Portable Application Mode

Handy Address Book is capable of running in "Portable Mode", so that you can keep your address book with you on a portable drive or memory stick (sometimes called a "Jumpdrive").  To set up Handy to run in portable mode follow these steps:

1. Install Handy onto your memory stick
2. Start the program and turn on "File / Options... / Options / Portable Mode"
3. Store your address book file(s) on your memory stick

For example, if your memory stick is plugged in as the E: drive, install Handy Address Book to "E:\Handy Address Book".  During the installation process you can choose the folder location where you want to install Handy Address Book.

Next, start up Handy and turn on the "Portable Mode" option under "File / Options... / Options".

Lastly, make sure you are saving your address book(s) onto this same drive.  You can verify the location of your current address book by using "File / Properties...".  You can assign the name and location of a new address book using "File / New...".  If necessary, you can move existing address book files, and then open them from the new location using "File / Open...".

You can now take your memory stick to any computer, plug it in, browse to the "Handy Address Book" folder, and double click on the "habook.exe" file to start Handy Address Book.

When you plug your memory stick into a different computer, it does not matter what drive letter is assigned to your memory stick.  When running in portable mode, the last used book, and your recent books are stored as relative paths to the habook.exe program.  This allows Handy to work seamlessly when the memory stick happens to get mapped to different drive letters on different computers.

When you are running in portable mode, no changes are made to the host computer.  All of your preferences are stored in the "handyprefs.ini" file in the same folder as the Handy program.

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