Installing Software Remotely on USB Flash Drives

Install and Run virtually any software on any PC. No U3 device required.

Published on March 10, 2009 By VistArtXPosed In Personal Computing

This concept sounds simple; installing and running program on a USB Flash Drive. But how many people actually do it? Most people install programs on their local hard disk; mainly in the "Program Files" directory, which is fine until you run out of disk space.

I've discovered a way to install virtually any software on any USB Drive without using a special U3 flash drive or 3rd party software. All you have to do is change the installation directory of the software being installed on a drive other than "C:\" (or whatever your local hard disk is.) Even installing on another partition with plenty of space will do. Do this for multiple programs, and you'll free up many MB's or even GB's of hard disk space. You may have to use multiple Flash Drives if you want to free up even more space. (Most USB Drives nowadays run from 4 to 16 GB.)

Some advantages of remote installations include:

Programs can be ran on ANY PC running Windows. No installation required.
Access times may be faster (USB flash drives have faster data rates than Hard Drives.)
In the event of a system failure, these programs are pre-installed away from the local hard disk, so they can be ran on-the-fly after reinstallation of the OS. (However, registry entries will be lost.[unless if the Registry's backed up.])

However, there are some drawbacks to remote installations. They include:

USB flash drives can be easily lost or stolen
Unplug the USB and all access to these programs are lost
Large programs that take up more space than what's available will not install. Watch your USB's free space.
Not all programs will run correctly on flash drives (some programs appear to do nothing at all.)

As for me, I have about 20 programs installed on my Flash Drive including Skinstudio 6, Firefox, Audacity, Paint.NET and more. I have no problems with any of them.

Uninstalling a program goes under the same procedure as if the program were installed on a hard drive. Just make sure that the USB is plugged in before, during, and after the uninstallation.

If you don't always want to go to your flash drive to launch a program, go to the .exe file and create a shortcut to the desktop or Start Menu. Just make sure that your Flash Drive is plugged in when launching an app or shortcut, or an error message will appear and that app will terminate.

Remote installations may increase performance, but it may not. The purpose is to take a load off the Hard Drive so more stuff can be added without spending a fortune. I hope you'll find this useful someday!

Comments

Jafo

on Mar 10, 2009

Won't work for many programs...certainly not ones that will want to locate files in shared directories...or actually NEED settings within the registry....they won't be relocatable from one comp to another.....not without installes to each.

And data thruput via sata/HD will be better than a USB, anytime...

Jafo

on Mar 10, 2009

Forgot....Flashdrive ram has a finite life....write cycles. A harddrive will outlast them...

Jafo

on Mar 10, 2009

The purpose is to take a load off the Hard Drive so more stuff can be added without spending a fortune.

Me yet again....

Flash drives ARE getting cheaper...but do the math...USB drive $ per gig....and then Harddrive... $ per gig.

If you want cheap....go out and buy another Harddrive...

Wizard1956

on Mar 10, 2009

....Flashdrive ram has a finite life....write cycles. A harddrive will outlast them...

That is useful information,Jafo. I use one for archiving some things.Would it be better to save these files to a disc instead?

Jafo

on Mar 10, 2009

Would it be better to save these files to a disc instead?

Better to use both, not either....redundancy back-ups...

Ideal would be to an external HD as well....

Leonon

on Mar 10, 2009

Wizard1956

reply 4

That is useful information,Jafo. I use one for archiving some things.Would it be better to save these files to a disc instead?

Jafo

reply 5

Better to use both, not either....redundancy back-ups...

Ideal would be to an external HD as well....

It's a good practice to also keep back ups of really important things in more than one physical location. Floods, fires, and raptors with light sabers have a tendency to destroy or prevent access to the physical media that backups are on.

CarGuy1

on Mar 10, 2009

Would it be better to save these files to a disc instead?

Not if it's a floppy. I've had backups on floppies go bad before I removed the disc.

Now that I think of it, out of 5 PCs I don't even have a machine with a floppy drive in it.

e-stab

on Mar 10, 2009

That is useful information,Jafo. I use one for archiving some things.Would it be better to save these files to a disc instead?

It is worth noting that the "finite life" of a flash drive will usually be pretty long. The flash "cells" can be accessed several thousand times at least (and that's a conservative estimate) - should be more than enough for backup purposes and even many other applications. Personally I keep an encrypted backup of personal files on a usb flash drive. As long as compatible usb ports are available (!), I prefer a flash drive over self-burned cds in terms of longevity and reliablity.

When there's lots of data to save, external hard drives are cheaper of course. But those have moving parts and are susceptible to magnetic disturbances, two weaknesses which don't apply to flash drives.

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