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

• LiberKey
• PortableSoftware.US
• Asuite
• PortableFreewares
• WinPenPack
• A list of portable applications from wikipedia

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.

Related Post:

• Trying out Portable Application collections

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,

1. Quit Thunderbird if it is running
2. Look for Application Data/Thunderbird under C:Documents and Settingsusername
3. Copy the folder and put it into the portable diskdrive
4. In the (copied) folder, open the file profile.ini
5. Change these 2 lines

   IsRelative=1
   Path=/Profiles/somenames

   to

   IsRelative=0
   Path=drive:/full/path/to/profile/

6. Start Thunderbird and all the former mailboxes will appear. Done!

Related Post:

• From Pegasus Mail to Thunderbird to GMail
• Exporting Pegasus Mail to Thunderbird

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!

Related Post:

• Integrated instant messaging with Gaim
• Official support of QQ in Gaim

Here’s one nice little feature that I use alot on Firefox.

1. Go to Bookmarks and right on any bookmark.
2. Select Properties.
3. Under Keyword: enter a short keyword.
   For example for freebizware.com, I entered fbw.
4. Click OK to save it.
   
5. Enter the keyword on the address bar (or URL bar – the thingy that you key in the web address).
6. Hit Enter.
   

Cool! Most of my favourite sites are now keyworded.

Random Posts

• WordWeb – a dictionary to use offline
• Take and Keep your Notes with KeepNote
• Revisiting Alternative Disk/Partition Cloning Tools
• Automated update and install softwares
• Official support of QQ in Gaim
• Why Open Source Software / Free Software?
• Moving GAIM profile between computers
• Remote Control with UltraVNC

If you want to migrate the Password Safe database to KeePass, here’s how you do it.

1. Use the Password Safe function to export to CSV file
   File > Export To > Plain Text
2. 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.

Related Post:

• KeePass 1.06 release
• Remember all your passwords with KeePass

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

1. copy mail folders
2. 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.

Copying the Mail folders

Thunderbird mail file is actually the unix mailbox format. Pegasus is also able to store in this format although it is not the default, so some work is required. Steps as follows,

1. Start Pegasus Mail.
2. Create folder in Pegasus in Unix Mailbox Format.
• In the Folders windows click Add…
• Message folder select Unix Mailbox Format
3. Copy your email from the original folder to this folder.
4. Go to the Pegasus Mail folder on the system.
5. Locate a file name like UNXnnnnn.MBX (eg. UNX06097.MBX)
   Sorting files by modify date would help here.
6. Copy this file to Thunderbird folder on the system
   probably
   C:Documents and SettingsuserApplication DataThunderbirdProfilesdefaultxxxxxxxx.sltMailmail_account
7. Start Thunderbird.
8. A new folder with name UNXnnnnn.MBX should appear in your mail account with all the mails.
9. Repeat for all other folders.

By the time I reached the 7th folders, I realise this is not the way to go. There are still 100s of folders and I can spend the whole night.

Using IMAP

IMAP to the rescue.

In order to do this you first got to have an IMAP account. My hosting at Fusion Flux happened to support it. Cool!

Here’s how.

1. Set up Pegasus Mail to connect to the IMAP account.
   Tools -> IMAP profile… -> New…
2. Fill up the required settings and connect to the IMAP server
3. At this point, if the connection is successful, an IMAP mailbox will appear
4. Create folders in the IMAP mailbox
5. Copy messages to the IMAP folders
6. Start Thunderbird and connect to the IMAP account.
7. Copy folders from IMAP account to local filesystem.

One warning, if you are copying large folder and/or using IMAP over SSL, the process can be pretty slow. But at least the copying can work in the background.

Hope this help you to migrate from Pegasus Mail to Thunderbird.

Related Post:

• Reading Thunderbird mail between computers
• From Pegasus Mail to Thunderbird to GMail