How to run MSVC++ 6.0 off a USB drive as a portable app

Question

Without using any third party program to do this (i.e. without VMware ThinApp, U3 or MojoPac etc.) How to move MSVC++ 6.0 from from its install on C: over to a USB drive? So that it can be used on different PCs with no admin rights and without installing anything on the host PC? Even if it's only usable as a console application would be fine, although to have the GUI including Visual Assist etc. would be even better.

Answer 1

Move the two folders that install created under c:\program files\ to the USB drive (e.g. to e:\progs\msvc\msvc6 and e:\progs\msvc\vc98), and append to the file e:\progs\msvc\vc98\bin\vcvars32.bat to suit e.g.

prompt $g
set path=e:\progs\uedit;e:\progs\utl;%PATH%
e:
cd e:\work
start e:\progs\uedit\uedit32.exe /i=e:\progs\uedit\uedit32.ini 
cmd /k

Using a shortcut to vcvars32.bat then works fine for doing any simple console programming, which is all I’m using it for so far. I don’t know how well any of the GUI type programs in the tools folder will function.