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Portable mode

Normally SQLite Expert keeps your settings, your license key and the demo data in the standard Windows locations, well away from the folder the program is installed in. In portable mode it keeps all of them in that folder instead.

A copy set up this way carries its own configuration with it. It can live on a USB drive and run on any machine without writing to that machine's user profile, and two copies on the same machine keep entirely separate settings — which makes portable mode the straightforward way to try a different configuration without disturbing the one you use for real work.

Nothing in the Options dialog turns this on. It decides where the settings file is read from, so it has to be settled before there is a settings file to read, and it is settled by a small file you place next to the program.

Where the files normally live

<edition> is Professional or Personal and <bitness> is 32bit or 64bit, matching the copy you installed.

What Where
Your settings %APPDATA%\SQLite Expert\<edition> 6 - <bitness>\Settings\Settings.json
Auto-saved editor contents the same Settings folder
Your license key %APPDATA%\SQLite Expert\<edition> 6 - <bitness>\License\
Demo database and sample scripts %ProgramData%\SQLite Expert\<edition> 6 - <bitness>\Data\ and …\Scripts\

In portable mode every one of those moves to the folder holding the executable, keeping the same Settings\, License\, Data\ and Scripts\ subfolder names.

Turning portable mode on

Create a plain text file beside the executable, named after it with an .ini extension, containing:

[Settings]
Portable=1

The name has to match the executable you actually start, so pick the row for the copy you have:

Edition Executable File to create
Professional, 64-bit SQLiteExpertPro64.exe SQLiteExpertPro64.ini
Professional, 32-bit SQLiteExpertPro32.exe SQLiteExpertPro32.ini
Personal, 64-bit SQLiteExpertPers64.exe SQLiteExpertPers64.ini
Personal, 32-bit SQLiteExpertPers32.exe SQLiteExpertPers32.ini

Start SQLite Expert. It writes its settings beside itself from then on.

Note

The setting is read once, as the program starts. Creating or changing the file while SQLite Expert is running has no effect until you restart it.

Making a copy that runs on its own

To move a working copy onto a USB drive or another machine:

  1. Copy the whole installation folder — the one holding the executable, which also holds sqlite3.dll and the other files the program needs to run.
  2. Put the .ini file described above into it.
  3. If you want the demo database and the sample scripts as well, copy the Data and Scripts folders from %ProgramData%\SQLite Expert\<edition> 6 - <bitness>\ into it too. Without them the program runs perfectly well; it simply has no demo data to open.
  4. Register the copy as usual from Help → Register. The license key is stored under License\ beside the executable, so it travels with the copy rather than staying on the machine you registered it on.

Things worth knowing

The folder has to be writable. A copy installed under Program Files cannot write beside its own executable, so portable mode is for a copy you have unzipped or copied somewhere of your own — a USB drive, or a folder in your documents.

A portable copy starts fresh. When SQLite Expert 6 runs for the first time it normally looks for settings from an earlier version and carries them over. A portable copy deliberately does not: it is meant to be self-contained, so it starts on the defaults and nothing from the installed copy follows it.

Copies do not share anything. Each portable copy has its own settings file, and so does the ordinary installed one. A change made in one is invisible to the others, which is the point — but it also means a setting you were looking for may simply belong to the other copy.

Turning portable mode off

Delete the .ini file, or change the line to Portable=0, and restart. SQLite Expert goes back to reading the settings in your user profile — the ones it was using before you made the copy portable, unchanged.

The files written beside the executable are left where they are. Delete the Settings, License, Data and Scripts folders there if you no longer want them; nothing else refers to them.

See also