run prog on external HD

sempi

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can a prog. be installed on an external HD and then be plugged into another machine and run from there? or are some of the files written to the windows folder on installation and would need these files to run?
 
Depends what prog. Games generally install in a stand alone directory but most progs want to install stuff into the windows folder.

Best bet is to install something while running an install monitor. to see what is installed and where.
 
Depends what prog. Games generally install in a stand alone directory but most progs want to install stuff into the windows folder.

Best bet is to install something while running an install monitor. to see what is installed and where.

thanks, it was a workmate who asked so i will pass the info on
 
What about the files written to the registry? Most big programs write to the registry these days don't they.
 
Some programs you can easily execute stand alone without installing them on to the machine you want to use them on. One I can think of is mIRC. Most tend to install system files to the Windows folder though and play up if the registry entries aren't there.
 
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