Is there an easy way to put my entire installation of Intellij on a USB stick?

Yes, it’s possible, just copy the installation directory to the flash drive, then edit IDEA_HOME\bin\idea.properties file, change the values of idea.config.path and idea.plugins.path to the relative location, like: ../config and ../user-plugins (locations are relative to IDEA bin directory).

Now copy your original settings and third-party plug-ins (if any):

  • ${user.home}/.IntelliJIdea10/config => usb:/IDEA_HOME/config
  • ${user.home}/.IntelliJIdea10/config/plugins => usb:/IDEA_HOME/user-plugins

Note that it’s not recommended to change idea.system.path variable, so that it remains on the fast local drive, otherwise it could affect IDEA performance and occupy a lot of USB drive space.

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