Idea for making any app standalone

nobodythere

I have a small idea and I want to know if it will work. I'm thinking that I can make any application standalone. As far as I can tell, it's only really the registry and system files that 90% of programs use outside of it's own folder.

What the program would do is:
1) Scan through the PE files of the program for all registry calls, RegCreateKey, RegOpenKey etc. and build up a database of the ones it uses.
2) Replace all calls to the registry API with calls to a function of the programs that would compare values to the ones in the database and return as necessary. If it doesn't find a match with the built up database it forwards it to the normal registry functions.
3) With regards to non-standard system files that it requires, keep a copy of them in the folder. Windows by default looks in the folder of the exe before looking in the windows system directories.

Anyone see any reason why this wouldn't work? What do you all think?

pH

Many programs also use:
-dlls placed in System or common folders
-Files placed in standard folders (documents and settings)

I'm not sure what you're trying to achieve here, if it's your program then why not just make an installer. If it's someone else's then it will probably be packed/protected and you will not be able to scan and replace the reg calls anyway (not without considerable RE skills - and certainly not automated)

even if the application is not packed in some way, calls to the registry will not always be for hard-coded strings, the app may construct the keys it requires programatically and you will not find these with a scan.

nobodythere

My big pain in the ass in reinstalling windows is reinstalling all programs. If they could just be in their own folders and copied over it'd save a lot of hassle. Also for fixing others computers it would be handy to have any tools that usually need installing to be able to run off a USB stick.

Good point about the hard-coded strings, maybe it could do some sort of active registry monitoring to build the database while the program is running, maybe put these database files online so that only one person has to go through the effort for each program?

I don't think that many programs are really packed, maybe the more commercial packages but I don't expect this to work for everything.

Ginger

If you need to reinstall windows so often, just edit the windows install to included the installers and get them to run automagically. I have done this with Windows XP to include Acrobat, Office 2003 and some other apps. All patched up.

The install is complete unattended, i put in the cd, select the partition and size and come back in an hour, windows all set up...

In relation to the idea, promising but you major problem comes with updates as you have to RE every program once its updated or not update..

If you are designing stuff maybe you should take a look at ClickOnce for .NET apps.. Runs on the same theory

Hobbes

There is also an app out there that will scan your system and build an exe for you. When you run the exe it will reinstall all your device drivers exactly as before.

I forget the name of it though.

amen

plus you could ghost the machine once installed
thats how a lot of large companies do
muich handier

nobodythere

I guess it is being a bit unrealistic. Ginger, how do I get the software to automatically install? I've seen this done on XP Custom CD's but couldn't figure it out.

Ginger

Download nLite anyways to get yourself the basic XP disk setup with the unattended information and SP2 slipstreamed....

Then head to http://www.ryanvm.net/msfn/ for the integrator to get the hotfixes in.. believe me this way is easier than trying to locate them all yourself..

You will notice on that that page that there is some links to some of the apps that you can add to your install.

This site will also help you out .. on how to get Office into the system. You can also add the drivers for your various devices in too

http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp/

HTH