run any app off a USB drive?

[wonkotheinsane]

Hey, guys, do you have the experience of running your daily used apps off a USB drive?

Which is I am now trying to do. But I find that only portable apps can be run like that.

while some apps like MS office are not portably available. How can I do that?

[Strong Eagle]

Running Office from a USB drive would violate the license terms for MS Office which states that the product can be run on one computer.

[nakatago]

some applications do not require to refer to files specific to your computer and which are also outside the app's directories. that said, it is rare for a windows application to do or supports a mode that does this. there are some but they are rare.

although iirc, tor and some browser somehow supports something like this. too lazy to look it up though.

[x9200]

An universal solution:
1. buy or download a retail version of your favorite OS (YFOS)
2. install a virtual machine client on the PCs you are going to use or use a liveCD/bootable USB OS containing such client
3. install YFOS and desired application on a virtual partition (partition image) on the thumb drive
4. enjoy your favorite apps everywhere or die waiting depending on the host machine and USB device performance

[Saint]

Tic Toc Tic Toc

[durain]

just in case it is not a tic toc tic toc, you will need virtualized applications to run off a USB FD something like mokafive, creedo or U3.

[sundaymorningstaple]

It was a tic toc but I neutered him yesterday, but as the thread already some useful replies, I left the post.

[aster]

There is a version of Open Office that one can run off a pendrive.

Back in the day when I was still running a Windows-based PC I had most of my software on a thumb drive, including the above mentioned office freebie, ftp, browser, even a virus scanner.

If you still use Windows and want to run as much stuff off of a usb drive as possible then portableapps.com is a good place to find what you're looking for.

Personally I'd recommend switching to a Mac, after the initial month of pain comes a feeling of satisfaction and the "glad I did it" approach. There's no going back once you make the hop.