Make Portable

[Thejaka]

Can you make the client into a PortableApps.com app for Windows?

[PantherX]

The problem with making it portable is that the assumption is that it will work on all platforms. However, while that's mostly true, there's a catch in that the WU download is specific to that hardware and unless you have identical hardware, moving the WU across may result in corruption so there's no point in making it portable since the software is not designed for that.

[Thejaka]

Do you mean if we start working on a WU using an nVidia GPU and have to switch to onboard Intel GPU partway through due to switching to battery power, would that result in corruption? Shouldn't the client be able to adapt, by at least pausing the active WU and starting work on another?

[jonault]

If your laptop tries to switch GPUs while Folding@Home is running, then yeah, I think that's going to result in a corrupt WU (unless F@H is smart enough to pause itself before the switch - haven't tried running it on a laptop myself, so I have no direct experience). Folding@Home doesn't run on Intel GPUs at present. Best thing you can do is pause folding before going on battery, and leave it paused until you can plug into wall power again.

[PantherX]

That action would definitely cause it to fail.

WUs are assigned based on the hardware it will fold on. The GPU architecture for AMD/Nvidia are all different. Some WUs can only run on AMD, some only on Nvidia and other on both.

There's no FahCore designed for Intel iGPUs since they originally didn't support OpenCL 1.2 and were not Double Precision. While Intel had made improvements in that department, there's still no FahCore for it. Coming up with a new FahCore for iGPUs may not be feasible given the development/resource limitations.

[Thejaka]

In any case, even if switching machines is not possible, at least a portable installer would be welcome... One that can unpack to a specified directory, and not require Admin privileges.

[Darth_Peter_dualxeon]

I think it is not made portable, because (as somewhere it was written legally) that you are only allowed to run it on a computer that you own, or you are allowed to run it on that hardware.
It is because it is intensely using the hardware, and making it very hot. And you can only take legally responsibility for your own hardware.

If the administrator of the other computer allows you to do folding, then you can run it. But if that pc/laptop is your employer's property then it's up to them to decide.

An it's worth to mention the electricity bill that will be much higher. You pay your own. You are not allowed to surprise your employer with a huge electricity bill.
That is why you usually don't have admin right on a company PC so you are less likely to install or run bad or energy consuming stuff.

[anandhanju]

v7.5.1 is available at PortableApps. This was announced earlier this month.

Please ensure you either own the system your running the software on or have written permission to do so.

[bruce]

In any case, even if switching machines is not possible, at least a portable installer would be welcome... One that can unpack to a specified directory, and not require Admin privileges.

You should not need Admin privileges except to write software into c:\program files and we do that because we're following Microsoft's standards. That does give you some additional protection against malware.

During the installation, you do have the option to place the files wherever you want them.

[PantherX]

FYI, if you're still looking for a portable version, it seems that there is already one on portable apps: https://portableapps.com/news/2020-04-1 ... 9-released