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141 lines
8.5 KiB
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141 lines
8.5 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: U3Helper Tutorial
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language: en
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alternatives:
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- language: de
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url: /software/autohotkey/u3helper/tutorial-de.html
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layout: default
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created: 2009-09-12 02:27:18 +0200
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updated: 2009-09-12 09:29:27 +0200
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toc: false
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tags:
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- software
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- autohotkey
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- u3helper
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---
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[Diese Seite auf Deutsch.]({% post_url 2009-09-12-tutorial-de %})
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You might want to read the [U3 Basics]({% post_url 2009-07-22-basics %}) first.
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How to convert an application to U3
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===================================
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*Example Application:* [IVOS](http://ivos.comunx.com/)
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*Tools used:* [Sandboxie](http://www.sandboxie.com/), regedit, [Total Commander](http://www.ghisler.com/) (for file management and compression), notepad
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Let's start with installing IVOS into the sandbox. Since it's using Microsoft's Installer, you have to first start it
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inside the Sandbox.
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Open *Sandboxie Control* (the yellow icon in your systray) and select menu *Function* → *Run Sandboxed* → *Windows
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Installer Service*. Now search the setup_ivos.exe, right-click and select *Run sandboxed*. This should install IVOS
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into the sandbox.
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After installation, find your Sandboxes contents. In Sandboxie Control select menu *Function* → *Contents of sandbox*
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→ *Explore contents*. An Explorer-window should pop up and you should see two directories `drive` and `user` as well as
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two files `RegHive` (maybe only one of them is shown). Below `drive` is the changed(!) content of your local drives.
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Every file a sandboxed program changes or writes goes there. All other files stay in their regular locations. So you
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can easily see, what files the installation of IVOS added or changed.
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Most interesting there is everything below `drive\C\Program Files\CommunX` - these are the main files of IVOS. There's
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one `.xml` file, which might be modified by IVOS (`.xml`-files are often used for configuration data), but the other
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files seem static (`.dll` and `.exe`).
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Now create an empty directory somewhere and in there, create 3 other folders: `data`, `host` and `manifest`. The
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`.xml`-file goes to the newly created `data` directory. Those 4 other files go to `host`.
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So far for the file-part. Let's get to the tricky part: Finding out, which registry entries the program uses. 99,9% of
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all programs use a branch like `HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\<company>` or `HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\<company>`. Since
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we installed it to the Sandbox, in Sandboxie Control, select menu *Function* → *Run Sandboxed* → *Any Program…* and
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enter `regedit` into the field before clicking *OK*. Now regedit pops up and you can start browsing the registry.
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Looking under `HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software`, there's nothing like `ComunX` or even `IVOS`. So let's take a look at
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`HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software` … and there it is: a key (registry-term for "folder") named `ComunX`.
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Let's export this initial data for our U3-package: click once on the `ComunX`-key and select menu *File* → *Export*.
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Now name the file `regdata1` and save it to the root folder of drive `C:`. Since we're inside the Sandbox, you'll find
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that file by the *Explore contents* option in Sandboxie Control. It's in `\drive\C\regdata1.reg` . Copy that file to
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our `data`-folder.
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Now right-click the file (in the `data`-folder) and select *Edit*. Notepad will open with the registry file loaded.
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Find the line:
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"apppath"="C:\\Program Files\\ComunX\\IVOS\\"
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Now some U3-basics: The U3 LaunchPad stores some paths inside environment variables. This is, so that applications can
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find their data although it is stored in different locations on different PCs. The most important are
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`%U3_HOST_EXEC_PATH%` which contains the path to the directory, where **application** files go to and
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`%U3_APP_DATA_PATH%` which is the directory on the U3 stick which contains **data** for that application.
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So since U3 doesn't install the application to `C:\Program Files\ComunX\IVOS`, we have to insert the correct path
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there, which is `%U3_HOST_EXEC_PATH%`. So change the line to:
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"apppath"="%U3_HOST_EXEC_PATH%\\"
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Leave everything else as it is. Save the file.
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Now copy `U3Helper.exe` to the `host`-directory. Also put the `U3Helper.ini` in there. I usually copy one from another
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application and modify it. I already made all necessary modifications for IVOS. Take a look at the ini-file. First
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comes the line `[U3Helper]` followed by a friendly name of the application and the executable file which should be
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started. This is `Launcher.exe` for IVOS. The next interesting entry is that below `[RegBackup]`. As you can see this
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is the registry path, we just found out. U3Helper imports these from the `regdata1.reg` file upon launch of the
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application and exports them back to that file, when you "eject" the U3-stick. All U3-environment-variables found in
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these registry entries get resolved to their actual data. So the `%U3_HOST_EXEC_PATH%\\` we added gets resolved to
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`C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\U3\Apps\{12345678-1234-1234-143123123}\Exec` - so that IVOS will
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see the real path to itself. The first line below `[RegBackup]` gets saved to a file `regdata1.reg`, the second entry
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(if there) to `regdata2.reg`, and so on.
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Some lines further down you'll find `[DataToExecDir]` and the entry `ivos.xml`. This is the `.xml`-file we put into the
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`data` (`%U3_APP_DATA_PATH%`) directory. And this line tells U3Helper to copy it over to the executables directory
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(`%U3_HOST_EXEC_PATH%`) upon IVOS-launch and back to the `data`-directory on the stick, when ejecting.
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These are all configuration lines in `U3Helper.ini`. The remaining lines are mostly default data and some explanations.
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Now extract IVOS' application icon so that it can be shown in LaunchPad. You may use [Icon Sucker](http://www.portablefreeware.com/?id=420).
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I for myself use a [plugin](http://www.totalcmd.net/plugring/iclview.html) for Total Commander. Put the Icon-file (.ico)
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into the `manifest`-directory.
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Save the attached (see below) `manifest.u3i` to that same directory. I already prepared it. Usually I'd copy a manifest
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from another program and modify it accordingly. Most important is to generate a unique GUID (the long number in the
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seconds line). There's a nice web tool to do so: [UUIDgen](http://www.famkruithof.net/uuid/uuidgen). Also, Microsoft
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provides some tool somewhere and the U3 Manifest creator (from <http://www.u3.com>) also generates such GUIDs.
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After changing the GUID (or UUID as it is sometimes called), fill in the rest of the data. The version number can be
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found by right-clicking the `ivos.exe` and selecting *Properties*. There you have a *Version*-tab, which shows version
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2.0.2.0 - so set the string in the manifest to it.
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Set the webpage, developer name and description. And now, most important, set the file to launch the application. This
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is the line with the appStart-command. You start IVOS with the `Launcher.exe` and this file will be in
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`%U3_HOST_EXEC_PATH%` as we learned. So to start IVOS, the computer has to start `%U3_HOST_EXEC_PATH%\Launcher.exe`.
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This is, what the line says.
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The other lines can remain untouched. These are U3Helper-commands. Since we told U3Helper what to do through the
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`U3Helper.ini` file, there's nothing left to change here. Oh, one single thing: the `minFreeSpace`-value should be the
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storage space required on the U3-drive to install IVOS. Since the whole package gets smaller after compression, just
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guess a value based upon the size of the `host`-directory.
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I think we're ready now. Use a ZIP-utility (like WinZip) to compress the 3 folders `host`, `data` and `manifest` into a
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ZIP file. Make sure, the ZIP file only has those 3 folders (and it's subfolders, if any). The directory structure
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should look like this:
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* 📂 data (Directory)
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* 📄 ivos.xml (File)
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* 📄 regdata1.reg (File)
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* 📂 host (Directory)
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* 📄 ivos.chm (File)
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* 📄 Ivos.exe (File)
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* 📄 ivossapi.dll (File)
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* 📄 Launcher.exe (File)
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* 📄 U3Helper.exe (File)
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* 📄 U3Helper.ini (File)
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* 📂 manifest (Directory)
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* 📄 IVOS.ico (File)
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* 📄 manifest.u3i (File)
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The only thing left to do is to rename the `.zip`-file to `.u3p`, so that you have a file `IVOS.u3p` or maybe
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`IVOS_U3.u3p`. You should be able to install this to the U3 stick. I attached everything so that you may play around. I
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hope that IVOS stores the registration info in the registry in that key we found out otherwise we have to look into it
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to find out, how to retain the registration info between different PCs. And remember that IVOS only works, if the
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*Speech API 5.1* is installed on the host PC.
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* **all config files:** [configfiles.zip]({{ site.url }}/assets/configfiles.zip)
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