Make a Portable Windows App

How can I make a Portable Windows App of my game.
I don’t know what to write in the Command Prompt :disappointed_relieved:

Can you all please help me with coding. :pensive:

I have a manual Windows Build of my game and I saw in the Electron Builder website that I need to set target to portable (or pass --win portable ).

I don’t know what it means. :thinking:

Any help will be appreciated. :slightly_smiling_face:

You can also just use the zip and enigma virtual box (Software Protection, Software Licensing, Software Virtualization)

How do I use Enigma Virtual Box

I mean I want an App that doesn’t require any installation.
Just Double-Click and play!!! :star_struck:

If you don’t want all the files in a single exe file, you don’t need Enigma.
For a normal portable version just select “zip file” instead of “auto-installer file” in the GD standalone export options.
(Your advanced manual export cannot work in Enigma.)

But even in zip we need to extract the files in a folder and use it. I wanted (and dreamed :thinking: and stated above) that could it be possible that I have a file that whenerver the file is double clicked the game starts

And yes all the resources and assets are packed into the same file.

Enigma adds complexity and overhead. When there is a problem, is it because of Enigma or GDevelop?

There is a ZIP binary file for the Mac. There is no ZIP binary file for Windows:

After installation, a user could copy the application directory to a portable drive, such as a thumb drive. That alone would not make GDevelop portable, because it uses the Windows AppData folder for storage. For many Windows applications, it is possible to redirect those files to the application or other directory using Windows environment variables. But that is not the case with GDevelop because Electron normally bypasses the settings of the relevant Windows environment variables.

There is a way when using Electron to build a portable application:
https://www.electron.build/configuration/nsis#portable

Enigma is a professional solution, the probability of having problems from there is extremely low. I wouldn’t call that a real concern.

OP already said that they are not capable of doing it themselves with electron due to lack of knowledge. Enigma is an easier solution and therefore probably better suited for this case. Manually building with electron like you suggested wouldn’t get rid of the appdata problem you described afaik.

I am not sure what you are talking about, electron does support zip as a target for all platforms.

I suggest that an additional Windows asset be added for users to download. The asset would be in an archive format (probably ZIP) and portable. I could then submit it for possible inclusion in The Portable Freeware Collection.

The ZIP issue has come up before. See
windows version - use zipped binaries instead of setup.exe #469
Distribute GDevelop 5 in zipped binaries on Windows in addition to executable

The Enigma forum shows that creating portable apps with Enigma is a challenge for many users. At the least, it means more work. Also, Enigma adds overhead.

I confess that I have not built an Electron application and am out of my depth. I am guessing that line 65 in Gdevelop-master\.circleci\config.yml is relevant to Windows portability:

command: export NODE_OPTIONS="–max-old-space-size=7168" && cd newIDE/electron-app && npm run build – --mac zip --win --linux tar.gz --publish=never

Perhaps this should be added to the above line: --win portable

Some background may be useful. I have made portable a number of applications, such as digiKam and KMyMoney. These applications normally use the Windows AppData folder for storage. But it is possible to redirect the files to the application or other directory using Windows environment variables. Here are the posts I made for the two applications I mentioned:
(Sorry, new users can only put 2 links in a post.)

I also tried to make GDevelop portable, but failed. I think the problem is that Electron bypasses the settings of the relevant Windows environment variables. I am hoping, but not sure, that using an Electron portable build for GDevelop will either directly make GDevelop portable or render the environment variable technique effective.

What you are talking about is completely different from what OP asked. They wanted to make their own game portable, not the GDevelop IDE. Please make a new topic if it isn’t directly responding to the question of OP.

I am talking about enigma virtual box, not enigma protector. You throw your files to Enigma virtual box and it throws out a singleton exe, it doesn’t get easier. Sure, we can add a portable executable export target, but that is again not what OP asked, they wanted to know “How do I do this now by myself” not “Can the devs add this please”.