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List of portable software

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A USB flash drive

Portable software is a class of software that is suitable for use on portable drives such as a USB (thumb) drive or digital audio player or PDA with "drive mode", although any external hard drive can be used. [1] [2] The concept of carrying one's favored applications, utilities, and files on a portable drive for use on any computer is one which has evolved considerably in recent years.

Programs in this category (also known as portable applications) are typically 'lite' versions of their parent software, but there are many exceptions.

To be considered portable, for purpose of this list, a software 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's 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).

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

Application launchers

See also: Comparison of application launchers

Development

IDEs

Scripting Languages

  • Portable NSIS Version

Compilers

Visual mapping tool/Productivity tool

Graphics

3D Modeling And Rendering

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

Graphic Editors

Viewers

Document Based

Office and Publishing

Editors

Personal Notes

  • NotesHolder - desktop notes, for portability install it in Portable mode.
  • Personal Knowbase - note organizer. For portability, select the removable drive letter as "Destination" during installation.

Educational

Games

See List of portable computer games

Internet

Web browsers

Email clients

Instant messaging

FTP clients

Download managers

P2P file sharing

IRC

  • ChatZilla Note: Requires a Mozilla based browser, e.g. SeaMonkey, or Firefox.
  • HydraIRC
  • 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
  • KVIrc
  • Digsby

RSS, Atom readers

Telnet, SSH clients

Bookmark managers

Search engines

Podcast managers

Proxy server/clients and Routing Networks

Wiki-like (Note: These are not web-based)

Miscellaneous

  • 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.

Multimedia

File converters

CD/DVD burning

Editors

Audio/Midi Sequencer

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

Players

Recorders

Video Capture

Networking

HTTP servers

See also

Miscellaneous

Other Tools

Web Editors

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

Calendar management

File management

File Archivers and Extractors

  • 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 3.90.

Unit Converters

  • Converber is a unit converter that supports over 1000 various units of measure in 32 categories. Customizable.

PDF Tools

Readers

Writers

Security and Encryption

Password Management

Anti-Spyware/Malware

AntiVirus

Real-Time Disk/Volume Encryption

File Encryption

System Maintenance

Storage Management

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

System Information

  • CPU-Z - CPU and memory hardware details - clock and FSB speeds, SPD, OS version.
  • AIDA32 - freeware system information, diagnostics, and auditing program written by Tamas Miklos, Win 95-XP.
  • SIW - SIW is an advanced System Information for Windows tool that gathers detailed information about your system properties and settings and displays it in an extremely comprehensible manner.

Partition/File Recovery

See also

References

  1. ^ John Guilfoil (2006-09-07). "Fun with Portable Software". Retrieved 2008-01-24. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ makeuseof.com. "100 Portable Apps for your USB Stick". Retrieved 2008-01-24.
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