Putting a software on a external hard drive

[cj85]

I was just curious if it was at all possible to put a program/software on a external hard drive. So that if I were to want to use the program/software all I'd have to do is hook my external hard drive up to my computer, and use it finding it on my external hard drive. But the question is, is it possible to do that though? I mean because I want to be able to save hard drive space on my actual computer and was thinking I could possibly put the program/software on my external hard drive and it would work just fine. But would it still download contents onto my computer?

I hope this makes sense, please let me know if this makes sense at all. Thanks! I highly appreciate any help.

PS. If I posted this in the wrong forum topic, please forgive me. I wasn't sure where to post this and figured it belonged under drivers, since it's a hard drive? lol I don't know could be wrong. Again sorry if it's in the wrong place of the board.

[ChrisXPPro]

As long as an ext'l hooked up so Windows sees it that should work - but - during install of most software there could be .dll files shunted into system32 and of course, registry entries - so this will by default be on your system drive.

Another point - once the install is done - that ext'l will have be asigned same drive letter as when the install was done - or paths will become invalid.

Check out this thread ....
http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php?topic=57416
And see if you could run some progs thru ''Sandboxie" on an external - it keeps all files remote and writes its own reg info.

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

Most of the programs out there cannot be run on an External Device because it doesn't just create the program files, but other files throughout the computer, not to mention Registry Entries.

I never thought of using Sandboxie to do this.....you will need it installed on the other computer though.

[patio]

Actually very few apps will not run in this manner...the reg entries and system files don't need to exist on the external as ChrisXPro pointed out...they are on the system drive at the point of installation.
I've run AutoCad from an external and that's a pretty demanding app...

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

Actually very few apps will not run in this manner...the reg entries and system files don't need to exist on the external as ChrisXPro pointed out...they are on the system drive at the point of installation.
I've run AutoCad from an external and that's a pretty demanding app...

Yep. We were discussing it in another topic. Hold on a sec and I'll find it.

EDIT: Found it http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/topic,65584.0.html