Atlantis portable doesn't work.

[MaximilianKohler]

I use a hard drive partition to keep all my documents and some programs so if I have to reformat the C: drive I don't have to spend a bunch of time backing things up and then moving them again after reinstall.

I followed the directions here http://www.atlantiswordprocessor.com/en ... drives.htm and installed it to a folder on my files partition.

It made a folder in C:\Users\User1\Documents & C:\ProgramData & C:\Users\User1\AppData\Roaming

I've tried before to just extract the install.exe and it did the same thing.

I searched these forums and saw a guy using a USB stick and having similar issues.

I also made a "save settings.bat" with this content: REG EXPORT "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Atlantis Word Processor" AtlantisSettings.reg

My "portable" atlantis.exe seems to only use the default settings unless I run that exported reg key. So the exe seems to only look to the registry for settings even though there is an atlantis.ini in the same folder.

Seems like it should be pretty easy to fix to make it fully portable.

I see there are already some related options in Tools -> options -> load/save, that let you specify folders not on the C: drive. But these don't seem to be affected by the registry settings. After running the .reg backup the "load/save" folders shown in Atlantis do not match the directory in the .reg backup I just ran.

Also, when running an extracted atlantis.exe from my files partition, even though it's making folders on the C: drive and reading from the registry, no "atlantis.ini" file exists on the C: drive.

[Robert]

Hi Maximilian,
You’re complicating things needlessly. What you call “portable Atlantis” is a version of Atlantis installed on a USB stick. If you follow the instructions at Atlantis on a memory flash drive faithfully, you should get a working version of Atlantis that has to be launched from the USB stick it was installed on. You could never get a working “portable Atlantis” if you try to install it on any hard drive partition. “Portable Atlantis” needs to be installed on a drive that your Windows system can identify as a removable drive.
Now if you have a recent version of Windows, you are going to run into all kind of unexpected trouble if you try to install any application outside the authorized standard folder (“C:\Program Files\Atlantis”). Same remarks regarding the working folder which should be “C:\Users\<User’s Name>\Documents\Atlantis”.
In recent versions od Windows, it is preferable to stick with the default file locations.
HTH.
Cheers,
Robert

[MaximilianKohler]

Yeah I understood as much.

Are you saying that Atlantis will never be made fully portable? It's too hard?

I saw some talk of using 3rd party apps to make it fully portable but I don't have any experience with these kinds of things. Is there one you know works for sure? And if so, couldn't you just use it to create a fully portable version that you post on your website?

[Robert]

What exactly do you mean by “fully portable?” The version that you install on removable media is fully portable.

[MaximilianKohler]

Like what I explained in the OP - a fully portable program means everything is contained in it's own folder that you can move wherever you like.

This "portable" version uses the registry instead of an .ini file to keep and read settings from. It creates (and reads & stores info from) folders in various places on the C: drive, etc..

Those folders it creates on the C: drive should be created (and read from) in whatever folder the .exe is run from. Or whatever folder the user sets through the menu (Tools -> options -> load/save).

A fully portable version would let me extract, store, and run the entire program in one folder on any non-C: partition.

[Robert]

This "portable" version uses the registry instead of an .ini file to keep and read settings from. It creates (and reads & stores info from) folders in various places on the C: drive, etc..

This is not correct. As explained at Atlantis on a memory flash drive,

Atlantis will automatically use the settings stored on the USB stick. Any change to these settings will automatically be saved back to the USB drive. No changes will be made to the registry of the host PC.

And the entire program is run from the USB stick.
What’s more, the portable version of Atlantis installed on a removable media by default saves documents to “\Atlantis\Documents” on the removable media.
The C: drive is not involved in any way unless it is a removable drive. But this is very unlikely and probably impossible in a Windows system.

[MaximilianKohler]

So this is the guy I was talking about http://www.atlantiswordprocessor.com/en ... t=portable who said that even with it on the USB stick it still had some of the behavior that I'm describing.

I haven't tried the USB stick because a version that's only portable if it's specifically installed on a USB stick isn't useful for me. Seems safe to say you couldn't copy/cut the folder created on the USB stick and paste it somewhere like in a hard drive partition and have it be fully functional & contained in that folder. Which is what I'm looking for.

Is it correct that Atlantis will not be in that format in the foreseeable future? And what about 3rd party software that might be able to do it?

Thanks

[MaximilianKohler]

BTW I found a truly portable version someone made. The download is just the .exe program (not installer), and when ran it creates a folder in which the program is self contained. The folder contains other folders such as "%AppData%", "%Local AppData%", etc..

It doesn't create anything on the C: drive when run, and it doesn't create any reg entries. I can cut and paste it anywhere and all my settings come with it. I don't think it's a "legit" version though.

[admin]

Sorry, but a fully-portable copy of Atlantis can be created only on a USB stick.

Please also click this link:
http://www.atlantiswordprocessor.com/en ... all_to.htm

[MaximilianKohler]

Sorry, but a fully-portable copy of Atlantis can be created only on a USB stick.

Why do you say that when I just said I found a fully-portable one someone else made that is independent from USB stick usage?

[admin]

Sorry, but I cannot comment on third-party executables. Especially if they are not "legit".

[MaximilianKohler]

Have there been any updates to this portability issue since 2016?

[admin]

Atlantis Word Processor 4.2.1 (and higher) does not store its settings in the Windows Registry.
On the "Load/Save" tab of the "Tools | Options..." dialog of Atlantis you can specify where Atlantis should store all its user-specific files (including the settings).

[MaximilianKohler]

That is great news, thank you!

Does that mean that all the issues mentioned in this thread http://www.atlantiswordprocessor.com/en ... t=portable are also solved?

[admin]

This means that the recent versions of Atlantis have the new features mentioned in my previous post: all the user-specific files (including the settings files) of a standard copy of Atlantis are now stored under same folder.