Is there any way i can...

Joe P

Joe P

Joe P

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12 Sep 2010
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342
Location
Durham
Load a PC game onto either a large memory stick or a portable hard drive then plug said device into my computer at work and play it without having to install it onto the works computer.

Im not after playing anything fancy just something to pass the time. although the computers would handle just about anything as they used for cad stuff lol

the works computer is running on XP and my home computer is running widows 7, im not sure if this will make a difference

the game i have in mind is sim city 4 or even 3000 like i said just to pass these long 12 hour nights

thanks in advance folks, i hope you can help :)
 
iamtheoneneo said:
i thought work was for exactly that....working.

but yes you can but it depends on the game
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are you having a laugh lol i get paid to cover which basically means wait :)

how would i go about this

oh i would also like to play this in a window but i dont think that would be a problem if i get it working
 
depends on the game, some games install registry settings into windows when its installed and others like wow dont so that would work.
 
WoW is the only game that I know of that you can do that with, i'm sure there are others though.
 
You can do this (and I have :) ). There is a program called ThinApp, which used to be called Thinstall, here - http://www.vmware.com/whatsnew/thinstall.html

It basically wraps the entire game into it's own virtual environment. Once you install ThinApp, you can then install the game inside the virtual environment and it packages it all up into one .exe file. You can then copy and run the .exe straight from a USB stick. It works pretty well :)

There's a 60-day trial which you can download.
 
Mr-White said:
you could just install a complete o/s on a portable drive and boot from it ?

MW
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jasoncb said:
Thats actually not a bad idea, only problem is you have to access the bios on your works computer and most likely its password protected.
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i thought about this but if on the off chance that someone came in i couldn't even pretend like i was doing any thing

could i do it with sim city 3000 do you think
 
ZombieFan said:
You can do this (and I have :) ). There is a program called ThinApp, which used to be called Thinstall, here - http://www.vmware.com/whatsnew/thinstall.html

It basically wraps the entire game into it's own virtual environment. Once you install ThinApp, you can then install the game inside the virtual environment and it packages it all up into one .exe file. You can then copy and run the .exe straight from a USB stick. It works pretty well :)

There's a 60-day trial which you can download.
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awesome cheers m8, i'll have to download it when i get back. is it easy to use cos im a bit crap really.. :)
 
Yea, it's pretty easy. You just run up ThinApp, install the game and ThinApp then packages it up into an exe.

Here's a video of someone showing how to package up Yahoo Messenger. You just need to do the same thing but run the game installer instead...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkqzQzP5Fjo

[edit] Here's a better one making Opera into a portable app. Starts with the installation of ThinApp - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wP7r-V1RVmY
 
Last edited:
This thread is going to be responsible for ~15 lost man-hours a week to my employer, and that's only if I don't show anyone else these things.
 
ZombieFan said:
Yea, it's pretty easy. You just run up ThinApp, install the game and ThinApp then packages it up into an exe.

Here's a video of someone showing how to package up Yahoo Messenger. You just need to do the same thing but run the game installer instead...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkqzQzP5Fjo

[edit] Here's a better one making Opera into a portable app. Starts with the installation of ThinApp - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wP7r-V1RVmY
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awesome thanks again m8

(ST)Pohaku said:
This thread is going to be responsible for ~15 lost man-hours a week to my employer, and that's only if I don't show anyone else these things.
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only 15 ? lol

i do 2 days 2 nights, 12 hour shifts. i cant remember the last time i did anything on a night shift. so thats (- bate time) 22 hours in 2 night shifts easily.





does this work with all games, for instance, starcraft or the sims etc.

and do i need the cd or a no cd key? or will the games i install just run?
 
Assuming the work computers will allow you to run exes, let alone from an external hard drive/usb drive. Plus it would probably be against your companies IT policy, which then could be used as grounds for you to be sacked.
 
Joe P said:
does this work with all games, for instance, starcraft or the sims etc.

and do i need the cd or a no cd key? or will the games i install just run?
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Depends on the game, really. If you enter the CD-key during installation then it should be okay. The bit which can go wrong is the copy protection on the games. E.g. games which need the cd in the drive to run etc... It's possible to get around stuff like this but I dunno if we can discuss it here ;)

I haven't packaged up a game in ages, but I've heard that people have got older games like Diablo 2 and Deus-ex working with it. I expect the original Starcraft would work okay.
 
cheers for all the replies people. i understand the risks i think at the most it would be a slap on the wrist and i am not trying to do anything ilegal, i already own the games

i'll give it a go with sim city 3000 and let you know how i get on.

my main worry is i dont want to brake the computers at work as that WILL get me sacked lol
 
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