Is it possible to use Portable Dongle locally?

Help & Support
1

From reading several forum posts here I suspect I already know the answer to this, so consider this more of a feature request than an actual question, but I'll ask anyway.

Is it possible to run a dongle type portable install on the "home machine" (where the true HDD install resides with the actual "master certificate") without the dongle itself? In other use a portable install locally without dongle, or use a local storage device as a dongle.

Like several users here I have no interest for nor use any system installed software; I currently have absolutely no software formally installed into my OS, all (portable) apps and documents/files reside in a secondary drive separate from Windows system partition in a "master folder".
This folder is then synchronized (by simple file copying) to other external devices, and later to my other computers/laptop/work so I always have the same fully functional environment everywhere I go in sync.
Using a system installed DOpus I'd either have to manually export daily to external devices, or use a portable version but have the dongle always present.

It would be nice if there was a true portable version(provided as an archive rather than an installer), or if a Dongle Export would check if the computer it is running from is a "home system", where the "master certificate" it was exported from was present (say the home computer or the user laptop), thus not requiring a dongle present if the user has a valid "fixed license" (for all others like work, the dongle should be present).

Given the amount of posts I found about it (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 probably more), I suspect this is a frequent request, and something that would please several potential users.

I recently found out about DOpus and was really impressed with the features video you produced, it seems like a really professional software with excellent presentation, congratulations! I am considering a purchase to replacing my current solution, but I'm unsure it would fit my use case.

I understand this is most likely a security measure to prevent rampant piracy, but I fear this is one of those cases where overzealous DRM and licensing restrictions are harming legitimate users more than ill intended ones.

Hope you consider it some time in the future. Thanks for reading, and happy new year!

2

Aspects of Opus don't work with a portable install, since they require changing the registry.

So portable installs are possible, but they are a compromise. They aren't what we think people should use on machines where they have the option of doing a normal install.

But being installed and being able to sync the config data are two unrelated things.

All the Opus config files are on disk, nothing in the registry, so you can sync the config folders between machines if you want to. Or use the Roaming Profiles feature in Windows to do this semi-automatically, with both Opus and a lot of other software.

Put another way: If you're depending on portable installs for config syching, that's really just depending on software allowing you use non-standard folders to store config data. Why not just sync the standard folders instead?

3

Hi Leo, thans for the prompt answer.

I see your points, I suspect those would be things like explorer replacement and desktop integration. In my particular case I probably wouldn't miss those anyway, I make a point of setting everything up so it is as system independent as possible and relying on the native OS to a minimum extent, using relative paths wherever possible.

Mostly a peace of mind thing, I know everything is under one folder, far from the reach of OS shenanigans, that is easy to copy/backup manually. In a "disaster event" I know I can just manually copy things over from a single folder without risking forgetting something or relying on scripts or convoluted backup procedures; it will also "just work" on arrival on any other computer without further setup.

This also only works well on my own machines. I wouldn't want my personal settings littering someone else's computer I randomly visit once, nor stored in a work computer anyone could have access to.

This could work nicely. Would DOpus allow such use of non-standard folders? Are there any launch parameters or command line switches one could use to specify a custom profile folder, preferably by relative path?
From my admittedly limited testing I could not find any, but I fear this would still only work on my computers, since I suspect the license would not be included, and even if it were it would not allow use on another machine.

4

Don't know if this is what you are looking for but I have been doing it for one of my portable "installs" on my lab research computer. I basically made an exported portable install onto a flash drive, checked "Use this drive as dongle," and complete the entire process. After the process is done, on the computer where I want to use the portable version of DOpus, I simply copied/moved over the entire DOPUS folder, DOPUS.exe, and DOPUS.ini (it's hidden so make sure you have all hidden files shown) at the root of the flash drive to any place on the computer where I want the install to be portable. I then simply run DOpus.exe and as long as my flash drive is connected, I can then run Directory Opus without any issue and with the benefit of fast read/write speed for Directory Opus's configuration files as the executables, dependencies, and configuration files and folders are on the hard drive rather than on the slower flash memory.

Two things to note here. First is that there should not be a locally installed version of DOpus on that computer as the DOpus will want to use those configuration files instead of the one that is/was on your flash drive. The second thing to note is that the flash drive must be connected at all time, basically taking away a USB port. To make it not annoying, I use those low profile flash drives such as this.

Basically the idea is:

  1. Settings > Backup and Restore
  2. Export to USB Flash Drive
  3. Choose the flash drive
  4. Check Use this drive as a dongle
  5. Select Export Location > Root of the flash drive you chose in step 3.
  6. Continue with the export process (choose your options until you finish)
  7. Open up the flash drive you installed portable DOpus to
  8. Copy or moved the following files and folders onto desired host computer in your desired location.
  • DOPUS (folder)
  • DOPUS.exe
  • DOPUS.ini (hidden file)
  1. Make sure the dongle is attached at all times
  2. Run the copied/moved DOPUS.exe
  3. PROFIT!?

Since everyone in my lab is responsible and good upstanding citizens, I haven't had to worry about losing the flash drive. Otherwise, I may have to invest in some super glue (and a trip to the IT department of why I did that) and some money to pay for damaged property :smiley: Although, the only one allowed on that computer is me anyways, so it's not really a problem.

1 Like
5

Funny I also have a very similar sandisk flash drives minus the cap, mostly as backup device. For everyday use I prefer a beefier and faster thumbdrive.

This is what I figured I'd have to do at home if I purchase DOpus, though it is also what I was trying to avoid, having to use a dongle at home.

I was not aware of this, and this would be a problem since the settings would then not be stored at the portable location, and thus not successfully synced back to the external storage.

I was actually hoping that portable DOpus would do something similar to this but for the license only. That is a Portable Dongle install would always run in its "home system" regardless of the presence of the actual dongle if a valid system install license was found.

Settings would always still be used from portable location, after all that should be the priority of any portable software, to not touch the registry or locally installed settings.