Obsidian Run in Portable Mode?

I would also like to use Obsidian from a jump drive without needing admin privileges.
Thank you!

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only pdf export seems not to work (for me)

+1 for an Official Portable Mode support

I really need this feature

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+1 for this (or some sort of repackaging that would make the app easier to install / run on work computers). I have admin rights and have been able to install pretty much everything, but Obsidian apparently violates the organization’s group policy and IT will not allow it to be installed.

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workaround here: https://helpdeskgeek.com/how-to/create-a-portable-version-of-any-application-in-windows/

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+1 for official portable version

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Don’t use this much right now, but if it became portable I think I’d use it a TON for work.

+1 for portable mode.

Cheers and great job so far!

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+1 for portable

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I also think it would be great to have Portable Mode of Obsidian (No registry, saving data to the local folder).
Even if it is set by a flag to the launcher.

In the meantime I created my own launcher:

@echo off

:: Creating Folders
if not exist "%~dp0User\ProgramData" mkdir "%~dp0User\ProgramData"
if not exist "%~dp0User\Public" mkdir "%~dp0User\Public"
if not exist "%~dp0User\AppData\Roaming" mkdir "%~dp0User\AppData\Roaming"
if not exist "%~dp0User\Documents" mkdir "%~dp0User\Documents"
if not exist "%~dp0User\AppData\Local\Temp" mkdir "%~dp0User\AppData\Local\Temp"

:: Setting Env Variables
set ALLUSERSPROFILE=%~dp0User\ProgramData\Roaming
set APPDATA=%~dp0User\AppData
set LOCALAPPDATA=%~dp0User\AppData\Local
set HOMEPATH=%~dp0User
set ProgramData=%~dp0User\ProgramData
set Public=%~dp0User\Public
set TEMP=%~dp0User\AppData\Local\Temp
set TMP=%~dp0User\AppData\Local\Temp
set USERPROFILE=%~dp0User

:: if not exist "%dp0User\Documents\Obsidian" goto message
goto message
goto start

:message
echo PORTABLE Obsidian
echo -------------------------------
pause 

:start
start Obsidian.exe

Save is as ObsidianLauncher.bat in the folder of Obsidian after extracting it using 7-Zip.

It won’t handle registry cleanup but it will keep what’s saved in files in the application folder.

By the way, I’d suggest the developers to create a PortableApps variant.
If there application doesn’t use registry and it will add a flag for local storage of data (Or at least choosing the path for storage) I don’t mind creating it on my own.

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Yeah, in my Windows days PortableApps was a great way of carrying things around.

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Thanks @Royi for your workaround am going to try it.

Has there been any more work on the “portable mode”

Thanks for any help
Have a great day and a better weekend…

Having an HDD with your notes, files and thoughts its an amazing experience that I do recommend, but when traveling we find ourselves either are working on a computer that has Obsidian installed, or out of luck.

I do understand some security problems like having our credentials being moved around might not be the ideal, yet a lightweight client that could be opened on the fly from any computer is a very big selling point.

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Joplin has a portable version on Windows. That’s really helpful. A portable version on Windows should be a standard to any note taking app. As much as I enjoy using Obsidian, I am feeling disappointed by this limitation :disappointed:.

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+1 for portable

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Agreed. I switched to Joplin for exactly this reason. It is also FREE, Open-Source, and can sync between devices for 1/4 the price of Obsidian’s $100/yr!!

Notes in Joplin are also not stored in plain text, but in a SQLite database (last I checked). I think it’s important to mention this trade off

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For non-technical users, what (if any) consequences are there for not having registry cleanup handled by your workaround? If there are consequences, is there a way to mitigate them somehow? My use case includes multiple installs with third-party syncing. And thanks for sharing your workaround!

+1 for PortableApp version. This would be truly awesome, if possible

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+1 for portable version, please