Well, I generally carry my install of Dolphin on my external HDD alongside with my dumped ISOs, mainly focused in portability (and also to save some gigabytes of space on my laptop). However, whenever I move to a different computer I'll certainly get error messages of missing libraries and I don't always have elevated privileges to install them. Also, most of the time my HDD will get a different letter assigned to it, completely messing all Dolphin settings that relies on paths (ISO directory, Wii NAND root, etc).
I'm a long time user of the Portable Apps Platform and so I made a portable launcher for Dolphin, following the PortableApps Format Specification. The result is a small Dolphin package guaranteed to work on whatever computer you use it (well, as long as it runs a 64-bit OS and it's Windows Vista or later) and that takes care of your paths so they never get messed, even if you change the location or the drive letter assigned to your storage device.
It's also fully compatible with the PortableApps Platform and it's currently submitted for official release at PortableApps.com. You can download the portable launcher from the forum topic at PortableApps.com (current version is bundled with Dolphin 5.0 stable).
Why installer?
The PortableApps apps are distributed in NSIS-based installers for easy integration with the PortableApps Platform (which includes a menu, backup and restore tools and an updater, among other features), but the installer itself doesn't modify anything in your computer (think of them more as self-extracting ZIP files than real installers). If you just want Dolphin Emulator Portable without any PortableApps Platform dependency, just run the installer and choose a folder like your desktop as destination. You'll then get a folder named "DolphinEmulatorPortable" with all required content inside, and you can just carry this folder with you to an external HDD or flash drive and move to any computer, the launcher will take care of the rest.
I'm a long time user of the Portable Apps Platform and so I made a portable launcher for Dolphin, following the PortableApps Format Specification. The result is a small Dolphin package guaranteed to work on whatever computer you use it (well, as long as it runs a 64-bit OS and it's Windows Vista or later) and that takes care of your paths so they never get messed, even if you change the location or the drive letter assigned to your storage device.
It's also fully compatible with the PortableApps Platform and it's currently submitted for official release at PortableApps.com. You can download the portable launcher from the forum topic at PortableApps.com (current version is bundled with Dolphin 5.0 stable).
Why installer?
The PortableApps apps are distributed in NSIS-based installers for easy integration with the PortableApps Platform (which includes a menu, backup and restore tools and an updater, among other features), but the installer itself doesn't modify anything in your computer (think of them more as self-extracting ZIP files than real installers). If you just want Dolphin Emulator Portable without any PortableApps Platform dependency, just run the installer and choose a folder like your desktop as destination. You'll then get a folder named "DolphinEmulatorPortable" with all required content inside, and you can just carry this folder with you to an external HDD or flash drive and move to any computer, the launcher will take care of the rest.
Avell A70 MOB: Core i7-11800H, GeForce RTX 3060, 16 GB DDR4-3200, Windows 11 (Insider Preview)
ASRock Z97M OC Formula: Pentium G3258, GeForce GT 440, 16 GB DDR3-1600, Windows 10 (22H2)
ASRock Z97M OC Formula: Pentium G3258, GeForce GT 440, 16 GB DDR3-1600, Windows 10 (22H2)