Portable Applications for Windows Computers


		Portable Applications Ever found yourself working on a Windows computer which has been 'locked down' by the Administrator so you can't install software yourself? The computers in my workplace are like this. I now carry a USB datastick with a lot of useful programs which can be run from the datastick with no need for instillation on the computer it's plugged into. This is a good way of making sure I've always got the programs I need when I visit other people and places. There are other advantages to using portable applications, such as: - the browser you use will always have your own Bookmarks/Favourites - your mail client will have your own messages and contacts - you can use FTP more easily You can find details, links to websites and downloads for all the files listed below at: http://www.portablefreeware.com/ http://nedwolf.com/Freeware-Portable.htm http://portableapps.com/ http://tinyapps.org/ I'm grateful to the producers of these sites for introducing me to the idea of carrying around a bunch of useful programs with me on my keyring. Rules of thumb Make a directory on your USB datastick or portable drive called something like 'apps'. Look at the available applications on the sites above and in the suggestions below and go to the relevant website to download each application. If the downloaded application file is called.EXE, you usually need to install it, copy that directory from c:/Program_Files to your datastick, deleting the uninstall files and other language-related files from within the directory on the datastick, then uninstalling the application from c:/Program_Files . If the downloaded application file is called .ZIP, you need to decompress it using an unzip programme. (in Windows; can right-click file or use http://www.extractnow.com. Either install as above or, if no installation required, drag folder onto datastick. When you've populated your datastick's 'apps' directory, use the Pstart application (http://www.pegtop.net/start/) to make a launchpad for all your portable applications. It's wise to use encryption for profiles containing personal details and passwords. What follows is a list of the applications I've found most useful that have really earned a place on my portable drive. INTERNET TOOLS Portable Thunderbird - email PortableFileZilla - FTP PortableFirefox - browser PortableNVU - web page authoring OffByOneNoSSL - tiny web browser TEXT/OFFICE TOOLS portable_openoffice_2.0.1_en-us - portable version of the Open Source office suite; needs Java runtime environment pspad450b2161 - replacement for Notepad foxitreader - PDF reader that's faster than Adobe Acrobat FILE/SYSTEM TOOLS Pstart - this is the launcher I use to make it easier to launch any application on my protable drive truecrypt-4.1 and fcrypt32 - encryption rename - to rename lots of files at once REST2514 - restore inadvertantly deleted files removed with 'Delete' key cshred110 - securely delete files MyZippa - compresses files ExtractNow - uncompresses files omziff - useful milti-function file tool VIDEO TOOLS mpc2kxp6486 - video player VirtualDub-1.5.10 TMPGEnc-2.521.58.169-Free Super-encoder Riva FLV Encoder 2.0 AUDIO TOOLS xmplay33 - audio player audacity - editor CDex_150 and silentnightMP3rip - CD ripper silentnightCDburn - burner IMAGE TOOLS XnView * Photo Resize Magic photorm EasyThumb icrop210 ImageAnalyzer IrfanView * FSresizer Fsviewer * (*=probably most useful; I haven't decided which of these image tools is best yet. I'm still looking for one that offers 'crop to target size' facility like Photoshop's) If you downloaded all the above, the 'apps' directory of your datastick would be about 300MB. These are all Windows applications; some like Audacity are available for Mac and Linux too. I'm not up to speed on portable Mac apps, sorry. Linux users often carry Linux live CDs with them; my favourite is http://www.dynebolic.org/ Good luck, Gareth Morlais (me_REMOVECAPSNOSPAMPLEASE_lyn@bigfoot.com)