Hello, I'm wondering why if I can disable the data storing/porting of the liberkey launcher. This is causing all sorts of issues for me because if anything else ever calls the program directly, (not the *LKL.exe launcher) I have a completely different config.

A good example is process hacker. If I try to make this program my default task manager, then it uses the local config file when windows calls it. If I launch if from LiberKey menu, then it uses a different settings file. This is frustrating as I have similar issues with other applications.

I am not looking for a workaround as I know I can point most things to the LKL.exe and it will pass the parameters over. I also know I can can copy and paste the settings file, or change the shortcut in my liberkey menu. I frequent many computers and love the automatic updates and many features of LiberKey, however on my main computer I prefer to have many of my portable apps as default applications and in some instances I absolutely must call the application directly, without the launcher. I would also like to maintain my settings across machines since that was why I started using portable applications originally. I'm sure it moves the settings file to the data directory to keep settings synced on apps with 32bit and 64bit versions. I use a 32bit OS maybe twice a year, so I would rather lose this feature than keep running into daily config issues.

Is there a way to tell the LKLauncher what settings file to launch the app with, or better yet, simply launch the app without specifying any settings file since almost all portable apps will use the settings file inside its own directory?


thanks for reading

Hello.

To have portabilisation of your apps it's necessary launch them by AppNameLKL.exe.
If you use directly AppName.exe you you don't have portability of apps and you risk having traces in the Windows' configuration files and/or in the registry.

A Liberkey tool : KeyFileAssoc can help you to config your Liberkey.
To launch it Liberkey Menu => Liberkey Menu =>Liberkey Configuration =>Enable file associations at startup
After, Right click on KFA icon in the systray => Associations configuration ... => choose the file extension you wan't edit => Advanced. Then check "Replace the current actions for this type of files" and "By Default" button before Aply.

JP4U

JP4U wrote:If you use directly AppName.exe you you don't have portability of apps and you risk having traces in the Windows' configuration files and/or in the registry.

In addition to JP4U answer, you have to know that using files associations within the application itself or use "as defaut" or "replace <defaut feature>" directly in the application will broke the software portability (and you will bypass the Data folder from Liberkey).

Most of the applications are natively portable. I would like to use the native configuration file for certain applications, instead of loading one from a different directory determined by LiberKey. This way I can still use LiberKey, but am not dependent on it for using my portable apps. Is this just not possible?

Liberkey provides an easy way to use portable applications, integrated into the LiberkeyMenu, supporting automatic file associations, application upgrades, etc... But you're right, some of them are natively portable and can be used outside Liberkey without the previously mentioned advantages.
In such case, we encourage you to go to PortableFreeware.com or any other similar websites referencing portable applications and take the applications you want and install them into MyApps folder (Liberkey will detect it and will purpose you to add the corresponding entry into the menu, into your own tab) and for those applications, you can do whatever you want.

Now, technically, I'm interested to understand the reason of this :

brentmel wrote:in some instances I absolutely must call the application directly, without the launcher.

You probably have a good reason to bypass the launcher, but why ? Which limitation it has to have such need ?

For sure now, you can still do whatever you want to workaround Liberkey "way to do it", you are not our hostage but also for sure, this is at your own risk

Thanks for the reply. I do use many portable apps not part of the Catalog in my custom apps menu. Sorry if I sounded hostile or anything bad. My favorite feature of LiberKey is the automatic updates. Its nearly impossible to manually keep all my portable apps up to date so LiberKey solves a huge problem for me and also the menu is great.

On my main personal computer, I am not concerned with stealth, however I do still enjoy the convenience of application settings being portable since I use my liberkey drive across many different machines.

An example is I enjoy using many application shell extensions, say 7zip for example, on my personal computer which of course call the app directly. Now I'm working on someone else's computer and I need the app for a single task and open it from LiberKey and its a different config.

Executor, I like replace the winkey+r on my computer. A simple option from the app itself. For a while I did use eventghost to run the LKL launcher from WIN+R but there was always like 3 second delay which doesn't sound like much but eventually drove me crazy. When I call it directly its instantaneous.

Mp3tag I've had trouble with the launcher passing multiple directories and large numbers of files on to mp3tag. This may be fixed now so forgive me. I resorted to calling mp3tag directly a long time ago.

Process Hacker. I like to use the in app option to replace windows default task manager on my computer. When windows opens it, its one config, when LiberKey opens it, its a whole other config. I use this tool a lot on clients computers and would love to keep the same settings file no matter how its launched.

I also have years of eventghost scripts I don't feel like re-writing to call the launcher first.

I know this sounds whiny, but I'd really like to use all the greatness LiberKey has to offer without exclusively depending on it to keep my apps portable.



Thanks for reading, LiberKey has made my life easier for years.