How to Play Minecraft from a Flash Drive

What if you could enjoy one of the world’s most popular video games anytime you wanted? Everyone who considers themselves into games has heard of or tried Mojang’s Minecraft. There are lots of different ways to enjoy the survival horror/sandbox game. Every version of the game requires you to download and install things to your computer, but what if you wanted to go to someone else’s PC and play Minecraft from a flash drive? You can do that.

Playing Minecraft from a flash drive allows you to skip some roadblocks that you’d run into otherwise. Because Mojang recently eliminated the need to download Java to your PC separately, you can run the game off a flash drive without having to install something on someone else’s PC. Playing the game this way also eliminates the need to manually copy over files every time you switch to a new PC. Your worlds are saved on the drive.

Here’s how to play Minecraft from a flash drive.

How to Play Minecraft from a Flash Drive: Before We Begin

Before we begin this setup process, you’re going to need a few things.

First, you’ll need to purchase the right copy of Minecraft. You’ll learn more about where to purchase the right version and how much it costs in just a bit. What you should concern yourself with now is the drive that you’re going to load the game onto.

This drive doesn’t need to be new or empty, but it does need to have a lot of free space on it. We recommend a 16GB flash drive that uses USB 3.0 technology. A drive that meets these requirements should have enough space for all your world saving and enough speed to not impact the game’s performance.

How to Play Minecraft from a Flash Drive: Readying Your Flash Drive

Getting the Right Files

Before you can play Minecraft from a flash drive, you’ll actually need a copy of the game. Any version just won’t do. Mojang and its partners make a lot of different versions of the game, but only one will work from a flash drive; you need the Java based version available from Minecraft.net.

That version of the game works on recent versions of Windows and costs $26.95. Though similar to Minecraft Windows 10 Edition, it’s not the same. The Windows 10 version of the game is only available in the Windows Store and can’t be played from a flash drive. It also can’t be played offline. That being said, buying the version from Minecraft.net unlocks the Windows 10 version. Don’t confuse this version with the Pocket Edition or console versions of Minecraft either.

To obtain this version, you’ll need to create a Mojang Account, complete with username and password, so be prepared for that. Also expect to have to verify the email address that you provide when creating that account.

Making the Right Folders

You want to start this process by creating a folder on your flash drive to hold all of your Minecraft files. This’ll make it easy to keep the files essential to Minecraft separate from the files you’re also storing on your flash drive for other things.

Connect your flash drive to your PC.

Now create a folder within that flash drive called Minecraft Portable. This is the area that’ll hold all of your Minecraft files.

How to Play Minecraft from a Flash Drive: Installing the Game on Your Flash Drive

Next you need to download the latest copy of Minecraft from Mojang. To get this, head over to Minecraft.net/en/download. You’ll be required to login if you aren’t logged in already. Make sure that you store the file that you get, MinecraftInstaller.msi on your desktop so that it’s easy to find.

Double-click on and install MinecraftInstaller.MSI once it’s finished downloading. Let the game fully install.

Now go to C:/Program Files (x86)/Minecraft. You’ll find this colder inside the My Computer or This PC area, depending on which version of Windows you have installed.

Copy MinecraftLauncher.exe to the Minecraft Portable folder that you created on your flash drive.

Now you’ll need to create something called a BAT file with the Notepad app. Every recent version of Windows has Notepad available. Simply search for it in your computer’s list of installed apps. Open Notepad.

Right-click and Copy the code below from this browser window. Then right-click and Paste it into NotePad.

@echo off

cd /d %~dp0

set appdata=%~dp0

MinecraftLauncher.exe

Click Save As in the File menu.  Then select All Files in the Type box. This box is just below the file name.  Name the file Minecraft.bat and Save it inside the Portable Minecraft folder you created on your drive.

Now double-click on the Minecraft.bat file you just created. The game’s launcher should open. You’ll need to login with the Mojang Account credentials that you created earlier. The launcher may also need to download some new files.

Click Play and you should find yourself in Minecraft now. Note that every time you connect your flash drive and want to play Minecraft, run the Minecraft.bat. Your single player game saves and sandboxes should save to your flash drive, so that you never have to worry about losing any progress, no matter what PC you’re using. Because everything is self-contained, you shouldn’t need to install Java or anything else to get going.

You can be sure that Minecraft is running off your flash drive by going into the Edit Profile area in the game. You’ll find this area in the screen that pops up right after you click on the Minecraft.bat file. There you should find the files pointing to your flash drive and not the computer’s internal drive, which is usually called C:.

Have fun playing Minecraft from a flash drive.