MPC+ffdshow as a portable application

[vlada]

Hello,

I'd like to ask you, if anyone of you tried to make qa portable application out of MPC and ffdshow. My idea is to have MPC with ffdshow on a USB disc with my own settings. Unfortunately AFAIK ffdshow stores it's settings in registries. Would id be possible to use a text configuration file instead?

Also I have another but related problem. The latest versions of ffdshow can't be installed without administrator rights. I remember I was able to install ffdshow even as a user. Why isn't this possible anymore?

[foxyshadis]

All versions of ffdshow have always required admin privs to install, as do all directshow filters. They don't require privs to update without re-registering though, as long as you have the right to overwrite the files.

MPC can be modified to call into ffdshow without requiring it to be registered, though, the way it does with its built-in filters. Not sure how one would go about doing that.

[vlada]

Just tried it again now and I can install Milan's ffdshow even as a user. You don't need administrator rights to register a DirectShow filter. Unlike VfW codec, which needs an administrator account to register AFAIK.

I know ho to set-up MPC to use ffdshow even if it's not installed. I don't know how to keep ffdshow's settings.

[Inventive Software]

I believe you can tell it not to store the settings in the registry, though I don't know what happens after that. :(

[clsid]

Use VLC, MPlayer or KMPlayer. Those are all portable.

[vlada]

Use VLC, MPlayer or KMPlayer. Those are all portable.

I know them all, but still I like MPC+ffdshow best. I never had any problems with them, but time to time I have some issues with the other players. VLC can't letterbox, KMPlayer has sometimes problems with DVDs, in MPlayer I had problems with subtitles and fonts.

Inventive Software
Do you have any idea how to do it? I wonder why ffdshow uses registries. Most opensource SW use configuration files, which is a much better option IMHO.

[Inventive Software]

Ah, see your point. The only thing I can find in the ffdshow decoder is an option to "export all settings" to a registry file. So you're stuck with silently installing ffdshow and adding that registry file, or using VLC, mplayer etc. VLC Portable I can recommend.

[clsid]

It uses the registry because it is faster than reading/writing from an INI file.

But since ffdshow is open source you can always add the option yourself.

[vlada]

clsid
I'm not a good coder, I was just wondering if it is possible. If not, I can live without it. ;-)

But still I'm wondering, why I can't install ffdshow with a user account anymore. It is possible with builds before tryouts fork. I think there is no change which would force the need of administrator account.

[clsid]

Registering a filter is possible as a limited user, but it will only work for that user since it will use HKCU section of the registry.

Running an installer as a limited user gives the same sort of troubles since there is no write access to HKLM. Everything gets tied to the user account. That is messy. I have no interest at all in modifying the installer to allow it.

[foxyshadis]

That's the weird part, it actually registers into HKLM with a limited right user, checked the registry permissions and write should be disabled. I can't figure out why so I didn't post back, but somehow it managed. I could see it from other accounts and everything, bizarre.