With the wide spread use of removable storage devices (like usb thumb drive, portable hard drive, iPod etc.) came the idea of portable applications.
The idea behind portable applications is simple – store applications on your removable storage devices and run them anywhere by just plugging-in the storage device.
A number of portable applications suites had popped up as a result. The most widely known is PortableApps, but there are also others like
I was attracted to the idea of portable application during the recently re-installation of my notebook with Vista. Through numerous reinstall of operation system over the years, I took note of the necessary steps to backup and restore data for my favourite applications. However the process is still a major hassle – backup data, reinstall applications and restore data.
Portable application side-stepped that hassle because applications are not installed but just copied to folder on a drive. So during a reinstall, I just copied the folder – application and data – to a new drive. Viola! Everything continues to work as before!
After this reinstall exercise, I’m certainly going to convert most of my applications to a portable version. Luckily most of the open source/free applications I had introduced here are available in portable version.
If you reinstall OS often or is just looking for an easily way to move your favourite programs and data around, give a serious look at portable applications. I’m surprised I took so long to get it.
This was another note I wrote a while back with the Gaim profile note .
When moving from an old computer to a new computer, alot of profiles get left behind. Some we can afford to lose the baggage and start afresh.
But some, like IM and email, we like to transfer the data from an old computer to a new computer. You may need to read and reply to mails already downloaded on the old computer.
Instead of copying the mail folder everytime, what you could do is to put the mail data on a portable diskdrive. This way you could carry it around and read it at home and in office.
I do not use Thunderbird in this way anymore (using GMail) but this should still work (For the 1.0.x version at least)
It is really quite simple. On WinXP,
-
Quit Thunderbird if it is running
-
Look for Application Data/Thunderbird under C:Documents and Settingsusername
-
Copy the folder and put it into the portable diskdrive
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In the (copied) folder, open the file profile.ini
-
Change these 2 lines
IsRelative=1
Path=/Profiles/somenames
to
IsRelative=0
Path=drive:/full/path/to/profile/
-
Start Thunderbird and all the former mailboxes will appear. Done!
This was a note I wrote a while back for GAIM, an integrated messaging client that I use.
The frustrating thing about changing computer is that many of the data get left on the old computer. I am online most of the time and use Gaim alot to stay in touch with clients, partners and friends. On a new computer, suddenly all the contacts are “lost“.
It actually turned out to be very straight forward to move Gaim profile to a new computer.
On the new computer I just had to
1. Install a copy of GAIM
2. Copy the former .gaim folder which located on the old drive
Documents and Settingsusername Application Data.gaim
to
c:Documents and Settingsusername Application Data
3. Start Gaim. All the accounts and contacts will just appear. Perfect!
One thing about opensource software is that many features are added but never mentioned. In commercial software, every feature gets hyped as the best thing since [fill in the blank ].
Here’s one nice little feature that I use alot on Firefox.
- Go to Bookmarks and right on any bookmark.
- Select Properties.
- Under Keyword: enter a short keyword.
For example for freebizware.com, I entered fbw.
- Click OK to save it.
- Enter the keyword on the address bar (or URL bar – the thingy that you key in the web address).
- Hit Enter.
Cool! Most of my favourite sites are now keyworded.
So I moved from Password Safe to KeePass. After some false start (remember to backup) the data was imported from Password Safe database into KeePass.
If you want to migrate the Password Safe database to KeePass, here’s how you do it.
- Use the Password Safe function to export to CSV file
File > Export To > Plain Text
- Import the text file into KeePass
File > Import From> PWSafe v2 TXT file
The mistake I made was to import the encrypted datafile which produces garbage. You need to export to plain text and import the text file.
An article written a while back. I no longer use Thunderbird as my primary client. I spent quite a bit of time figuring out so thought it will be useful for anyone migrating from Pegasus Mail.
Since moving from Pegasus Mail to Thunderbird, the old mail had been tucked away. Today I needed a very old email in the old Pegasus archive to recover an old account password. A good excuse to take the time and export all the old mail to Thunderbird.
There are 2 ways to do it
- copy mail folders
- use IMAP
The first way is fine if there is not may folders to export. Unfortunately that was not my case. It took a great deal of frustration before I decided to go with the second way.
Here’s how.
Continue reading ‘Exporting Pegasus Mail to Thunderbird’
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