Hello John T. Haller (@JohnTHaller) and the PortableApps Community
I want to raise a concern and suggest an improvement regarding qBittorrent Portable:
When using the Search feature in qBittorrent Portable, the app tries to install Python on the host system.
This behavior breaks PortableApps’ own guidelines, because the app modifies the host system rather than being fully self-contained.
According to the Portable App Guidelines, a portable app:
- “doesn’t require additional software on the PC”
- “is self-contained in a single directory”
Proposal / Request
Please include a portable version of Python inside the qBittorrent Portable package.
By bundling a Python interpreter (e.g., the embeddable or portable build) within the app folder, the Search feature would work without installing anything on the host machine.
This would make qBittorrent Portable fully compliant with the PortableApps standard.
Why This Matters
- Improves usability: Users who want to use Search wouldn’t need to install Python manually.
- Maintains portability: The app remains “plug-and-play,” without modifying host systems.
- Aligns with PortableApps values: Adhering to the official guidelines increases trust and consistency.
Thank you very much for considering this request. I believe it would be a valuable improvement for many users.
https://www.upload.ee/files/18874270/qBittorrentPortableLegacyx86_4.4.5....
Download and install your own plug-in here: https://github.com/qbittorrent/search-plugins/wiki/Unofficial-search-plu...
Installed plug-in is in ..\Data\settings\LocalAppData_qBittorrent\nova3\engines
I have included one as an example.
Adding it in would double the size of the app. I've never used the built in search functionality and am unaware of friends who have either. We just use a browser with proper ad blocking. Additionally, this will require writing to and then restoring on exit the HKCU\Software\Python registry hive which could impact other apps use of it. qBittorrent doesn't seem to have a way to point it to a specific version of Python, so it has to use those registry keys.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I have created a custom version of qBittorrent Portable bundled with Python. With this setup, the Search feature works without installing anything on the host system.
Reference / Related Issue: With the goal of making the Search feature fully portable, I requested the qBittorrent team to add an option allowing users to specify the Python executable path. This request is tracked in GitHub Issue #18454.
Download and TestqBittorrentPortable_5.1.4.paf.exe
Improvement Steps- Download the Windows embeddable package (64-bit) from Python.org.
- Extract it to
- Add the following line to
Optional / Off-Topic Improvement\App\Pythonfolder.\App\DefaultData\qBittorrent\config\qBittorrent.ini:I also added this line to the config:
This makes the word “Portable” appear in the window title of qBittorrent.
Final Configuration ExampleYou can see the final
qBittorrent.inihere: GitHub - qBittorrent.ini