V0.10 Installation on External Drive (Portable Mode) – How?

Support
#1

Greetings Earthlings,

I have ActivityWatch v0.9.2 installed on a removable drive that I keep plugged into my computer (Windows 10). I have a few little usage/watcher apps on there, to spare my main HDD from those constant read/writes. v0.9.2 has been running for about a year now in this setup, and appears to be pleased with it’s home, so I guess I’m a good landlord :nerd_face: But while it’s been a good run with v0.9.2, I have just discovered v0.10, and I’m super excited :smiling_imp: I present the following challenge to stimulate your minds :space_invader:
…
I downloaded and ran the Windows Installer for v0.10, but it didn’t ask me for an installation directory. Past experience tells me that when no installation directory is specified or asked for, the installer defaults to the Program Files “neighborhood” – a.k.a., my main HDD – so I aborted the installation process for the moment. Unfortunately, I don’t remember how I got v0.9.2 set up (and working, hallelujah) on my external drive, as that was back in April 2020, and lord have mercy, a lot has happened since then. :woozy_face:
…

So, I’m wondering if any of you fine folks would be so kind as to give me a little guidance ~

  1. How might I go about installing ActivityWatch v0.10 on an external drive?
  2. Is it possible to merge/import the existing v0.9.2 database into v0.10’s friend group … or is it exclusive? :sunglasses: :crazy_face:

Really appreciate y’all taking the time. Thanks in advance for any help!
Blessings to all ~
-Bain

#2
  1. Use the .zip instead of the .exe on the downloads page: https://activitywatch.net/downloads/
    You should be able to simply remove the old installation directory and unzip the new one.
  2. There should be no issues simply removing v0.9.2 and installing v0.10 instead.
    • I’m not so sure that your ActivityWatch install on a USB drive really spares your HDD from the constant read/writes, as those go to another directory in your user folder (see https://docs.activitywatch.net/en/latest/directories.html).
      • I don’t think there’s a way to override this at the moment, apart from simply moving the data folder elsewhere and create a symlink to the new location (not sure how symlinks work on Windows though).