Our Failed Portablization Attempts
Sometimes we failed, but only now we realize that our failures might be useful for other developers. So, here they are...
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Internet
Zimbra Desktop, email client. Get the failed portablization configuration here.
Notes: It's built on Mozilla Prism which in turn uses Java. You can't just extract the app. from its .msi installer, you have to install it—but don't run it yet—and copy Zimbra Desktop folder from the Program Files folder.
The original launcher—a visual basic script—is run using Windows' cscript.exe, which will run the Prism's web app., which will require Java. Sysinternals' Process Explorer image description doesn't provide java.exe/javaw.exe execution profile.
Our portablization can run Zimbra until the "Prism web app", but then it failed to search for Java from the PortableApps.com's standard CommonFiles folder. So, it seems that JRE must be installed for this kind of Java app. We think it's not portablizable—except maybe with cooperation from the official developer.
Office
Adobe Reader DC, PDF reader. Get the failed portablization configuration here.
Notes: First we try to portablize it without loading any DLL, TypeLib, or services—so user can run it without administrator privilege—but failed. It runs for awhile but then died.
So, we try to load it with all its "bell and whistles", but also failed.
Conclusion? Either it's unportablizable or we're just incompetent ;). But, we strongly suggest Adobe to simplify this reader so it wouldn't take such a heavy storage space—more than 500MB or a half Gigs! Since, anyway, most people just use it as a reader. We love the new UI.
Weka, data Mining with open source machine learning software in Java. Get the failed portablization configuration here.
Notes: Somehow, the portable app is unable to save Weka's data in %PROFILE% folder. It's still failed even using custom folder move code :(....
