Guide | How To Create Portable Apps with Cameyo for Windows

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BoraMurdar

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Cameyo is a free application virtualization software to create Portable Apps. It can turn Windows software into a single EXE file. There are not many free and good application virtualization programs available in the market. Cameyo works good enough to create portable apps out of almost anything. When you have a portable app, you need not install it on any computer. You can carry the portable apps on flash drives, plug the drive into any computer and run the program without installing the program.

Running from flash drives could be slow so many people copy the portable apps to the computer before using them. This does not mean you will be leaving traces of the app you used. You simply remove/delete the program and every trace of its being used on the computer are removed. Hence, portable apps created by application virtualization programs are good when you work across computers. You do not have to install the programs on each and every computer you use.

Cameyo-Application-Virtualization.png


Create Portable Apps
As said earlier, Cameyo creates portable versions of almost any program. The portable programs may look a bit bulky than the regular installed peers, but then the installation has many aspects: writing files to different folders (Program Files; Common Files; System32 and more) plus to the Windows Registry. All this is captured by Cameyo and you get one single executable instead of a bunch of files and entries into Registry so that you can fire up the portable app from any computer where you want to work or need the program.

Please note that Cameyo cannot create portable apps for programs already installed. You have to reinstall the programs if you wish to make a portable app out of them. For example, if you wish to install Opera with Java and Flash (See the embedded Video below), open Cameyo and click Capture Installation.

Cameyo will be running in a corner of your desktop to capture all the files and registry entries created. It first takes a snapshot of your computer. When you install Opera, Flash and then Java, it records what all files are being created and then takes another snapshot of the computer. It extracts information related to the program or program set installed and creates a portable app out of it.


Note that since Cameyo captures system configuration as well, it creates a virtual machine while executing the portable apps created using Cameyo. If you create a portable app on your machine using Cameyo, your machine’s attributes are applied to help the portable app run properly.

Also remember to disable Windows Update and AV updates while creating a portable app using Cameyo because if you leave them running, they will be added to your portable program and will run each time you run the portable program created by Cameyo.

Why Not Simply Use Sandbox

Using Sandbox requires you to install the sandbox and then run the application. In this case, it is not necessary that the whole program will be isolated from the machine. Registry entries may be made and some files may be stored to other file locations. Thus, sandbox is not as much reliable for running apps as portable apps. The portable apps may be run from Sandbox for added safety – that is, if you feel the need. In all cases, there will be the need to install the sandbox software to the computers where you wish to use your application. Instead of going through all that, creating a portable app is easier. You just have to do it once and then you can use it on all machines – in or without a sandbox.

Here is a video that explains you how to create a portable app out of Opera, Java and Flash.




Cameyo free download
You can download Cameyo from their website. Your security software may give out a malware warning but they are false positives as is being reported by many over the Internet. Here is a video that explains you how to create a portable app out of Opera, Java and Flash.
Download link

Among the different app virtualization tools, Cameyo is good, if not the best. Thinapp is better but comes at a cost. If you do not wish to pay for creating portable apps, you should give Cameyo Application Virtualization software a try. P-Apps too is free and it to helps create a portable version of any software.
TheWindowsClub
 

Cain

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I have used Cameyo for a couple of years. When a good giveaway comes up that has to be installed/registered instantly and can only be used on that PC, Cameyo comes in really handy!! It doesn't always manage to grab the whole app with its registration, but about 80% of the time it works. Which is great if you are moving around machines or re-imaging often.

It's a powerful tiny little tool, and fast. When compared to VMWare ThinApp, it does pretty much as good of a job, has far less impact on the system, and it's a '1-click' solution that couldn't be more simple to use. I'm glad it's getting some well deserved exposure.
 

CMLew

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Does Cameyo allow to create portable apps for bigger programs like PDF Nitro? I have a license for that.
I felt this would be a suitable one for me as I do not use big names like MS office or Adobe (except Lightroom though I'm planning to shoo them out from my PC due to exorbitant cost of maintaining it).

Does this works for browsers too? How about Edge browser? since it is built in when installing windows 10.
 
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CMLew

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Is there a way/ guide that I can make a portable OS (Win 10 / Ubuntu for e.g.) on USB drive? It would be fun if I can bring along this "super mini PC" anywhere and anytime. :D The space needed must be huge.
 
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CMLew

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Tried the program. Looks promising. Decided to get a few more portable program and package together with portable Chromixium OS. Then I will have the miniPC with the size of a fingernail. :p
 
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pneuma1985

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Aug 30, 2015
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I tested Cameyo last night in shadow mode just to be safe and I wasn't pleased at all. Did it make a portable app yes, but there's massive issues with that b/c the portable app didn't come back as the apps name when verified by another server it came back with some random string I didn't understand. Where as If you used a portableapps.com app of the same exact software I tried with cameyo, It registers as the exact app it should be when verified by a verification system on a server. I tried to make a portable version of qbittorrent 3.2.3 which worked, but as I stated not without issues! The downloaded 3.3.2 version from portableapps which is the most up to date worked perfectly as far as the website verifying the client. My main question is what other options do we have when making portable apps? Is there anything else but cameyo to make legit portable apps that have the same md5 and sha1 so the site verifies the portable as what it should be? I'm looking for something that works paid or free that is safe and malware free etc. Should be obvious on this site lol ;) Thanks for your responses.

What about VMware ThinApp: Agentless Application Virtualization for Easier Migration | United States
Seems like a virtualization of portable sw?
 
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Rishi

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I have used cameyo for some time now, the software is good but some apps cannot be made portable by it, there are issues if you update cameyo app manager versions and you need to modify settings for 'portablized' software once more, also it leaves a big registry hive in %appdata% folder which is detected by some as 'unclassified' or 'suspicious' on demand scanners(even Zemana used to have a problem with it). I found VMware Thinapp to be more suitable for this kind of app virtualization and portability needs.
 

pneuma1985

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Aug 30, 2015
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I have used cameyo for some time now, the software is good but some apps cannot be made portable by it, there are issues if you update cameyo app manager versions and you need to modify settings for 'portablized' software once more, also it leaves a big registry hive in %appdata% folder which is detected by some as 'unclassified' or 'suspicious' on demand scanners(even Zemana used to have a problem with it). I found VMware Thinapp to be more suitable for this kind of app virtualization and portability needs.
Yeah thats why I just shadowed the boot drive and saved the portable to a usb and then rebooted ;)
Giving Thinapp a go now! Hopefully it's what I'm after.
 
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DracusNarcrym

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Oct 16, 2015
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I have used this application extensively in the past, it even managed to package the full installation of Microsoft Office 2003 into a fully functional portable executable.

I must warn you, that was done in clean systems. It is most probably preferred that any attempts at creating portable apps using Cameyo are done in a machine with a fresh OS install or in a virtual machine (the latter is far more practical, obviously).

I can assure you Cameyo is very effective, but its effectiveness is proportional to the complexity of the software you want to package.
 
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