ClamWin Portable Support

Many of the most common issues that arise when using ClamWin Portable are addressed here. Please read through the various topics to see if any of them address your question. You can also post a question in the ClamWin Portable Support Forum.

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ClamWin Portable-Specific Issues

General ClamWin Issues

Installing ClamWin Portable

To install ClamWin Portable, just download the portable package at the top of the ClamWin Portable page and then double-click it. Select the location you wish to install to and click OK. A PortableClamWin directory will be created there and all the necessary files installed. That's all there is to it.

Using ClamWin Portable

To start up ClamWin Portable, just double-click PortableClamWin.exe file where you installed Portable ClamWin on your portable drive. Then, use it just like you would a local copy of ClamWin. There are a couple of things to keep in mind:

  • Stay Safe - When using portable apps, it's always a good idea to practice Safe Portable App-ing.
  • Removing Your Drive - When you're done, exit ClamWin and then wait for the activity light on your removable drive to stop flashing. Then select the 'Safely remove [device]' option from the icon in the system tray. If you remove the drive while it is writing, you may lose data.

Upgrading ClamWin Portable

To upgrade to a newer version of ClamWin Portable, just download a new copy and unzip it to your portable drive. You can delete your old copy. If you've saved any preferences, be sure to copy your profile from PortableClamWin\clamwin\bin\ClamWin.conf from the old copy to the the new one. If you have any logs or quarantine files you wish to save, copy those directories as well.

Running From CD (ClamWin Portable Live)

ClamWin Portable supports running from a CD. To set it up, extract ClamWin Portable to a local drive and run it. Download the latest virus definitions. Then close ClamWin Portable. Move the ClamWin.conf file from the ClamWinPortable\Data\settings directory to the ClamWinPortable\App\clamwin directory. Then burn the whole ClamWinPortable directory to CD. Be sure not to move any of the files from the default locations. The ClamWinPortable.ini can not be used when running from CD.

Known Issues

There are currently no known issues.

Modifications

I made some modifications to the default version of ClamWin to make it more USB key friendly (decreasing total install size and the number of writes to the drive, which will increase drive life). These changes are listed here so you'll know what they are, and so you can recreate the process, if so desired.

  • Friendly Launcher - ClamWin Portable launcher is included.
  • EXEs and DLLs Compressed - All EXEs and DLLs were recompressed using UPX. This gets our installed size down to one that is a bit more manageable. Additionally, it will speed up use when you're running over USB 1.1. The options used were: --best --compress-icons=0 --nrv2d --crp-ms=999999 -k

Version History

  • 0.90.2 - May 9, 2007
    • Updated ClamWin to 0.90.2
    • PortableApps.com Installer
  • 0.90.1.1 - April 11, 2007
    • Updated ClamWin to 0.90.1.1
  • 0.90.1 Revision 2 - March 13, 2007
    • Updated ClamWin to 0.90.1
    • improved compatibility with older versions of Windows
  • 0.90 - February 27, 2007
    • Updated ClamWin to 0.90
    • better removal of ClamWin temp files
    • slightly improved startup time
  • 0.88.7 - January 30, 2007
    • Updated ClamWin to 0.88.7
  • 0.88.5 - November 20, 2006
    • Updated ClamWin to 0.88.5
    • Updated ClamWin Launcher for Vista compatibility
    • Packaged in PortableApps Format
  • 0.88.4 - August 10, 2006
    • Updated ClamWin to 0.88.4
    • Updated ClamWin Launcher to 1.2.1.0 (CD Support, COMSPEC fixes)
    • Shrunk install size by 30% thanks to PYD compression
    • Renamed to ClamWin Portable
  • 0.88.2.3 - May 8, 2006
    • Updated ClamWin to 0.88.2.1
  • 0.88.2.1 - May 1, 2006
    • Updated ClamWin to 0.88.2.1
    • switched to split App/Data subdirectories for easy backups
  • 0.88.1 Revision 2 - April 20, 2006
    • Launcher fix for INI file use
  • 0.88.1 - April 20, 2006
    • General public release
  • 0.88.1 - April 18, 2006
    • Initial public release