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***** Update 8 September 2007 *******************************

New Version available! Don't us this one any more.

Read all about the new version here:

**************************************************************

Starting to use Windows Live Writer more and more it becomes apparent that it would be really nice to take it with me between computers. If you have more than one blog it is tedious to set everything up every time you need to install again. You have all your blog settings, ping server settings and FTP settings to redo.

Over on a lot of work has been done to get apps such as Firefox, Thunderbird even Open Office to run in a portable environment. So I figured WLW was a natural for this environment. It takes a bit to figure it out but once you do it works really well.

This is my first portable app! I've posted my Windows Live Writer Portable launcher here:

The zip file does NOT contain everything you need to run Windows Live Writer. This is simply a launcher which will run Windows Live Writer in a self contained environment so you can take everything with you between computers via your USB memory stick or other portable device.

To get this portable app to work you need to follow these steps closely:

1. Unzip this file to your USB or other portable drive
2. Download Windows Live Writer from:
3. Install Windows Live Write as usual. You don't even have to run it, just so long as it is installed.
4. Copy ALL of the files FROM c:\program files\windows live writer TO the new structure on your USB drive that looks like the graphic below \WindowsLiveWriterPortable\App\WindowsLiveWriter

5. You can now uninstall Windows Live Writer if you want

To use Windows Live Writer from your USB drive simply double click on WindowsLiveWriterPortable.exe and it will take care of the necessary registry settings and document paths. If you have used WLW on your computer before, the launcher will copy all your settings and files to the USB drive.

This is my first portable app so hopefully it will work well. So for so good for me in limited testing.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 14, 2007 at 2/14/2007 11:58:00 PM.

18 Comments:

  • very nicely done.
    i'm using it alot.

    are you ganna update this with the new vesion for Windows Live Writer, that was yesterday released as beta?

    gr J

    By Blogger , at 5/31/2007 03:27:00 AM

  • I just installed your launcher and it seems to be working well. I installed some plugins after making the app portable and that worked well by just changing the directory to the portable plugins directory. Thanks for your effort on this.

    By Blogger , at 6/20/2007 07:34:00 AM

  • Great job, thank you so much for this!
    The launcher copying over existing settings and templates is particularly cool, though my one suggestion would be to delete the [user]\Application Data\Windows Live Writer folder if it did not exist before PortableWindowsLiveWriter ran (ie for the launcher to clean up after itself).

    Have you by any chance managed to get the 'Blog This' button in firefox to work with the portable version?

    By Blogger , at 7/02/2007 08:41:00 AM

  • Thank for wlw portable, it's really cool and useful for me!

    By Anonymous , at 7/08/2007 12:46:00 PM

  • This is so cool. Would you consider posting a tutorial on how you did it?

    Amazing. The best writer for blogs out there and you made it portable. I'm indebted to you. Thanks!

    By Blogger , at 7/12/2007 03:26:00 PM

  • Ciao from Italy!
    Great you portable apps...but one question.
    Is possible delete the folder locate in:
    C:\Documents and Settings\XXXXXX\Impostazioni locali\Dati applicazioni\Windows Live Writer     when i close W.l.W .

    Silvio

    By Anonymous , at 7/13/2007 01:11:00 AM

  • Thank you for the portable wrapper. You should check out portablefreeware.com and see if they will link to your program.

    By Blogger , at 7/31/2007 02:30:00 AM

  • Am falling in love with this. But I have an issue on Vista. It comes up with the UAC dialog and then it gives a message "Copying dir1 from.... to...." which does not go away at all. I dont mind the UAC dialog, but the other message is very iritating. Tried everything - giving "everyone" full permissions to the folders etc. Guess this happens when the app copys all files to the backup folders. Any clue how to fix it on Vista

    By Anonymous praveen, at

  • praveen, I have the same problem on Vista. I haven't figured out yet what causes it. I wish I had more control over the number of files copied. After you have a few long posts it can start to take a while.

    I did post a new version of this just yesterday so you may want to grab that one. Really only slight modifications based on some new knowledge I have of Vista's folder structure.

    By Blogger , at 8/17/2007 08:29:00 AM

  • This is a great tool for my USB drive. Keep in mind that WLW relies on the .net Framework so it is not truly portable.

    Thank you for making it available.

    By Anonymous , at 8/23/2007 09:36:00 AM

  • Ralph, I agree but any more the .NET framework is fairly ubiquitous on windows machines.
    Glad you like it.

    By Blogger , at 8/23/2007 11:04:00 AM

  • Thank you! I love this launcher!
    WLW has now a new version, your portable launcher doesn't work well with the new one. do you plan to update it?

    By Blogger , at 9/06/2007 09:37:00 PM

  • That sounds pretty neato man.
    Will try it out tonight when I get home.

    I was searching for portable windows live mail desktop and came across this.

    Maybe you want to try and make a portable windows live mail desktop?

    if not maybe you can send me some tips on how you did it with windows live writer and I could give it a shot?

    tc

    Sagar

    By Blogger , at 9/07/2007 04:51:00 AM

  • ****
    I am working on a new version. Hope to have it up this weekend.
    ****

    By Blogger , at 9/07/2007 06:57:00 AM

  • Thanks for your nice post! keep it up

    By Anonymous , at 9/26/2007 10:01:00 AM

  • since wlw final has come out
    i install it and copy all the files to the wlw port b2
    runs it can't post and send wrong report
    when will u make the wlw portable final?

    By Anonymous happybaby, at

  • Gracias por el Trabajo, es excelente y era algo que justamente estaba necesitando.
    Saludos

    By Anonymous , at 3/11/2008 07:19:00 AM

  • Hi Scott, just wanted to add my thanks along with those of everyone else. Just yesterday I discovered I can't install Live Writer at work and only a few minutes later I discovered this project of yours and my disappointment completely evaporated! Thank you again!

    Murray @ Midnight

    By Anonymous , at 5/08/2008 03:06:00 PM



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