Show

Use Windows Live Writer from a flash drive

Benjamin Rubenstein
10 March 2010 - 15:36
17 Comments
Liked this (0)

One of the key features of Microsoft's Windows Live Essentials suite is Writer. Writer gives bloggers the ability to post to their websites with ease. It supports Wordpress, Blogger, LiveJournal, TypePad, SharePoint, Community Server, and many other popular services. With Writer, you get an instant preview of what your post will look like, along with the ability to easily add photos and videos. It also lets you install plug-ins for added functionality.

Today, Online Tech Tips' useful thing of the day involves Writer and how to bring it with you on the go. You see, to use writer, you have to install it as part of the Windows Live Essentials suite. However, this doesn't really help someone who jumps from computer to computer. Enter your USB flash drive.

Here's how to set it up (NOTE: To do this, you must be on a computer that has Writer installed)

  1. Download Windows Live Writer Portable
  2. Extract it to your flash drive
  3. In your flash drive, navigate to the folder called WindowsLiveWriterPortable (might be located in a folder called WLWPortable3, depending on how you extracted it)
  4. Open WindowsLiveWriterPortable.exe
  5. When a pop-up tells you that the file was not found, it will ask you if you want to copy you local installation of the program
  6. Select YES
  7. Navigate to the Windows Live > Writer folder
  8. Click OK
  9. Go back to your flash drive and run WindowsLiveWriterPortable.exe (it should now work on any computer)

Windows Live Writer

Comments (17)

  1. java2beans - 10 March 2010 - 15:42

    I find Writer to be very useful for writing blogs. I'll definitely downloading the portable version. :)

  2. +warwagon - 10 March 2010 - 15:56

    Great now we will have people walking around sticking their flash drives into unknown computers.

  3. Benjamin Rubenstein - 10 March 2010 - 16:02

    warwagon said,
    Great now we will have people walking around sticking their flash drives into unknown computers.
    That's what she said :)
    Sorry, I had to.

    Wait... That made no sense.

    Edit (Benjamin Rubenstein, 10 March 2010 - 16:04):

  4. testman - 10 March 2010 - 16:16

    warwagon said,
    Great now we will have people walking around sticking their flash drives into unknown computers.

    Yeah, it's as if portableapps.com never existed.

    *rolleyes*

  5. +warwagon - 10 March 2010 - 16:22

    testman said,

    Yeah, it's as if portableapps.com never existed.

    *rolleyes*

    Never said that was a safe idea (unless your stick is locked.)

  6. Raa - 10 March 2010 - 21:52

    warwagon said,

    Never said that was a safe idea (unless your stick is locked.)


    +1 Mate. I'm very jubious about people using flash drives at school. We're okay here due to the good security i've setup, but some schools... ugh.

  7. Sebianoti - 10 March 2010 - 16:03

    don't need it lol

  8. thealexweb - 10 March 2010 - 16:03

    I wouldn't say it's one of the key features at all, it was touch and go if it was being included in Wave 4, many thought it would be dropped.

  9. Kemistry - 10 March 2010 - 16:10

    Windows Live Writer is fantastic, but did you know you can also use it with Posterous?
    Scott has developed a great free plug-in available on CodePlex http://writerous.codeplex.com

  10. +Shadrack - 10 March 2010 - 16:33

    I try Windows Live Writer with my Wordpress blog every version. It is OK, but with Wordpress having a WYSIWYG editor that is more accurate than Writer (in my experience) I'll just stick to that. Actually, I don't even blog so neither is really useful to me. I keep thinking "I'm going to start a blog" but every attempt I stop because I don't have anything really to add to the blogosphere.

  11. protocol7 - 10 March 2010 - 16:45

    Shadrack said,
    I keep thinking "I'm going to start a blog" but every attempt I stop because I don't have anything really to add to the blogosphere.

    If only there were more people out there like you. *applause*

  12. iamwhoiam - 10 March 2010 - 17:46

    I thought providing links to apps that aren't officially distributed by the developer was thought of as warez around here?

  13. vetneufuse - 10 March 2010 - 21:08

    iamwhoiam said,
    I thought providing links to apps that aren't officially distributed by the developer was thought of as warez around here?

    This is a free publically available program though you are just altering stuff

  14. +shinji257 - 10 March 2010 - 22:01

    neufuse said,

    This is a free publically available program though you are just altering stuff

    Which is still technically under copyright of Microsoft. It's free but not really. I wonder if Microsoft cares though.

  15. Tom W - 10 March 2010 - 22:35

    iamwhoiam said,
    I thought providing links to apps that aren't officially distributed by the developer was thought of as warez around here?

    Yeah cause this is Warez...umm no.

  16. iamwhoiam - 13 March 2010 - 00:44

    Tom W said,

    Yeah cause this is Warez...umm no.

    "Warez" refers primarily to copyrighted works traded in violation of copyright law.

    Since the link to that portable app isn't distributed by Microsoft it is a copyright violation and considered warez...uhm yes.

  17. icie - 10 March 2010 - 23:55

    A portabled version of Live Writer has been around for at least 16 months. I'm not sure how this is all that newsworthy.

Please Log In or Register to post a comment.