"VMware Thinstall" - Make your Essential softs portable.

The concept of portable software is a great one, because portable softs don't need to be installed, they don't mess up your windows registry and they can be carried in your removable disks along with you. You will get portable versions of some handy applications, but you will sometimes feel the necessity to make your favourite apps portable. "VMware Thinstall" will serve this purpose for us. Thinstall is an Application Virtualization Platform that enables complex software to be transformed into self-contained EXE files which can run instantly with zero installation from any data source. I will show you how to make portable yahoo messenger, as an example.

1. First of all, download and install the soft. You can get a full featured evaluation copy (60 days) from the site of VMware.

2. After the installation, run the "setup capture".

3. The pre-install scan will be run.

4. Minimize the Thinapp window and now install your program (Yahoo messenger).

5. After yahoo messenger is installed, click next in the Thinapp dialogue box. The post-installation scan will be run.

6. Now select the applications you want to make portable. (Normally you would want to make the main application, for example- the "yahoo messenger.exe" portable).

7. Click next. Don't change the default sandbox location. Just click next again.

8. Select the "merged isolation mode". Click next.

9. You can change the default project location, you can choose "fast compression" if you like to get your portable executable file compressed. Click next.

10. The project will be created. Click "build now".

11. Wait a while. Your portable version of yahoo messenger is now ready.

Enjoy it.....