TeX Live is designed for shared use. You can install TeX Live on a network for use on client workstations. All it takes is adding TeX Live to the searchpath.
On Windows, a bit more is expected: double-clicking a file should open it in the right program, and there should be menu shortcuts. There should also be an installer which takes care of this and a matching uninstaller.
This page provides such a client installer and uninstaller.
They make use of building blocks which are already present in the TeX Live installation, viz. the TeX Live Perl libraries and the built-in hidden Perl installation.
From this page you can download a zipfile with installer scripts for the 2011 edition of TeX Live. Although they should work as-is, you may want to add additional utilities or a GUI which gives the users some choices.
As it stands, all changes are made for the user, not for the workstation. This implies that in a roaming profile setup the configuration is available from any computer on the network, and that the user needs no particular rights on the workstation.
The zipfile w32client2011.zip contains the following:
You can also still download zipfiles for 2010 and for 2009.
The prototype script assumes a standard directory layout:
parent---YYYY | | | +---bin---win32 | +---texmf | +---texmf-dist | +---texmf-config | +---texmf-var | +---tlpkg | +---texmf-local
or
parent | +---bin---win32 +---texmf +---texmf-dist +---texmf-config +---texmf-var +---tlpkg | +---texmf-local
The w32client- and w32unclient scripts assume that they are in the root of the installation, i.e. in parent\YYYY or in parent if there is no year component.
Sticking to such default directory layouts minimizes configuration hassles: all files can be located relative to the binaries, without environment variables beyond the searchpath.
For uninstalling, we take the same route as for the installer. However, if the unstaller is part of the TeX Live installation on the network then it will work only as long as this installation remains available.
For my university, the installer script places a vbscript uninstaller and a small file with settings under %APPDATA% under the user's home directory. I may publish here something similar at some future date.
If a workstation already has a locally installed TeX and if its binaries are on the system path, then the locally installed TeX will be found first. This cannot be fixed by only changing the user path.
Even if the searchpath cannot be fixed generally, it can be fixed for individual shortcuts, by prepending its searchpath with the TeX Live binaries. E.g. the TeXworks shortcut will always find our TeX Live first. The installer also creates a shortcut for a command prompt with such a modified searchpath.
Windows system administrators have a rich array of tools for restricting user's rights. Check whether everything works, not just for yourself, but also for the target group.
Dviout help may be inaccessible because of restrictive internet permissions. Users can copy TeX Live Root\tlpkg\dviout\dviout.chm to their local harddisk and open this copy, or you can ask the sysadmin to do something about it.
Windows does not include every piece of user configuration in the roaming profile. In particular, file associations are only stored on the workstation itself. Possible workarounds:
Copyright (C) 2011 Siep Kroonenberg
s i e p o at c y b e r c o m m dot n l
Last revised on July 3 2011