Portable Applications – bring it with you…
A portable application is exactly what it sounds like: a (usually) free application that can be moved from computer to computer, without requiring installation. Â These applications can be run directly from a folder. Although I’ve mentioned some of my favorites in another post, I find these applications so useful that I figured a full review was required.
The true benifit of a portable app comes when you put it on a portable drive. I think the best example of this is portable firefox.  Portable firefox carries all of your  browser settings, bookmarks, plugins, and browser history in a folder on your portable drive.  Plug in the drive at work and presto! you are using the same browser that you were using at home.  There is no need to deal with someone else’s stuff.  Perhaps most important for some – you don’t leave any data on the machine for some nosey person to find later.  It all stays on your device.
What other applications are out there you ask? Â The place to start is portableapps.com. Â Here you can download a starter package of:
-  Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition (web browser)
-  Mozilla Thunderbird, Portable Edition (email)
-  Mozilla Sunbird, Portable Edition (calendar/tasks)
-  ClamWin Portable (antivirus)
-  Pidgin Portable (instant messaging)
-  Sumatra PDF Portable (PDF reader
-  KeePass Password Safe Portable (password manager)
-  Sudoku Portable (game)
-  Mines-Perfect Portable (game)
-  CoolPlayer+ Portable (audio player)
- Â OpenOffice.org Portable* (office suite)
“Wow!” you may say, but secretely thinking “who needs all this crud”?  Fear not, if the suite of applications is overkill for your needs, you can download the ones you want.  They all come with an extracter that puts the application into a folder of your chosing (like on your thumb drive).
Finally, when you are feeling the vibe and that this portable app thing is pretty darn nifty, I recommend visiting Lifehacker’s blog to read all of the reviews for portable software that they’ve done over the years.
Enjoy the world of portable bliss…
~ab
That was a very good tip. Thanks Alex.
Thanks for visiting the site! Keep checking back. We’ve got lots more to come (posts are released about once a week).
~ab
add to the list:
vlc portable – this thing will play pretty much any media
notepad++ – for the coder in all of us
gimp portable – image editor