Run Trillian from a USB drive

I’ve been using PortableApps and Trillian Pro for years, but there is no official way to run Trillian from a USB stick. So I did some digging a while back and got it working.

Setup I’m using my Microsoft Account to log into a 64-bit Windows 8 PC, so if you’re using something different the folders below may be slightly different.

I also don’t install any plugins or skins so there may be extra steps involved if you do.

[instructions for a new Portable Trillian installation] Install Trillian on your PC Install any plugins, skins, etc. you want. Set up your accounts

• copy the "C:Program Files (x86)Trillian" folder to your USB Flash Drive

*optional: rename to TrillianPortable (that’s how I’m going to refer to that particular folder in the rest of this post anyway)

• copy “C:Users[your Windows username]AppDataRoamingTrillianusers” folder into the TrillianPortable folder as well
• modify Trillian.ini: [General] Use User Directory=0 Global Directory=usersglobal

Updating

Since then, Trillian has been asking me to update for a while now, so here’s what I finally did 1/16/2014 to successfully update my Portable Trillian install to v5.4 Build 15 Pro:

[Instructions for updating an existing Portable Trillian installation]

• (optional) RAR'd the TrillianPortable folder and saved it elsewhere as backup
• delete everything in there except
• trillian.ini
• users folder

Download and install the latest version of Trillian on your PC

shut down Trillian

Go to Trillian install dir on PC (e.g. C:Program Files (x86)Trillian)

Copy everything except trillian.ini into TrillianPortable folder on USB drive

launch, enjoy

Notes

When you run Trillian from the USB drive, it /should be/ isolated from the host PC unless you do something like associate the various IM protocols with your Portable Trillian exe