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How do I get Paint.NET portable?


physicalhalluc
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Hello,

i am searching for a portable version of the up to date paint.net.

 

  • Where can I get a current secure portable version?
  • how can I create a portable version (updateable)?
  • there will be in future a portable version , and if so when can we expect (without / with dotNET-portable intigration*)?

 

*=Win10 Support

 

greez from german

Edited by physicalhalluc

greez from germany

 

"I am a part of this wonderful art" - PhysicalHalluc (klick me)

 

 

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Moderator Edit: There are now official portable ZIP files here:

https://github.com/paintdotnet/release/releases

 

Edited by toe_head2001
  • Upvote 1

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  • 2 months later...
  • 10 months later...

...NK, I am not a technical noob. I have a B.S. in Applied Computing, and have been a programmer/analyst for well over 40 years. I adore Paint.NET and think it is the most intuitive windows app I have ever encountered.

 

I am certain that there is great interest in a portable version of Paint.NET that will run for users without installation on machines which they don't have admin rights on, because of its quality. However,  despite many websites claiming the contrary, Paint.NET is NOT necessarily portable to all machines. I tried to run its current version on a school computer, which only has .NET version 4.0 installed (I am a grad student). It told me I had to have .NET version 4.6. I then edited the INI file just to see what would happen. Paint.NET displayed an error and quit. I then googled for a portable version of the .NET framework. Couldn't find one. Trying to figure out how to create a portable .NET framework package myself, I poked around in the registry on a machine I do have admin rights on. All .NET registry entries are in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE hive, which is accessible only to admin accounts.

 

So, I currently have four options:

  1. Only run a version of Paint.NET that requires only the version of the .NET framework that is installed on the machine I want to run it on. Works but less features and not upgradeable.
  2. Only run Paint.NET on a machine that I have admin rights on.
  3. Create a virtual image of windows for a Type 1 hypervisor such as VirtualBox, specifically for Paint.NET, which I have admin rights on. Big and Slow.
  4. Wait for Rick to come up with a huge Paint.NET portable package that includes a portable version of the .NET 4.6 framework. He probably say, "bahaha, not anytime soon".

 

<:'(

Slowly

Edited by Slowly
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2 hours ago, Slowly said:

He probably say, "bahaha, not anytime soon".

 

^^ this ;)

 

You forgot 5. Moan at the tech-heads to get the target computer system upgraded to .NET 4.6.

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  • 3 months later...

 

23 minutes ago, existintin said:

I would like @Rick Brewster to collaborate with PortableApps.com so users can easily download & install portable version

 

Rick has already made it extremely easy to create a portable copy of paint.net. Why would he devote more time to it?

 

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  • 2 years later...
On 5/5/2017 at 3:54 AM, Ego Eram Reputo said:

 

 

Rick has already made it extremely easy to create a portable copy of paint.net. Why would he devote more time to it?

 

Because the idea of portability isn't just about being portable. It's also about NOT having to install software on your system that increases aspects that slow it down. Also, it's a very cumbersome and time consuming way of doing things. With several apps I have updating this way is a hassle. Not to mention the many other apps that require manual updates.

 

I only have 4 things installed, in the traditional sense, on my PC. 3 drivers (Korg Electribe, MiniNova, ASIO4ALL) and a GOG game. Incidentally these are mostly portable too, but once it's beaten I uninstall it cleanly.

 

I wouldn't think it's too much hassle for Rick (the dev?) to add a third download on the download page for a portable zipped version. I would imagine he already has it permanently installed for testing new releases? So for him to zip that install and add to the website shouldn't add much to his workload. Sorry, I don't mean to sound ungrateful, just that it seems a small task that would help so many people out. 🙂

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  • toe_head2001 changed the title to How do I get Paint.NET portable?

I know I'm coming late to the game; I visited this thread just to reconfirm the original instructions about copying onto a USB stick from a "normal" installation.

 

I am another software developer who loves Paint.Net, so maybe I can clarify some things and set people's minds to rest...

  1. Rick (the author) clearly states Paint.Net relies upon Microsoft's .NET framework.
    This has several implications that will not be obvious to non-developers...
     
  2. The .NET framework has a LOT of functions that make it easier to write something like Paint.Net.  This is probably why the author used it!
     
  3. Microsoft designed the .NET framework to pretty much invasively "wire itself into" Windows itself.  It's not a library you can just plop on a USB and have available on any PC.  It must be installed on the PC you're going to run .
     
  4. Therefore, Paint.Net can never be truly and "fully" portable.  You can carry it around on USB, but it cannot be self-contained.
     
  5. To make Paint.Net completely self-contained and fully portable would require one of two things to occur:
    1. Rick could write his own local versions of all the .NET functions he's used.  This would be extremely time-consuming, and error-prone, and would make the application much, much bigger in terms of file sizes and memory requirements.
    2. He could also completely rewrite Paint.Net to be self-contained.  This might actually be easier than writing his own versions of the .NET functions!  Which is still time-consuming, error-prone, and makes the application much bigger.  Consider how long he's been working on Paint.Net --- he'd have to be out of his mind to decide to do a complete rewrite, but even if he decided to do so out of complete kindness, perhaps you can now imagine the scale of the work this would be asking!

This limited portability is Microsoft's miscalculation, not Rick's.  Microsoft assumed that everybody would have .NET on every Windows machine, and that those would all stay updated.  That actually has mostly -- but not entirely --- happened.  But... some people or organizations will always be behind the curve.  And since Microsoft keeps improving .NET and increasing the version numbers, the target PC must be running at least a certain level of .NET so that the functions called by Paint.Net would be present.

 

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7 minutes ago, Forbin said:

Therefore, Paint.Net can never be truly and "fully" portable.  You can carry it around on USB, but it cannot be self-contained.

 

Not quite.

The migration to .NET Core will allow for a "bundled" copy of the .NET libraries to be packaged with Paint.NET.  So, it will be self-contained.

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I will be making and distributing an "official" portable version of Paint.NET within the next few releases, probably as part of the .NET Core port. It'll be a lot bigger, naturally.

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The Paint.NET Blog: https://blog.getpaint.net/

Donations are always appreciated! https://www.getpaint.net/donate.html

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  • 3 weeks later...

Out of curiosity, what's the technical reason?

Is it because of the optimization step at the end of installation (At least seems like there is such).

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  • 1 year later...
On 6/4/2019 at 2:30 PM, sl23 said:

Because the idea of portability isn't just about being portable. It's also about NOT having to install software on your system that increases aspects that slow it down. Also, it's a very cumbersome and time consuming way of doing things. With several apps I have updating this way is a hassle. Not to mention the many other apps that require manual updates.

 

I only have 4 things installed, in the traditional sense, on my PC. 3 drivers (Korg Electribe, MiniNova, ASIO4ALL) and a GOG game. Incidentally these are mostly portable too, but once it's beaten I uninstall it cleanly.

 

I wouldn't think it's too much hassle for Rick (the dev?) to add a third download on the download page for a portable zipped version. I would imagine he already has it permanently installed for testing new releases? So for him to zip that install and add to the website shouldn't add much to his workload. Sorry, I don't mean to sound ungrateful, just that it seems a small task that would help so many people out. 🙂

...aaamen. Also, Those of us in corporate environments, especially hardened corporate environments, almost always DO NOT have the admin rights necessary to install software on work machines, and even if they do, usually they have to clear it with corporate security first before being allowed to install it. Often, corporate security simply does not allow employees (except developers) to install unapproved software on corporate equipment at all. 

 

I am lucky. My employer, even though I work in a hardened corporate environment, recognizes that I am a developer/engineer and should get some leeway in this area. So, whenever there is an update to paint.net:

 

- I log on to my home Windows image where I do have administrative rights

- I run the update installer to update the executable and binary files

- check the 'plugin errors' section of the Preferences to see what plugins don't work anymore and which ones need updating

- Find about 2 hours on a weekend, then tediously sift and hunt and peck through the hundreds of forum posts to see if the author of the plugin has a post that has the download link to the update. If I can't find it, I abandon hope for that plugin and delete it. Usually, I find a post saying the plugin has been updated, then I sift and hunt and peck through the hundreds of additional forum posts to see if I can find the download link. If I find that, I replace the old dll.

- after all that is done, I pull the registry entries and save them to a file in the program directory folder

- then I zip the entire folder up to a usb stick, plug it in to my work computer, and replace the files there. 

 

A tedious process, but there is simply no better alternative to Photoshop than paint.net, so it's worth it, because I only use Photoshop for major projects. Paint.net is just fine for the other 99.99%. On Windows. On the Mac, or Android, that's another story, I have several quality bitmap and vector apps I can use there. 

 

 

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1 minute ago, toe_head2001 said:

@Slowly

You can download official portable ZIP files here:

https://github.com/paintdotnet/release/releases

...I'm guessing this is for the freeware version. Also, this link doesn't appear to have a link to a plugin repository where plugin authors can post their binaries and updates...did anyone step up to the plate and volunteer to maintain such a repository? (sorry, I've been away from the forums for awhile)

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9 minutes ago, toe_head2001 said:

@Slowly

You can download official portable ZIP files here:

https://github.com/paintdotnet/release/releases

...Also, it appears that you are the author of the only way to manage plugins in paint.net, PluginsData.dll. But your link in your signature points to a post that dates back to 2016. Is there a link to the latest and greatest version of your pluginpack, where I can get the latest version of the Plugin Browser...?

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11 minutes ago, Slowly said:

...I'm guessing this is for the freeware version.

 

Correct. The Appx version of paint.net is only available through the Microsoft Store.

 

11 minutes ago, Slowly said:

... doesn't appear to have a link to a plugin repository where plugin authors can post their binaries and updates...did anyone step up to the plate and volunteer to maintain such a repository? ...

 

No, there is no plugin repository (I assume you mean a Nuget-like system for plugins).

Plugins are still distributed here on the forum. It's like living in the 'Dark Ages'. 😄

 

2 minutes ago, Slowly said:

... Is there a link to the latest and greatest version of your pluginpack, where I can get the latest version of the Plugin Browser...?

 

My plugin pack was last updated in 2018. The existing post from 2016 was simply edited with newer information.

I have updated a few of my plugins in interim, so I should refresh the pack too. I will do this in the coming weeks.

 

The Plugin Browser can be found here:

https://forums.getpaint.net/topic/110458-the-plugin-browser/

 

(September 25th, 2023)  Sorry about any broken images in my posts. I am aware of the issue.

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  • 1 year later...
50 minutes ago, gendalf said:

Rick Brewster, why do they delete old versions from github and are just keeping the newest one..

 

Because support is only provided for the latest version of Paint.NET, as mentioned in the forum rules:

 

Quote

7) You must be using the latest version of Paint.NET, available here. This is a requirement. If you want to stay with an older version then that is your right, but we cannot help you. If you are unable to upgrade, then please post in the troubleshooting section.

 

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