Windows install without Admin?

Software
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Hi all.

I’m a Linux user at home, but I’m also a uni student and must use Windows PCs on campus. Obviously, these are locked down and don’t allow software installations. I’d like to install KiCad onto a USB drive so I can use it from any machine, but the installer is triggering a prompt for Admin credentials to be supplied. Is there a zip file, or some other way to install on Windows without Admin access? I searched but didn’t find anything useful.

Thanks!

Matt.

2

Good archiver (7zip for example) can unpack the KiCad installer to extract all files with whole folders structure. Then just copy everything to the USB drive or hard disk.

1 Like
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The keyword here is portable:

One of the hits gave me this (I haven’t tested it):

2 Likes
4

Interesting, for a single user there are advantages to keeping the libraries out of the administrator controlled directories

5

Thanks very much. This got things going. Interestingly, the 7Zip installer also requires Admin access, but using the tip from StefanHamminga, there is a portable version of 7Zip that I’ve added to the utilities on my USB drive.

I had a quick look at the KiCad path preferences and most point to C:\msys64 (which doesn’t exist anyway). I presume that directory would have been created by the installer. I’ll have a look into what I need to do to get that straightened out. It could be that I need to use the portable version that was linked above.

Edit: Confirmed

Need to use KiCadPortable to fix the paths.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/mwayne/files/KiCadPortable/

Thanks again for the tips!