Legacy Manual

Running from a USB drive

 

PingPlotter can be run from a removable drive (like a USB key) without having to be installed, or modifying anything on the "host" machine where you're running PingPlotter. This is great if you administer a number of PCs and want to be able to run PingPlotter without having to install it, and/or enter a license key.

There are several differences in operation when PingPlotter is running from a USB drive in special USB mode.

  • The license key is stored on the USB drive, not in the system registry. This means you don't have to enter the license key on each machine you're running on.
  • All settings that would normally change the registry will no longer work. For example, you cannot install as a service when running from a USB drive. Also, the .pp2 file association is not tied to PingPlotter automatically.
  • All PingPlotter settings are written to the .ini file on the USB key (in .exe directory - so make sure it's writable!).
  • PingPlotter does not check in the user's profile for override settings.

To run PingPlotter in this special mode, follow these steps:

  1. Install PingPlotter normally on your computer's hard drive (not the USB drive).
  2. Copy the entire directory where PingPlotter is installed to your USB drive. This should include all subdirectories that may exist. You can put this in any directory on the USB drive, but we'll assume this is in f:\PingPlotter for now. The executable to launch PingPlotter would then be f:\PingPlotter\PingPlotter.exe
  3. Uninstall PingPlotter from your computer's hard drive.
  4. Create an empty file named "license.dat" into the directory where PingPlotter.exe exists on the USB drive (in our example, this is f:\PingPlotter).
  5. Launch PingPlotter from the USB drive. When prompted, enter your license key. PingPlotter will put your license information into the license.dat file.
  6. Create an Autorun.inf (outside this scope of this topic, but email us if you need help) or hook up the f:\PingPlotter\PingPlotter.exe file to your USB drive's menu system.

 

**Some of the features listed in this topic are only available in PingPlotter Pro and/or PingPlotter Standard. See our product comparison page for more details**