Ability to run from a thumbdrive?

[carnagecjb]

Is there any way to set this up to run from a portable drive? I did some quick Google-searching, but only found what appeared to me to be pirate versions (best steered clear of). (Although they were advertised to work how I desired.) Before I plunk down some time and effort to discover something that others have already tried and failed at, I thought it best to ask... I don't mind doing some minor re-configuring each time I re-run it, but it would be necessary for it to not leave settings and such all over behind itself...

Any thoughts?

[LtData]

Re: Ability to run from a thumbdrive?

dMC uses the registry to store all of its settings, and a folder in your profile's Application Data folder to cache CD Ripper meta-data. Is it possible to have it work out of one folder? Possibly, but is not coded that way.

[carnagecjb]

Re: Ability to run from a thumbdrive?

I'm guessing that the cache is cleared after the rip is completed, which is fine for my purposes. A relatively simple script could write the HKCU (guessing that's the registry area where the values are stored?) on startup, and create the directory, then, after the program exits, save the values, delete the HKCU and cache directory. That would, effectively, leave no trace, correct?

I ask mainly because I use Linux at home, and would like to be able to use this to rip, based on the HA forums recommendations and my research from the past several days. I can rip at work, but can't install programs to the local drive. Running programs from thumbdrives is OK, as long as they clean up after themselves...

[LtData]

Re: Ability to run from a thumbdrive?

Yes, HKCU/Software/Illustrate is where they are stored. As for it leaving no trace, I believe this is the case but I can't say for 100% certainty.

[a.k.a.]

Re: Ability to run from a thumbdrive?

If you don't mind my putting in a HUGE plug for this feature request, I agree that a portable version of dBpoweramp could get this software a much larger user base. There are a lot of people using portable launchers on USB drives -- optical media software are probably one of the most desireable apps for USBs. (I don't want to burn a CD using the crappy software on whatever terminal I'm required to use.)

Right now, the only "secure rip" software that runs on a USB drive is CDex, and to hear tell, it fails quite often to catch / report errors.

There's a start at a portable launcher script for EAC, but it's running into some hitches, that you would also want to know about: Apparently, users are still not seeing a way to run AccurateRIP or FLAC in a portable mode with the launcher script that's been written. Here's that link:

http://portableapps.com/node/5583

The other problem that people may run into is sluggishness in the session performance of a portable version. I'm not at all expert enough in these things to tell you what's going on there.

So, thanks a lot for taking this into consideration.

Best wishes,
a.k.a.

[pipetman]

Re: Ability to run from a thumbdrive?

I wholeheartedly second this request!

I'm a big proponent of portable software in general. In particular, I'd like to install dBp on a PC at work and while I have admin rights on the machine and can do so, I would much prefer having a portable version to run from.

There are actually various ways to make existing software portable, like Thinapps (through application virtualization, works nice, but is insanely expensive) or writing NSIS scripts (requires scipting capabilities I don't have). Then there are applications like PortableBuilder etc., but they are potentially riddled with crapware. Finally there is JauntePE, which redirects registry requests into a portable registry (similar thing with file system requests). Info about this can be found on portablefreeware.com. Unfortunately, development on it stopped, but the existing versions (hard to find these days) work pretty well in many cases. I actually tried to portabilize dBp with JauntePE and I got it to run and create a portable registry etc. (not sure how the AMG registration thing would work out...), but the portable version doesn't find the CD-Rom drive...bummer.