AmigoJack
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delphi 5 running on usb-stick
this is another kind of experiment: has anyone ever tried to install delphi 5 (or below) onto a usb-stick? i mean chances are low when a lot of files are spammed into \windows\system32. ages ago i had installed win98 and win2000 on the same machine with only having installed delphi once (under win98). to let delphi also run under win2000 i had only to register one dll (executing regsvr32...). dont know anymore which one it was, but thats not the problem.
my goal is to install it on the stick to also use delphi (editing and compiling) on another system. home and target systems are generally the same: xp. is it possible? i'll increase points if someone successfully did it, requirements are delphi 5, nothing above!
thx
my goal is to install it on the stick to also use delphi (editing and compiling) on another system. home and target systems are generally the same: xp. is it possible? i'll increase points if someone successfully did it, requirements are delphi 5, nothing above!
thx
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I really didnot try this. The delphi will run only on the administrative level (in my knowledge). For the other user levels it will not work.
What I thought was the registry settings will get differ for different machines with different users. may I am worng.
sun4sunday.
What I thought was the registry settings will get differ for different machines with different users. may I am worng.
sun4sunday.
ASKER
right now i had time to try it :) i installed d5 on the target system (xp, local admin). i didnt have the option to install it with "run from cd", so i took the most minimal installation (program files only). after that delphi could be started fine, compiling and debugging a test program also worked. i used filemon and regmon (www.sysinternals.com) to trace installation steps. after a bit of analysis i did the following:
- backup registry under HKLM\Software\Borland
- backup registry under HKCU\Software\Borland
- backup installation directory Delphi\Delphi5
- backup installation directory Delphi\Borland Shared\Debugger
- uninstall it all again
- restored all the files which were backup'd
- restored registry settings which were backup'd
- run "regsvr /s "Delphi\Borland Shared\Debugger\bordbk50.d
...and i could delphi start again :) all components visible, compiling and debugging works also. i even then installed a component package. so if you only need to have the IDE and no database/etc stuff, d5 seems to run very well on foreign systems with such an "installation rip". however, i dont fully trust this method to be successful at this early point, ill give it a week and will report then again.
thx so far to both of you. i think youre both also interested in the final result :)
- backup registry under HKLM\Software\Borland
- backup registry under HKCU\Software\Borland
- backup installation directory Delphi\Delphi5
- backup installation directory Delphi\Borland Shared\Debugger
- uninstall it all again
- restored all the files which were backup'd
- restored registry settings which were backup'd
- run "regsvr /s "Delphi\Borland Shared\Debugger\bordbk50.d
...and i could delphi start again :) all components visible, compiling and debugging works also. i even then installed a component package. so if you only need to have the IDE and no database/etc stuff, d5 seems to run very well on foreign systems with such an "installation rip". however, i dont fully trust this method to be successful at this early point, ill give it a week and will report then again.
thx so far to both of you. i think youre both also interested in the final result :)
ASKER
not interested? i wonder why not? :(
anyway, here are my experiences:
- after installing components, one should re-backup the registry under HKCU\Software\Borland, a good idea is also to adjust all setting within the ide before doing this to have them stored
- if the setup wont let you "not install" the BDE engine but after all you dont need that, you can safely strip that off afterwards by deleting the files
done so the installation reduces to 50MB (again said: without any source or help files). it works like a charm: i plugin my usb-stick, start a batch-file which merges the backed-up registry data and then registers bordbk50.dll so i can start delphi32.exe and start the work. (compiling, running, debugging, tracing - it all works). when im done, i close delphi, run another batch-file which merges also reg-files (those with minuses to remove whole keys) and the system is nearly the same as before. great.
however, the installation itself also checks and copies a couple of DLLs to the system32-directory. i dont remind them all, maybe theyre not quite essential - so this could be an important point when others try the same as i. but all in all working with delphi 5 is possible "on the road" :) and i am a local administrator on this machine. what i did not try was to install a service pack, but i see this as not vitally essential to be able to.
thanks for your help. i think i will post my experiences somewhere else, i cant imagine im the only one who wants to run delphi on usb.
anyway, here are my experiences:
- after installing components, one should re-backup the registry under HKCU\Software\Borland, a good idea is also to adjust all setting within the ide before doing this to have them stored
- if the setup wont let you "not install" the BDE engine but after all you dont need that, you can safely strip that off afterwards by deleting the files
done so the installation reduces to 50MB (again said: without any source or help files). it works like a charm: i plugin my usb-stick, start a batch-file which merges the backed-up registry data and then registers bordbk50.dll so i can start delphi32.exe and start the work. (compiling, running, debugging, tracing - it all works). when im done, i close delphi, run another batch-file which merges also reg-files (those with minuses to remove whole keys) and the system is nearly the same as before. great.
however, the installation itself also checks and copies a couple of DLLs to the system32-directory. i dont remind them all, maybe theyre not quite essential - so this could be an important point when others try the same as i. but all in all working with delphi 5 is possible "on the road" :) and i am a local administrator on this machine. what i did not try was to install a service pack, but i see this as not vitally essential to be able to.
thanks for your help. i think i will post my experiences somewhere else, i cant imagine im the only one who wants to run delphi on usb.
ASKER
@sun4sunday:
>>generally the same, but not exactly. Then you can not do through the USB<<
have you specific reasons for this? both environments met the same basics: allowing usb-sticks, usb 2.0, working as local administrator, even registry access (although id like to avoid that or at least revert changes made there)... what did i forgot? is there something in the delphi installation which makes it machine-specific?