Its late, maybe I will understand more in the morning.  I am not sure where to stick the -roam.  Maybe I should not have asked that ~!<input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden">

Hi

Recently I decided to put my computing life on a USB stick.  Virtually everything I need to do can be done with PortableApps (see portableapps.com) and a few other little programs that do not use the registry.  No more lugging a laptop everywhere!

However, as a satisfied user and vigorous promoter of Pegasus Mail since 1993, I was saddened when I thought I would have to switch to something like Thunderbird.  With over 4 GB of backed up Pegasus Mail and a well-evolved set of rules, identities and accounts, I really did not relish this thought.

How delighted I was to see that other users have successfully made Pmail portable!  (see http://community.pmail.com/forums/thread/2763.aspx)

My wish is for a Portable release of Pmail, or at least a detailed set of instructions on what to edit so it works reliably from a USB stick on a Windows machine no matter what drive letter the stick is assigned.

I did search every forum here that I thought might remotely have these instruction already, but so far have not found them.

Thanks (and let me add my hearty THANKS to David for a great program.  I wonder how many hundreds - or thousands - of hours of my life have been spent as a user of your code!)

Mr Fair Go

(Australia) 

Hello!

To the best of my knowledge, the current version of Pegasus Mail is portable, provided "portable" simply means that you have Pegasus Mail run from a USB-stick (or another portable drive).

Myself, I do not have a USB-stick, but I can tell you the basic idea how to use Pegasus Mail and access your messages from a USB-stick.
The main idea is to have Pegasus Mail installed on the stick and to place the "home mailbox"- and the "New mailbox"-directory on that stick as well. Since the "home mailbox"- and the "New mailbox"-directory are usually the same directory, that is easy - it is simply the directory that contains your mail folders, the files with your settings and options etc. When starting Pegasus Mail from the USB-stick, add the commandline switch "-roam", so the commandline to start Pegasus Mail would basically look like this: "winpm-32.exe -roam" (without the quotes, of course).

Read what the help file says option that switch:

This option tells Pegasus Mail that it should ignore the configured drive letter when locating user mailboxes and mail files, and should instead use the drive letter of the drive from which WINPM-32.EXE was run. [...] This switch also allows you to install a complete, working copy of Pegasus Mail, complete with mailboxes, onto a memory stick, and to use that memory stick in any computer where it is subsequently plugged. You must not use this switch if Pegasus Mail and your mailbox directories cannot be accessed using the same drive letter.

Technically speaking, this has the following background: when started, Pegasus Mail has to know what directory your mail messages, your settings, your distribution lists, your addressbooks etc. are placed in (i.e., the "home mailbox"- and the "New mailbox"-directory I have mentioned). When started without "-roam", Pegasus Mail needs to know both the directory path and the drive letter of that directory.
Pegasus Mail internally saves where to find your mail information

(i.e., in what directory and on what drive), and it also saves the

drive letter where to find your personal mail information. The drive letter of that directory may be different from the drive letter of the directory "winpm-32.exe" is loacted in (i.e., if Pegasus Mail is installed on a drive different from the one your personal mail information is stored on).
However, the drive letter is obviously the same if you have both the program directory and your mail directory on a USB-stick. "-roam" makes Pegasus Mail ignore the drive letter it has internally saved for where to find your mail information; instead, it uses the drive letter of that drive from which Pegasus Mail was started.

An example: on your USB-stick, Pegasus Mail's program directory is "\pegmail\", and your user directory is "\pegmail\usr\". Your USB-stick may be assigned different drive letters to if you use it on different computers. Pegasus Mail is started via the commandline "winpm-32.exe -roam".
Pegasus Mail starts, and it is looking for your user directory. When started from drive E, Pegasus Mail uses "E:\pegmail\usr\" as your user directory; however, when started from drive H (on a different computer), Pegasus Mail uses "H:\pegmail\usr\". It does so because of the "-roam"-switch.

I hope I could make myself clear. If you are not sure about how to use "-roam", just ask again.

Hi Thomas

Thanks heaps for this.  I searched the help for "USB Drive" but didn't think of "Memory Stick".

My current Pegasus Mail start shortcut for the HDD instalation has the -A switch, which the Help file (at the page you quoted from above) says means "Forces Pegasus Mail to run in standalone mode, ignoring any NetWare connection." I have no Netware Connection, as this is a stand-alone computer on a home network,  so for the new shortcut on the USB drive, I assume I merely replace -A with -ROAM.  Or should I have BOTH controls there?

I have another issue that I'd like to solve at the same time as this move, but I will ask it in a separate thread.  :) 

Thanks

Lance

(MrFairGo, Australia)

Hello!

You can probably replace "-a" with "-roam". Given the installation you described, I do not think "-a" is needed.

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First I thank you for along time user I

have to admit My shame on two things one I have never donated any

money for this program, one day I will and a few others that I have

used for a very long time, and two I had stopped using this program

for a few years just because of lack of contact and calendar

functions but I have always told people my preference for standalone

e-mail program was always pmail

Now for almost 2 years I have been

using a portable sd card or now a usb stick and have had pegasus

portable since then and encrypted the last 8 months. From some

playing around to get it to work on a 3 computer house I learned to

move mail folder location

I just recently learned of the roam

switch which i'm glad I had never known about

Now at the begining it was unencrypted,

then I encrypted the program and mail, currently just mail, And I am

think of going back to full encryption

Now the steps I use to acomplish

portability

Required Programs:

• Pegasus Mail

• universal extractor

• pspad

• Truecrypt

This was last tested with w32-450-pb1

• extract pegasus mail to folder on

  sd, usb card, or truecrypt drive ex E:\w32-450-pb1\

• make folder in extracted folder

  called mail ex E:\w32-450-pb1\mail

• run winpm32.exe ex E:\w32-450-pb1\

  winpm32.exe

• Choose one person install

• choose default mail setup

• config email setup (I have 4

  pop3 email accounts which is good because they will not allow me to

  send from there smtp servers from different computers i use. 99% of

  all outbound are from one account there sent from the four smtp

  accounts)

• in pmail click

  • tool

  • options

  • general setup

  • mail box location

• enter in to path location of the

  mail folder location ex E:\w32-450-pb1\mail

• check move mailbox contents to new

  location

• click change now

• close pegasus mail

• move remaining files from

  C:\PMAIL\MAIL to E:\W32-450-PB1\MAIL

• delete folder C:\PMAIL\MAIL

• open pspad (***I use this program

  you can use whatever you want just know i have yet to get microsoft

  notepad to make change and work)

• open file pmail.cfg ex

  E:\W32-450-PB1\pmail.cfg

• change the following in both

  location very important without changing anything else in the file

  C:\PMAIL\MAIL to \w32-450-pb1\mail

• close and save file

• open file pmail.ini ex

  E:\W32-450-PB1\MAIL\pmail.ini

• Make following 3 changes

  • Home mailbox location =

    E:\W32-450-PB1\MAIL (TO \W32-450-PB1\MAIL)

  • Working home mailbox location

    = E:\W32-450-PB1\MAIL (TO \W32-450-PB1\MAIL)

  • New mailbox location

    = C:\PMAIL\MAIL (TO \W32-450-PB1\MAIL)

• Open pmail and all done