Latest Lists

How to run a software from an external USB hard drive?

Hi, I recently bought and installed a software (small filesize) in my E drive (external USB hard drive), with a thought that I can use the software by connecting the usb hard drive to any machine. But now, I don't know how to copy the desktop shortcut or see the program in program list when I connect the hard drive to another computer. Hope you got it. Please find me the solution.

Public Comments

1. u cud make a shortcut on ur desktop. some software might not be able to run just on a thumb drive. if its only one .exe then it shud, but if it is a series of files and folders then proably not
2. what on earth would make you think this was going to work PROGRAMS such as games must be installed into the registry of the PC so the programs knows how to execute , simply installing the program onto a external hard drive and moving it ( the drive) from PC to pc isn't going to work because the registry of the other PC does not know how to execute the program
3. If the application needs registry files you need to either create a fake registry like some thumb drives have or install the application and just have its files in the location you want. This will cause the application to only be able to run on the computer it was installed for, though you can install on other computers and re-write the files so that many computers think its in the same location. If the application does not need some registration/installation then it should run just fine as is.
4. Most software won't be able to run off of a USB drive natively like that. When you install software it install many other components in addition to the files in the program files folder. Things like registry keys and registered dlls etc. will not be set-up on the flash drive and therefore will not port over to another computer when you try and run the software. There are some wrappers for USB drives that let you package software to be 'portable' but they don't always work (depending on the software). Some simpler programs may run off a USB drive just fine if they are self contained, and all you have to do is run the executable from the folder on the USB drive.
5. If you can guarantee that the external drive will appear as drive E on all the computers you use it on, INSTALL the program to drive E. On every program you're going to use it on. (All this does is save space on the computers - it doesn't save you the trouble of installing the program.) The only way to do wiat you want is to install portable programs to the USB drive. (Portable programs are written - or rewritten - to not need installation. They carry their configurations with them in files.) See sites like http://portableapps.com/ and http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/