[lymponus]

Is it possible to install and then run programs off a flash/thumb/pen drive? I'm thinking about installing Ad-aware, Spybot, etc... on a flash drive so I can run it on people's computers that are full of spyware and viruses. Will this work? Has anyone tried it yet?

I will try this as soon as the flash drive I ordered shows up. Thought it would be a handy way to quickly repair people's computers.


Lymponus

[Elvandil]

Some programs can be run from the drive. Ad-Aware will run as a "standalone" if you copy the Ad-Aware folder to the thumb drive. But I haven't tried any of the others. I just know that Ad-Aware runs from a CD.

But you can't technically "install" programs to the drive because installation involves creating of registry entries and placing files in various locations on the host machine. Only those programs that will run as "standalones" will work. The best way to try them is to copy their folder out of Program Files, put the folders on a machine where the program has not been installed, and see if it will run. If it comes up with a missing dll error, try copying the missing dll into the folder. I've managed to separate some of the Norton tools from the main installation by this method and they now run separately when the folders are placed on other machines.

[lymponus]

Thanks Elvandil, I wasn't sure about the registry entries. I'll post the results of my experiments.


Lymponus