have Windows 7 installed, as do most computers on which I will need to work with these programs.
In general, I seriously thought about using portable programs. The Cameyo library contains a huge database. (Which, by the way, is available without registration at https://online.cameyo.com/public). Take it and work.
Portable versions of programs are a handy tool not only for computer scientists, but also for many ordinary users. Stored on a flash drive, the necessary portable programs obediently follow their owner everywhere, no matter what computer device he is working with. Portable software is relevant for many corporate users, working with accounts with installation restrictions third party programs. But, alas, it is not always possible to find a portable version on the Internet the desired program. And rather than waste time constantly searching for the necessary portable software, it’s easier to learn how to create it yourself. Actually, that’s what we’ll do in this article - below we’ll look at how to create portable Windows programs using Cameyo, and also get acquainted with other possibilities of this project.
1. About the Cameyo project
The Cameyo project is a platform for virtualizing Windows programs. It includes desktop software for making portable versions various programs, as well as a web service for using these programs online and transferring them to other computer devices like cloud storage. The operating principle of Cameyo is somewhat similar to that of hypervisors. Just as the latter can offer a separate isolated guest system inside the main operating system, Cameyo can create portable programs that work in their own environment - not requiring installation in Windows, independent of the system registry, not creating their own background services, but in in some cases not even leaving traces of their activity.
The Cameyo project is English-language. The desktop utility does not have a Russian-language interface either. But don’t let those for whom the language barrier can become an obstacle worry. We will look at working with the desktop part of the project in detail in this article, and when using the Cameyo web interface, the extension “ Google Translate"for browsers, .
The very ability to create portable programs using Cameyo is free. But the generosity of the project creators ends at a certain stage in the use of Cameyo cloud space. We’ll talk about why and what to pay the creators of Cameyo below, when considering the capabilities of the web version of the Cameyo Online project. In the meantime, let’s download the Cameyo desktop utility for creating portable programs completely free of charge from the official website of the project - http://www.cameyo.com
2. Creating portable Windows programs
The Cameyo desktop utility for making portable versions of Windows programs is itself portable and does not require installation on the system. Having launched it, we will see three possible ways of further work:
- Cameyo Player– launching the Cameyo web service client application;
- Capture an installation– function of creating portable programs;
- Edit a package– editor of previously created portable programs.
Cameyo creates portable programs according to the following principle: first, a snapshot of the operating system is taken before installing the desired program, then you need to start the installation process of this program, after which the latter will be packaged into a portable version using Cameyo tools. Cameyo can offer the creation of portable programs without the need to install them on the system. We will return to this possibility later; it will be discussed in paragraph 3 of this article. In the meantime, let's create a portable program in the usual way– by installing it into the system.
To create a portable version of the desired Windows program, in the first window after launching the Cameyo utility, select the second option.
Then in the lower right corner of the screen we will see this window:
This is a notification that Cameyo has started taking a snapshot of Windows before installing the program. As soon as such a notification appears in the same lower right corner of the screen,
We can proceed to launch the installer and install the desired program.
When the installation process is complete, click the button in the notification window "Install Done".
After this, Cameyo will notify you re-creation a snapshot of the system, but after installing the program. Comparing two snapshots of the system - before and after installing the program, thus making Cameyo out of two Windows states allocates this very program to create its portable version.
If everything went well, we will see a message indicating the path to save the portable version of the program - in the “Documents” user profile folder on drive C, in the “Cameyo apps” subfolder.
At the specified path we will find an executable EXE file of the newly created portable program, the name of which will contain an addition ".cameyo", as, for example, in our case "AOMEI Backupper Standard.cameyo".
This EXE file contains everything necessary for the portable program to work both on the current computer and on other computer devices. To work on these with a newly created portable program, you need to move this same EXE file to a flash drive or cloud storage.
3. Features of the Cameyo Player client application
Cameyo Player is a client application of the Cameyo web service, working like cloud storage client software. Like the latter, Cameyo Player is a desktop interface to the contents of a web account and provides for uploading/downloading EXE files of portable programs of its own production. But, unlike the same cloud storages, the Cameyo web service, and, accordingly, its client application, has its own specifics. In addition to the collection of its portable programs, any registered user gets access to ready-made portable programs completely free of charge. This is a small selection of popular free software, which includes, in particular, Mozilla Firefox and Opera browsers, text editor OpenOffice, WinRAR and 7-Zip archivers, KMPlayer, VLC, GOM media players, program for remote access TeamViewer, as well as many other well-known programs. There's even a 3D space simulator called Celestia. But there is one caveat. This nuance follows from the fact that Cameyo is an English-language project, and this is, accordingly, the English-language interface of all these programs. Unfortunately, not all of them support switching to the Russian-language interface in the settings in the portable version.
In addition to a selection of popular portable programs, Cameyo Player has another feature, which was mentioned above - the creation of portable programs without installing them on the system, in the “Sandbox” mode. And now about everything in more detail.
Launch the Cameyo desktop utility and this time select launch Cameyo Player.
Let's register to use the capabilities of the web service. Click below "Register an account".
Registration is very simple. A user registration form on the official Cameyo website will open in the browser window. You need to enter an address Email, create a password, confirm it and click the “Register” button. You can make registration even easier by using a Google account.
After confirming your registration, we can log in to Cameyo Player. Then in the application window we will see a list of the mentioned portable programs. Having selected any of them, we can download it to a computer or run it online without downloading. Naturally, downloaded portable programs will work faster and more stable when they are launched locally without the mediation of the network.
By clicking the plus button at the top, among the two possible functions of Cameyo Player we can choose "Upload an existing package" to download to cloud storage portable programs hosted on a computer that were created using Cameyo.
"Drag & Drop your Cameyo package here", - Cameyo will ask in the next window that opens, and this means that you can drag the EXE file of the portable program into this window. But you can also use the browse button "Browse"
To download the portable program to the Cameyo cloud, click "Upload".
After the successful download process of the portable program, we will see the notification “Expiration in 7 days,” which in Russian means “Valid for 7 days.”
The process of uploading a portable program to the “cloud” may also be unsuccessful if the size of the EXE file exceeds 50 MB. By the way, about restrictions.
4. Terms of free use of Cameyo cloud storage
The first facet of the generosity of the Cameyo creators is only a 7-day storage period for portable programs in cloud storage within free account with a basic license. Another aspect of using the Cameyo “cloud” without financial investments is that the size of the program’s EXE file should not exceed 50 MB. You can improve such defective conditions for a fee by purchasing a Pro account or a more expensive Enterprise account for a monthly subscription. You can simply provide disk space for storing portable programs by connecting to Dropbox cloud storage.
Fortunately, creating portable programs without installing them into the system is an opportunity provided by the creators of Cameyo for free.
5. Creating portable programs without installing them on the system
Without installation into the system, portable programs are created as part of Cameyo Player. Another function that can be accessed by pressing the plus button is "Create a new package", that is, the creation of a new package, essentially a new portable program.
After selecting this function, we will again see a window asking you to drag a file into it, only this time it’s the installer for the future portable program. There is also a browse button to add an installer.
This will be followed by a window with a choice of ways to create a new portable program: the first two buttons are methods in online mode (do not always work), the third is using system snapshots, as discussed in paragraph 2 of this article. But the fourth button - Sandbox Capture - is the very way to create a portable program without installing it on the system. Let's press it.
Then in a window like this
Cameyo will notify you that the program installation process has started in virtual mode (in the “Sandbox” mode), and that in fact this program will not be installed on the system. Click “Ok”. And we carry out the installation process.
Upon completion, in the Cameyo Player window we will see several options for further actions, including "Upload"- upload to the cloud. We can immediately upload the new portable program to the Internet.
We look for the local EXE file of the newly created portable program in the same subfolder “Cameyo apps” in the user profile folder “Documents” on drive C.
6. Working with the Cameyo Online web service
You can work with portable programs - both your own, stored in the cloud for those same 7 days, and the list of ready-made programs from Cameyo - in your account in the web version of the project Cameyo Online, using any browser, in any operating system, from any device that provides more or less acceptable Internet speed. To do this, on the official website of the program go to the section "Apps".
In this tab we will see all portable programs downloaded to the cloud, the 7-day storage period of which has not expired. We can choose any of them.
And either delete, download, or run online in a browser window.
By connecting Dropbox cloud storage in your account settings, you can work with online versions of portable programs like Chrome OS - saving those created or edited in running programs files on disk file storage. In addition to Dropbox, optionally Cameyo Online also provides for connecting Google Drive, but so far this function is unstable.
In the account section on the Cameyo website, we can perform the same operations as in the Cameyo Player client application - upload a portable program to the cloud, or create it using Cameyo Online. To download a ready-made portable program, select the item "Upload your existing Cameyo package" and specify the path to the EXE file.
To create a new portable program, select "Create a new Cameyo package, from software installer". This is another way to create portable programs without installing them on the system, however, the process takes a little longer than using the “Sandbox” within the Cameyo Player client application, and more often ends in failure. In the “Submit file” column, select the “Local machine (50 MB max)” item and indicate the path to the installer of the desired program on the computer. The item above is “URL” – the ability to specify a download link installation file, but, alas, this method does not always work. In the “Destination” column, select either “My Apps (stored 7 days)” or “My Dropbox”, if one is connected. Next, click “Online Install”.
The remote desktop will open in the browser window and the program installation process will begin. Let's go through it.
And when finished, press "Install done"».
In the same browser window, a page of the portable program will open with the ability to download it and run it online.
7. Portable program editor
The third function that we can observe when running the Cameyo desktop utility is "Edit a package", portable program editor.
Cameyo, in principle, by default creates portable software with optimal settings, but if necessary, these can be changed by adjusting this or that program to your needs. In the portable program editor, you can configure data access, file associations, integration with Explorer, leaving traces in system registry and so on. All available settings are neatly distributed into tabs and columns, so if you want to work with the editor, what you will need to do is translate the option labels into Russian.
8. About the disadvantages of Cameyo
Cameyo is a very interesting project, but, alas, not everything with it is as smooth as described above. Above we looked at how work ideally occurs. In practice, every now and then we will encounter problems both during the creation process and directly during the operation of portable programs. So, not every program can be made portable, because some Windows software is designed to work in a full-fledged operating system environment with the launch of its own background services. There are also problems in the operation of the Cameyo Online web service: not every portable program will even launch in a browser window, not to mention the stability and speed of its operation. A more reliable option would still be to use portable programs after downloading them to your computer disk.
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