Is it possible to run weather watcher as a portable application from a USB flasdrive?
If the USB drive and the pc’s Windows Registry are updatable WW should run. And each pc that the USB drive is connected to must have WW installed on it. WW has system cookies and Registry dependencies.
So, can WW run from a USB drive, yes. Can it run as a portable app, no.
IF there was an exec option when starting WW that would allow it’s forecast files, map history and city file reading & writing be directed to a folder other than the one WW is in one could set up a RAM drive and have the files written to it thus making the app portable, speedy and not wear out the USB flash drive.
Data would still be written to the system’s Registry andt that may be ok for some systems. But if the system is secured then an exec option for reading & writing the Registry data to a .ini file or something would be needed also. Probably better to make it all one option, allow for a location and write everything updatable to it, leaving the icons and templates and exes in their current locations.
A combination of RAMdrive and an exec option would work and having WW on a USB flash drive would definitely be cool. :icon_smile:
Weather Watcher on USB drive
It works fine, and it’s not necessary to have Weather Watcher installed on the host machine. Weather Watcher DOES write settings to the registry, so you’ll have to reset your location the first time you use WW on a new PC.
So while it’s not technically a portable app, it should work fine for most people. Just install it on your computer and copy the Program Files\Weather Watcher folder to your USB drive. Run ww.exe to start the program, or add it to Pstart or other menu.
8-[ Really!!
But doesn’t it update the host’s registry? What if the host is a limited access account? What if the host has WW installed, will this impact the host’s install?
Well, you’ve peaked my interest. I’ve got to check it out. :icon_smile:
Thanks for posting. :thumbright:
Well, that was interesting.
WW does indeed run from the Jump drive. Unforunately it also updates the host’s Registry and if the host has installed WW the Jump drive’s version overwrites them. An unwelcome change to a possibly unsuspecting host.
So yes, it does run from a Jump drive, but I don’t recommend it.
Maybe the new user profile function will help.