How come this worked? Launch app from image.

[bgoodman4]

I am wondering why something I did today worked and its implications.

I am in the middle of upgrading to a new PC so many of the apps I use on a regular basis are on my new Win 7 PC and some of my apps are on my old XP PC. I had removed most of the apps that had been installed on the new PC from the old one because a number of the apps I will need to run in the future will not run on the new OS so I created a VM of the old PC using VMware Convert. Since I wanted this VM to be as light as possible I removed all but the essential programs from the old PC which is where I am at now.

Today I was working on the old PC and discovered I needed an app that was no longer on it. I did not have access to the new PC but I did have access to an image I had made of it. I thought perhaps I would be able to find the install files for the app from the image rather than have to re-download them so I loaded the image as a virtual drive and went looking for them. Unfortunately (or fortunately) the install files were not there. I figured I had nothing to lose, so I navigated to the virtual drives program files folder in Windows Explorer, found the programs folder, and doubled clicked on the launch (exe) file for the app. Much to my surprise the app (Sony Sound Forge) launched without issue. I was able to use it, save my file to the real machines C drive, and then dismount the virtual drive without issue.

Why was I able to do this? I know the registration files and the installed program etc are part of the image but I did not think this would be sufficient to allow the program to launch as if it were currently installed on the old PC.

The implication here is that it may be possible to have VMs simply based on a drive image. No need for special software, no need to do PtoV using a program like VMware Convert, just mount an image as a drive, double click on any exe file for a particular program in that image, and away you go.

So why did this happen, why was I able to launch the app from the Virtual drive?

I look forward to your comments/thoughts on this.

 

[Kari]

I am not sure I understood you correctly? You launched this app on your old XP PC from the image of your new 7 PC:

I did not have access to the new PC but I did have access to an image I had made of it.

A few possible scenarios would explain this. First of course if the app is portable i.e. it does not make any registry entries pointing to hard coded locations.

It could also be so simple that when you deleted the application from XP it did not delete configuration settings, leaving enough behind, so when launched and code instructed the app to get for instance display coordinates and so on they were still in XP to be found.

Nothing to worry, but also no reason to start celebrating saved work as if virtual machines would no longer be needed. They are still needed.

My guess is it is portable. To test this, copy the app folder to any other PC or virtual machine and try if it runs.

Kari

 

[bgoodman4]

Thank you for your reply Kari

I am not sure I understood you correctly? You launched this app on your old XP PC from the image of your new 7 PC:

That is correct.

It could also be so simple that when you deleted the application from XP it did not delete configuration settings, leaving enough behind, so when launched and code instructed the app to get for instance display coordinates and so on they were still in XP to be found.

After uninstalling the apps I had installed on the new 7 PC I ran a registry cleaner (Wise Reg Cleaner) so I do not think the registry code and other app configuration settings would still be available.

My guess is it is portable. To test this, copy the app folder to any other PC or virtual machine and try if it runs.

Sony Sound Forge is not a portable app so this is not a possibility.

 

[gregrocker]

If it ran from the Program Files folder .exe for the program then it is portable enough to run this way, as are some other games and programs.

Are you sure it wasn't running virtually, or was the image only mounted to access files?

 

[bgoodman4]

If it ran from the Program Files folder .exe for the program then it is portable enough to run this way, as are some other games and programs.

Are you sure it wasn't running virtually, or was the image only mounted to access files?

Thanks for your reply,,,,,I have no idea if it was running virtually or not. All I did was open the program that created the image (Diver Cloner by Horizon Data Systems) and mount the image as a virtual drive. You know the rest.

When I have some time this weekend I will try launching some other programs from the image and will report the results below.

 

[gregrocker]

I've seen similar situations like with PokerStars which discontinued a favorite version from being available once it is uninstalled, but allowed those who had it installed to keep using it permanently.

After an OS reinstall a fan was devastated that he'd lost all of his poker friends in a newer version that wanted him to start over. I mounted the backup image of his previous install using System Image - Extract Files Using Disk Management and ran the Program file which started the old game. I then copied the file out of the image, unmounted it and the old version of the game still ran. So he is still running it today from the inert Program File with a link to it's .exe on his desktop.

This may be what's happening with your game.

 

[FuturDreamz]

it might be adding stuff to the running system's registry.

In a few cases a program doesn't care where it's execution directory is located, as long as everything inside the directory is organized the way the program expects.

But that can easily break if the program uses absolute paths to things inside of it's directly or relative paths to things outside.