Install on a USB stick

[Chaos Custard]

2 questions.

1. Can I install yWriter onto a removable drive (USB Stick), and then
use it on any compatible operating system, even if yWriter has not
been installed?
2. I have installed yWriter on my desktop. If it is possible to
install to a USB stick, will running the install again mess anything
up on the desktop?

[Dave Shaw]

See instructions: http://www.spacejock.com/RunFromThumbDrive.html

As I understand it, you should have no problems with your existing install.
Haven't tried it myself, though.

Dave Shaw
--
People are more violently opposed to furs than leather because it's safer to
harass rich women than motorcycle gangs.

[Chaos Custard]

Thanks, will try it out!

[Chaos Custard]

Works fine.

now I just need to make sure I have a synchronisation process I stick
to :)

[Simon Haynes]

The instructions vary depending on whether it's a VB6 or DotNet 2 app:

All my apps will run from a thumb drive, and step one, assuming you've already installed the app to your hard drive, is to copy the program folder across from your PC to the memory stick. If the memory stick is drive G, an example would be to copy C:\Program Files\yBook to G:\yBook

Now you have to choose one of the next two steps, depending on whether the app you want to run was written in VB6 or VB2008.

Step 2, VB6 applications

For my VB6 apps (yBook 1.x, BookDB 2.x, FCharts 1.x, yTimer 1.x, yPlay 1.x, yRoute 1.x) you need the VB6 runtimes. Just download the following file, run it, and point the installer to the program folder on the memory stick (e.g. G:\yBook in our example)

http://www.spacejock.com/files/PenDriveFiles.exe

Step 2, VB2008 applications

For my VB2008 apps (everything not listed above), the host machine must have the Microsoft dotnet 2.0 runtimes installed. Vista and Windows 7 already have them, whereas Windows XP does not. If you have permission, you can easily install the dotnet runtimes. I suggest putting a copy of the installer on the memory stick:

http://www.spacejock.com/dotnet.html

Note that you can't install the dotnet runtimes into the program's folder on the memory stick - they have to be installed on the host PC.

There's one more thing to be aware of: Your data. If you run one of my apps from a memory stick it will try to create a data folder in C:\My Documents\ on the host PC, and will also try to put its settings in C:\Documents and Settings\(Username)\Application Data\Spacejock Software\(Application Name).

To override this, you MUST create an ini file in the program folder on the memory stick. E.g. to force yWriter5 to use its own program folder for data and settings, create an empty file called yWriter5.ini in the (example) G:\yWriter5 folder. When you run yWriter5.exe from the memory stick it will see this ini file.

(The reason for this is because Windows XP and Vista don't allow programs to store data in C:\Program Files. Therefore, the program has to be intelligent enough to store data in the user's data folder, but alas that's not what you want if you're trying to run from a memory stick...)

Cheers
Simon
--
Software designer & programmer
+ Free apps for writers and readers http://www.spacejock.com
Author of the Hal Spacejock series
+ "Better than Red Dwarf" http://www.spacejock.com.au

Dave Shaw wrote:

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[Morven Westfield]

On Sep 11, 1:15 am, Chaos Custard <chaoscust...@gmail.com> wrote:

> now I just need to make sure I have a synchronisation process I stick
> to :)

I keep both yWriter 5 and my novel on one USB stick. I work on my
novel ONLY using that stick, whether I'm at home, work, or traveling.
I know that the copy on my USB stick is ALWAYS the latest copy.

The only thing I have to remember is to back up the USB stick.

[Lamanai]

If you also back up the USB stick, it is okay. Otherwise, once your
USB stick gets damaged and unreadable, you might lose all your data.
This is anyway an interesting point with keeping an only copy of
yWriter on the flash disk and worth to try.

I use another system to keep my data synchronized and accessible from
anywhere. I use the very tool we are using here - the Google Groups.
There you can create a new group where you can upload data up to 100
MB in total. I keep some older files there as well, so I can return to
an older version if needed (never used it, though).

Well, this is maybe a bit more awkward for most of you, but might work
for some. Actually, keeping the data on a USB stick, no matter if with
or without the yWriter application installed on it or not, seems a bit
more handy, I must admit.

Lamanai




On Sep 18, 5:34 am, Morven Westfield <mor...@morvenwestfield.com>
wrote:

[John W Nelson]

If I am seeing a blank Project when I open one I have copied to the USB, does that mean Dotnet is not installed on my laptop?  Or have I fouled up elsewhere? 

The steps I took were: 

1. copy the yWriter program folder to the USB
2. create a blank .ini file in that program folder
3. copy my project folder to the USB

Sorry to be so dim, any advice appreciated!  Thank you!

John

[Tobias Ware]

Hi John,

Have you checked whether you have "Load previous project on startup" selected? It is found under Project in the tool bar. I had this issue until I realised it wasn't selected.

Tobias

[John Nelson]

Many thanks for that tip!

best regards,
John Nelson

john...@gmail.com

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