Original Bitcoin-Qt platform portable?

[manicminer]

Guys, all you are talking about here is security and I can't believe no one is interested in having the original bitcoin-QT client in a portable fashion. I think it's unbelievable that you can't install on your drive D: such a basic utility. Just don't tell me to use another client, OK?

Here is my situation:

1st, I simply do not have space on C:.

2nd, my C: is not writable, it is read only: secured by software DeepFreeze or Returnil not to catch any viruses.

3rd my D: is encrypted as per good tradecraft. I put all my software there. Preferably in a Portable format, the guys at PortableApps do a great job about it!

Maybe it's not for them or it's just still too early? (See: http://portableapps.com/node/32240)

Zellface (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=14726.msg272101#msg272101) also asked about the PortableApps implementation. No one is interested in this?

Are the original bitcoin-Qt developers around here? Not in the newbie thread I guess.

[Largo]

You can make bitcoin-qt portable yourself (with a few limitations only afaik).

Install Bitcoin somewhere.

1.) Give your portable disk a static drive letter (If thats not possible use the detach databases on shutdown option in bitcoin, otherwise changing paths will make problems with the DB)

2.) Then take the c:\programs\bitcoin dir and move it to your USB Stick/other partition.

3.) Make a shortcut to Bitcoin-qt.exe with the following commandline option:
datadir=E:\Bitcoindata
(assuming E:\ is your portable drive)

Just make sure the paths/driveletters wont change, then there should be no problems.
Or did i miss something? Tried that and it seems to work.

EDIT:

4.) Bitcoin stores its settings in the windows registry, but that shouldnt be a problem if you use a bitcoin.conf file, since it will just take those values then.

[manicminer]

Thanks for the tip!

Will it just work before I download the whole block chain? As I mentioned I simply do not have enough space on C: to do so.

[John (John K.)]

Thanks for the tip!

Will it just work before I download the whole block chain? As I mentioned I simply do not have enough space on C: to do so.

Yes. I'm running mine off a Truecrypt encrypted virtual drive.

[manicminer]

You can make bitcoin-qt portable yourself (with a few limitations only afaik).

Install Bitcoin somewhere.

1.) Give your portable disk a static drive letter (If thats not possible use the detach databases on shutdown option in bitcoin, otherwise changing paths will make problems with the DB)

2.) Then take the c:\programs\bitcoin dir and move it to your USB Stick/other partition.

3.) Make a shortcut to Bitcoin-qt.exe with the following commandline option:
datadir=E:\Bitcoindata
(assuming E:\ is your portable drive)

Just make sure the paths/driveletters wont change, then there should be no problems.
Or did i miss something? Tried that and it seems to work.

EDIT:

4.) Bitcoin stores its settings in the windows registry, but that shouldnt be a problem if you use a bitcoin.conf file, since it will just take those values then.

Code:

bitcoin-qt.exe -datadir=.

Ain't this easier? Puts the data directory inside the Bitcoin-Qt directory. Plain and simple.