List of portable software

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Example of a 4 GB flash drive

Portable software is a class of software that is suitable for use on portable storage devices such as USB flash drives, digital audio players, PDAs [1][2] or external hard drives.

To be considered portable, for purpose of this list, a computer program must:

  1. Not require any kind of formal installation onto a computer's permanent storage device to be executed, and can be stored on a removable storage device such as USB flash drive, enabling it to be used on multiple computers.
  2. Settings are stored with, and can be carried around with, the software (i.e., they are written to the USB drive). If the registry is used to store settings, the application's configuration isn't portable, and must be set up on every PC it is used on
  3. Leaves a zero (or near-zero) "footprint" on any PC it is run on after being used. i.e., All temporary files/registry settings should be removed once the program has exited, and files created by the user can be saved directly to the same removable media as the application is stored on.

Generally, smaller utility/toolkit software is inherently fairly portable; though larger applications are sometimes changed in order to allow a portable versions to be released (e.g., Opera@USB and Operator YAPO).

This is an incomplete list, which may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries.

Contents

Bundles [edit]

Launchers [edit]

See also: Comparison of application launchers

Development [edit]

Scripting languages [edit]

Compilers [edit]

IDEs [edit]

Setup creators [edit]

Visual mapping/productivity tools [edit]

Graphics [edit]

3D modeling and rendering [edit]

  • Anim8or – Free 3D modeling and animating software.
  • Blender:
    • BlenderPortable
    • Blender Pocket
    • XBlender[3]
  • K-3D

Animation [edit]

Graphic editors [edit]

Icon editors [edit]

Viewers [edit]

Document-based [edit]

Office and publishing [edit]

Editors [edit]

  • AkelPad – for portability, select Save Settings to INI File from Registry Tab in Settings dialog
  • EmEditor Professional – for portability, select Import and Export on Tools menu
  • Geany
  • Metapad – for portability in version 3.6 onwards, at first run use the /m switch or create a blank text file called metapad.ini in the same directory as the executable.
  • Notepad++
  • Notepad2
  • NoteTab Light
  • Programmer's Notepad
  • PSPad – for portable use choose CAB archive
  • Q10
  • SciTE – for portability, set SciTE_HOME environment variable
  • TED Notepad – for portability; create tednpad.ini file
  • Textpad
  • UltraEdit
  • VEDIT – for portability, check "Install onto removable USB drive" checkbox on the first setup dialog
  • Vim

Personal notes [edit]

  • MyShelf Desktop – note taking application that is also freely available in a "Portable Edition"
  • Personal Knowbase – note organizer. For portability, select the removable drive letter as "Destination" during installation.

Educational [edit]

Games [edit]

Emulators [edit]

Plug-in emulators [edit]

Internet [edit]

Web browsers [edit]

Email clients [edit]

Instant messaging [edit]

FTP clients [edit]

Download managers [edit]

P2P file sharing [edit]

IRC [edit]

  • ChatZilla Note: Requires a Mozilla based browser, e.g. SeaMonkey, or Firefox.
  • Miranda IM
  • mIRC Note: There is a U3 version of mIRC that can be installed on U3 drives. The original application is portable, leaving behind only the license key in the registry. (This may not be true with the newer versions that are vista-compatible, as their default user data area was changed to the user's application data folder.) Since v3.1, it can be started from a command line using the -portable switch to use settings, DLLs, and license keys that are stored in the same folder as mirc.exe.
  • Nettalk
  • Pidgin (formerly Gaim)
  • Opera (Integrated Irc client)
  • XChat
  • Portable X-Chat Aqua – for Mac OS X

RSS, Atom readers [edit]

  • RSSOwl Note: needs Java runtime environment.
  • Opera (Integrated RSS/Atom client)

Telnet, SSH clients [edit]

Search engines [edit]

Podcast managers [edit]

Proxy server/clients and routing networks [edit]

Local wikis [edit]

  • EverNote (freeware & commercial versions)
  • Wikidpad
  • TiddlyWiki (Use a web browser on a local file. No network required.)
  • DokuWiki (freeware version available complete with Apache)

Miscellaneous [edit]

  • Ahnenblatt multilingual Genealogy software
  • Moka5 LivePC Engine (Portable VMware). Note: Dynamically loads and unloads network drivers and requires administrator rights.
  • Mojopac portable chopped down copy of windows. Requires administrator rights.
  • WPI Scripted multiple applications installer.

Multimedia [edit]

File converters [edit]

CD/DVD burning [edit]

Editors [edit]

Audio/Midi sequencer [edit]

  • Reaper has a .bat file for a USB stick installation

Players [edit]

Recorders [edit]

Video capture [edit]

Networking [edit]

HTTP servers [edit]

Miscellaneous [edit]

Remote desktop [edit]

Other tools [edit]

Web editors [edit]

  • Portable Nvu and KompoZer – for Mac OS X and Windows.
  • OpenOffice.org Portable – Complete office suite, which includes HTML editor.
  • SeaMonkey

Calendar management [edit]

File management [edit]

File archivers/extractors [edit]

  • 7-Zip
  • Filzip
  • PeaZip, for Linux and Windows
  • iZarc2go, Portable version of iZarc
  • WinRAR, Portable version for Windows, still requires having a license for a regular version of WinRAR. The version number for WinRAR Unplugged is 3.8.0.1, while the latest WinRAR for Windows version is 4.11

PDF tools [edit]

See also: List of PDF software

Readers [edit]

Writers [edit]

Security and encryption [edit]

Password management [edit]

Anti-spyware/malware [edit]

Antivirus [edit]

Steganography [edit]

Real-time disk/volume Encryption [edit]

System maintenance [edit]

Optimization and cleaning [edit]

Storage management [edit]

Visual maps of free space and biggest files and folders on hard drive.

System information [edit]

  • CPU-Z – CPU and memory hardware details – clock and FSB speeds, SPD, OS version.
  • CPU Speed Pro
  • AIDA32 – freeware system information, diagnostics, and auditing program
  • Speccy – System information tool.

Partition/file recovery [edit]

See also [edit]

References [edit]

  1. ^ John Guilfoil (2006-09-07). "Fun with Portable Software". Retrieved 2008-01-24. 
  2. ^ makeuseof.com. "100 Portable Apps for your USB Stick". Retrieved 2008-01-24. 
  3. ^ Older Version of BLender
  4. ^ List of all packages available for MoWeS Portable CH Software, 4 Oct 2010
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