Overview Of The Launcher

In the following chapters we’ll build a launcher which will do the following:

Step 1
Makes a backup of the program’s settings found in the registry (if any)

Step 2
Makes a backup of the program’s settings found in other files outside the program’s directory (if any)

Step 3
Imports program settings to the registry

Step 4
Imports username and serial to the registry

Step 5
Changes paths to the program in the registry

Step 6
Launches the software and waits until it’s closed

Step 7
Saves (exports) program settings from the registry

Step 8
Cleans up program traces

Step 9
Restores original registry settings found in step 1

Step 10
Restores other settings files (see step 2)


Of course, this is only a general scheme. Sometimes you’ll need only 3 or 5 steps; it all depends on the candidate program’s behaviour. And sometimes you have to tuck more steps into this scheme to be able to create the portable version of the program.