With the free software WikiTaxi compatible with Windows XP and Vista, you can consult the encyclopedia without being connected to the Internet. Manual.
The idea of access to Wikipedia without being connected to the Internet is attractive. Navigating among the millions of information contained in the free online encyclopedia and integrate all on a USB drive seems to hold more fiction than reality. Yet, it is possible. The miracle is WikiTaxi. This software is compatible with Windows XP and Vista, you can download Wikipedia on your hard disk, and then consult the encyclopedia even without an Internet connection.
The program operates a special Wikipedia: directors are in regular backups of the encyclopedia, called Dumps. These files contain articles that clearly present for the backup, so that the most recent items are excluded. If you think your base is too old, you can always connect to the Internet to get a newer version of Wikipedia: you would then repeat the process we describe here.
The software WikiTaxi is in English, but it works with any language Wikipedia, so you can work perfectly with a database in English and another in French. The volume of data necessary to host Wikipedia depends on the size of the backup that you have selected. There is a basic English reduced by 25 MB compressed. It fits on a key 64 Mo.
It can be easily transferred on a USB key standard 4 GB or more. Now you can walk with Wikipedia in your pocket! Warning: manipulation that we describe here are aimed at users of a good technical level.
What you need
- Internet connection in broadband, a PC running Windows XP or Vista, the software WikiTaxi.
- Time required: 6 hours
Step 1: Install WikiTaxi
- Download WikiTaxi (1.7 MB compressed Zip) is on the left side of the page. Unzip the file in a folder that you could name and you WikiTaxi put on the Windows desktop. At the end of all manipulation, you can make the choice on an external hard drive, a USB flash drive, memory card or disk of a laptop. It is preferable, as a first step, to keep the software on the hard drive of your PC as the integration of the database Wikipedia requires many disk access. Made from a USB drive, they slow down the process of importation. WikiTaxi software is portable: it does not need to be installed to run.
- You just have to click on the executable file to launch WikiTaxi.exe. But before using the program, do not forget to download one or several backup files Wikipedia.
Step 2: Download the data of Wikipedia
- Wikipedia safeguard its databases in XML format and creates a file for each language in which the encyclopedia is developed and a file for all sub-parts (dictionaries, quotations, media, etc.).. All backups are stored Wikipedia on Wikimedia Downloads.
- For easy reference, the bases are accessible in English on dumps.wikimedia.org On this site, download the database the latest by clicking on the link latest. Select the file whose name resembles pages articles.xml.bz2. It enwiki-latest-pages-articles.xml.bz2 is the file which is 4.1 GB . It contains all articles, page templates, tables, multimedia elements or photos. In this case, the download may take several hours because even if your connection is fast, the Wikimedia server does not.
Bookmarks