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I own a Mac. I have some slideshows I made using DrRacket. I want to put the DrRacket runtime and my slideshows on a USB flash drive so I can plug the drive into another computer and run my slideshows.

If all the machines I wanted to use to play back my slideshows were Macs, I wouldn't have a problem here. I can drag the folder Racket v5.3 to the USB drive, then run my slideshows using it from other Macs. But sometimes I need to use a Windows machine wherever I am presenting. When I download the Mac version of DrRacket, I get a disk image that contains folders from which I can directly run the program. When I download the Windows version, I get an installer program (racket-5.3-bin-i386-win32.exe). Is there a way I can go from this file to a program that can run from my USB flash drive on a Windows machine if I don't own a Windows computer of my own with which to do the installing?

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You can try downloading the windows installer and unpacking it with some archive manager (if nothing you have on your Mac works, try one of the ports of 7-zip) and then copying it on a FAT32 partitioned flash drive (see da4's answer).
Just remember that you have to put everything from the archive's $_OUTDIR in the same path as the Racket executables.
I tried doing it now, and it seems to work (I'm on Windows).

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  • This looks very promising. It expanded nicely. I need to track down a Windows computer to test it on, but I'm hopeful.
    – Daniel
    Nov 8, 2012 at 6:08
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You could try running the installer on a Windows computer and then move the information from Program Files to your USB. Sometimes that provides you with all necessary files including the .exe. Other times programs are not as intelligent and require the installer to be used everytime. I would also suggest contacting the maker of DrRacket and see if they have a solution.

Unfortunately, most programs will not work that easily. Most Java-based Apps can do this, but most of the time it is a no go. Installing is usually the only way to get this to work. But like I said, you can try copying the files from "Program Files" and see if that helps.

Good luck.

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  • Unfortunately, I don't have a Windows computer. Thus the question.
    – Daniel
    Nov 4, 2012 at 20:44
  • I see. You could get the Release Preview of Windows 8 for a virtual machine. I am pretty sure Microsoft stills supplies it, if not, I can send you a disk image file. However, it only lasts until January. Then, you can try installing it there.
    – Josiah
    Nov 5, 2012 at 1:41
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Use Disk Utility to create two partitions on your flash drive: format one as "Mac OS X Extended" (aka HFS+) and the other as MS-DOS FAT. Your Mac will be able to copy to and fromm both partitions; Windows will see the FAT one.

Disk Utility - partition details

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  • These are all true statements, but none of them solve my problem.
    – Daniel
    Nov 9, 2012 at 16:18

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