StarDict Portable

StarDict Portable is special edition of StarDict for Windows that works with any hardware you like (USB flash drive, portable hard drive, etc). Now you can carry StarDict along with all settings with you. Use them on any Windows computer. All personal data are saved along with application.

StarDict Portable relies on the PortableApps.com Platform. It provides convenient shell to start and configure portable applications. On the screenshot below you may see PortableApps.com menu with StarDict Portable and StarDict Editor portable. You may change interface language of the menu and StarDict Portable. To do that click Options ▸ Language and select the desired language.

Figure 12PortableApps.com menu

8.1. Differences from non-portable version

Functionality of StarDict Portable is almost identical to the non-portable version. Only features that ties application to the specific machine are disabled. The list below details the deferences.

StarDict Portable features
WordPick Adobe Acrobat plugin

WordPick Adobe Acrobat plugin is disabled in portable version. Portable application policies forbids to modify the host machine.

Run StarDict when Windows starts

This option is disabled in portable version. It does not make sense to autostart application residing on removable storage.

8.2. Installing StarDict Portable

This section describes StarDict Portable installation procedure.

  1. Download and install PortableApps.com Suite on a USB flash drive or wherever you want.
  2. Download StarDict Portable package from StarDict website. The package file ends with .paf.exe, for example, StarDictPortable-stardict.sourceforge.com_3.0.2.paf.exe.
  3. Launch PortableApps.com menu.
  4. Click Options ▸ Install a New Apps. Select StarDict Portable package you've just downloaded, click OK and proceed with installer.
  5. When installation completes, you will have two new items in the menu: StarDict Portable and StarDict Editor portable. You are ready to use StarDict Portable.

8.3. Launching StarDict Portable directly

You may use StarDict Portable without PortableApps.com menu. In the $PortableAppsRoot\PortableApps\StarDictPortable-stardict.sourceforge.com directory you may find two executables: StarDictPortable.exe and StarDictEditorPortable.exe, they start StarDict Portable and StarDict Editor Portable respectively. $PortableAppsRoot here is the directory where PortableApps.com suite was installed, normally this is the root of a drive, like X:\.

You may pass parameters to StarDict Portable as with normal StarDict, see Section 7.1 ― Command line options. This maybe useful to enable logging, for example.

Do not start files in the $PortableAppsRoot\PortableApps\StarDictPortable-stardict.sourceforge.com\App\StarDict directory directly! In this case StarDict runs in normal non-portable mode, it will search applications settings and other data file in usually places on the host machine instead of directories near the portable application. First, your settings will not be found, second, new settings will be saved on the host machine.

8.4. Interface language

This section describes the algorithm used to select interface language in StarDict Portable.

  1. Inspect PortableApps.com suite interface language (Options ▸ Language). If the language is not selected, goto 2. If the language is "en_US", goto 3. Check if StarDict provides translation to the specified language. Goto 3 if yes, and goto 2 otherwise.

  2. Read the $PortableAppsRoot\PortableApps\StarDictPortable-stardict.sourceforge.com\Data\settings\StarDictPortableSettigns.ini file. Inspect value of the STARDICTLANG option in the Language section. If the option is not specified, goto 4. If the value is "en_US", goto 3. Check if StarDict provides translation to the specified language. Goto 3 if yes, and goto 4 otherwise.

  3. Assign the language code to the STARDICTLANG environment variable.

  4. Launch StarDict executable, namely stardict.exe. For subsequent steps see Section 7.6 ― Interface language.