All Activity

You are right, of course, but that "exact and precise finite control of these associations" is in practice left for "advanced" users, not "average" Windows user "Joe" (at least that's how I see it myself ) ... Like you, I was introduced to the PA.com format many years ago, and, actually, after an "accident" that happened during my WinXP era, when sister ran a "wipe whole C drive" virus on then "family" desktop; after a Windows reinstall (no C drive back-ups were being taken at that time ), I had to reconfigure all re-installed programs from scratch... PA.com format appealed to me, because I could "install" many programs on a second, D, disk partition, where both the applications' binaries and their settings would reside; in the unfortunate event of a second C partition "demise", all my "portable" programs on D partition would survive... I think most take "portable" to signify "have the app's settings alongside the app's main (binary) files, not save settings in %appdata% and/or the registry"; but "portable" also means "be able to store the app and its settings/configuration to a suitable external storage medium (USB stick, ExtHDD/SSD, etc.) and be able to transfer the storage device and use said "portable" app across many different hosts, without permanently impacting (and/or leaving traces in) each host's fie system/registry/etc. ; this is why most portable app authors advise not to establish associations of any kind with the host system the portable app is currently running on; yes, I've come across very "smart" portable launchers that clean up the host system after the app has been exited, but that depends on the exact launcher; during the years, I have seen portable-application users associating portable launchers with the host system, and this has less risk overall, but, TBH, I don't do that myself either... Now I'm thinking of it, my advice "not to associate" was particular to the simple "Sm-Portable.cmd" batch file I posted previously ; this isn't a proper "portable launcher" per se, so if you clicked on a URL link inside a PDF file and expected that to be opened in the "portable" Supermium "Profile", then I couldn't offer an "easy" way to do that (you'd probably have to mess with the registry, and so on) ; and the "--disable-encryption --disable-machine-id" switches were specifically added so that the portable "Profile" remains unlocked and accessible/readable across hosts ...

Well, I for one certainly hope that metro uwp framework and immersive shell *NEVER* gets backported to XP, lol.

FFmpeg update. XP: static shared libfdk-aac VISTAx86: static shared libfdk-aac

thanks, I know it, but we're always patching the OS here and there to make it look like the one we had in the past Microsoft should announce "Windows XP 2026" with a compatibility layer +0 an option to turn ON or OFF everything released after XP SP3, so we can have any of these features on XP: - any WDDM version - sysmain/superfetch - WSL linux subsystem - memory compresion ( Disable-MMAgent -mc ) - video memory pagination - aero on/off, dwm on/off - metro uwp framework immersive shell on/off.... - an option to choose vista/7/8/8.1/10/11 taskbar version - gpu scheduling (HwSchMode) - control flow guard - spectre, meltdown--- - kernel features / version... this will be better than any new windows... in a perfect world of course... but this won't never ever happen

Thanks as always to a thoughtful writeup. I'll add my own slight additions. I myself have not "installed" any software for the better part of two decades, I do as much as possible via PORTABLE applications. PortableApps.com popularized the use of portable software. They began in 2006. WinPenPack has actually been around for slightly longer (by mere months, not years). You go even further back (by years) when you include those of us with familiarity to UNIX. With regard to associations with protocols/files/applications, portable software isn't really about not having these associations, but rather having exact and precise finite control of these associations. This PRECISE CONTROL is really only limited by the user's own intentions/imagination. You really can have this PRECISE CONTROL be as simple or as complex as your heart desires. Your "host system" does NOT have to have *ANY* 'default browser' associations, no txt file associations, no ini associations, no pdf associations, no mkv/avi/mp4 associations. NO ASSOCIATIONS of any kind. But you can mix-and-match to your heart's content. Associate 'browser' protocols (http/https/ftp, for example) to all use Firefox *ONLY IF* PortableApps PLATFORM is running in the systray. But roll those ftp protocols over to something like CuteFTP *ONLY* if LiberKey is running in the systray. Split your media file associations so that audio files divert to VLC Player, mkv files divert to PotPlayer, mp4 files divert to Media Player Classic, and avi files divert to TEncoder Video Converter. "Portable" really can be as simple or as complex as you "need it to be".

There is a heart with the native taskbar, but I do not have the new icons on the native taskbar to be able to do a direct comparison. I wasn't sure if maybe they deprecated the heart with smart charging. There is a heart in control center though.

There isn't a way to show heart there afaik. Or is there a heart with native taskbar?

IIRC, the "nonsetup" zip versions were created for "special" cases (namely WinXP machines without all SPs and/or partially updated), where the provided ".exe" installers wouldn't run; FTR, the first "*_nonsetup.zip" release asset saw the light of day with the 124-r4 release: https://github.com/win32ss/supermium/releases/tag/v126-r4 As posted by NHTPG, these are NOT "portable" packages; Supermium "portable" packages were once offered as part of a paid for Patreon subscription: https://www.patreon.com/posts/supermium-122-r2-103469536 If you don't mind the registry being written to, a simplistic "portable" approach would be to write a "Sm-Portable.cmd" batch file: place it adjacent to Sm's main executable (chrome.exe) and ALWAYS launch Sm via that (you can alternatively create a Windows shortcut with the same cmdline args) ; be mindful: "portable" apps are NOT meant to be associated with other protocols/files/applications etc. ...

Apologies, I've never used one of those versions, but I had always assumed that's exactly what they do, keeping the User Data folder within the extracted files folder, and not changing the registry at all (which is also an option on the installer version). Sorry for misleading information if that's not the case.

I noticed with the new battery icon, the smart charging heart on supported laptops doesn't appear. I'm not sure if that's intentional.

The tests on a Windows Embedded for Point of Service (32 bits) machine are complete and have shown, that the Windows XP (32 bits) update can not be used in Windows Embedded for Point of Service (32 bits). So there is a separate update available, now. The update "WINDOWSXP-OTSKB000001-V2-X86-EMBEDDED-INTL.exe" has been released to the general public. The help file "OTSKB.chm" has been updated accordingly. The code comparison file "code.htm" has not been changed. --- things to do: Windows Server 2003 update: add the version "5.2.3790.6946" of the file "win32k.sys" to "code.htm" add the version "5.2.3791.0001-V1" of the file "win32k.sys" to "code.htm" add the update "Windows Server 2003/OTSKB000001-V1" to the help file write the update test it release it Windows Embedded POSReady 2009 update: add the version "5.1.2600.7684" of the file "win32k.sys" to "code.htm" add the version "5.1.2602.0001-V1" of the file "win32k.sys" to "code.htm" add the update "Windows Embedded POSReady 2009/OTSKB000001-V1" to the help file write the update test it release it

No, not really. That is the "this is not an INSTALLER, just EXTRACT and EXECUTE" version. To make it PORTABLE, you have to "wrap it" wit a LOADER so that the .exe doesn't save files outside of its own directory, so that it doesn't make permanent changes to the registry, etc.

@UsefulAGKHelper https://web.archive.org/web/20230517185040/https://anonfiles.com/J1W9H1a8y1/W2003_tools_update_7z

The 'nonsetup' zip versions are the portable versions. https://github.com/win32ss/supermium/releases 🙂

@Dietmar Do you have the file? (W2003_tools_update.7z)

W2003_tools_update.7z link is invalid...

I recommend Chrome++ ,but it doesn't work on XP

The way that I do it, it does not matter if there is a portable version or not - *ALL* Chrome/Chromium-based browsers 'can be made' portable Just replace the "bin" folder with the Supermium files that you want to turn into a portable version. You can start with anything that is already portable (360Chrome, PortableApps, WinPenPack, the list is endless).

is there a portable version

If you have Google Messages (you can probably do the same with any other SMS application) you can set sound on for it's notifications and disable the sound for any other notification, if this is what you want. You just have to config the notifications by app.

Of course there is Firefox ESR 115 also (currently the 115.30 version).

It seems the image has been compressed to jpeg at some point, I can see artifacts around the text. I Guess GitHub re-encoded himself in this huge png.

Ooops, sorry, the thread title had me looking for Win7 but you did cite Vista.

Windows Telemetry has existed since Windows 2000! But that aside, maybe this will be of use -- https://gist.github.com/xvitaly/eafa75ed2cb79b3bd4e9

Was telemetry added to Vista? Write KB, I'll check what these updates are. Maybe there's something important there. Because I installed all the updates that are available.