Question

Using an arbitrary Windows machine (2000/XP or later), I can

1. install Eclipse CDT to a USB drive

2. move that USB drive onto a different
   Windows machine–one that does not
   have any form of Eclipse software
   already installed, and potentially a different version of Windows (but 2000/XP or later)

3. use Eclipse to develop application-level C/C++ programs on that second machine (and that includes using the debugger), running directly from the USB drive without copying anything to C:.

I can do all this without having Administrator privileges on either machine.

I can do the same with NetBeans, and with several other IDEs that support C/C++ development.

Is it possible to do this with any version of Visual Studio Express?

If not, can you explain the technical reason(s) this doesn’t work?

Answer 1

Eclipse is apparently designed to be what Microsoft calls an XCOPY deployment…meaning that it doesn’t require any special entries in the Windows Registry (or any other “installation identity” on the target machine) in order to work properly.

Visual Studio is most decidedly not designed like this. It makes extensive modifications to the registry during installation, and those entries (and any other resources like special folder locations) will be missing on any other computer.

So you might be able to install Visual Studio on a thumb drive, but some artifacts of the installation will be put on the C: drive, and you will only be able to use the thumb drive with that machine.