Any interest on a setting to install Blender as "portable"

I had this idea since i download Blender often, and have several versions “unzipped/instralled” on my computer at the same time…

what happens is it installs a your settings to a temp directory to

C:\Users\your name\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.59

C:\Users\your name\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.6

this all may be well and good but…
with cycles and some other builds, that may be 2.59 they may not have the same settings
that you use for say a “BAT3A” build or a “FASTEST” build…
(these are builds from graphicall)


to fix this, have a setting in the options menu to on first start to “install as portable”
what this will do is it will change the location from

C:\Users\your name\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.6

to a folder inside wherever the blender.exe is located.
(this way you could even install and move your blender to a usb stick and not lose your settings)

for example just reroute and create a “blender foundation” folder into the current blender.exe folder.

It works already.

Just make a ‘config’ folder in your blender version number folder.
Startup.blend will get created there when you open blender next.

Does it work for linux too?

Works for any platform.

on Linux the dependencys may require some libraries on your system but if blender runs you can have multiple versions each with their own config like I described.

But it has a true Point.
It took me 2 Weeks to find out that you could create an config folder in the local version folder.
A Button in “User Preferences -> File” with “Make config local” would be an great addition.

how would i make a config file? ok… for Bmesh i use different a kemaps file etc… now how do i go about this?

wait a second there is already a config folder in there…
this doesn’t address my problem…
when is start bmesh, it loads with keymaps and settings from regular blender… etc…

I want separate, folders for separate installs.

doing it how i said would be the best way, having the Blender Foundation folder inside the exe folder would be the best… (yes if you had multiple installs you would have to copy this but iy doesnt take up much space, just a few text files and this way its all in one spot, each install has its own preferences)

Or maybe in the Blender foundation folder it could have Folders “Cycles”, “Bmesh” etc…

Ehhh it’s kind of tricky. If you’re just extracting a zip somewhere then I guess it’s okay to have config files in the exe folder. If you’re actually installing Blender (i.e. to Program Files) then that is a bad idea and makes Windows angry. That’s the whole point of the AppData folder. Application Data.

I think it could be largely solved by simply changing the 2.59, 2.6 etc folders to the actual build number
EDIT: Or a hash of the exe maybe, to avoid problems with multiple builds with the same revision. But this is less human-readable

It works already.

Just make a ‘config’ folder in your blender version number folder.
Startup.blend will get created there when you open blender next.

I think if you do this on Windows, and you installed to Program Files, you may have to run blender as Administrator for it to actually create/modify the file

It works already.

Just make a ‘config’ folder in your blender version number folder.
Startup.blend will get created there when you open blender next.

Just tried this on my Windows machine and it works! As all my Blender installs are from static compiles (official and GraphicAll) this is tres useful!

I’d love that option! Easier than having to make a local config folder every time you get a new major version… Also, i don’t think it will automatically create the startup.blend, rather you have to copy the one from the Documents and Settings folder there.

The whole point of having stuff stored in AppData is so that the settings are shared between builds of the same major release version (2.58, 2.59 etc.). But it just keeps stacking up new settings files over the old ones every time you update, which is annoying.

It only created the ‘startup .blend’ only after I 'File>Save User Settings’ed.

OMG!!! i misunderstood what you said…
i just downloaded a “meta-androcto” build from graphicall…
now i see… and understand… …sheesh…
what an easy fix you put a new config folder into the folder you unzipped to.

then to make a startup blend in that folder you have to click "save as default… "

LOL… thanks guys…

but seriously… this should be easier, for noobs…
and why have the appdata location anyhow?
“Portable local folder” should be the default,
appdata should be a choice in the options menu IMHO.