Is there an easy way to put my entire installation of Intellij on a USB stick? - intellij-idea

Question

I'm considering switching from Eclipse to Intellij. One thing I like about Eclipse is that the whole installation is just a folder, and I can put that on a USB stick and copy it to another computer if I want. All of my plugins, settings, and everything else come with me and all I have to do is simply copy a folder.
Is there any way I could do this with Intellij?

Answer 1

Yes, it's possible, just copy the installation directory to the flash drive, then edit IDEA_HOME\bin\idea.properties file, change the values of idea.config.path and idea.plugins.path to the relative location, like: ../config and ../user-plugins (locations are relative to IDEA bin directory).
Now copy your original settings and third-party plug-ins (if any):
${user.home}/.IntelliJIdea10/config => usb:/IDEA_HOME/config
${user.home}/.IntelliJIdea10/config/plugins => usb:/IDEA_HOME/user-plugins
Note that it's not recommended to change idea.system.path variable, so that it remains on the fast local drive, otherwise it could affect IDEA performance and occupy a lot of USB drive space.

Answer 2

One thing you could also do is to use the ${idea.home} path variable. I described in an article how you can create a portable version of IntelliJ IDEA including a version of the JDK.
https://leolabs.org/blog/making-intellij-portable/
I hope it can help you, as this is my first article in English ;)
Regards
leolabs

Answer 3

In addition to the answer of CrazyCoder:
To copy the "system" folder of IntelliJ / PHPStorm to the usb memory stick is required if you want that IntelliJ / PHPStorm behave like a portable app.
To get the desired folders install IntelliJ / PHPStorm to your HDD and run it at least one time.
On Windows 7 the path is (copy the folders to your usb memory stick):
%USERNAME%\.WebIde10\config\ => usb:/IDEA_HOME/config
%USERNAME%\.WebIde10\system\ => usb:/IDEA_HOME/user-plugins
Note that user-plugins is not created at first start of IntelliJ / PHPStorm, so create it on your usb memory stick.
Edit the idea.properties as CrazyCoder told you and change all 3 values:
idea.config.path
idea.plugins.path
idea.system.path

Answer 4

open c:\Program Files\JetBrains\IntelliJ IDEA 14.1.3\bin\idea.properties
change # idea.config.path=${user.home}/.IntelliJIdea/config to idea.config.path=../PortableSetting/config
change # idea.system.path=${user.home}/.IntelliJIdea/system to idea.system.path=../PortableSetting/system
change # idea.plugins.path=${idea.config.path}/plugins to idea.plugins.path=../PortableSetting/config/plugins
change # idea.log.path=${idea.system.path}/log to idea.log.path=../PortableSetting/system/log
make PortableSetting folder in c:\Program Files\JetBrains\IntelliJ IDEA 14.1.3\
copy content of C:\Documents and Settings\User\.IntelliJIdea14\ to c:\Program Files\JetBrains\IntelliJ IDEA 14.1.3\PortableSetting\
copy c:\Program Files\JetBrains\IntelliJ IDEA 14.1.3 to USB and enjoy!
I wrote this answer for windows XP default directory.
for more information about default directory look at here.
I read other people answers and made an step by step answer.

Answer 5

You can use portableapps platform for portable intellij. Details description is here.