FL Studio Portable

FL Studio Portable v25.1 released!

A portable launcher for FL Studio, the digital audio workstation by Image-Line, built with the PortableApps Compiler (PAC-MAN). Every change it makes to Windows is recorded first and undone when FL Studio closes, or on the next launch if something went wrong.

The package doesn't include or handle FL Studio's licensing: use it with a copy of FL Studio you're licensed to run.

System Requirements

Windows 10 or later, 64-bit. FL Studio has no 32-bit version; on Windows 11 on ARM the x64 version runs emulated.
No administrator rights. FL Studio runs with your normal rights, so dragging samples, presets and projects into it from Explorer works.
Data on a local drive (a USB drive is fine; a network share isn't). See Data.
PortableApps.com Platform (optional).

Downloads

Configuration

FLStudioPortable.ini, next to the launcher, holds the user settings. If it gets damaged, or you want to go back to the defaults, copy Other\Source\FLStudioPortable.ini over it.

[FLStudioPortable]
AdditionalParameters=
DisableSplashScreen=false
RunLocally=false
Scaled=false
Symlinks=true

Key	Default	What it does
`Scaled`	`false`	Start `FL64 (scaled).exe` instead of `FL64.exe`. Windows scales that version up on high DPI screens, like the "FL Studio (scaled)" shortcut of an installed FL Studio.
`Symlinks`	`true`	Link FL Studio's folders into `Data` while it runs. With `false`, FL Studio uses the folders on the computer and nothing in them travels with the package.
`AdditionalParameters`	empty	Extra command line switches passed to FL Studio.
`DisableSplashScreen`	`false`	Don't show the launcher's splash screen.
`RunLocally`	`false`	Copy FL Studio to the `TEMP` folder and run it from there, for read-only media. Changes made in that session aren't saved back.

Opening a project or sample from the PortableApps.com Platform while FL Studio runs hands it to the running FL Studio.

Data

While FL Studio runs, these are linked into Data with NTFS junctions, so nothing is copied back and forth:

FL Studio uses	Kept in
`Documents\Image-Line` (the user data folder: projects, presets, recordings, renders, hardware scripts, settings files)	`Data\Image-Line`
`%APPDATA%\Image-Line`	`Data\AppData\Image-Line`
`%ProgramData%\FL Cloud Plugins`	`Data\ProgramData\FL Cloud Plugins`

If an installed FL Studio already has one of these folders, it's moved aside for the session and put back when FL Studio Portable closes. The one exception is FL Cloud Plugins: an installed FL Studio's copy of it belongs to the administrator, so the launcher can't always move it. Then it's left in place and FL Studio Portable uses it for that session.

FL Studio's registry settings, HKCU\Software\Image-Line (its preferences, and its registration once you've unlocked it), are kept in Data\settings\Image-Line.reg. They're loaded when FL Studio starts and saved when it closes, whatever FL Studio version wrote them. An installed FL Studio's settings are put back afterwards.

Close an installed FL Studio before starting FL Studio Portable; the launcher won't start while one is open.

Junctions can only point to a local drive. Running from a network share isn't supported.

Coming from an earlier FL Studio Portable

The first launch takes over what earlier packages kept, so nothing has to be moved by hand:

Data\settings\FLStudio.reg and ILReg.reg are loaded once and saved as Image-Line.reg. The old files are left alone and can be deleted afterwards.
Data\AppData and Data\ProgramData held the contents of %APPDATA%\Image-Line and FL Cloud Plugins directly. They're moved one folder down, to Data\AppData\Image-Line and Data\ProgramData\FL Cloud Plugins.

Registry

Besides HKCU\Software\Image-Line, the launcher records these keys before FL Studio starts:

HKCU\Software\ASIO
the .flp, .fsc, .fst and .flkey file types in HKCU\Software\Classes

A key that didn't exist is deleted when FL Studio closes; one that did (from an installed FL Studio or another program) is put back exactly as it was. The list is [FLStudioRegistry] in App\AppInfo\Launcher\FLStudioPortable.ini.

If something goes wrong

If FL Studio Portable didn't close properly (a crash, a power cut, a USB drive pulled out), the next launch tells you and undoes everything the last session changed. Start it again afterwards. Your projects and files in Data are kept; registry settings changed in the session that crashed aren't saved.

When reporting a problem, please include an export of the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\pac-man\Journal registry key and the contents of %LOCALAPPDATA%\pac-man\Journal.

Building from source

The launcher is built with the PortableApps Compiler. Its configuration lives in App\AppInfo:

File	Contents
`App\AppInfo\appinfo.ini`	Package details, version and file types
`App\AppInfo\Launcher\FLStudioPortable.ini`	The launcher configuration: the data links and the extra registry keys to journal
`App\AppInfo\Launcher\custom.nsh`	The portable registry settings, the FL Cloud Plugins link, the scaled version and taking over earlier packages' data

Don't put Data\settings\Image-Line.reg, or the ILReg.reg of earlier packages, in App\DefaultData of a package you share: once FL Studio is unlocked, it holds your registration.

Credits

FL Studio is developed by Image-Line.
PortableApps.com Platform by PortableApps.com.
PortableApps Compiler developed by daemon.devin.

By daemon.devin Music and Video 5 min read