Difference: HxD installed vs. portable?

General comments that are neither bug reports nor feature requests.
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testj
Posts: 9
Joined: 23 Feb 2006 13:41

Difference: HxD installed vs. portable?

Post by testj »

Hi,

I noticed that instead of the good old zip file for manual installation there is only the portable version which always asks on startup if it should make itself a portable installation. I don't' like installer and prefer usually for upgrading the "unzip and replace" method. Hence I chose the portable version, hoping that it will work as installed version, too - but it doesn't look so. It only presents this dialog at startup, without allowing me to choose what I want.

Therefore my question is: Where is the difference programmatically between the installed and the portable installation?

I would recommend to automatically detect this at startup depending on if an ini file is present or not in the HxD program directory.

TestJ
Maël
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Joined: 12 Mar 2005 14:15

Post by Maël »

Therefore my question is: Where is the difference programmatically between the installed and the portable installation?
None, if it is a portable or installable version is detected automatically. That is why you see this message once. After pressing OK, you will not see it again. Even when a new version comes out you wont see the message again, so I don't really understand the problem.

The message is not strictly necessary, it is just there to inform you of the limitations of the portable version and tell you that you haven't installed HxD (after pressing OK you will not see it again). Also this tell you that the application directory has to be writeable (if somebody copies this in the program files dir, he/she will be able to write to the ini-file but other non-admin users wont).

What exactly is the problem with confirming the message dialog once?
testj
Posts: 9
Joined: 23 Feb 2006 13:41

Post by testj »

Ok, then I misinterpretatet the message. From what I have read it says:

"HxD was not installed and therefore it will use the portable mode. Press OK to create the INI file."

That doesn't sounds like an automatic detection or that the user can choose which version to use. It's sink or swim.
Maël
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Post by Maël »

testj wrote:Ok, then I misinterpretatet the message. From what I have read it says:

"HxD was not installed and therefore it will use the portable mode. Press OK to create the INI file."

That doesn't sounds like an automatic detection or that the user can choose which version to use. It's sink or swim.
Well, obviously the portable version has no installer, so you can only use it in portable mode. It is just a reminder in case you downloaded the wrong version or expected the portable version to work in multi-user environments (you need an install for this).

Why is it "sink or swim"? The portable version needs an INI-file, so it wouldn't make much sense to not create one (and let the user chose to do so).

Maybe the wording isn't good. What would you expect on how this should behave? And what would you like to have as choice?
testj
Posts: 9
Joined: 23 Feb 2006 13:41

Post by testj »

Maël wrote: Well, obviously the portable version has no installer, so you can only use it in portable mode. It is just a reminder in case you downloaded the wrong version or expected the portable version to work in multi-user environments (you need an install for this).

Why is it "sink or swim"? The portable version needs an INI-file, so it wouldn't make much sense to not create one (and let the user chose to do so).
Because there is no choice. You can click OK and let HxD create the INI file or Cancel which ends HxD - therefore it is the type "accept or die" alias "sink or swim".

I simply would suggest to add a button that allows the user to decide if he/she wants to use HxD in portable mode or installable mode. That would be a real choice.

TestJ
Maël
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Post by Maël »

testj wrote:I simply would suggest to add a button that allows the user to decide if he/she wants to use HxD in portable mode or installable mode. That would be a real choice.
The choice is made when downloading. People who download the portable edition don't want an installer in the ZIP-file, so it isn't possible to launch the installer (since it isn't there), when the user chooses cancel.

That is why the message says, for example that you should use the installer if you don't want the portable edition.

I appreciate your input, but I really don't see how this could be changed, except for not displaying the message.

Given my explanations does it make sense? If not how would you (given that portable and installable edition are separate packages as per user request) implement it?
rob
Posts: 2
Joined: 18 Oct 2015 19:58

Re: Difference: HxD installed vs. portable?

Post by rob »

Given that sometimes I need the portable or installed versions of a program, I really prefer how foobar2000 does things. Its installer can install in full or portable mode so unlike HxD there's no need to download and store multiple versions. This keeps both camps happy. I've seen other programs follow this example too which is really great.

(Yes, I know there will probably be no new version of HxD so this whole post in a seven year old (!) thread is most likely pointless.)
Maël
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Joined: 12 Mar 2005 14:15

Re: Difference: HxD installed vs. portable?

Post by Maël »

There was regular activity over all that period as can be seen in other threads (and download links), development never halted.
To close this thread:

Version 2.0 combines all languages and versions (portable and installable) into one download, similar to the suggestion above.
Download link on the usual page: https://mh-nexus.de/hxd/
lordcanty
Posts: 19
Joined: 23 Mar 2007 22:43

Re: Difference: HxD installed vs. portable?

Post by lordcanty »

One problem I've found with the new method is that the installer requires admin rights in Win7+. The installer always triggers an UAC prompt when opening it, but non-admin users can't accept it, so you can't even reach the portable selection. I think it would be better if the UAC prompt only happened if the user selects the installable version.

Sure, I could make a portable version in another account with admin rights, then manually copy it to the non-admin account, but that sort of defeats its purpose...
Maël
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Re: Difference: HxD installed vs. portable?

Post by Maël »

Yeah, the admin rights issue can be annoying. Unfortunately, there is no way to make InnoSetup (the tool I use) ask for admin rights later.

I could have a special setup just for the portable that asks for no admin rights at all, but then people will complain why I don't remove it alltogether.
The major reason it was introduced is because people run into issues when the portable is used on media that is write protected once HxD is on it. Therefore it is necessary to setup HxD properly before it gets written to the media, so it will not try to write history entries to the INI for example.

Edit: Then again, the only really relevant information that is gathered at the point where you select portable or installable is the license information (I have to check InnoSetup source to see if that's true), so there could be a way around that. Going to be pretty hacky and time consuming, though.
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