Portable Use

WinSCP can be downloaded in form of standalone Portable executables1.

On startup the Portable executables look for INI file in the directory from which it was started. The INI file must have an .ini extension and the same name as the executable. If it does not find any, it tries to create one with default configuration2. This allows you to easily carry WinSCP with your configuration on removable media or USB drive.

You may also use INI file in different folder or with different name using /ini switch.

With default configuration WinSCP still stores some temporary data on the file system of the host computer. You can configure WinSCP to be completely portable though. i.e. make it store all its files and configuration in one place - a portable drive (such as USB drive).

WinSCP stores by default these files to the host computer:

• Random seed file (file winscp.rnd in your Documents and Settings folder);
• Temporary files (system temporary folder).

You can force WinSCP to store the files into different locations in preferences. You can use paths relative to the WinSCP start folder.

To change the storage directly in an INI file to the same location, where WinSCP is started from, set following parameters:

[Configuration\Interface]
RandomSeedFile=.\winscp.rnd
DDTemporaryDirectory=.\

You can also get WinSCP U3 package, what is preconfigured version of WinSCP for portable usage on U3 USB drive.