Slicer can now be run from a portable drive (external drive, USB stick), along with all extensions, Python packages, settings, DICOM database, etc. - without installation. This can be used for easy distribution of Slicer to users, for example to be used as a free DICOM viewer for a folder full of DI…

This awesome. Thank you to all folks involved in making it happen. I do have a small suggestion: Would it be possible to incorporate his into the installer mechanism? For example, installer may ask the user if they intended this is as portable installation and copy all the necessary files and paths…

I would not complicate the installation process with any questions or decisions. It would complicate the installation process and would make user support harder for us (when we help a user we don’t know what installation options he chose). Also, there are dozens of settings to customize when you cre…

I agree doing this after install time is better, then you could easily change it again later. But wouldn’t this be better as part of the core instead of an extension? Seems like a pretty broadly applicable functionality.

[image] pieper: But wouldn’t this be better as part of the core instead of an extension? Seems like a pretty broadly applicable functionality. It would be probably better to develop in a sandbox and then move it to the Slicer core if it is mature enough and we find that many users are interes…

I’ve seen applications where their download page allows picking to download an installer or the portable version (packaged in a ZIP). Here’s Visual Studio Code’s download page https://code.visualstudio.com/download: [image]

Oh, that’s right - this relocatable version won’t even need an installer. Sweet.

Yes, every installed Slicer is relocatable now (there is no specific “portable” version of Slicer). It could be nice to provide download link for zip packages in addition to installer/dmg (CMake can create it already), because users often think that they need to install Slicer or that they need to …

Yeah I think it would be nice to set up download links just like Visual Studio Code there. User Installer first for the majority use case. User’s don’t need admin rights which is helpful in an academic setting. System Installer second for those wanting to install it for all their users of said com…

This is very very good news for a hospital setting, where users often do not have the admin privileges necessary to run Slicer and administrators do not like the idea of downloaded data sets and extensions. Thanks for the realization! I would also support the idea of a zip download, as most portabl…

The current installer does not require administrative privileges. It is essentially a self-extracting zip file, with a few additional steps (creates start menu shortcuts, sets up file associations, and writes uninstall information). Have you run into troubles running the installer on locked-down hos…

Slicer is now fully portable

Support

Topic		Replies	Views
Portable installation of Slicer with extension on USB Support	8	2836	January 8, 2021
Settings and extension install location Development	2	1344	September 6, 2019
Export my own Slicer Support extensions-manager	3	336	January 17, 2023
Slicer can be installed without administrator privileges on Windows Support feature	1	1649	June 17, 2019
No downloaded modules are loading into Slicer Development	14	1770	September 2, 2025

Slicer is now fully portable

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