Can you run programs from USB Jump Drives, SD Cards? Flash Compact?

[Rockinghorse Winner]

Hi, I am thinking of buying a usb drive that is portable, and that can
be plugged into the usb port of my office computer. There are several
things they sell, but what I need is something that I can install programs
on, and then run those programs on re,mote computers. Does any one know
what the diff's are between the jump drives, ext. hard drives, compact flash
and Secure digital cards in this respect?

Thanks for your input. It is much appreciated.

R*Horse--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

USB drives are designed for file storage and backups. They are not
designed to run programs.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

Be Smart! Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


|
| Hi, I am thinking of buying a usb drive that is portable, and that can
| be plugged into the usb port of my office computer. There are several
| things they sell, but what I need is something that I can install programs
| on, and then run those programs on re,mote computers. Does any one know
| what the diff's are between the jump drives, ext. hard drives, compact flash
| and Secure digital cards in this respect?
|
| Thanks for your input. It is much appreciated.
|
| R*Horse--
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
|
|

 

[Pat Garard]

G'Day Rockinghorse,

The time has come for YOU to learn more about Windows,
and stop asking dumbass questions clearly designed to flout
the copyright laws!

You can install as many programs as you like to the 'usb drive'
and 98% of them will still run - on the PC where they were installed.
--
Regards,
Pat Garard
Australia

______________________________________

 

[LVTravel]

You can install the program files to the usb drive and it will probably run
OK. What I see when I read between the lines is that you want to take the
drive and run the programs on more than one machine, i.e., home and office.
This is normally a violation of the EULA for most programs (Installed on one
computer at a time. Hard drives are not computers.) If this is what you
want to do, you need to purchase licenses for each machine unless the
software you install permits installation on more than one machine (Office
2003 Student & Teacher is one example, 3 machines). You would then need to
install the software on each computer with the USB device plugged in. This
will set up the ini files (if used) and the registry to recognize the
program.

To run the application you would need to use the same USB port each time the
device was transferred from machine to machine.

 

[Ravnldy]

Hi, I am thinking of buying a usb drive that is portable, and that can
be plugged into the usb port of my office computer. There are several
things they sell, but what I need is something that I can install
programs
on, and then run those programs on re,mote computers. Does any one
know
what the diff's are between the jump drives, ext. hard drives, compact
flash
and Secure digital cards in this respect?

Thanks for your input. It is much appreciated.

R*Horse--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am trying to do something simular. We would llike for our students to
buy a full version of the software, keep it on a flash drive (not load
it to another machine) so they a able to move from classroom to
classroom, to labs. Is this a licences violation? Does depend on the
software agreement?

 

[Ghostrider]

I am trying to do something simular. We would llike for our students to
buy a full version of the software, keep it on a flash drive (not load
it to another machine) so they a able to move from classroom to
classroom, to labs. Is this a licences violation? Does depend on the
software agreement?

One needs to carefully read the license for any application
that is going to be installed on a portable or removable drive.
The way most licenses are written, they are sufficiently vague
to allow almost any possibility whilst protecting the owner of
the license. IOW, be very aware of all of the consequences. For
example, there is a difference in interpretation between "'one'
computer" vs. "one computer".

But from a more practical point, the use of portable drives in
this manner usually requires similar computer systems. That is,
they need to be configured similarly, especially if the Windows
Registry is involved in any aspect of the installation. Or if
system drives/folders are also involved. Because of this, it
may be more practical to follow the traditional route of having
the applications installed in the classroom computers. This would
certainly be the persuasion of those agencies checking software
licenses.

 

[Ravnldy]

Ravnldy wrote:
-

I am trying to do something simular. We would llike for our students
to
buy a full version of the software, keep it on a flash drive (not
load
it to another machine) so they a able to move from classroom to
classroom, to labs. Is this a licences violation? Does depend on the
software agreement?

-

One needs to carefully read the license for any application
that is going to be installed on a portable or removable drive.
The way most licenses are written, they are sufficiently vague
to allow almost any possibility whilst protecting the owner of
the license. IOW, be very aware of all of the consequences. For
example, there is a difference in interpretation between "'one'
computer" vs. "one computer".

But from a more practical point, the use of portable drives in
this manner usually requires similar computer systems. That is,
they need to be configured similarly, especially if the Windows
Registry is involved in any aspect of the installation. Or if
system drives/folders are also involved. Because of this, it
may be more practical to follow the traditional route of having
the applications installed in the classroom computers. This would
certainly be the persuasion of those agencies checking software
licenses.

Agreed. However, our institutional License fee's have increased 80% in
just one year. It is far less expensive to have the students purchase a
full version. They will need/want this program after graduation, thus
they are making an investment rather incurring an expence (for a
student version).
Other then "legal" issues' , this will work? We are currently
experimenting. I will post our results.
Thank you for your quick response. You have been very helpful.

 

[Robert Moir]

Agreed. However, our institutional License fee's have increased 80% in
just one year. It is far less expensive to have the students purchase
a full version. They will need/want this program after graduation,
thus they are making an investment rather incurring an expence (for a
student version).
Other then "legal" issues' , this will work? We are currently
experimenting. I will post our results.
Thank you for your quick response. You have been very helpful.

Will it work, legal issues aside?

It might, really depends on the program. Where does it store user settings,
"state" information, etc? In the registry? Well you might have problems. In
the user's "home" drive? You might have problems if this isn't also the USB
drive. Wherever the program is installed to? You're probably ok though this
is not very good programming practice, and will probably have to be "fixed"
if they upgrade the program to work with Vista!

Another issue, USB flash memory can 'wear out'. In other words, it has a
limited lifetime, and (again depending on how the program works) it could
begin to cause problems, possibly relatively quickly.

Regards
Rob

 

[Ravnldy]

Ravnldy wrote:-

Agreed. However, our institutional License fee's have increased 80%
in
just one year. It is far less expensive to have the students purchase
a full version. They will need/want this program after graduation,
thus they are making an investment rather incurring an expence (for a
student version).
Other then "legal" issues' , this will work? We are currently
experimenting. I will post our results.
Thank you for your quick response. You have been very helpful.-

Will it work, legal issues aside?

It might, really depends on the program. Where does it store user
settings,
"state" information, etc? In the registry? Well you might have
problems. In
the user's "home" drive? You might have problems if this isn't also the
USB
drive. Wherever the program is installed to? You're probably ok though
this
is not very good programming practice, and will probably have to be
"fixed"
if they upgrade the program to work with Vista!

Another issue, USB flash memory can 'wear out'. In other words, it has
a
limited lifetime, and (again depending on how the program works) it
could
begin to cause problems, possibly relatively quickly.

Regards
Rob

Rob,
Thanks, I'll go ahead and tell you we want to do this with Auto CAD. I
envision the students loading to thier home machine, only keeping the
flash drive in use for about 4 semisters. We will need to remind
student to back up thier work... just in case. They should know this
already?!

 

[Robert Moir]

Rob,
Thanks, I'll go ahead and tell you we want to do this with Auto CAD. I
envision the students loading to thier home machine, only keeping the
flash drive in use for about 4 semisters. We will need to remind
student to back up thier work... just in case. They should know this
already?!

I think you might have fun with AutoCAD. It needs to be activated on each
machine it runs on, and the activation is machine specific, if I remember
rightly. I too work in eduaction, and AutoCAD consumes a lot of resources
supporting it and its awkward demands, still good luck with getting it to
work!

 

[Ravnldy]

Ravnldy wrote:
-
Rob,
Thanks, I'll go ahead and tell you we want to do this with Auto CAD.
I
envision the students loading to thier home machine, only keeping the
flash drive in use for about 4 semisters. We will need to remind
student to back up thier work... just in case. They should know this
already?! -

I think you might have fun with AutoCAD. It needs to be activated on
each
machine it runs on, and the activation is machine specific, if I
remember
rightly. I too work in eduaction, and AutoCAD consumes a lot of
resources
supporting it and its awkward demands, still good luck with getting it
to
work!

LOL. I am sure we will have a few giggles over this. What about U3
technology?
If I understand correctly we would still need to purchase software as
an insitution, just for U3. We may just have to go with external USB
hard drives.

 

[Robert Moir]

LOL. I am sure we will have a few giggles over this. What about U3
technology?

U3 only works with U3-compatible programs... if it isn't on their list it
isn't going to run. And their list seems to be more concerned with utilities
and anon type tools, which I can understand.

If I understand correctly we would still need to purchase software as
an insitution, just for U3. We may just have to go with external USB
hard drives.

Well if you can get it to work from a USB hard disk that would be quite a
good solution. For someone in the sort of professional role that I guess
you're training people for there is something to be said for someone having
their own toolkit setup exactly how they want travelling with them.

I'm getting the idea that finance may not be a big issue for your students,
if they could afford their own AutoCAD licence and USB HDDs, why not a
laptop? Perhaps you could do a loan/lease deal if buying out outright is
beyond their means, a few places here in the UK are doing deals like that.

 

[Ravnldy]

Ravnldy wrote:
-
LOL. I am sure we will have a few giggles over this. What about U3
technology?-

U3 only works with U3-compatible programs... if it isn't on their lis
it
isn't going to run. And their list seems to be more concerned wit
utilities
and anon type tools, which I can understand.
-
If I understand correctly we would still need to purchase software as
an insitution, just for U3. We may just have to go with external USB
hard drives.-

Well if you can get it to work from a USB hard disk that would be quit
a
good solution. For someone in the sort of professional role that
guess
you're training people for there is something to be said for someon
having
their own toolkit setup exactly how they want travelling with them.

I'm getting the idea that finance may not be a big issue for you
students,
if they could afford their own AutoCAD licence and USB HDDs, why not

laptop? Perhaps you could do a loan/lease deal if buying out outrigh
is
beyond their means, a few places here in the UK are doing deals lik
that.

Robert,
I have given the wrong impression regarding our student finances. W
are a two year college, with 80% of our students on federal aid
However, the students in this program do not have text to purchase so
am hoping that will off set the expense for them. Also, this will sta
with them forever