AWC2Pro seems to work as a portable app

[JustDave]

I installed AWC2Pro (v2.4.0.891) to my PC, copied the contents of the AWC2Pro directory to my USB drive, and then uninstalled AWC2Pro from my PC. When I navigate to the AWC2Pro directory on my USB drive and run Awe.exe, the program launches and runs with no complaints. All functions and accessory tools appear to be alive and well. I've successfully scanned and repaired 3 PCs, (my 3 licensed boxes), 2 of them on Win XP SP2, the other on Win 2000 SP4. AWC on a stick...this seems to be to good to be true. A few questions come to mind...

 

1. Are there likely to be stability issues with AWC?

 

2. Are there likely to be issues related to being run on different PCs?

 

3. Are there likely to be stability issues with the target PCs?

 

4. I imagine restores (if required) could be problematic.

 

5. Aside from operational issues, are there any problems regarding licensing? Is this even legal?

 

Thanks much,

Dave

[Tim Xue]

You can't put AWCPro into a USB Driver. But AWC Personal works well on a USB driver without installation. AWC Pro need a installation to work on your computer.

[JustDave]

I just did it. Check my post again. I installed AWCPro, copied the install folder to my USB, and then uninstalled it. When I run it from the USB it works without problems...or seems to. Hence my questions.

[Tim Xue]

But you can only run AWCPro on the installed computer. You can have a test, run AWCPro from USB driver on another computer, the program won't work.

[JustDave]

I've tested it. I've run it on 3 different computers. I uninstalled the previously installed copies of AWC2Pro before I tested on each computer. It ran and cleaned all 3. It works. I've done it. It's no big deal. I just want to know if I should expect problems from running this way.

[Tim Xue]

Oh? It's not bad.

[JustDave]

Looks like there are ini files which are updated per scan & repair, so once I carry the stick to a different PC that info is no longer valid. And like I said earlier, restoring the right data set to the wrong PC would probably be, well, bad.

 

I haven't tried it yet on a PC which has never had AWC installed...I'll do that this weekend.

[samr]

Hi justdave,

I guess my question is why don't you just install AWC personal on each computer so they can continue to do repairs, get updates, and clean out files. Then if they wish they can always upgrade to the Pro version?

samr.

[JustDave]

Hi samr. Now that would be waaaaay too easy. :-o

 

Actually, I had it installed on the 3 PCs I mentioned above, before I started playing with it. It's really more curiosity than anything else. Lately I've been experimenting with apps not normally considered to be portable to see how they run from a USB drive. For example, I've discovered that EasyCleaner runs without issues. Oddly enough, so does the old Microsoft Photo Editor (v3.01). I’ve found uses for both of those when I was at a foreign PC.

 

The way I see it, the more maintenance, recovery, configuration and operational tools I can carry in my pocket, the more options I have in dealing with issues on various computers. Of course the 3 PC per license limit on AWC2Pro probably negates this sort of usage anyway; I'm betting that when I try to run it on PC number 4 it won't validate. Like I said, curiosity.