[Gamester17]

Just as idea, what do you guys think?

First of all please note that this is not instead of XBMC LiveUSB/LiveCD running Linux, this should a totally seperate project from that.

PortableApps.com works similar to U3 but PortableApps.com is open source and work with any USB Mass Storage Device. The USB-memory-stick would not be bootable but it would be cool to do a quick demo of XBMC on any of your friend's Microsoft Windows computer with it, simply plug-in the USB-stick in any Microsoft Windows computer and XBMC auto-launches from it.

http://portableapps.com
http://sourceforge.net/projects/portableapps/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PortableApps.com

PortableApps.com allows you to carry your favorite computer programs and all of your bookmarks, settings, email and more with you on a portable device (USB flash drive, iPod, portable hard drive, CD, etc) and use them on any Windows computer.

For this to work I guess that our Win32 developers first have to figure out how to package the SDL libraries/files with the XBMC application instead of having it as a seperate third-party installation like it is today, please see this request => http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=33377



PS! Also see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_portable_software

By the way, it is worth noting that;

Being hosted on SourceForge.net, the PortableApps.com project has gained some popularity. It currently sits at number four in the total weekly downloads on SourceForge

...and as such, having XBMC for Windows avialable on PortableApps.com should hopefully help attract more users and developers to XBMC.

We all know that if XBMC user-base gets bigger then even more new developers will want to join our project.

[lcapriotti]

my vote for this!
L

[feerlessleadr]

Hi guys,

I did a search and didnt find any specific results on the subject...but i thought it might be something to think about for future releases of builds.

I love the installer and it makes it dead easy to install xbmc onto a windows machine, the only problem (and please tell me if I am missing something) is that when it comes time to update xbmc, you have to go into a few different folders and delete them in order to make sure you have a clean build.

For my work computer, we arent supposed to install alot of 3rd party apps onto it, so i have discovered the wonderful world of portable apps. I use both firefox and pidgin as portable apps and they both work great.

What I was thinking is what if xbmc could be installed in much the same way that the portable apps are installed (ie one folder only). This would make it even more simple to update and could make xbmc portable (ie i could bring xbmc from my laptop to my desktop and have all of my settings saved)

I don't know if this is doable, or if any dev would even be interested in something like this. I would do it but I do not have the technical know how to take something like this on.

Let me know what you think.

[Gamester17]

Someone would have to volunteer to do the work, anyone?
Maybe ask here too? http://portableapps.com/node/14915
Also checkout this! http://portableapps.com/node/4507

Please post here if any modifications to XBMC are needed

[WiSo]

I have no "clean" windows PC here but shouldn't run XBMC already without any additions? Do we really need to install SDL since we ship it with the needed libraries?
Also running from one directory is that what XBMC was supposed to be doing in early days before the platform directories came. Just edit the windows link and remove the -p and everything is written in the xbmc directory.

[Gamester17]

I have no "clean" windows PC here but shouldn't run XBMC already without any additions?

Yes I think it should in theory, I have just not have time to try myself.
http://portableapps.com/node/4507

Do we really need to install SDL since we ship it with the needed libraries?

Nope, all that is required is that the SDL and Glue libraries are includes.

Also running from one directory is that what XBMC was supposed to be doing in early days before the platform directories came. Just edit the windows link and remove the -p and everything is written in the xbmc directory.

Good to know.

[euphoric]

I'll take a look at this

What is needed to run XBMC btw? Like .net, sdl etc...

[WiSo]

I'll take a look at this

What is needed to run XBMC btw? Like .net, sdl etc...

That is exactly what you should find out
afaik you just need the xbmc directory and everything should run fine.

[euphoric]

That is exactly what you should find out
afaik you just need the xbmc directory and everything should run fine.

Yes, sure.. but the easiest way to find that out is to ask the people who knows...no reason to invent the wheel again

[Gamester17]

afaik you just need the xbmc directory and everything should run fine.

That is my understanding as well.

@euphoric, try by just downloading the latest 'Altlantis' Alpha release of XBMC for Windows installer from http://xbmc.org/download and run the setup on one fresh install of Windows XP to install XBMC, (but do not start/run XBMC once the installation is complete), then copy the "XBMC" folder from under "C:\Program Files\", (I do not know how PortableApps works, maybe you will also need to take a copy of ), and then test to simply use that to build "XBMC Portable" for ProtableApple with that, (make sure that you edit the shortcut to remove the -p switch like WiSo noted so that everything will be written in the XBMC directory). If that alone does not work then first check the debug log, but if that does not tell you anything then you will need to turn the source code.

[kraqh3d]

i've never done an install. i typically build using the Win32Setup\BuildSetup.bat file. i then just copy everything except userdata into new folder, and then copy my userdata folder into the location. without -p, everything is kept local.

[incognegro]

I have one question about running xbmc on USB stick; Is there a way to edit source.xml to make a share that points to the xbmc folder no matter what the drive letter is? I tried changing the letter to the Q drive, because i thought it refers to the "home" folder. It doesn't seem to work that way, because if the drive letter changes the share disappears.

[WiSo]

Q: is internally mapped to the XBMC installation directory. You should be able to add it as source. This just works in XBMC but not outside of course.

[rwparris2]

in other words if it is setup thumbdriveroot\xbmc\sources\movies
you should be able to add Q:\sources\movie as a source without problems.

Leave the drive as E: or F: or whatever. You don't have to tell windows the thumb drive is Q... that will just confuse things I think.

[WiSo]

exactly