Running OpenSim from USB

With Linden Labs pushing out educators there have been an increasing number of blog posts regarding OpenSim. What caught my attention were the guides to running OpenSim from a USB stick, such as the one by Roger Stack. Although very comprehensive and probably the best way of doing things, it's quite complicated, and we should be showing educators how easy it can be.

And so, the easy way:

1. Go to http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Download
2. Download the zip file under the 'Binary Packages' heading, and extract it somewhere
3. In the Bin folder, run OpenSim.exe (OpenSim.32BitLaunch.exe on 64 bit machines)
4. Eventually you'll be asked for a region name - enter something
5. For everything else just keep pressing Enter to accept the default settings
6. Wait until it says: Region (the name you entered) #

That's it. You now have a locally running OpenSim server. Copy the bin folder to any location where you want to run the server from (including a USB stick). Always remember to close the server correctly by typing quit.

Connecting to the server is also easier than some have described. Don't bother messing around with shortcuts; viewers such as Imprudence and Kirstens allow you to pick 'localhost' from a drop-down list:

Assuming you went along with the default values you can login with first name: Test, last name: User, and leave the password field blank.