I had been running bitcoin from my external hard drive for some time and carry it around to other computers too.
I used the a batch file I had made based mostly on instructions given by other users of this forum. I ha also added some basic backup capabilities.
Today I decided to make a proper wrapper for a portable Bitcoin installation. I hope that nobody else has made one already...
I used AutoIt3 to write it. Here are the basic features:
1. It runs portably. (wow!)
2. It creates gzipped backups of your wallet every time you run it.
3. It launches correctly no matter what the working directory is.
4. It shows a progressbar with an ETA of when the Bitcoin window will appear while it's loading. (based on time it took the previous time)
5. Option to add custom command line parameters.
6. Encryption support using GPG. The wallet gets encrypted between runs of BitcoinPortable.
7. It can send all your balance to another address every hour.
Changelog:
1: Initial version.
2: Renames the startup link, starts Bitcoin, waits 10 seconds, deletes any new startup link, renames back the old link.
3: Bincoin is now set to idle priority after ten seconds for a faster startup (it was 0 seconds after it's window appeared)
StartupTime is now the average of it's previous value and the new startup time. (50-50 ratio)
UPnP support. (using UPnPPW, a closed source
command line UPnP port forwarder which has to be manually downloaded)
Encryption support using GPG. The wallet gets encrypted between runs of BitcoinPortable.
Compression handled by GPG when the wallet is encrypted.
Downloads a the blockchain from a server if it doesn't exist, to save time.
It can send all your balance to another address every hour.
Option to add custom command line parameters.
First time wizard added.
4: Fixed a bug where gpg keyrings and other files were left behind.
5: No longer lowers the priority of the Bitcoin process.
The blockchain feature needs Bitcoin v0.4 to work.
6: Compatible with the qt version.
Instructions:
Just run it. It has a first time wizard that will help you.
Tell me what you think. Suggestions are most welcomed.
Download version 6:
Source code + EXEReady 2 Run version (contains Bitcoin 0.4.0 and blockchain) (out of date for now)