Forums Feature Suggestions U3 Support

http://www.u3.com/developers/default.aspx

Portable mirc on usb flashdrives. Add putty, firefox, and text editor

Err.. I already have a copy of my mIRC (with my scripts) stored on my Flash Drive.

So long as you are using it in an OS with Windows, it should function just fine.

As a simple example, there are a few settings mirc stores in the registry, these settings are therefor either lost from pc to pc, or overwrote from pc to pc. (since i havn't tried it i cant be sure of the exact behavior). For mirc to be u3 compliant it would have to be able to be moved from pc to pc without affecting any part of the program or its settings, and without leaving traces on the pcs its used on.

The only real reason to not leave a "trace" as far as mIRC goes, is if you're trying to be devious at your work place, and just want to use IRC without anyone knowing it.

Considering Khaled hasn't made a port of mIRC to any other OS, I'm not entirely sure he'd go out of his way to make it compliant to this.

Besides what DOES mIRC store in registry?

It won't be long until companies start using software to watch which processes are running, and then own your ass hard when you think you're in the clear just because you have a "no trace" program. =]

That is a narrow point of view applied to a wider subject. Being U3 compliant, i assume means dont leave junk on a pc, just becuase u ran on it, which is mighty logical if its a simple usb drive program. Why not have this, it would be incredibly simple to add in, a simple command line switch -u3 aka dont add any of the reg settings you normally do if u dont fnd them!

I for one dont like the idea of someone locking mirc, then pulling the usb drive out, leaving a lock code in the registry, thats just such a nice thng to have to remember where it is and delete it.

When i mention not leaving a trace i was indeed refering to leaving junk behind. This includes but is not limited to the registry settings, for example if the pc already has a copy of mirc installed one of two things could happen, either your settings are changed or over ridden by those in the pcs own registry.. or visa versa. This is just a simple example. As far as u3 compliance with mirc goes i cant see it being that hard to do since there is infact quite minimal system dependancy in mirc.

Obviously there is a little more to u3 compliant programs than just running from a u3 smart usb drive without affecting the program or the pc its launched on. ( read www.u3.com ) But the basic jist of it is to install the software onto the u3 smart drive as if doing a network type install (in the sense that it is treated like its own system/platform, not just as a storage device for the current system)

u3 isn't just designed for programs to be able to run from a usb drive, its designed to allow you to actually take your platform with you, including documents, your entire desktop environment, programs of your choice, ect... a u3 smart drive includes built in functionality to auto sync selected things with your home pc, its own launchpad (re:start menu), security and much more.

If you check the website their is fairly good demonstration video that shows the basic concept.

U3 even provides developers with developer kits, sdk, and support with making their software u3 compliant/supported (infact has its own .u3i executable format)

Its definately not just a 2 minute job, but for anybody that often uses different pcs (even within their own home), its a great solution to having to configure/install software, access documents, and so on, in order to perform your common tasks effortlessly.

Anyway, as you probably gather i would also very much like to see official compliance or u3i compiled installer for mirc.

Maybe someone should just make a "Windows Virtual Machine" of some sort that is U3 compliant, in which you could run your programs through it, for programs that have no intentions of becoming U3 compliant.

Edit: And yes, I *gathered* that much, since you sound like a spokesman for U3. I've seen quite a few "U3" fanboys lately.

I think it would be good to have some kind of vm installer built into the u3 smart drives. You could then copy a programs installer to the device, and run the it through the vm so that it sees the usb drive as its own system and not just a storage extention to the system its plugged into.

Simply put, its not a matter of it running from the device, its a matter of it being properly installed and self contained on it. mIRC relies on many aspects of windows to work, which would possibly need altering in some way or another in order to compile to run correctly on a non windows system. Since the usb drives in question require windows, i dont see how the suggestion here if at all the same as the 'mirc for linux' one.


My reply was mearly to provide more information since you seemed to miss the point of the original suggestion. With a childish response like that next time i will not bother.

Of corse i dont seriously expect a lot of effort to be put into it, if at all, and im sure if it were concidered it would come way down the to do list but whatever.

Its mostly the data in the registry. Its not that i want to hide the fact that im using it, I dont work at a place where i have easy access to a pc at all times. Its more for the ability to be able to keep it on a flashdrive, then say if i move pcs or am going away from my main system at home, i can just close it out, pull the drive and plug it right back into my laptop. Same settings, logs and everything just as i left it on the pc, no having to copy registry settings and such.

I belive the only thing that is stored in the registry is just the user/serial codes and smoe other useless data, no settings as those are already stored in the ini. Perhaps just a setting to force mirc to store those registry values in the mirc.ini file instead?

Om3n: Just to clarify, I understand what U3 is for. I understand why the fanboys are all over it. It's not a lack of understanding on my behalf. I simply just am not a fanboy of it, as I really don't -go- anywhere that requires me to take stuff with me.

You get up in arms easily from my comments on it. Which I do find rather amusing. My last comment was more of a constructive one. As in saying, why not find a way to set a proxy layer between the program being run on the drive, and the real windows registry.

Also to clarify, I had joked around about this -very- subject a few months back. I've known what U3 is for quite a while. Though from your posts, you seem to assume I know nothing about it, simply because I'm not backing it by saying "YES SUPERB IDEA."

A month or two ago, someone on an IRC channel with me mentioned a U3 compliant Putty. I joked around with the person mentioning they should make a VMware for U3, so you could technically run things through.

Secondly, how hard would it be to write a sort of proxy, to start other programs, let those programs read the registry but not write to it?

As I haven't actually written any programs that make use of Registry Settings, I'm just curious if that could be done. Perhaps the proxy "registry" layer could sit between the program and "Windows XP" or whatever windows OS you want to run, allowing you to check the proxy registry before the windows registry. If something isn't found in the proxy registry, it would read from the windows registry. If something was found in the proxy registry, it would read from it instead, but would always write to the proxy registry.

Not sure if that's even possible, but not a bad idea, especially if you'd like to use a program that's not being updated anymore from your USB drive.

To clarify once more, I'm not saying U3 support for mIRC is a bad idea. Options are always nice to have, that's what made mIRC what it is today.

there is a wonderful thing implemented called DLLS! why not just script a dll for your -u3 support. obviously, if there already is registry settings mirc wont overwrite them, rather it uses them... so, with a dll, you could import your registry settings, and remove them on exit, or restore the previous ones on exit.. problem solved. there are windows API's for manipulating the registry, theres API's for reading and writing ini files too, all you need to do is include windows.h and you're ready to roll. if you wanted U3 compliance, it would be just simple for you to script it as it would be for khaled to implement it, he's got far better things to work on with his time.

I got the impression from your original post/s that you did not know a lot about it, since it seemed like you missed the point of the suggestion. It was only my intention to provide more information. It seems i got the wrong impression, in any case your personal view (for/against/not bothered) on the suggestion was not the basis of my replies.

I dont disagree with your suggestions at all, there is much room for improvement with the firmware for these drives, the inclusion of a registry/environment layer (though not sure about implementation or how easy/hard it might be to do) would indeed be a good step towards a more global solution to self contained problems on the devices., rather than some programs themself needing to be altered.

In my experience calling somebody a fanboy is rarely said in a manner that is not mocking or derogative, so it was taken as an unprovoked flame. Either way it was forgotten about by the time i'd finished commenting about it.

In reply to the last poster, i agree there is a huge array of much more useful things to spend developement time on.

Sorry about that, my use of fanboys isn't meant to provoke. I tend to use the term rather than saying something "people who follow the programs progress closely, and hope for their most used programs to follow suite" since it's a bit lengthy to type, and "fanboy(girl)" generally gets that idea across.

You could call me an mIRC fanboy, I'd just say "Damn right!#" =D