Is there a compressed version for a thumb drive? I read the instructions but not fully understanding it. Seems that you just make the directory trees and then slide the version over to a thumb drive? Am I missing something here? Does not say how large the drive is either. I would like to use this on a Toshiba I5 that is running Win10 and have the program run on the thumb drive, possibly all the support files on the hard drive. Z
Hi @Larryfos.
No. The Arduino IDE installation is 500 MB. If your flash drive doesn't have enough space, simply buy one with more storage size. Multi-GB thumb drives are very cheap these days. Even if there is some way to compress the application, the performance hit you would get would make it not worth the small amount of money you might save by avoiding the need to buy a new drive.
If you have an existing installation of Arduino IDE, you can copy it to your thumb drive.
But you can also simply install the IDE directly to the drive just as you would do when installing it to your primary drive. If you downloaded the .exe installer of the IDE, you can select the installation location through the installer dialog. If you downloaded the ZIP package of the IDE, simply unzip it to the flash drive.
There are several folders where Arduino IDE stores support files:
Sketchbook Folder
This is the location where libraries installed via the Arduino IDE Library Manager are stored. It is also a convenient location for storing your sketches.
- Start Arduino IDE.
- Select File > Preferences... (or Arduino IDE > Settings... for macOS users) from the Arduino IDE menus.
The "Preferences" dialog will open. - Click the Browse button to the right of the "Sketchbook location" field of the "Preferences" dialog.
A "Select new sketchbook location" dialog will open. - Select the folder on your flash drive you want to use as the sketchbook folder.
- Click the Choose button on the "Select new sketchbook location" dialog.
The "Select new sketchbook location" dialog will close. - Click the OK button "Preferences" dialog.
The "Preferences" dialog will close.
If there are files in the folder at the path of the previous "Sketchbook location" preference, you can move them to the new sketchbook folder.
Data Folder
This is the location where the boards platforms installed via the Arduino IDE Boards Manager are stored.
- Select File > Quit from the Arduino IDE menus if the IDE is running.
All Arduino IDE windows will close. - Use any text editor to open the file at the following path:
(whereC:\Users\<username>\.arduinoIDE\arduino-cli.yaml<username>is your Windows username) - You will see a line like this in the file:
(wheredata: c:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Arduino15<username>is your Windows username)
Change the path on that line to the path of the folder on the flash drive you want to use as the data folder. - Save the file.
If there are files in the folder at the previous data folder path , you can move them to the new data folder.
Configuration Folder
This folder contains data files used to configure Arduino IDE and store the application state.
The configuration folder is at this path:
C:\Users\<username>\.arduinoIDE\
(where <username> is your Windows username)
Unfortunately there is no way to change the location of this folder so you can't store it on the flash drive.
Since the data folder is configured via the arduino-cli.yaml file stored in the configuration folder, this could also impact the ability to put the data folder on the flash drive in a "portable" use case where you are hoping to be able to pop the flash drive into a shared computer (e.g., at a library or cyber cafe) and use the IDE. I'm not sure whether this sort of shared computer situation is even relevant in 2024 when many Arduino IDE users would probably have their own laptop to use for this purpose rather than a shared computer, but installing applications on a flash drive is also uncommon these days so perhaps that is your situation.
User Data Folder
This folder contains data files used to configure Arduino IDE and store the application state.
The user data folder is at this path:
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\arduino-ide\
(where <username> is your Windows username)
If looking for it with your file manager or command line, note that the AppData folder is hidden by default. On Windows "File Explorer", you can make it visible by opening the "View" menu, then checking the box next to "☐ Hidden items".
There is no way to change the location of this folder so you can't store it on the flash drive. There isn't anything really critical in this folder and it will be automatically generated when you start Arduino IDE if the folder is not already present, so the lack of configurability probably wouldn't significantly impact you.
Temporary Folder
Arduino IDE uses the system temporary folder for several things:
- Staging unsaved sketches
- Storing the files generated when you compile a sketch
The temporary folder is at this path:
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Temp\
(where <username> is your Windows username)
If looking for it with your file manager or command line, note that the AppData folder is hidden by default. On Windows "File Explorer", you can make it visible by opening the "View" menu, then checking the box next to "☐ Hidden items".
The IDE uses various subfolders under the temporary folder. Many, but not all, of them are under the arduino subfolder
There is no way to change the location of this folder so you can't store it on the flash drive. However, this shouldn't pose any significant problems as the files stored in the temporary are ephemeral in nature.
Seems like I should just buy a ssd hard drive to get the pc running better, may be the better way. Thanks
Toshiba Satellite
6gb ram
Sata hd
I do think an SSD is a good investment for anyone who spends a good deal of time working with a computer. Fortunately the prices on them are pretty reasonable these days.
If you also have a mechanical drive and are careful to only store the things on the SSD for which the higher performance will be beneficial, you can get by without having to buy a huge SSD. I got along pretty well for years with a 250 GB drive. I was feeling slightly limited by it on my primary Windows machine in the time just before I upgraded that machine last year so I did go ahead and get a larger SSD, but I'm still using that 250 GB drive on my secondary Linux machine and haven't minded it one bit.
Thanks for your thoughts, thinking about a passport drive , something that doesn’t have to be permanent.
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