[Tex/LaTex] Configuring portable TeXstudio to use MiKTeX portable

Question

I have downloaded and installed the portable versions of TeXstudio and MiKTeX for Windows. I assume I now have to map the commands in TeXstudio to the binaries (or the batch files) in MiKTeX. However, not all commands seem to have corresponding binaries (or batch files). For instance, dvipdf is apparently dvipdfm. I am not sure what gs maps to, as there is again several ghostscript related binaries. Does anyone have a definite working mapping?

Answer 1

I have a running version completely self contained on a usb clib (the same one I set my students up with). I have to be at a meeting but the part you need is the configuration as below. Note the relative paths.

Now for more details:

I recommend that you use a new (fast) usb clip (4Gb min) for the portable installation of MikTeX. I also recommend that you do not put any data on the clip, but use another clip for data. (This will make backing up the data clip significantly easier. It also runs a little faster.

1. From http://www.miktex.org/ download and install MikTex Portable at the root level of the clip into a folder (mine is named MikTeXPortable)

2. From http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/ download the recent Ghostscript and GSview.

   a) Because both of these installations want to make a registry entry you need to first install both programs to the hard drive of the computer you are using.

   b) After they are installed you need to go to Program Files on the computer and copy the two folders (Ghostgum and gs) to the root of the usb Clip. [Note: If you do not want those programs on the computer then uninstall them properly with the Windows tools.]

3. From http://texstudio.sourceforge.net/ download the TeXStudio USB(.zip) file. Then unpack it onto the usb clip at the root level.

   a) Make a shortcut to TeXStudio.exe at the root of the clip.

   b) Now save the code at the end of this answer into a file named texstudio.ini saved into the TeXstudio folder.

4. Asymptote if desired is installed in a similar fashion.

5. You can install R if you turn off the registry entry, icons, and shortcuts will install very nicely portable. a) If you want to run Sweave then make a user command with the following: "../Portable-R/R-2.14.0/bin/R.exe" CMD Sweave %.Rnw

6. IMPORTANT: You need to check each of the software packages to verify the versions referenced in the options/commands matches the actual installed version.

7. Now you will need a portable pdf reader. I use Foxit but Sumatra also works well.

8. When you open TeXStudio you should find the options-commands as in the image.

---

[General]
IniMode=true

[texmaker]
ToolBar\CentralVisible=true
StructureView\ShowLinenumbers=false
StructureView\Indentation=-1
Files\New%20File%20Encoding=UTF-8
Files\Auto%20Detect%20Encoding%20Of%20Loaded%20Files=true
Files\Max%20Recent%20Files=5
Files\Max%20Recent%20Projects=3
Files\Recent%20Files=M:/!Spring2012/m2800/taylor01.tex, M:/!Spring2012/m2800/taylor01.tes, M:/pauley/analysis.Rnw, M:/pauley/analysis.tex, T:/Math2800.s12/Math2800_S12_Roseberg/PJ/06/rms-pj06_scottroseberg.tex
Files\Recent%20Project%20Files=@Invalid()
Files\RestoreSession=false
Files\Session\Files=@Invalid()
Files\Session\curRows=@Invalid()
Files\Session\curCols=@Invalid()
Files\Session\firstLines=@Invalid()
Files\Session\CurrentFile=
Files\Session\MasterFile=
Files\Last%20Document=M:/!Spring2012/m2800/taylor01.tex
Files\Parse%20BibTeX=true
Files\Parse%20Master=true
Files\Autosave=0
Spell\DictionaryDir=L:/TeXstudio2.3/dictionaries
Spell\Language=<none>
Spell\Dic=L:/TeXstudio2.3/dictionaries/de_DE.dic
Thesaurus\Database=L:/TeXstudio2.3/dictionaries/th_en_US_v2.dat
User\ToolNames=Sweave
User\Tools=\"../Portable-R/R-2.14.0/bin/R.exe\" CMD Sweave %.Rnw
Editor\WordWrapMode=1
Editor\WrapLineWidth=80
Editor\Parentheses%20Matching=true
Editor\Parentheses%20Completion=true
Editor\Line%20Number%20Multiples=1
Editor\Cursor%20Surrounding%20Lines=5
Editor\Auto%20Indent=true
Editor\Weak%20Indent=true
Editor\Indent%20with%20Spaces=false
Editor\Folding=true
Editor\Show%20Line%20State=true
Editor\Show%20Cursor%20State=true
Editor\Real-Time%20Spellchecking=true
Editor\Check%20Spelling=true
Editor\Check%20Citations=true
Editor\Check%20References=true
Editor\Check%20Syntax=true
Editor\Show%20Whitespace=true
Editor\TabStop=4
Editor\ToolTip%20Help=true
Editor\ToolTip%20Preview=true
Editor\Replace%20Quotes=0
Editor\Display%20Modifytime=true
Editor\Close%20Search%20Replace%20Together=false
Editor\Use%20Line%20For%20Search=true
Editor\Search%20Only%20In%20Selection=true
Editor\Auto%20Replace%20Commands=true
Editor\Font%20Family=Courier New
Editor\Font%20Size=12
Editor\Esc%20for%20closing%20log=false
Editor\Mouse%20Wheel%20Zoom=true
Editor\Hack%20Auto%20Choose=true
Editor\Hack%20Disable%20Fixed%20Pitch=false
Editor\Hack%20Disable%20Width%20Cache=false
Editor\Hack%20Disable%20Line%20Cache=false
Editor\Hack%20Disable%20Accent%20Workaround=false
Editor\Hack%20Render%20Mode=0
Editor\Completion=true
Editor\Completion%20Case%20Sensitive=2
Editor\Completion%20Complete%20Common%20Prefix=true
Editor\Completion%20EOW%20Completes=true
Editor\Completion%20Enable%20Tooltip%20Help=true
Editor\Completion%20Use%20Placeholders=true
Editor\Completion%20Prefered%20Tab=0
Editor\Completion%20Tab%20Relative%20Font%20Size%20Percent=100
Dialogs\Last%20Hard%20Wrap%20Column=80
Dialogs\Last%20Hard%20Wrap%20Smart%20Scope%20Selection=false
Dialogs\Last%20Hard%20Wrap%20Join%20Lines=false
Tools\SingleViewerInstance=false
Tools\Show%20Log%20After%20Compiling=true
Tools\Show%20Stdout=1
Tools\Automatic%20Rerun%20Times=5
Tools\Auto%20Checkin%20after%20Save=false
Tools\SVN%20Undo=false
Tools\SVN%20KeywordSubstitution=false
Tools\SVN%20Search%20Path%20Depth=2
GUI\Style=false
GUI\Texmaker%20Palette=false
GUI\Use%20System%20Theme=true
X11\Font%20Family=MS Shell Dlg 2
X11\Font%20Size=8
X11\Style=
Interface\Config%20Show%20Advanced%20Options=false
Interface\Config%20Riddled=false
LogView\Tabbed=true
Interface\New%20Left%20Panel%20Layout=true
Interface\Language=
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Preview\Auto%20Preview=1
Preview\Auto%20Preview%20Delay=300
Geometries\PdfViewerLeft=315
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Preview\DPI=96
Preview\Scale%20Option=1
Preview\Scale=100
Preview\Magnifier%20Size=300
Preview\Magnifier%20Shape=1
Preview\Magnifier%20Border=false
Preview\Sync%20File%20Mask=*.tex
Tools\User%20Class=@Invalid()
Tools\User%20Paper=@Invalid()
Tools\User%20Encoding=@Invalid()
Tools\User%20Options=@Invalid()
Quick\Class=article
Quick\Typeface=10pt
Quick\Papersize=letterpaper
Quick\Encoding=latin1
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Quick\MakeIndex=false
Quick\Author=
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Quick\Geometry%20Page%20Width%20Unit=cm
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Quick\Geometry%20Margin%20Top%20Unit=cm
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Quick\Geometry%20Margin%20Bottom%20Enabled=false
Tools\Latex="\"../MikTexPortable/miktex/bin/latex.exe\" -src -interaction=nonstopmode %.tex"
Tools\Dvips=\"../MikTexPortable/miktex/bin/dvips\" -o %.ps %.dvi
Tools\Ps2pdf=\"../MikTexPortable/miktex/bin/ps2pdf\" %.ps
Tools\Makeindex=\"../MikTexPortable/miktex/bin/makeindex\" %.idx
Tools\Bibtex=\"../MikTexPortable/miktex/bin/bibtex\" %
Tools\Pdflatex="\"../MikTexPortable/miktex/bin/pdflatex\" -synctex=1 -interaction=nonstopmode %.tex"
Tools\Dvipdf=\"../MikTexPortable/miktex/bin/dvipdf\" %.dvi
Tools\Dvipng=\"../MikTexPortable/miktex/bin/dvipng\" -T tight -D 120 %.dvi
Tools\Metapost="\"../MikTexPortable/miktex/bin/mpost\" -interaction=nonstopmode ?me)"
Tools\Dvi=\"../MikTexPortable/miktex/bin/\\miktex\\bin\\yap.exe\" -1 -s @?c:ame \"?am.dvi\"
Tools\Ps=\"../Ghostgum/gsview/gvwgs32.exe\" %.ps
Tools\Pdf=\"../FoxitReaderPortable-4-3/FoxitReaderPortable.exe\" %.pdf
Tools\Ghostscript=\"../gs/gs8.71/bin/gswin32c.exe\" \"?am.ps\"
Tools\Asy=\"../Asymptote/asy.exe\" ?m*.asy
Tools\Userquick="latex -interaction=nonstopmode %.tex|bibtex %.aux|latex -interaction=nonstopmode %.tex|latex -interaction=nonstopmode %.tex|xdvi %.dvi"
Tools\Precompile=
Tools\SVN="svn                 "
Tools\SVNADMIN="svnadmin                 "
Tools\Quick%20Mode=1
Tools\Dvi2Png%20Mode=0
Files\Save%20Files%20Before%20Compiling=2
Preview\Remove%20Beamer%20Class=true
Preview\Precompile%20Preamble=true
Files\Default%20File%20Filter=All files (*)
User\Templates=@Invalid()
Search\Find%20History=@Invalid()
Search\Case%20Sensitive=true
Search\Whole%20Words=false
Search\Regular%20Expression=false
Search\Highlight=true
Search\Cursor=true
Search\Selection=false
Search\Ask%20before%20Replace=false
Search\Escape%20Sequence=false
Search\Replace%20History=@Invalid()
Preview\GridX=1
Preview\GridY=1
Preview\Single%20Page%20Step=true
Preview\Continuous=true
Preview\Scrolling%20Follows%20Cursor=false
Preview\Cursor%20Follows%20Scrolling=false
Preview\Sync%20Multiple%20Views=true
Editor\Completion%20Files=latex-document.cwl, latex-mathsymbols.cwl, tex.cwl, texmakerx.cwl
qttwp\userwidth=700
qttwp\compil=1
qttwp\tocdepth=2
qttwp\startindex=1
qttwp\navigation=1
qttwp\noindex=false
qttwp\title=
qttwp\address=
qttwp\browser=\"C:/Program Files/Internet Explorer/IEXPLORE.EXE\"
qttwp\contentname=\\contentsname
qttwp\align=center
qttwp\lastdir=C:/Documents and Settings/SCHUMACR
qttwp\dviopt=" -Ppk -V"
InsertGraphics\includeOptions="width=\\textwidth"
InsertGraphics\center=true
InsertGraphics\useFigure=true
InsertGraphics\captionBelow=true
InsertGraphics\placement=htbp
InsertGraphics\spanTwoCols=false
Tools\After%20BibTeX%20Change=tmx://latex && tmx://bibtex && tmx://latex
User\New%20Key%20Replacements%20Created=true
User\Tags=%%, " %%"
User\TagNames=Key replacement: % before word, Key replacement: % after word
User\TagAbbrevs=, 
User\TagTriggers="(?<=\\s|^)%", "(?<=\\S)%"
keysetting\size=0
changedLatexMenus=@Variant(\0\0\0\b\0\0\0\0)
CustomToolBar=@Invalid()
FileToolBar=@Invalid()
EditToolBar=@Invalid()
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FormatToolBar=@Invalid()
TableToolBar=@Invalid()
DiffToolBar=@Invalid()
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customHighlighting=@Variant(\0\0\0\b\0\0\0\0)
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[formats]
version=1.0