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I am confused..... from my very limited knowledge of computers. could you tell me if it is possible to install Micro soft Office onto my external hard drive using the original discs and use the portable apps to access and run these programs, or be ambitious and install Photoshop the same way?
[Topic clarified by mod Tim]
was "programs"
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The answers are a definitive 'yes' and 'no'. You can install MSO or Photoshop to a USB connected drive. However, they will not be portable. You will be able to use them on the machine used to install them, so long as the USB drive doesn't change drive letters, but not on other machines. The reason is that these programs are designed to write to the registry of the installed machine. When the programs later check the registry when run, those entries have to be there on the machine you are running then. This is a design 'feature' of these programs, as the vendors don't want you to be able to use the same copy on multiple machines. The goal of this 'feature' is to force the user to buy multiple copies of the program for each machine they use.
Sorry this isn't the answer you wanted...
if you are willing to spend 5 grand you could always use thinstall...
Smithtech did make a script to portablize Photoshop however... http://usb.smithtech.us/apps/launcherscripts/photoshop6.zip
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