Using an external Hard Drive

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stringy

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Edit My Images
Yes
It possible to install and run programs such as Photoshop shop onto an external drive rather than the main computer hard drive which would then enable you to use it on different pc's by just moving the external hard drive around?

Stringy
 
No is the simple answer...

Although you may direct the installation to install on the external drive the Windows Regsitry will still be updated with how windows manages what PS requires...

Any other machine wouldn't have that data, plus it would been the easiest way to get around license issues so the s/ware houses would have been abit daft to do this :)
 
As above, executables need to write to the registry of the local machine so installing to an external drive wouldnt be much use....unless you never remove it from the machine :)
 
The license for Photoshop is only to install it on 2 computers anyway, one desktop and one laptop, or one at work and one at home.
 
Some programmes do work this way though, using U3 technology on memory sticks.

My opinion is that it *should* be how things work. The licence should be to the person, not the machine and if I want to use my Photoshop programme on a different machine then I should be able too.

Same with digital rights management. If I've bought a song, I should be able to listen to it on any player, any where, any time as long as it's my player.

This is of course the way Google is going with it's web applications, and it is certainly how big corporations run things. For example, when I worked at the BBC people had access to whatever programmes were needed for them to work. So everyone had Office, but only a few had Photoshop etc... I could have logged in on any of 30,000 machines and my programmes were there.
 
You can, but not legally.

As mentioned there are problems with registry files and licenses.

I did manage to have Photoshop CS2 installed and running from my portable USB for home and at work but due to a hardware fault it borked the install. CS4 I had working from a portable HDD as well, for about a week before work changed their IT setup and now that doesn't work.

you need to play with files to get this to work which breaches all sorts of rules. Best not too really! :)
 
neil_g said:
thats called a roaming profile. although if i remember rightly the company still requires a licence per PC.
Click to expand...

I think he is referring to the use of 'Application Servers' Licence's are treated differently similar to Citrix. Anyway that's all corporate and not really relevant to the original question.

I don't believe it is possible with photoshop (and be stable :naughty:), but can be done with Gimp, see above.
 
backstage pass said:
Same with digital rights management. If I've bought a song, I should be able to listen to it on any player, any where, any time as long as it's my player.
Click to expand...

It's a nice idea, but this is why DRM works. The machine doesn't know the difference between 'your player' and 'someone else's player' ;)
 
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