portability

[fgagnon]

well if nikos' idea/approach is better, maybe he should charge the same as thinstall: ($30 per USB stick, 10 sticks minimum)  :spin:

[ZoNi]

even if you could, i think the price is just a little bit high

LOL! I haven't seen the price

[nikos]

so here is the "beta version" of the website pages that explain about the portable version: (the buynow button doesn't work yet, patience )
http://zabkat.com/x2port.htm

please have a read through to clear any misconceptions. You are welcome to feedback on either principle or implementation details

thanks

[nikos]

now the portable shop is taking orders, first come first served
http://zabkat.com/x2port.htm
(existing users hit the quickbuy button near the middle of the screen)

[Atreus]

The order page has a typographic error at the top, probably due to an encoding error at some point in the past

" [xplorer²] - Secure order page "

[nikos]

yeah, that exponent managed to screw itself up! It's not a typo, something's wrong with the encoding...

[moshepack]

Page 310 of the manual for version 1.7.0.3 talks about a command-line option for portable mode.  Is this what you've been talking about?

[nikos]

sorry, what was the subject?

[moshepack]

You were talking about selling a custom-compiled portable version of X2 which does not require installation on the PC and which can run on a DiskOnKey without leaving a trace in the registry.  How is this different than the command-line "/I" option for portable mode which is already in the 1.7.0.3 version of X2 ?

[nikos]

if you use the "standard" version on somebody else's machine and you don't have admin rights, you'll find that you can't use it there, that's when you need the portable version. It also makes sure to remove any registry information after you quit. See this page for more info:
www.zabkat.com/x2port.htm

[kinnik]

I doubt why not using ini/dat to save registration information.

[JDlugosz]

help, hackers!

another security measure i'm going to introduce against misuse of this unlocked version is that it will refuse to work unless it detects it is running from removable media like a USB stick, floppy (!) or cdrom. That shouldn't be a problem for the intended portability, no?

ps i mean any removable media, it won't be locked in a particular usb drive

Here is a scenario I've had at work:
There are a few lab machines that get an engineering build of a product under development.  This might be running under XP Embedded, so even the meager built-in programs may be lacking.  I have a USB Stick (formerly a mini-CD) with a whole lot of stuff on it.  I have to get to the back of the machine to plug it in, and then the first thing I do is copy the entire directory.  Then I run the programs off the local copy, and get my USB stick back.  

The 4NT shell has an alternate build that stores the registration information in a text file rather than in the registry.  We have a site license for EditPadPro and WinZip.  But for the most part, for tools I personally own, I run the trial version on the USB key anyway.  For example, RegWorkshop will hide its countdown somewhere.  But, the machine will be reformatted in a few days anyway.  

Occasionally, I've had to troubleshoot something on an actual product box in the compatibility lab or something.  There I run into trouble if I ever did it before, because trial periods have expired.  But that is not something I run into often.

But I've thought about the way 4NT works.  It would be cool if all the programs agreed on a directory to keep the license files, as then I could just delete that when I'm done and leave the stuff as trialware if anyone else finds it useful.

--John