MoneyDance on a USB?
Mary
via web
One of the great things about MD is that I can run it off of a USB which makes it really sweet. Except for the extensions. I discovered there is a .moneydance directory under my user account directory where the extensions are put. I searched thru the various posts on various forums and what was recommended did not work on either my Vista laptop or my XP desktop.
Is there some way to make MD look in a specified directory for
these files without changing where the user stuff is found?
Changing the user paths will mess up a ton of other things, so I
really don't want to do that.
It seems that everything MD needs is confined to its own directory except for the extensions - which is a great feature.
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2 Posted by arfinger on 15 Apr, 2009 07:12 PM
Mary - I have tried to figure out how to run MD off a USB drive, but haven't figured it out. Can you enlighten me on how to get it to run off a USB?
Thanks
3 Posted by Mary on 15 Apr, 2009 07:17 PM
I just specified the USB to install it and it all loaded up nicely onto it. Then, I just go to the USB drive and start MD.exe from it. I tell it to save the data file into that same directory or a sub directory. Works like a charm until I installed some extensions.
4 Posted by randyfinger on 16 Apr, 2009 12:30 PM
Thanks - That was way too easy. I should have known how to do it.
I think part of the problem with the extensions and preferences not working on a USB install is due to the fact that those files are stored on your cpu hard drive in a file called .moneydance. I have not been able to figure out haw to redirect MD to save this file on the USB.
Support Staff 5 Posted by Ben Spencer on 16 Apr, 2009 02:16 PM
Hello all
WARNING THESE INSTRUCTIONS ARE NOT OF THE FAINT OF HEART. Make a back up of the Moneydance directory before you attempt this.
I spoke with the developer about this issue and there is a way to direct Moneydance to save the ".moneydance" in an alternate location. Its not exactly straight forward but here goes:
Create a folder called "config" inside the Moneydance folder. Copy the .moneydance folder from your home directory and put it in the config directory you just created.
Edit the Moneydance start up script in a text editor. This is the file called "Moneydance" in the Moneydance directory. Right down towards the bottom of this script file is the java command that launches the Moneydance application. This is the second to last line in the script file and it starts like this:
"$app_java_home/bin/java" -client
The line contains a great many options after the -client option do not delete or change any of the other options. You need to add -Duser.home=./config immediately after the -client option and save the file.. Such that the beginning of this line reads:
"$app_java_home/bin/java" -client -Duser.home=./config
That will tell Moneydance to look in your config folder for the .moneydance folder.
Additionally if you are running Moneydance from a USB drive you may need to explicitly open the data file from the file menu after you launch the application as the path to your data fie might change if the drive letter for your USB drive changes.
Sincerely Ben Spencer
6 Posted by randyfinger on 16 Apr, 2009 03:20 PM
"Edit the Moneydance start up script in a text editor. This is the file called "Moneydance" in the Moneydance directory."
There are two "moneydance" files in the moneydance folder. One is a .exe file and the other is a .jar file. Which one do I want to edit?
7 Posted by Mary on 16 Apr, 2009 03:32 PM
Thanks, Ben. I don't see a script file in the MD directory. The only MD files I have are: Moneydance.exe Moneydance.jar Moneydance data.md Moneydance_icon32.png
exe and jar are binaries.
I'm using windows vista and xp if that matters.
Support Staff 8 Posted by Ben Spencer on 16 Apr, 2009 05:02 PM
I'm sorry I am running on ubuntu Linux. You are both quite correct the windows version uses an exe to launch the application which cannot be edited by hand. I'll check in with one of the support staff who runs windows and see what they can suggest.
Sincerely Ben Spencer
Support Staff 9 Posted by Ben Spencer on 17 Jun, 2009 07:15 PM
For windows users you can do the following
1) Create a shortcut to the Moneydance.exe program
2) Right-click on the new shortcut or select the File->Properties menu after selecting the new shortcut
3) In the Target field for the shortcut, add the following (with quotes):
"-J-Duser.home=C:\Program Files\Moneydance"
4) Change C:\Program Files\Moneydance\ to wherever you would like the .moneydance preferences directory to be created.
let me know how this works out for you
Sincerely
ben Spencer
10 Posted by randyfinger on 17 Jun, 2009 10:47 PM
Can not get it to work on 64 bit Vista. I get an error message that says
"the Name '-J-Duser.home=XXXX' specified in the Target box is not valid.
Make sure the path and file name are correct."
On Wed, Jun 17, 2009 at 3:15 PM, Infinite Kind Support <
***@moneydance.com> wrote:
Support Staff 11 Posted by Ben Spencer on 17 Jun, 2009 11:18 PM
I made the same suggestion to a user in this thread:
http://help.infinitekind.com/discussions/questions/290-working-folder-on-windows
And they reported that it worked. I cannot think of a reason why it would not work on 64bit vista. What did you put for the path?
Ben
12 Posted by randyfinger on 18 Jun, 2009 12:19 AM
The Target is:
"-J-Duser.home=J:\Moneydance"
Where J:\ is my USB drive.
Support Staff 13 Posted by Raimund Buchholz on 18 Jun, 2009 09:45 AM
just as an addtion:
see also Trac Ticket 770
and Knowledge Base
14 Posted by Mary on 18 Jun, 2009 07:09 PM
This doesn't work for me either - Windows XP. I just get invalid name error. I tried this earlier on Vista - same thing.
Support Staff 15 Posted by Ben Spencer on 19 Jun, 2009 06:15 PM
I just tested this on a windows XP machine and it worked as I expected it to. Perhpas my instructions were not very clear. I set the target field for the shortcut to the following:
"C:\Program Files\Moneydance\Moneydance.exe" "-J-Duser.home=C:\Program Files\Moneydance"
and this created the .moneydance folder in C:\Program Files\Moneydance
However I jet realised this doesn't help folks who want to run Moneydance on a USB drive on windows because windows doesn't support relative paths in shortcuts.
Here is a link to an article for getting around the problem of relative paths in shortcuts on windows. Although I think this is getting a bit out of the scope of Moneydance help.
I'm sorry if I inadvertently got your hopes up.
Ben
16 Posted by randyfinger on 19 Jun, 2009 07:00 PM
Still will not work on Vista. I get the same error as I mentioned above.
Thanks for trying!
17 Posted by DavidRoss on 21 Feb, 2010 01:38 AM
Well, we are pushing the envelope for scope of support, since the USB drive issue is a Windows issue, not a Moneydance issue. I would use Linux, but I am forced to use Windows.
The Windows program diskmgmt.msc will allow you to fix the mapping of USB (and other removable) drives with respect to drive letters, so that would be the missing piece of Ben's proposed solution in that it does not require relative paths.
Once you fix the drive letters, you can just set the target field for the shortcut to account for that. Since you can do some really stupid things with diskmgmt, I'll omit how to use that program so that you'll do your own research before using it.
I have fixed T: to be my thumbdrive (actually, a particular one of the many thumbdrives I have around. I don't know how Windows keeps track of them, it just does), so the target line for my shortcut is:
"T:\MD\bin\moneydance.exe" "-J-Duser.home=T:\MD" "T:\MD\data\DR-accts.md"
I store the program files in the directory T:\MD\bin, I store the config details (extensions, logs, etc.) in T:\MD.moneydance and the data in T:\MD\data. But you can use whatever you want. I tested this with XP and the licensed version of MD and it works. I moved the .moneydance directory from by $HOME directory to T:\MD, then ran the shortcut. Per the file errlog.txt, there were no errors, the desired config location was used and the desired data file opened at startup.
[I stumbled across this thread while trying to hunt down any documentation on the command line parameters for MD. Does anyone know if there are any other command line parameters besides -J-D?]
Angie Rauscher closed this discussion on 25 Aug, 2010 08:07 PM.