Portable copies and ARM builds of Video by Zaweba

Most people install Video by Zaweba once and never think about where it keeps its settings. Two less common situations call for something different: carrying the editor with you between computers, and running it on a Windows PC with an ARM processor. Here is what exists for each, and what to expect.

A portable copy

A portable copy keeps its settings beside the program itself rather than in your Windows user folders. Move the folder to another machine, or run it from an external drive, and your preferences, shortcuts and workspaces come with it.

The portable copy is made with a script in the app's source, tools/portable.ps1, which produces a zip. Unzip it wherever you want the editor to live, and run it from there.

When portable makes sense

A portable copy suits anyone who edits on more than one computer and wants the same setup on each. It suits a shared machine where you would rather not leave settings behind. And it suits a fixed setup kept on a drive for a particular job, such as a classroom or an event, where every machine should behave the same.

For everyday use on one computer, the normal install is simpler and there is no reason to change.

Things to watch with portable copies

Settings are kept beside the program, so the folder needs to be somewhere you can write to. A read-only location will stop the app saving changes.

Scratch disks deserve a look on each machine. If proxies and previews point to a drive letter that exists on one computer but not another, change them in the preferences when you arrive. Keeping scratch folders inside the portable folder is one way to avoid that, provided the drive is fast enough and has room.

Back up the portable folder from time to time. Your settings live there and nowhere else.

Windows on ARM

An ARM64 build of Video by Zaweba exists, made for Windows PCs that use ARM processors rather than the usual Intel or AMD chips. To be plain about it: that build has not yet been run on an ARM64 PC. It is built, but it is untested on the real hardware.

If you have an ARM laptop and want to try it, treat it accordingly. Try it on a copy of a project rather than your only one, check that playback and export behave as you expect, and keep the standard build in mind as well, since Windows on ARM can also run ordinary programs.

Why say so

It would be easy to list ARM support and leave it there. Being clear that the build has not been tried on real ARM hardware lets you decide for yourself whether to rely on it. As ARM laptops become more common, that is likely to change, and the same build will be the starting point.

Both options are small corners of Video by Zaweba. For people who need them, they mean the editor can go where the work is.