Microchip made a significant transition after version 5.35. In subsequent releases, they dropped support for several legacy tools, most notably the MPASM assembler. For developers maintaining older codebases or using classic PIC16 or PIC18 chips, v5.35 is the final "gold standard" release. Having this specific version in a portable format allows you to keep your legacy environment intact without interfering with newer versions of MPLAB X installed on your system. The Benefits of a Portable IDE
An IDE is useless without compilers. To keep the setup portable, download the XC8, XC16, or XC32 compilers and extract them into a subfolder within your portable MPLAB directory. When you launch the IDE, manually point the "Build Tools" options to these local folders rather than the system default paths. System Requirements and Compatibility Windows 7, 8, or 10 (64-bit recommended). download mplab x ide v535 portable
While Microchip does not offer an official "portable.zip" file, you can easily create your own portable instance. Because MPLAB X is based on the open-source NetBeans platform, it is inherently modular. 1. The Initial Extraction Microchip made a significant transition after version 5
MPLAB X v5.35 comes bundled with the required JRE, so you don't need a system-wide Java installation. Having this specific version in a portable format
By default, MPLAB X stores settings in your Windows User profile. To make it truly portable, you need to redirect these folders.