How to Run Clipmate from USB Drive?

You may wish to use ClipMate on multiple computers, via a USB "flash memory" drive. There are several issues here.

Flash Memory Is Fragile

First of all, flash memory drives (memory sticks, camera cards, thumb drives, etc..) are much more fragile than regular hard drives, and do not have the same "duty cycle" in terms of being able to write millions or billions of times.

Use of database-intensive applications like ClipMate, can eventually wear these devices out and lead to failure.

So while it may be acceptable to have a ClipMate database on a USB drive for the sake of having your important data always with you, it's probably not wise to use on a daily basis if you'll be creating/editing lots of clips.

Settings

Right now, ClipMate saves its settings in the local registry, under HKEY_CURRENT_USER. We will look at having an option to store the settings in a .ini file, in future releases. But for now, settings won't stick with the USB drive.

You can easily take your registration key with you. You need a file called ClipMate.Ini in the directory where ClipMate runs from. It should contain your name/key, like this example:

[LICENSE]
PortableKey=Joe User,1A2C34-AKCW9N-7Y1UP1-B43MKW-158VC7

When ClipMate sees this file at startup, it will neither check the registry for a key, nor start/continue a trial period. It'll just use the key found in the file. When you leave the computer, there is no evaluation period started, nor is your key left on that machine for others to use.

ClipMate can generate this file for you. Just enter the key on one computer (the one you use regularly) and then re-open the "enter registration key" dialog, under the Help menu. There is a button that says "Create Portable Key File"

It is not recommended to use the ClipBar when running from a removable or networked drive. The ClipBar Dock Panel is implemented as a DLL, which gets loaded by Windows Explorer very soon in the boot process, and the removable or network drive may not be ready. This can lead to trouble. In a typical "nomad" scenario, where you are running software from a USB stick on a temporary basis, it isn't a good idea to have the Windows shell be dependent on a DLL that may or may not be present. If you DO run the ClipBar from the USB drive, you will need to install the program in order to have Windows recognize the ClipBar DLL. Likewise, you should be sure to uninstall ClipMate before removing the drive.

Just install directly to the drive, or copy an existing installation. ex: drag/drop (copy) the c:program filesclipmate7 directory to h:, thus making h:ClipMate7 This assumes H: is your usb drive. If you install to the drive with the installer, you will probably NOT wish to install the ClipBar option.

Running from the drive Just double-click on the ClipMate.exe program, in the ClipMate7 folder.

Storing Data

Please note the discussion on the fragile nature of flash memory, above. If you wish to proceed, you can just create a directory on the flash drive. But please don't put it into the same directory as the program. Use something like H:DataClipMate

Consider placing a recent backup file onto the USB drive instead of a "live" database. If you are going to be using another computer for an extended period, run ClipMate from the USB drive, create a database on the hard disk of that computer (note the location so that you can clean it up later), and then restore the (empty) database from the backup on your USB device. Now you've got all of your data that you had before. When you're done working, create another backup back onto the USB drive. Then remove the database directory from the computer. The only "residue" left (assuming that you used the PortableKey file) is the settings, which are stored in the registry under HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareThornsoftClipMate7. You can clean that up, if you really want to leave things as you found them.

ClipMate enhances the Windows Clipboard, making it a true power tool. The cut / copy / paste capability of Windows works well for transferring single items of data but is not useful if you want to move a lot of data or keep data longer than until your next cut or copy. Because Windows overwrites the Clipboard whether you were ready or not.

ClipMate works alongside the regular Windows Clipboard and remembers every piece of data (both text and graphics) that you cut or copy. Once your data is saved in ClipMate, you can select an item and it is automatically placed back on the Clipboard or directly into an application. Within ClipMate you can view, print, edit, reformat, convert to upper/lower case, search, rename, and reorder Clip Items. There are several "heavy lifting" features such as PowerPaste, Templates, and Clean-Up, that help with big data conversion chores such as contact and lead management, data acquisition, document assembly, and research.

Click here to try ClipMate 7.2 free version