ExifToolGui Portable? Your input is welcome

[FrankB]

I would like to know what your thoughts are about a portable application and what ExifToolGui should be.

These are my thoughts:

Bogdan Hrastnik stated in his documentation on https://exiftool.org/gui/ Bullet 2. ExifToolGui.

"GUI doesn't write anything into registry file or elsewhere. After first usage, all settings are written into "ExifToolGUI.ini" file, which is automatically
created in the same folder where "ExifToolGUI.exe" has been started from."

If you read the WIKI at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_application Heading: Portable Windows application

"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[citation needed] nor stores its configuration files (such as an INI file) in the user's profile;"

I will not argue with these definitions, if that's the definition of a portable application. so be it. But I would like to point out a potential problem with the
proposed location of the ini file.

Given the fact that one should be able to start a portable application from a read-only medium without installing.
  Where read-only could be:
  - A network location that you dont have write access to.
  - A directory on the hard-drive. For example "c:\program files\exiftool". An administrator could have installed it, and the user will only have read access.
  - A usb stick that is write-protected. To make sure that it does not get infected by a virus.
  - A CDrom.
  - etc...
then saving the settings to the same location as the program is not a good choice!

That is the reason why I decided to save the ini file in %AppData%\ExifToolGui. That is a directory that is more or less guaranteed to be writable.
But then I received reports that ExifToolGui was no longer portable, because it 'left traces' on the computer.

Reluctantly I added a program parameter '/DonSaveIni'. When specified ExifToolGui will not write the INI file. A typical use-case is this.

- Start ExifTooGui normal.
- Setup all that you need.
- Close ExifToolGui
- Move the generated INI File to the program directory.
- Create a shortcut to ExifToolGui.exe with the commandline parameter /DontSaveIni

If you burn this to a CD, or copy it to a USB stick that you write-protect afterwards, I can imagine that it will be useful. (To some)

But If you use this parameter and think you will leave no traces on the computer, you may be disappointed.

- ExifTool itself will write to the TEMP directory. To overcome this you could propably install Perl, or install the 'Oliver Betz' version. But to install you need to be admin, and it will leave traces.
- The integrated WebBrowser based on EDGE will write temp-files.
- To control ExifTool and the Edge browser temp-files are created.

My personal view:

- You should be able to start ExifToolGui without admin privileges from a 'readonly' location.
- It should save it's settings to a location that's writable, (%AppData%\ExiftoolGui ....) or optionally not save any settings at all.
- The temp-files should be deleted upon closing the application. But in case of abnormal termination it's only logical that they are not deleted.
- 'Leaving no traces' should not be the goal of the design. Besides the fact that it's nearly impossible, why would you want it? To me it has a nasty smell, what do you want to hide?


Frank

[obetz]

My personal view:
- You should be able to start ExifToolGui without admin privileges from a 'readonly' location.

That's two different requirements: "no admin rights" and "read-only".

I strongly support "no admin rights".

"read-only" is not exactly a requirement for portable applications. IMO most users run them from a writable location. But I appreciate the option to write the settings to %AppData% (see below).

- It should save it's settings to a location that's writable, (%AppData%\ExiftoolGui ....) or optionally not save any settings at all.

What about a seek order for the INI file: First in the directory where ExifToolGui resides. If there is an ini file, use this one. If it is writable, write settings back there.

This enables people to use different settings on one computer.

If there is no INI file in the ExifToolGui directory, use %AppData%. This allows to run ExifToolGui from a write protected directory, good for the cautious user.

- 'Leaving no traces' should not be the goal of the design. Besides the fact that it's nearly impossible, why would you want it? To me it has a nasty smell, what do you want to hide?

There are lots of "traces" most people are not aware of, e.g. MRU lists. Are you sure users complained about a lack of privacy?

Or did they complain about a waste of storage?

I wouldn't overrate the latter: The roughly 30MB Perl + ExifTool unpacked to %temp% by PAR/pp are not exactly beautiful, but there is so much garbage in %temp%, anyway.

ExifTool itself will write to the TEMP directory. To overcome this you could propably install Perl, or install the 'Oliver Betz' version. But to install you need to be admin, and it will leave traces.

I'm not sure which component you mean by "you need to be admin".

You don't need admin rights even for my "Installer" version of ExifTool. Unless you select "add to path", "make uninstaller" or "entry in program list", it doesn't change the registry (besides MRU traces already mentioned).

Yet less intrusive is unpacking the files of my ZIP version to the ExifToolGui directory.

[FrankB]

Thanks for your input. These are the kind of remarks i'm after!

What about a seek order for the INI file: First in the directory where ExifToolGui resides. If there is an ini file, use this one. If it is writable, write settings back there.

This enables people to use different settings on one computer.

If there is no INI file in the ExifToolGui directory, use %AppData%. This allows to run ExifToolGui from a write protected directory, good for the cautious user.

Actually, ExifToolGui uses that search-order for reading, but it ALWAYS writes to %APPDATA%. Will keep your suggestion in mind. The tricky part about it 'is it writable'. Need to investigate.

There are lots of "traces" most people are not aware of, e.g. MRU lists. Are you sure users complained about a lack of privacy?

Or did they complain about a waste of storage?

It certainly wasn't about space, and to put it in to perspective: Only 2 persons complained.

You don't need admin rights even for my "Installer" version of ExifTool. Unless you select "add to path", "make uninstaller" or "entry in program list", it doesn't change the registry (besides MRU traces already mentioned).

Point taken.