Windows 7: Running drivers from a USB stick, possible?

Hi all

I am trying to run a USB microscope on my work laptop (Win 7 Enterprise SP1, 32bit, Core i5). As I am not an administrator I am having trouble getting it working, and thought I would see if anyone has any ideas.

The microscope (Veho VMS-004) requires its own drivers and program to operate. I have solved the latter by running the program from a U3 memory stick, but I still need to find a way of installing/running the drivers. Can the drivers be run in the same way, and if not is there another solution?

(And yes I know that I am not strictly supposed to be using non-approved drivers/programs on a work laptop, but the approval process takes months to complete.)

I appreciate your help



Wkdintent

I would say yes, you can copy the drivers to the USB stick and install them or you can go to the manufacturer's website and dll them and install them.

So the drivers can be installed directly onto the USB stick?
I cannot install them (either downloaded or ran from USB) onto the computer directly because I do not have admin access. When I try to from the CD, it begins the installation, and then gives this error.


Feature: Disk<1>
Component: <Disk1>Disk1 Files(1)
File: C:\Program Files\InstallShield Installation
Error: Access Denied

hi wkdintent, and welcome to sevenforums,

i'm not quite sure if i'm understanding you quite properly here, but the drivers can be installed from the usb but not onto it.

drivers live inside the windows folders, and without admin access you won't be able to install them.

obviously, you'll need to speak to your employer's IT people.

As this is a works laptop, you will have to go through your IT department for this. Does your job entail you using a microscope such as this?

Hmm, I'm getting the idea its not possible to run the drivers straight from the stick. I can speak to IT, but I know from experience that getting new drivers on the corporate servers takes months.
Thanks anyway guys.

Distinct lack of lateral thinking here. My son has a Mac laptop, and only rarely wants/needs to run Windows software on it. The obvious solution would be dual boot.... OR (less obvious, but actually more sensible) to install Windows on a USB Pendrive. When he wants Windows, slot in the pen drive, reboot, then both boot and run the OS from the external drive. Note that there's a glut of inexpensive large capacity "pen drives" at the moment, and a 32 Gigabyte unit shouldn't cost much over £20. Your problem seems analagous: you want to be able to do stuff on the works laptop without (a) leaving an obvious trail of disaster or (b) upsetting the IT department. If you swapped out the hard drive and installed a fresh copy of Windows on your second "private" drive, who'd be any the wiser? Or.... rather easier, if you re-installed Windows, and told the installation process to put it on a Pendrive.

Windows won't boot from a USB drive, flash or HDD.

Not quite true, Britton30..

Here's a site that explains how to do it with legitimate Windows 7 media using the WAIK (Windows automated installation kit) available for free from Microsoft and the application of sysprep to reset the settings back to original (untouched state) after using it one system.

Of course all the limitations of a trial apply using that method until a permanent base has been established for the external USB device and once windows is activated on that computer, it may not be moved around, just like any other normal legitimate installation. (30 days tops, 120 days max with the use of the slmgr -rearm command)

https://sites.google.com/a/rmprepusb...ials/win7onusb

You can download the drivers directly from here and install on your laptop.

Veho - Downloads