SyMenu Forum

laffin_boy

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08/12/2014 Topic: Import from flashdrive? laffin_boy	Hi, i'm building a "computer-on-a-stick" and i'm trying to use SM as it's "Start Menu". It has an impressive set of features and i'm looking forward to gettting it fully configured. I recreated the folder structure from my computer's "Apps" partition on the flash drive - about 100 apps - and i'm trying to figure out how to build a tree-style "Start Menu" within the SM menu. I tried dragging the entire folder tree into the SM config window but that didn't work. If I have to do this manually, one at a time, it will probably take all day. Is there a way to import the entire folder structure so that I end up with all the app folders and a shortcut to the exe in each SM folder? Second question: The online manual shows the ability of SM to assign colored folder icons during config but when I click on that button nothing happens and the SyMenu\Icons folder is empty. Or was until I manually added 2 icons. But when I selected these icons while setting up a folder SM didn't show it in the config window as it does in the manual but it does show the icons when using the SM menu. laffin_boy edited by laffin_boy on 08/12/2014
10/12/2014 Topic: Import from flashdrive? laffin_boy	Thanks for your reply. I'm really liking this program as I get used to it. Thank you for offering it. you said; :Add a SyFolder click the button in the red circle and choose your preferred icon. See this pic. This is what I get when I attempt to use a colored folder icon on a "container" laffin_boy
11/12/2014 Topic: Import from flashdrive? laffin_boy	Gianluca wrote: Ok. You probably have a problem caused by your OS or your .NET installation My primary laptop is XP SP3 with .Net 2.0, 3.0 & 3.5. I haven't experienced any other graphic issues wiith ths machine. I tried another XP SP3 laptop with .Net 2.3 & 3.0 Same results. :-( laffin_boy
12/12/2014 Topic: Import from flashdrive? laffin_boy	Gianluca wrote: I can easily workaround the XP bug but you have to wait for the next version that is not so close. I think I will release it in January or February. Its not a big deal to me. I'll look forward to the next release. please install the .NET framework 4.0 (or 4.5.1) in your machines. SyMenu takes great advantage from that in terms of execution speed. Thanks for that tip. Actually i'm building this "computer-on-a-stick" because i'm about to do a custom, very complicated, multi-step upgrade of my laptop to Win 7 (i've "milked" XP for as long as a can) and the flashdrive with it's custom SyMenu will make the job a lot easier. For example being able to use non-portable apps because SyMenu can point them to a local %appdata% folder! It's brilliant. So I just went to your website and made a donation to keep you working on this great program! laffin_boy
18/12/2014 Topic: SyMenu suite laffin_boy	If I may chime in w/ my humble opinion: making huge suites of apps available for users to D/L & install w/o having to do any research on the individual apps in the suite runs the risk of ending up w/ the Hiren's Boot Disk problem - 500+ apps on your disk and you only know what to do w/ 6 of them. IE: More is not Always Better. My instinct has been to try different utilities to fix my current problem, choose the one that works best for me, learn how to use it & then add it to my toolkit. That keeps my toolkit light enough so that I can still lift it. laffin_boy
18/12/2014 Topic: Relative Paths? laffin_boy	Hi Gianluca, When I built my flashdrive SyMenu ended up in a folder here: flashdrive:\F_Apps\System\File_Sys\SyMenu\SyMenu.exe and I put a link at the root of the drive which had the following path: I:\F_Apps\System\File_Sys\SyMenu\SyMenu.exe But today I plugged my FD into a Win 8 computer and started SyMenu. The computer found SyMenu and then re-wrote the link to the F: drive so that when I plugged the FD back into my own laptop I had to repair the link in order to start SyMenu. So is there a way to write a relative path to SyMenu so that the shortcut works regardless of what drive letter it gets assigned? laffin_boy.
19/12/2014 Topic: Relative Paths? laffin_boy	Gianluca wrote: create a simple .cmd file in the root containing this command: start F_Apps\System\File_Sys\SyMenu\SyMenu.exe Works great!! Thanks once again. laffin_boy
04/04/2018 Topic: Path to SyMenu Apps? laffin_boy	HI, I have several shareware apps I want to include in my WinApps" flashdrive that I normally "install" on my desktop machine after an OS reinstall by running a reg file that writes the necessary data to the registry. To use them on my "WinApps" flashdrive i'm willing to run an "reg_install" before starting this app and then run a reg_uninstall" file after closing the app but I can't figure out how to configure a working path in the reg files that will work on any computer. I looked in the help file but didn't find an answer.
05/04/2018 Topic: Path to SyMenu Apps? laffin_boy	Hi, Thanks for your reply. Gianluca wrote: Another solution is to force a bit the system using some sort of launcher (bat, cmd) for every app, each of them creates the registry keys before launching their own app. I suspect that I wasn't clear enough. My question (I think) is very narrow: What is the working syntax for the path of a command run from within the SyMenu environment that gets written to the registry of the host machine? IE: I have an app located at [unknown drive]\Apps\System\MyApp that I want to register on the host machine temporarily but I haven't been able to figure out how to do this after reading the section of the Help file on relative paths since the examples given assume that SyMenu is at the root of all my apps which is not my arrangement. Also I did a search for "Universal Unit Identifier" online and came up empty-handed.
05/04/2018 Topic: Path to SyMenu Apps? laffin_boy	Gianluca wrote: Is this answer helping you in any way? Exactly what I was looking for! I understand your point about PortableApps, etc but though they may have configurability that SyMenu (intentionally) doesn't have their "Marketing" drives me away. They're "selling" apps that I don't want or already have but providing very little to no explanation of what goes on "under the hood". In contrast to them - and, in fact most other software projects - you have put a lot of effort of writing a great explanation of how your software actually WORKS. Your application is transparent. You treat your "customers" like adults. That means a lot to me and so i'd much rather spend my time manually configuring SyMenu to the best of my ability because it inspires my respect & loyalty.
14/07/2023 Topic: AppData Problem laffin_boy	I'm trying to add several apps that use window's "AppData" folders to store their info and so far it's not working for me. Example: I added this program: .\SysMenu\X32\Connect\NetTraffic\NetTraffic.exe and then added an AppData subfolder to the NetTraffic folder. Then I went to the "Advanced" tab and I checked "Enable Advanced Parameters", entered this path into "Working Directory": .\X32\Connect\NetTraffic\NetTraffic.exe and under "Environmental Variables" I first tried: AppData=.\AppData and when that didn't work I then tried: AppData=. In both cases I got this error message then trying to launch the program: "The Directory Name is Invalid" I also tried 2 other programs that I configured the same way and they throw the same error. What am I doing wrong?
15/07/2023 Topic: AppData Problem laffin_boy	Thanks for your thoughts. Per your correction changing the Working Folder from an absolute path to a relative path fixed the problem. Now the "AppData" apps launch just fine!
21/07/2023 Topic: Line length Limit? laffin_boy	Using SysMenu I've built a "Troubleshooting Tools" "disk" to be able to work on other computers. When I do so I want to begin by loading my normal desktop environment ( since an as-installed Windoze desktop is just about worthless). And, once again, I have a problem with paths. (1) I built a "Startup.cmd" file for the 6 apps I want to load - trying ".\Sysmenu\|\App\App.exe" and "#:\SysMenu\App\App.exe" for paths but when SysMenu passes these paths to CMD and CMD reads the file it doesn't have a drive to start from so it's lost. And I can't specify a drive in advance. (2) So instead of pointing SM to an existing CMD file I used SM's own command option. I linked all 6 commands together (with " & ") on a single line. But that only starts 4 of the six apps because SM appears to have a string length limit for entering commands. My full single line command is 381 characters long but if I attempt to "scroll" to the end of the line it only shows about 2/3 of it so I assume that there's some internal limit that cuts off the end of my command. So how can I manually (no autostart) start up the 6 apps I want with one click?
22/07/2023 Topic: Line length Limit? laffin_boy	Thanks. Here's my SyMenu folder structure: .\SyMenu\x64\Category\App\app.exe and .\SyMenu\x64\Startup\Load_Desktop.cmd so once I changed the entries in my "Load_Desktop.com to: start ..\System\File_Sys\XYPlorer\XYplorer.exe start ..\Desktop\ClipCache\ClipCache_x64.exe etc Then everything worked like it does in the movies. In other words by using ".." in front of the address the command program is told to move back up one directory level - to the "x64" folder - from where it can now find the path to all of the apps. My problem here was understanding what the command program's working folder was - which has to do, I think, with how SyMenu "hands over" the cmd file to CMD.exe. BTW, sorry about renaming your program. SyMenu never made sense to me so I just decided that it should be SysMenu and in the process of doing so I managed to convince myself that the program was named SysMenu. ;^)