This review is courtesy of PJ, a member of our forums
I downloaded the PortableApps Menu Base Edition (see image 1) and must say that I like it, but….
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Image 1 |
Image 2 PStart (Ver 2.09) |
My point of reference for this review is the PStart program from PegTop (see image 2). The PortableApps Suite (or PAS) program comes in three formats: the base edition, lite edition and standard edition.
The base edition consists of a menu program and nothing else. The readme is a bit short on information and with only four selections; the options menu is short on options. The options menu provides the ability to install two types of programs to the USB flash drive: a PAS-compatible installer (which seems to be made only by Mr. Haller at the moment) or run a standard USB-oriented installation program.
Note: for all versions there is no means of importing or moving apps that are already installed elsewhere. The solution is to cut and paste existing programs into the programs application directory structure. At that point, the applications will magically appear in the menu, even those you may not want to appear. You have little choice in that. Take a peak at the included image and I think you’ll see it looks very clean and usable.
The real magic of the menu lies in the icons on the right side of the window: there are icons that provide direct access to Documents, Music, Pictures and Video as well as a shortcut to opening File Explorer in the USB drive’s root folder. The included folder icons are professional looking. This only serves to prove that software can, indeed, be sexy as well as functional.
Additional options on the window’s magical side include an option to back up (and restore from a back up) data on the USB drive. The three back up choices are “Complete”, “App Data” and “Documents”. Compression options are provided on the same window. Now you have no reason to back up that data….
The standard edition comes pre-loaded with several apps: ClamWin, FireFox, Gaim, OpenOffice, Sudoku, Sunbird and Thunderbird. A 512MB drive is needed for this.
The lite edition swaps out AbiWord for the OpenOffice. The installation will then fit on a 256MB drive.
How does this program compare with PStart? Ho hum, in my opinion. I must caveat that with another word though: “Yet”. Despite the eye-porn smooth graphics there are usability issues. PStart stores application information in an .xml file, essentially program short-cut information for the menu. This allows one to create menu links to which ever program the user desires, with optional program switches.
One can even create a link to a document, mp3 or what not. PAS doesn’t let you create links for the menu. Applications must be placed in the apps folder to be added in to the menu. Documents, mp3s and what ever other format file won’t show as links. Menu settings are not to be found anywhere. The menu is recreated on the fly from the looks of things. While clever, this reduces the user’s control of the menu and adds to the program’s load time. I’d personally like to see more user control over what shows up in the menu.
Regardless of the short-comings, I’m sold on PAS. Compared to PStart the interface is highly addictive. Additionally, PAS is still at version 1.0, there’s much room for growth and the potential is enormous. As I work out more of what I’d like to see in the program, I’ll drop a note or two to the author and ask for improvements.
I’m taken with the program, the concept and Mr. Haller’s innovations in portable application development but I’d rate the menu program a solid 3.5 on a scale of 1 to 5 with a 5 being the best. I didn’t try out the included suites because I already have my favorite apps, many of which are included in the various suites, some of which weren’t.
I firmly believe this program is a winner and with a few modifications, it’ll be the USB drive killer app of the year. Go ahead, give PAS a try and who knows, you might fall in love with portable apps….
Links to products mentioned in this article:
Portable Apps Suite: http://www.portableapps.com/suite
PStart.exe: http://www.pegtop.net/start
Editor Note: Also see the tutorial written by PJ on creating a Program USB Drive in our forums here
Thanks for the well-thought-out review. Several options are coming for later releases including the ability to include specific apps (with command lines), exclude EXEs from showing up, themes, autorunning apps, localization and more. The 1.0 release is really just a baseline… a first release with the basic functionality needed to get things going. Several of these features are already in development. Also, new tools that conform to the Portable Apps Format are being released that will let many developers adapt their apps to be portable without having to recode.
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It was my pleasure to post the review although all the hard work was done by PJ. Thanks for taking the time to drop by and read it.
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Well, shoot. Now I can’t send my coherent thoughts to Mr. Haller, he’s already read the incoherent ones….
Seriously, thanks for taking the time to stop by and comment. I’m looking forward to the next release, as I mentioned in the review: “PAS is still at version 1.0, there’s much room for growth and the potential is enormous.” I think you’ve got a killer app in the making.
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