User guide (winPenPack v3.4). winPenPack Programs All programs included in winPenPack are portable, do not require installation and are immediately available. Every program saves its

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User guide (winPenPack v3.4)

1. Description2. Download, setup and uninstall3. First run and usage4. How winPenPack menu works 5. winPenPack Programs6. winPenPack folder structure7. XDrive folder and X-Launcher8. How to update, add and remove programs from winPenPack9. Modify and customization of an existing winPenPack10. Localization management11. Translating software lists (winPenPack_xx.xml) and menu interface (your_lang.xml)

1. Description

winPenPack is an applications environment of Free softwares, modified for being run and used from an USB pendrive, without need of installation. The removable device, so, is no more a simple data container, but becomes a really self-contained environment, within programs and documents are homogeneously integrated. "Portable" softwares included into winPenPack does not need to be installed, does not write their settings into host PC, and can be easily carried between multiple computers through any external device, as removable hard disks or USB pendrives.After inserting the USB pendrive into a free USB port of host PC, user will have immediately available a collection of pre-configured and ready to use programs, subdivided in categories and executable through a practical menu, analogue to Windows Quick Launch, the winPenPack Launcher. User will feel as is working on its own PC, with web browsers, e-mail clients, image and drawing editors, chat clients, PC maintenance and security, school, development. All he needs, always available. All these features make winPenPack extremely useful in any field.

2. Download, setup and uninstall

winPenPacks are distributed in .zip and .exe format. Once you have downloaded one of the winPenPack editions from the download section or directly from home page, you need to extract program files and dirs of .zip archive using any compression/decompression tool (like WinZIP, WinRAR, 7zip), or simply following the Windows built-in unpacking wizard. Choosing the option to download setup.exe file, an automatic procedure "installs" winPenPack files and folders on pendrive or hard disk, without access to Windows registry or user folders.

Also .zip decompression doesn’t affect Windows registry and doesn’t need administrative rights to be performed. This allows also limited user accounts to install winPenPack.

If you want to use the collection from pendrive USB, install it in the root of an empty pendrive or with enough free space (i.e: G:\ or H:\ and not H:\winPenPack Flash 1Gb\).

Copyright © winPenPack 2005-2008

http://www.winpenpack.com/

http://localhost:85/e107/

http://localhost:85/e107/download.php

http://www.winpenpack.com/main/e107_plugins/forum/forum.php

http://www.winpenpack.com/main/e107_plugins/forum/forum.php

mailto:[email protected]



Extraction on pendrive:

Instead, if you want to use winPenPack from hard disk, you MUST NOT copy files and folders directly in the main root (C:\ or D:\), but is preferable a dedicated subfolder (i.e.: C:\winPenPack Flash 1Gb\).

Extraction on hard disk:



Installation through setup is analogous. Execute the setup.exe:

Pendrive installation (use drive root folder):

Hard disk installation (use a dedicated folder - OTHER THAN drive root folder):



For uninstalling winPenPack from hard disk or from USB pendrive, is enough to manually delete the folder containing winPenPack.exe and winPenPack folder (with all its contents). If winPenPack is installed in the root folder of USB pendrive, then you need to delete from root folder winPenPack.exe and autorun.inf files and winPenPack folder (with all its contents).Warning: before uninstalling winPenPack, backup your personal data (winPenPack\Documents folder) and programs settings (winPenPack\User for X-Softwares, while for other programs it depends by chance).

3. First run and usage

As depicted above, the collection can be used either from USB pendrive or from hard disk. In first case, the winPenPack menu will automatically create a hidden file called autorun.inf for pendrive automatic start. This happens because menu automatically recognizes winPenPack folder position that, in this case, must be in pendrive root (i.e. G:\, H:\). In second case, instead, since winPenPack is positioned in a subfolder of root folder, autorun.inf file will not be created, because not necessary. Note: the file autorun.inf will be created only after winPenPack.exe first run, so could not be immediately visible.Free space on pendrive could be not enough to contain entirely winPenPack. Generally, a good choice is to install a winPenPack with a less size with respect to pendrive free space, as suggested also in packs download pages, because data saving (program profiles, documents, downloads, etc..) will occur on pendrive. In any case, if free space on the pendrive is not enough to contain the complete winPenPack collection, you can try to format pendrive with various file systems, trying both FAT and FAT32 file system. After this, you could recover on pendrive more free space.

Once the setup procedure is finished, the winPenPack folder and the winPenPack.exe will be in the root of your pendrive.

See in picture autorun.inf file created just after first run of winPenPack.exe



4. How winPenPack menu works

To start using winPenPack, you need to run winPenPack.exe

Double clicking on this file, a new icon will appear in your System Tray.

Left-clicking on this icon, a tree menu very similar to Windows Quick Launch will appear. From here is possible to easily access to winPenPack menu options, programs and predefined folders (see right image).

Double-clicking on winPenPack System Tray icon, a main menu window will open. From this "active" mode is possible to personalize menu and modify every category, folder and application data (see left image).



5. winPenPack Programs

All programs included in winPenPack are portable, do not require installation and are immediately available. Every program saves its settings on pendrive or, if installed on hard disk, just under \winPenPack folder. They do not write anything either in user folders (C:\Documents and Settings\User_name\Application Data or C:\Documents and Settings\User_name) and Windows registry. Once they have been configured by the user (e-mail accounts, single program preferences, internet favorites, etc.), they will preserve all configurations on any host PC they will be executed, and also independently from unit letter (i.e. H:\ or F:\) of disk (pendrive or hard disk) from where winPenPack will be executed.

In particular, where allowed by program structure, predefined folders of programs are already set. For example, for X-Mule, \incoming and \temp folders will point to winPenPack\Downloads\Incoming and winPenPack\Downloads\Temp respectively. Also, for X-WackGet, the download folder is set on winPenPack\Downloads\WackGet; for X-Scribus, documents folder is set on winPenPack\Documents\Scribus and for X-OpenOffice it is set on winPenPack\Documents\OpenOffice. Of course, also in this case, all these paths are independent from host PC and winPenPack disk unit letter.

winPenPack contains two main software categories: "Portable Softwares" and "X-Softwares". Portable softwares are natively portable programs that save their settings only in their folder and don’t write anything on registry; in winPenPack folder structure, any Portable Software saves its settings into winPenPack\Bin\Program_Name folder.

X-Softwares are, indeed, natively NOT portable programs, designed and portabilized by winPenPack Team by mean of universal launcher X-Launcher. They have, so, to work in "portable mode", through redirecting user directories or exporting registry keys. Usually, they save their settings into winPenPack\User\Program_Name folder, but, exceptionally, they could save their settings into winPenPack\Bin\Program_Name.

6. winPenPack folder structure

winPenPack applications environment is designed with a distinct folders structure, each with separate functions:

1. Backups: folder used for backup copies of configurations files, needed by some programs (also winPenPack launcher menu creates backup copies of its configuration .xml file, where are written all menu links for each application).

2. Bin: folder containing all files and executables of each application (belonging to both X-Software or Portable Software cathegories). In case of updating, deleting or adding a software, will be necessary to act mainly in \Bin, for update, delete or add folder containing program original files.

3. Cache: folder used as cache area by programs that need this feature.

4. Documents: folder used to store personal documents, files and data.

5. Downloads: folder used by download managers (X-WackGet) and P2P programs (X-Mule).

6. Lib: folder used to store EXE or DLL files needed and shared by some different programs (i.e. GTK files used by X-Pidgin, X-StarDict and others, Java used by X-OpenOffice, X-GeoGebra, X-Freemind or Ghostscript libraries used by X-Scribus).



7. User: folder used to store user configurations. A lot of programs in their common usage (normal installation on hard disk), usually save their configurations in %USERPROFILE% directory (this is a hidden folder, usually C:\Document and Settings\User_name), or in %APPDATA% folder (usually C:\Document and Settings\User_name\Application Data). As said above, all X-Softwares, on the contrary of Portable Softwares, save their configurations into winPenPack\User\Program_Name folder. This is possible using X-Launcher, an universal launcher that makes applications portable redirecting %USERPROFILE% and %APPDATA% paths and saving into \User\Program_Name the exports of program registry keys and settings.

8. XDrive: folder used to store all X-Launchers and their .ini configuration files. For more info about X-Launcher, please see this section or download the X-Launcher .Zip package from download section.

7. XDrive folder and X-Launcher

As already said, \XDrive folder contains all X-Launchers and their .ini configuration files, necessary to ensure programs portability. \XDrive folder contains also X-Launcher.cfg that set package file system, editable preferably only by expert users. \XDrive folder is fundamental for personalization of own copy of winPenPack, adding or removing programs. \XDrive contains one X-Program Launcher and one .ini file for each X-Program present in \Bin folder:

In some winPenPack releases, we made a experimental modification, mainly to free-up space on pendrive. We use only ONE X-Launcher handling all .ini files present in \XDrive folder. So a single X-Launcher was enough to make portable and starting all programs, through configuration .ini files, for each X-Software present in the pack:



http://localhost:85/e107/download.php?view.17

http://localhost:85/e107/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.10

However, due to a superior complexity for setting associations between the various winPenPack X-Softwares, starting from 3.2 release we prefer to return back to old \XDrive folder structure, containig so one X-Launcher for program.

8. How to update, add and remove programs from winPenPack

Run winPenPack.exe (double click on file). The winPenPack icon will appear in your System Tray.

Open "winPenPack" folder:



Add Portable Softwares to winPenPack:

To add "Portable Softwares" to winPenPack, uncompress zipped files of each application (or EXE setup using Universal Extractor) and copy or move program folder into winPenPack\Bin folder of winPenPack launcher structure:

Double-clicking on winPenPack System Tray icon, a main menu window will open. Open program folder (\Bin\Program_Name). Drag program executable into menu window with drag&drop. The program will then be visible in the menu and will be possible to run it.



http://www.winpenpack.com/main/download.php?view.394

Add X-Softwares to winPenPack:

X-Softwares can be automatically installed in the menu through "Install X-Software..." option. With this command, the menu extracts and imports .zip archives of the X-Software downloaded by Download section.

Is also possible to update a X-Software to a new release simply installing the new release in the same position of the old one.



Manual insert procedure for add X-Softwares:

Following procedure, that depict in details how to manually adding X-Softwares to menu, is NO LONGER NEEDING, referring to previous winPenPack releases, where automatic installation of X-Softwares was not already expected. We keep it for sake of completeness (and, for expert users, for describing X-Softwares, and, for extension, winPenPack mechanism), well knowing that the majority of users will prefer use the automatic install procedure.

For manually adding X-Softwares to menu, first of all, you must note that their internal structure is identical to winPenPack one: for each program, main folder is under \Bin\Program_Name folder, eventual libraries are under \Lib folder, settings are saved under \User\Program_Name, eventual backups are saved under \Backup\Program_Name, etc.

For example, let's take a look to X-Scribus 1.3.4. Is noticeable the correspondence between "separate folders" winPenPack structure and X-Software structure. In fact, the "X-Scribus_1.3.4" folder structure is the same of "winPenPack" folder structure:

X-Scribus folder:

Under "Bin" folder you can find "Scribus" subfolder (containing Scribus, the original program), under "User" folder you can find "Scribus" subfolder (containigs user settings) and under "Lib" folder you can find "Ghostscript" subfolder (requisite to Scribus correct running):

X-Scribus\Bin\Scribus\X-Scribus\Lib\Ghostscript\X-Scribus \User\Scribus\

Folders structure:

Finally, when you want to add manually a X-Software to winPenPack, you need to detect same folders of winPenPack and X-Software (in particular "Bin" and "Lib", containing useful data) and copy the corresponding subfolders of the latter (in this case, "Scribus" and "Ghostscript") into the corresponding winPenPack folders. You could also consider to copy directly the X-Scribus_1.3.4 folder contents (note: the content, i.e. just what X-Program_Name contains) into "winPenPack" folder. Due to identical folders structure, the system will ask confirm to overwrite files. Answer "Yes, All" for update "Bin" and "Lib" folders content: "Scribus" folder will be copied into winPenPack\Bin folder and "Ghostscript" folder will be copied into winPenPack\Lib folder.



X-Scribus case study:

In details, the procedure is as follows:

Insert only folders containing program executables (X-Software\Bin\Program_Name) into winPenPack\Bin folder:

Some X-Softwares, for their correct functionning, need some external programs or libraries, for example Java, GTK and Ghostscript, that are shared (for obvious disk space reasons) between more programs present into winPenPack. Examine this FAQ for additional info about Java integration into winPenPack (in the case it was not already present). Insert these libraries folders, located under X-Software \Lib folder, into winPenPack\Lib folder:



http://www.winpenpack.com/main/e107_plugins/faq/faq.php?0.cat.5.19

Insert program X-Launcher and related .ini file into \XDrive folder:

Create then a link to X-Program_Name.exe launcher present into \XDrive folder into winPenPack menu, through drag&drop:



About this, we need to clarify a concept. As depicted, in some winPenPack versions all X-Launchers (.exe) files have been deleted from winPenPack\XDrive folder, making just a single X-Launcher.exe to manage all .ini configuration files.

Above procedure (insert X-Program_Name.exe launcher and related .ini file into \XDrive folder and drag&drop launcher icon into menu) is the simpler and suggested for manually adding a X-Software to winPenPack. It is also possible to configure winPenPack programs inserting just .ini files into \XDrive folder, without adding also X-Program_Name.exe executables. This could allow to save a lot of disk space (for winPenPack Flash 1Gb, roughly 25 MB).

In this case, X-Software must be manually added to menu through "Add software (F4)" option:



In the following configuration form, you have to fill "Executable path" field with X-Launcher.exe (the only existing one, located in \XDrive folder) path and "Parameters (optional)" field with –-x-launcher-config option, followed by .ini file name:

9. Modify and customization of an existing winPenPack

Add programsTo add "Portable softwares" to an existing winPenPack, just copy the program folder into \winPenPack\Bin directory and, using drag & drop, create a link to the executable in winPenPack menu (view points 3, 4 and 5). To add "X-Softwares" to an official winPenPack, use "Install X-Software..." option. To manually add "X-Softwares" to winPenPack, copy X-Program_Name.exe and X-Program_Name.ini file in \winPenPack\XDrive folder, copy the application folder (X-Software\Bin\Program_Name) in \winPenPack\Bin folder, copy all related libraries from X-Software\Lib folder to \winPenPack\Lib folder. Then, using drag&drop, create a link in winPenPack menu to \winPenPack\XDrive\X-Program_Name.exe (view points 2, 4, 6, 7 and 8 ).

Remove programsTo remove "Portable softwares" from an official winPenPack, just remove the Program_Name folder from \winPenPack\Bin folder and delete program link from the winPenPack menu. To remove "X-Softwares" from an official winPenPack, does not exists an antomatic procedure. Just remove Program_Name folder from \winPenPack\Bin directory, remove all X-Program_Name related libraries from \winPenPack\Lib folder (caring about other programs sharing same libraries) and remove X-Program_Name.exe and X-Program_Name.ini files from \winPenPack\XDrive folder. Then, delete the X-Program_Name link from winPenPack menu.

Update programs To update "Portable softwares" into winPenPack, just replace the program folder in \winPenPack\Bin folder with new one. The link to the executable will be still visible only if executable name is unchanged. Optionally, you can check the program link in winPenPack menu and, if needed, rebuild with new .exe name through "Browse..." button. Warning: many programs of this category save some settings also into the own folder through .ini, .xml, .cfg files, etc.. Therefore, before replacing the program folder in \winPenPack\Bin directory, the best practice is to backup all these files (or other folders containing settings) and then restore them in the updated program folder. To update "X-Softwares" into winPenPack, is enough to use "Install X-Software..." menu option, installing new version in the same position of old one. For manually update an X-Software, just replace the program folder in \winPenPack\Bin folder with new one. X-Softwares have a "separated folders" structure and save user settings into \User\Program_Name directory which has no changes also after the update process. Note: some X-Softwares exceptionally save their setting also into their own folder. In this case also, before replacing the program folder in \winPenPack\Bin directory, you must backup these files or other subfolders containing settings and then restore them in the updated program main folder.



10. Localization management

winPenPack is localized in several languages. Thanks to the contribution of translators who collaborate to the project, for the menu interface it is possible to choose between Czech, Deutsch, English, French, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Thai.

winPenPack_xx.xml files situated in winPenPack\User\winpenpack_launcher\ folder contain winPenPack software lists in several languages. Changing interface language from the options of winPenPack menu, it will be changed also programs list to _xx language, if winPenPack_xx.xml file in the corresponding language is present; if winPenPack_xx.xml is not present, will be read the list in english (winPenPack_en.xml). For example, choosing the spanish language for the menu interface (spanish.xml), it will appear the spanish programs list if the winPenPack_es.xml file is present in winPenPack\User\winpenpack_launcher\ directory. Without this file, it will appear the english programs list.

winPenPack distributions in .zip format include programs provided with all their original languages (that can be manually deleted by users, if not used), while winPenPack distributions in .exe format (setup) give the users the double choice to install all languages (multilanguage installation, selecting "Additional languages" during setup) or to include only English and Italian languages. The new localization mechanism, introduced by release 3.4, allow, simply changing menu language, to consistently change also programs list language and single programs language (if available). This functionality, at this moment, is limited just to Italian and English, but can potentially be extended to all languages. For example, changing Italian interface to English one, the programs list language will also be shown in English, and all programs in the collection will run with English interface (note: some programs, i.e. X-Filezilla, X-WinMerge, X-Gimp will run in the host PC operative system language). Returning back to Italian interface, also programs list and single programs will be shown with Italian interface.

11. Translating software lists (winPenPack_xx.xml) and menu interface (your_lang.xml)

Who wants to contribute to winPenPack development, can collaborate translating programs lists and menu interface in their languages, posting translated .xml files in the specific forum section.

Programs lists files:

To translate winPenPack programs lists in other languages, you just need to open one of winPenPack_xx.xml files with a text editor (i.e. X-SciTE, X-NotePad++) and translate in your language the single voices delimited by tags <files name=



http://www.winpenpack.com/main/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewforum.php?31

Indicate the name of the translated language between the tags <Language></Language>; i.e. for Spanish:

Save and rename therefore the winPenPack_xx.xml file with the code of translated language (i.e. winPenPack_es.xml for Spanish).

Menu interface files:



To translate the winPenPack menu interface in other languages, you can perform the same job on the files that can be found into winPenPack\User\winpenpack_launcher\Lang\ folder, translating in your language the single voices (in black in the image) delimited by tags (in blue in the image):

Indicate the international acronym of the translated language between the tags <LangCode></LangCode>; i.e. for Spanish:

Save and rename your .xml file to translated_language.xml (i.e. spanish.xml):

