Hi all,

I'm looking for a small, lightweight audio player that could be put on portable USB flash storage device - one that I could use to play the audio files on the flash device itself on any Windows computer it's plugged into - and I'm wondering if someone might have a good suggestion. I hope this hasn't been discussed already, I tried searching but to no avail (the IPB search is really starting to bug me in the way that recent, less relevant threads are always returned before older, more relevant threads.)

Here are the things I'm looking for - feel free to suggest anything I may have missed:

Small drive space footprint - leaving more space on the flash drive for music & other stuff
Supports an active playlist - nothing fancy, just something I can load / drag 'n drop music into for playback.
Playback of current lossy codecs - mp3, ogg, aac, wma would be nice; lossless support would be nice but kinda moot considering the impracticality on a flash drive.
OS Compatability - it'd be nice if it worked on 98/Me/NT in addition to XP, though obviously it shouldn't be dependent on .net libraries, java, etc.

My first inclination would be to try a foobar "lite," with default UI and only the essential components. Is this possible? If it is, I'm unsure as to the best way to load it onto the flash device...

Would it be better to run the foobar installer to get it onto the flash drive, or could that possibly screw up the existing foobar installation that's on my computer (C drive)? If this is indeed the best way, are there any other important things to consider during the installation?

Would copying the program files/foobar2000 directory to the flash device be more sensible? What about the profile directory with my .cfg, how would this work on a flash drive (or is it a per-user setting thing)? Once on the flash drive, is removing the unnecessary components as simple as deleting the .dlls from the components directory? Here's what I'm thinking might be such a trimmed down list of "bare necessity" components (ones I'm particularly unsure of are noted with a ?):

core
foo_common (?)
foo_dsp_std
foo_input_std
foo_lnk (?)
foo_playlist_manager
foo_rgscan
foo_ui_std
foo_utils (?)

Of course I'm not tied to foobar, if there's another lightweight player that fits this bill I'd love to hear about it. Thanks for your help.

Copy "Program Files\foobar2000", then look in the foobar2000 folder on the flash drive and delete the "user_profiles_enabled" file (I think that's what it's called. Then, your profile will be stored in the foobar2000 on the flash drive. You might want to copy over the foobar2000.cfg from your main installation, just so you don't have to reconfigure everything.

Yes, removing components is as simple as deleting the .dll. Your list of bare minimum components looks good. If you're just going to be using one playlist that you'll drag and drop songs to (i'm assuming from Explorer), then you probably don't need foo_playlist_manager. I don't know if foo_common is required by any of the components you've listed (foosion's page only says that foo_pqview requires it), so you could try removing that. foo_lnk is only needed if you have shortcuts that you want to load in foobar2000, so that's another candidate for removal. As for foo_utils, I personally think of it as a necessity, but you might find that you don't need the extra features. I'd suggest try using your mini-fb2k for a while without foo_utils, and if you find that you miss something, you can reinstall it.

Thanks! All of this is really helpful - I'll give foobar a shot using what you suggested. Doesn't appear like I could screw up things too royally, can probably determine which of those components in question are essential to me by renaming the .dll (say to .off) and testing with/without.