The main advantage of portable applications is that it lets you runs application without having to install them to the PC. By just copying them into the thumbdrive, you have carry the usb drive and run it on any computer.
This makes trying out new applications very easy and simple without leaving trails of registry rubbish and leftover files and folders.
I had been using PortableApps for a few years now. Although the quality is high and regularly updated, the collection of applications available is sufficient but not wide.
Recently I started to try out CodySafe which hasa collection of administrator tools that I find pretty useful. Look under Download, Portable Suites, Admin Pack.
This actually got me interested in also testing out other collections to see if there is anything interesting, especially for use in a small business setting.
Will be updating anything interesting here… stay tuned.
With the wide spread use of removable storage devices (like usb thumb drive, portable hard drive, iPod etc.) came the idea of portable applications.
The idea behind portable applications is simple – store applications on your removable storage devices and run them anywhere by just plugging-in the storage device.
A number of portable applications suites had popped up as a result. The most widely known is PortableApps, but there are also others like
I was attracted to the idea of portable application during the recently re-installation of my notebook with Vista. Through numerous reinstall of operation system over the years, I took note of the necessary steps to backup and restore data for my favourite applications. However the process is still a major hassle – backup data, reinstall applications and restore data.
Portable application side-stepped that hassle because applications are not installed but just copied to folder on a drive. So during a reinstall, I just copied the folder – application and data – to a new drive. Viola! Everything continues to work as before!
After this reinstall exercise, I’m certainly going to convert most of my applications to a portable version. Luckily most of the open source/free applications I had introduced here are available in portable version.
If you reinstall OS often or is just looking for an easily way to move your favourite programs and data around, give a serious look at portable applications. I’m surprised I took so long to get it.
Latest Comments