Visual Studio 2005 on USB Stick

[hufaunder]

I often find myself in the situation where at a customers site I have
to do some quick debugging or program changes. Obvioiusly, I do not
want to install VS2005 on their system. Is there a ways to install
VS2005 on a big and fast USB stick, plug it into a computer without
VS2005 and start using it there? If not are there any alternatives.

Thanks

[Nicolas Noakes]

"Sheng Jiang[MVP]" <sh*********@ho tmail.com.discu sswrote in message
news:%2******** ********@TK2MSF TNGP03.phx.gbl. ..

see if your USB can hold a virtual PC image that has win2k+VS2005... maybe
xp

This won't help the OP to debug on the client's system, in this case he may
as well just take a laptop with him :-)

Nicolas

[hufaunder]

On Oct 16, 1:56 pm, Peter Duniho <NpOeStPe...@Nn OwSlPiAnMk.comw rote:

Well, other than having your client use the program on your own laptop
for the purpose of reproducing bugs, another option is to install the
remote debugging component on your client's computer and then debug from
your laptop using the installed Visual Studio there.

It does mean installing at least that one part of Visual Studio on the
client's computer, but at least the source code would not need to be
there. Given your apparent need to debug based on the software
installed on the client's computer, this may in fact be the most
appropriate solution.

By the way, I'm a little confused by the "none of the two is ever
touching their computer" statement. If you have VS and your source code
on a memory stick, and you then plug that memory stick into your
client's computer, all of the contents on the memory stick are not
"touching" your client's computer. It's not clear to me whether your
concern is one of security, or just of practicality, but if the former
then using a memory stick isn't a good solution anyway.

Pete

Thanks for the input. I will give the remote debugging a try.

Regarding "none of the two is every touching their computer" what you
describe is exactly what I want. I want to bring a ready VS2005
without having to install it on the client's computer. Also I don't
want the source code to be on their system. Even if I delete it and
clean the recycle bin they still could get to it. Plus human error has
to be considered too (not delete it, not empty recycle bin, not using
a "secure delete" program, etc).

The reason I cannot use my laptop to run the application is because
there are several PCI cards in the clients computer that the program
needs to access. Obviously, I can't stick them into my laptop.

Thanks

[Peter Duniho]

hu*******@yahoo .com wrote:

Thanks for the input. I will give the remote debugging a try.

Regarding "none of the two is every touching their computer" what you
describe is exactly what I want. I want to bring a ready VS2005
without having to install it on the client's computer. Also I don't
want the source code to be on their system. Even if I delete it and
clean the recycle bin they still could get to it. Plus human error has
to be considered too (not delete it, not empty recycle bin, not using
a "secure delete" program, etc).

Well, the point of my comment is that even putting everything on a USB
drive doesn't address that issue. If the source code is on the drive,
and the drive is plugged into the client's computer, then there exists
the theoretical possibility that the source code could be copied to the
client's computer, intentionally or otherwise, with or without your
knowledge.

The reason I cannot use my laptop to run the application is because
there are several PCI cards in the clients computer that the program
needs to access. Obviously, I can't stick them into my laptop.

Yeah, I can't believe laptop design hasn't solved that issue yet. :)

Seriously though, hopefully the remote debugging will work for you. It
seems like the exact solution you're looking for. If all else fails,
you might consider one of the small form-factor PCs (e.g. Shuttle case
with microATX board). They are easy to haul around -- practically as
easy as a laptop -- but still allow PCI cards to be installed.

Pete