Can you run Lightroom from a USB stick?

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zachhwilliams

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Zach
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Hi, I have a friend who is looking at getting Lightroom 3, and he wanted to know whether you could run it from a USB memory stick?

Thanks :)
 
Are we talking Windows or Mac here, it is probably possible on Mac, (I'm not sure about Windows) but the license is only for 1 desktop and 1 laptop (for one person), you can install on both as long as you don't use them at the same time.
 
Why would he want to run it from a memory stick ? If you could it would be exceedingly slow!
 
OK just for fun I copied the Lightroom app to a USB stick and tried to run it from there.

Well it tried to launch, but after 3 minutes nothing had happened so I quit the application.If it was trying to continue to load it showed no sign of life. I was able to get it to select a catalogue, but that was a as far as it would go.

That's on a Mac. The problem with a windows machine is that a lot of information is stored within the registry, so Lightroom would need to access that. So you would need to have Lightroom loaded onto the computer first. Can't really see the point as it either doesn't work or is soo slooooow it becomes impossible to work with
 
Thanks - I think the reason he has to run it from a stick is because it's a work machine and they wont let him install any software. I don't think he's a member of TP (..yet) but I'll give him a link to this thread. Thanks for your help
 
Yes you can if you know how to do it, but the catalogue part probably wont be much good and you'll most lightly have to import fresh every time you start it up (I have seen it done so it is possible)
 
Drewpyfz6 said:
An external usb hard drive might be a better option.
I have run things from one of these before, when installation might have been frowned upon.
Click to expand...

Yep, I believe that this was the second option if it couldn't be done from a memory stick
 
Shouldn't be any difference between an external hard drive and flash memory. I would have thought good quality memory stick would actually be quicker.

Having said that, you would have to keep your catalogs pretty small I would imagine, as there is quite a lot of data to handle if you have a lot of images. Given it's a product from probably the 2nd biggest software publisher in the world why not just ask his work to install it? After all, the PCs must have adobe reader...
 
zachhwilliams said:
Thanks - I think the reason he has to run it from a stick is because it's a work machine and they wont let him install any software. I don't think he's a member of TP (..yet) but I'll give him a link to this thread. Thanks for your help
Click to expand...

Can't help re will it / won't it run from a memory stick, but if work won't allow him to install any software, will it allow an external device to be connected ?

I know where I work, nothing at all (unless authorsied) will function when connected - gets blocked and stopped
 
Memory sticks seem to work, I've copied photos and PDFs on to the system - never tried executing a program though.
 
Did anybody find a solution to this? I'm travelling currently and want to launch Lightroom off a memory stick to use on hostel computers - got any ideas?
 
You need to research portable apps and how to make them
 
Just a point of note for the original question, I'm not allowed to put software on my employers machines, and I'd get the sack for trying to circumvent that. I can't believe anyone would:
A: feel it's ok to be editing photos on their employers time
B: breach their employers IT security policy to do so

I'm not exactly the best behaved bloke in the world, but FFS this is taking the p***, I wouldn't hesitate to sack an employee for either of those things, and I'm guessing that'd be a majority view.

So your mate should only try this if he's got another job to fall back on IMHO.
 
He didn't say it was going to be in his employers time, he might have a firms laptop that goes home with him and intends doing it in his own time, and his firm might be ok with what he's doing, just not want stuff installed. Fair enough if they don't know what he's up to.
 
swanseamale47 said:
He didn't say it was going to be in his employers time, he might have a firms laptop that goes home with him and intends doing it in his own time, and his firm might be ok with what he's doing, just not want stuff installed. Fair enough if they don't know what he's up to.
Click to expand...
i was writing a long response... Just realised how old the question is.
 
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Look up making portable versions of a program on google, theres several ways of doing it, wouldn't it be easier to take a small laptop though.
 
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