WhatChanged Portable — What’s happening under there?

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ISSUE 21.15 • 2024-04-08 FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT By Deanna McElveen Some (okay, most) programs make a lot of changes to your computer when you install them
[See the full post at: WhatChanged Portable — What’s happening under there?]

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Fred, fisher75, abbodi86, DLivesInTexas

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Nice util!

Looks a lot like ZENworks SnapShot (don’t recall the exact name) that came with Novell Netware. That went a step further and gathered all files and registry settings in a package that could then be deployed to other pc’s.

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I’m a bit confused by your documentation.  Why do I need to run WinScan2PDF after running Portable?  Also – I can’t find Portable installed anywhere on my PC after I install it.  It is not in my Start>Programs apps anywhere nor is in my list of apps installed on my PC.  What is going on?

Custom Build - Intel i5 9400 5 Core CPU & ASUS TUF Z390 Plus Motherboard
Edition Windows 10 Home
Version 22H2

Dell Laptop - Inspiron 15 11th Generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-1135G7 Processor
Edition Windows 11 Home
Version 23H2

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blueboy714 wrote:

I’m a bit confused by your documentation.  Why do I need to run WinScan2PDF after running Portable?  Also – I can’t find Portable installed anywhere on my PC after I install it.  It is not in my Start>Programs apps anywhere nor is in my list of apps installed on my PC.  What is going on?

She’s just running WinScan2PDF to demonstrate what changes were made to the system by running it.

Portable applications are designed specifically not to appear in the Start menu or program lists, the idea is that you can remove it by simply deleting the folder it’s contained in.

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blueboy714 wrote:

Also – I can’t find Portable installed anywhere on my PC after I install it. It is not in my Start>Programs apps anywhere nor is in my list of apps installed on my PC. What is going on?

A “portable app” does not install in Program Files, does not embed files in the system, does not show up in “Installed Apps.” It is Portable. Actually, you can install it anywhere, even on a flash drive using the same method.

If you create a folder on your desktop (or anywhere), and “install” the app in that folder when it asks where to install, all the files associated with that app will be in that folder on your desktop. Then, you can make a shortcut to the executable to run the program.

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Many veteran Windows users may remember “Go Back” (the last few versions were “Norton Go Back” after being bought by Symantec). Not only did it work much like the more recent RollBack Rx by allowing the user to make a “snapshot” of the entire disk image which could be instantly and easily restored and was MUCH more reliable than early versions of the native Windows System Restore. But it wasn’t for the faint-hearted or casual user since it completely replaced the MBR; if something went wrong with Go Back you were very likely completely f-cked. Symantec stopped support for it late in 2000’s and in any case it supposed did not work on Windows 10/11 (I personally never tried).

But above all the app kept an easily accessed FULL (and I mean FULL) log of all windows activity down to the last entry. I am ashamed to say so now, but in my younger days I was constantly installing pirate software (“cracks”) and Go Back saved my ass countless times, and once having the log helped me go get rid of a very stubborn virus.

Does anyone else remember (fondly) Go Back?

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Perhaps we need a new software category. I have always understood “portable” to apply to programs that are not only self-contained (all files appear in one folder) but require no installation. This program apparently meets only the first of those criteria.

“Self-contained” might be a better description; others are possible. I do think describing this program as “portable” is misleading.

Thanks for your fine reviews.

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See #2657905 above.

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David Molvik wrote:

I do think describing this program as “portable” is misleading.

The download is not an installer, it’s a self-extracting executable…similar to a zip file.

It simply does the extraction for you, and defaults to the folder it was downloaded to.

Good explainer from WinZip…

https://kb.winzip.com/help/help_zip2exe.htm

So it meets the criteria for portable.

 

 

 

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I, for one, sincerely appreciate the detailed, step-by-step instructions for downloading, installing, and using software such as Whatchanged Portable.  Some of we old geezers need lots of handholding!

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Remember InCtrl? I think it was from PC Magazine. I used to use it religiously on every install.

Can’t wait to try WhatChanged Portable! Thanks!

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Yes! InCtrl from Neil Rubenking at PC Mag was a genius utility in its time.

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In the review, “Copy file changes to new computer” should be “Copy file changes to new folder.” Just don’t want any of the “old geezers” cited above to be confused.

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All I get from clicking the link in your AskWoodyPlus story is a web page for PortableApps.com. On their site I don;t see a WhatChanged or any mention of it..Did I miss something?

Alan

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https://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/whatchanged-portable

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Thanks for the warning on reading the EULAs. See this one from Amazon with a Zombie Apocalypse clause…
https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-zombie-clause-2016-2

3 users thanked author for this post.

LH, SueW, Alex5723

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When I install a program I often don’t know where the files will be placed. I would expect the bulk of them to be copied to a folder I specify (when they offer that option) but often the vendor may place files wherever they darn well please and never tell me about them. In such cases, wouldn’t I have to specify ‘C: ‘ in the SCAN FILES checkbox to ensure WhatChanged will report on everything that got installed?

Thanks!

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bromberg wrote:

In such cases, wouldn’t I have to specify ‘C: ‘ in the SCAN FILES checkbox to ensure WhatChanged will report on everything that got installed?

It automatically detects internal drives on startup, so in my case, C: and D: were detected.

When “Scan File:” is checked, both drives will be included in the scan.

If you have an external drive, you would need to add that drive letter manually.

 

 

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Funny – I wanted to find how brother mutlifunction printer app was keeping track of the counter when doing a scan – it would use a sequential number in the file name.  On the old PC, it was up to 744. I wanted on this new PC I was setting up to continue that.

Searched files and registry and just gave up.

Then I saw the article.

Put the program on the new PC, ran the baseline, did a scan to increment the counter, did the compare.  Closed the app, couldn’t find the results, READ the article, and now repeating the steps.

a) It’s taking a LONG time.  With all other apps open, there’s still going to be LOADS of changes to sort through – windows does soooo many changes just sitting there : (

b) yeah, why doesn’t it warn results will be deleted by closing app?

c) I forget what app I used 30+ years ago, (norton? Ghost? Nah, that was for imaging).  But it was MUCH faster.

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In lieu of this app I would strongly recommend RegShot 1.9.1 beta r321 from August 2015, which is newer and includes a dedicated x64 unicode executable.  I use this all the time with Windows 11 and it works perfectly (don’t let the “beta” scare you), read the readme carefully first:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/regshot/files/regshot/1.9.1-beta/

Portable, make a folder and extract the 7z contents to it.  The ini file can be manually edited to designate registry keys or file folders to be excluded from the compare process.  Simplified usage steps below the image:

1.  If desired, set directories to be scanned (registry is done by default)–include the drive letter in the folder paths.
2. Specify the output path for the comparison log.
3. Add a comment–this will be used to title the log file.
4. Hit the “1st shot” button, choose “Shot” (not shot & save) from the drop-down.
5. When the shot finishes, minimize Regshot, and install your application.
6. When the install completes, un-minimize Regshot and hit the “2nd shot” button, choosing “Shot” again from the drop-down.
7. When the shot completes, hit the “Compare” button, and choose “Compare and Output” from the drop-down.
8. When finished the comparison log will be displayed–it is very similar to the old InCtrl5 logs–and will be saved automatically in the selected output folder.

Hit the “Clear All” button, then “Quit.”  As mentioned, you can edit the ini file in the Regshot directory for key/directory exclusions, format example:

[SkipRegKey]
0=ShellNoRoam
1=Hardware
2=RNG
3=Explorer
4=Bags
5=BagMRU

[SkipDir]
0=C:\Windows\servicing\LCU
1=C:\Windows\servicing\Packages
2=C:\Windows\WinSxS

It should be remembered that the comparsion log records all changes made between the 2 shots, not just those by the installed application but any running processes (like InCtrl5 did), so be careful when interpreting them.

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I have been using Regcool for registry snapshots prior to any software install.

It is available in a portable version and is a much better registry editor than the standard windows regedit.

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daver wrote:

I have been using Regcool for registry snapshots prior to any software install.

It is available in a portable version and is a much better registry editor than the standard windows regedit.

I notice that RegCool uses RegShot as an “add-on” to do the actual registry comparisons, although it uses a different dialog interface.

Another registry comparison tool is Nirsoft’s RegistryChangesView, last updated 09-2023; its major drawback compared to RegShot is the inability to do file/folder comparisons. https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/registry_changes_view.html

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teradactyl wrote:

its major drawback compared to RegShot is the inability to do file/folder comparisons.

See Nirsoft’s FolderChangesView –

https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/folder_changes_view.html

 

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Sorry, I’m behind on my reading.  However, “What changed portable” is not nearly as good as a utility called InCtrl5 from PC Magazine (remember when people used to read what was written on paper).  That utility would worked similarly, except it automatically scanned everything to let you know what changes occurred, which is what you want when you install or uninstall something.  And it let you name the output without having to copy anything.

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