El Diablo(Diablo3) on my USB Key – Windows 8 and WindowsToGo Part1

A new version of Windows 8 has been released.  This one is called the release preview and can be downloaded from http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/download .  With this new version I figured it was time to put WindowsToGo through a few more tests.   In my last couple posts about WindowsToGo with Windows 8 I spent my time looking at MMOs(WoW and EQ2) to see if they would successfully run on a USB device running Win8.  They did and ran pretty well.. You can refer to those posts here:

http://splanic.com/2012/04/30/windowstogo-can-i-take-my-wow-with-me-part-1/

and

http://splanic.com/2012/05/12/windowstogo-can-i-take-my-wow-with-me-part-2/

I ran into a few  small issues with the last version.  I ran it off a harddrive for most of my testing.   When I finally used a USB key I had to run without a swap file and my key was fairly slow.  So this time I want to see if I can do the following.

• Obtain a Fast 32GB USB 2 Key
• Install the newest Win8 Release Preview on it
• Install Diablo 3 on the key
• Run with a 4gb swap file
• Drive space may be an issue but find a way around that.  I want to be able to run this for the cost of a 32gb USB key.
• Just for an added bonus…  The drive must be encrypted.
• Run on a gaming desktop
• Run a worklike laptop – with an encrypted drive
• Run on a Mac

Check back in a week for the results of this test…..

WindowsToGo: Can I take my WoW with me? Part 1

At MMS this year I was shown a demo of WindowsToGO. Basically this is a full version on Windows 8 running on a USB Key or USB Harddrive.  This ran extremely smooth and I was wondering if this was some sort of demo magic.  So I started thinking how can I test WindowsToGo.  I started to think about gaming on a USB drive might be a challenge, so what game may give me the best results.  A MMO! I am not a WoW play but I know they have free to play for the first 20 levels, seems like a great place to start.  So here is my plan I will do the following things to see if WindowsToGo is the real deal!

• Load Windows 8 on a USB key
• Load World of Warcraft into that OS
• Try to load and play WoW on my high end gaming machine
• Try to load and play WoW on locked down work machine
• Try to load and play WoW on a Mac
• Give the stick to someone that plays wow and get their opinion
• Record my results
• Think about the next game to try if it works

Check back in a week for the steps I took to set this up and the results.  This may be as simple as no you cannot run it,  but what if you can?