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A portable application (portable app), sometimes also called standalone, is a program designed to run on a compatible computer without being installed leaving the computer's configuration information intact. This type of application can be stored on any storage device, including internal mass storage and external storage such as USB drives and floppy disks – storing its program files and any configuration information and data on the storage medium alone. If no configuration information is required a portable program can be run from read-only storage such as CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs. Such applications are commonly used on restricted machines due to the nature in which they do not interact or modify the system. They are considered safe since they run the same executable code and thus neither add nor retract any functionality of their installable counterparts. Some applications are available in both installable and portable versions. Some applications which are not portable by default support optional portability through other mechanisms, the most common being command-line arguments. Examples might include "/portable" to simply instruct the program to behave as a portable program, or "--cfg=/path/inifile" to specify the configuration file location. Like any application, portable applications must be compatible with the computer system hardware and operating system. Depending on the operating system, ''portability'' is more or less complex to implement; to operating systems such as AmigaOS, all applications are by definition portable. Portable apps are distinct from ''software portability'', source code written to be compilable into different executable programs for different computing platforms. == Portable Windows applications == A portable application does not leave its files or settings on the host computer or modify the existing system and its configuration. The application does not write to the Windows registry or store its configuration files (such as an INI file) in the user's profile; instead, it stores its configuration files in the portable directory. Another requirement, since file paths will often differ on changing computers due to variation in Windows drive letter assignments, is the need for applications to store them in a ''relative'' format. While some applications have options to support this behavior, many programs are not designed to do this. A common technique for such programs is the use of a launcher program to copy necessary settings and files to the host computer when the application starts and move them back to the application's directory when it closes. An alternative strategy for achieving application portability within Windows, without requiring application source code changes, is application virtualization: An application is "sequenced" or "packaged" against a runtime layer that transparently intercepts its file system and registry calls, then redirects these to other persistent storage without the application's knowledge. This approach leaves the application itself unchanged, yet portable. The same approach is used for individual application components: run-time libraries, COM components or ActiveX, not only for the entire application. As a result, when individual components are ported in such manner they are able to be: integrated into original portable applications, repeatedly instantiated (virtually installed) with different configurations/settings on the same operating system (OS) without mutual conflicts. As the ported components do not affect the OS-protected related entities (registry and files), the components will not require administrative privileges for installation and management. Microsoft saw the need for an application-specific registry for its Windows operating system as far back as 2005.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://ip.com/patapp/US20070136241 )〕 It eventually incorporated some of this technology, using the techniques mentioned above, via its Application Compatibility Database using its Detours 〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/detours/ )〕 code library, into Windows XP. It did not make any of this technology available via its system APIs. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「A portable application (portable app), sometimes also called standalone, is a program designed to run on a compatible computer without being installed leaving the computer's configuration information intact. This type of application can be stored on any storage device, including internal mass storage and external storage such as USB drives and floppy disks – storing its program files and any configuration information and data on the storage medium alone. If no configuration information is required a portable program can be run from read-only storage such as CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs. Such applications are commonly used on restricted machines due to the nature in which they do not interact or modify the system. They are considered safe since they run the same executable code and thus neither add nor retract any functionality of their installable counterparts. Some applications are available in both installable and portable versions.Some applications which are not portable by default support optional portability through other mechanisms, the most common being command-line arguments. Examples might include "/portable" to simply instruct the program to behave as a portable program, or "--cfg=/path/inifile" to specify the configuration file location.Like any application, portable applications must be compatible with the computer system hardware and operating system.Depending on the operating system, ''portability'' is more or less complex to implement; to operating systems such as AmigaOS, all applications are by definition portable. Portable apps are distinct from ''software portability'', source code written to be compilable into different executable programs for different computing platforms.== Portable Windows applications ==A portable application does not leave its files or settings on the host computer or modify the existing system and its configuration. The application does not write to the Windows registry or store its configuration files (such as an INI file) in the user's profile; instead, it stores its configuration files in the portable directory. Another requirement, since file paths will often differ on changing computers due to variation in Windows drive letter assignments, is the need for applications to store them in a ''relative'' format. While some applications have options to support this behavior, many programs are not designed to do this. A common technique for such programs is the use of a launcher program to copy necessary settings and files to the host computer when the application starts and move them back to the application's directory when it closes.An alternative strategy for achieving application portability within Windows, without requiring application source code changes, is application virtualization: An application is "sequenced" or "packaged" against a runtime layer that transparently intercepts its file system and registry calls, then redirects these to other persistent storage without the application's knowledge. This approach leaves the application itself unchanged, yet portable.The same approach is used for individual application components: run-time libraries, COM components or ActiveX, not only for the entire application. As a result, when individual components are ported in such manner they are able to be: integrated into original portable applications, repeatedly instantiated (virtually installed) with different configurations/settings on the same operating system (OS) without mutual conflicts. As the ported components do not affect the OS-protected related entities (registry and files), the components will not require administrative privileges for installation and management.Microsoft saw the need for an application-specific registry for its Windows operating system as far back as 2005.(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://ip.com/patapp/US20070136241 ) It eventually incorporated some of this technology, using the techniques mentioned above, via its Application Compatibility Database using its Detours (【引用サイトリンク】url=http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/detours/ ) code library, into Windows XP. It did not make any of this technology available via its system APIs.」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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