Introduction
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This list provides a collection of portable apps
from across Gizmo's Freeware and other sites. Portable freeware is an amazing
development and is forcing software vendors to adjust their wasteful ways.
They reduce problems with uninstalling software
(you just delete them and don't have to worry about failed installs or
incomplete uninstalls), they allow for extra flexibility in copying or moving
software to different locations on a portable device or on a PC, and they
help improve your privacy and security by running from portable devices like
flash drives.
Take your "computer setup" with you,
keep every piece of free software that impresses you or run them, say, at a
library. I suggest starting a collection, or an army actually, of your
favorite portable apps instead of trying to minimize the number of programs
you install.
Installation Tips
Step 1: At each download site make sure to get
the "portable" or "standalone" version. Most sites
clearly label it as such. Usually it's a regular file name ending with EXE,
ZIP, or PAF.EXE (usually, but not always, without words like
"setup" in the download file name).
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EXE files run "as
is", or they self-extract after you double-click them.
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ZIP files must be extracted
first. Right-click the ZIP folder > "Extract All...", or double
click on it if you associate archive files with something like 7-Zip.
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If the downloaded file ends
with PAF.EXE, just double-click it and install it to a folder of your choice
(and if you copy over the previous version of a program it even deletes the
older version first).
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Other download formats usually
have a special launcher (such as the downloads for LiberKey). But sometimes
you choose portable as an option during installation (Foobar music player
comes to mind).
Step 2: It's a good idea to create a folder for
your portable apps, if you haven't already. I suggest creating a sub folder
for each program within your portable folder or moving its existing folder to
your portable folder (as long as they allow for relative paths; a few don't
and would quit working if you move them around freely). In any case, after
you get the portable app functional, you must make a shortcut to it:
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The easiest way is to create a
shortcut in a portable launcher (or the portable launcher that
comes with a suite of portable programs). PStart, for example, allows you to
drag and drop EXE files and automatically create a shortcut in its launcher.
Whereas, PortableApps Suite type launchers automatically search its
PortableApps folder and add shortcuts for you after you refresh or restart
the launcher (just as long as you create individual folders for all your
portable apps).
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Or go to your portable apps
folder, right-click on the main application for the portable app (usually
it's the one with a recognizable icon and a large file size), and select
"Create Shortcut" or "Send to > Desktop". Then simply
right-click the shortcut and select "pin to start menu" (Vista), or
drag the shortcut to the start menu.
·
Read How to Manually
Create a Program Launcher for an interesting approach (the approach I'm
using).
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Or upload your portable apps to
an online backup site, such as Windows Live Skydrive, if you intend on using
them on various computers.
TruPortable: Portability +
Stealth
We will start marking applications as "TruPortable"
if they work as standalone apps and run without waste (few significant
registry entries, few auto installation features, little need for user
tweaking, etc.).
This excludes registry entries automatically
created by windows. An application must work from a flash drive and run
without problems on most computers. We also require no user involvement (to
make an app portable). For this designation, we want apps to do their job and
leave the rest of the computer alone!
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Best Free Portable Apps for
Security & Privacy
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xB Browser -- Download |
Description: "A portable version of Firefox
with a well integrated Tor engine that uses the free Tor network. It's easy
to setup and doesn't require advanced knowledge, but you will have to use it
as a second browser for anonymous surfing in contrast to Vidalia or JonDo
that also support normal browsing." (Creates an empty folder in the
user profile.)
The drawback to xB Browser is that it's browser
specific to Firefox. Users who prefer to use a different browser, can try
JonDo. JonDo works with other browsers, but you may have to follow guides to
get all the settings right. But JonDo also recommends a Firefox solution:
Another option is to use a Portable Firefox with
the JonDo-Portable service and the JonDoFox configuration. The advantage is
that the JonDoFox configuration comes with many other specially selected
security addons (NoScript, CS-Lite, Adblock Plus), installs as an alternate
profile (allowing you to switch between normal and anonymizing profiles), and
allows proxy switching between the Tor or JonDo anonymizing networks.
However, the JonDo-Portable service requires Java and is more resource
intensive.
Other Anonymous Services: JonDo-Portable with JonDoFox & Portable
Firefox.
Best Free Portable Security Addons/Extensions:
Site Adviser (WOT), Script Blocker
(NoScript), Malware
and Privacy Filterer (Adblock Plus),
and Password Manager (LastPass,
portable version)
Description: The best security practice is to
prevent malware from infecting your system before you have to cure it (before
you have to worry about trying to remove some tricky rootkit), and no
security setup is 100% sound. So site advisors like WOT or LinkExtend help
flag sites with poor reputations and help you avoid them altogether. WOT even
has a warning and blocking screen to stop you from interacting with malicious
sites.
But if you only use a warning screen, a site may
run something malicious before you get a chance to get away. NoScript is good
for blocking JavaScripts and other possible means for executing malicious
attacks. But most sites use such scripts today for legitimate purposes, so
NoScript takes some getting used to and requires you to manually allow sites
you trust if you want them to work as expected.
Adblock Plus gets a lot of recognition for
blocking ads and cleaning up your surfing experience (for good reason, of
course), but it also allows you to subscribe to many other filters to
help avoid malware domains or to protect your privacy (see the Malware
Domains & EasyList/EasyPrivacy filters, for example).
Last but not least, I suggest a password manager
(such as LastPass, my choice as of now) to avoid having to enter passwords or
forms (opening yourself to keyloggers). Before you ask, KeyScrambler isn't
portable!
Most of these are so popular that they work on
multiple browsers, but a few require Firefox, such as NoScript and Adblock
Plus (but its filter subscriptions can be used with Chromium browsers). But
other browsers have alternatives to these that afford similar protection.
It's not an addon/extension, but you can further
protect your portable browser with DropMyRights.
You can create a "safe icon" for your portable browser(s) and add
DropMyRights to your portable folder.
Other Web Form Fillers / Password Managers: KeePass | RoboForm2Go
Best Free Portable
Anti-Malware:
Description: ClamWin is a popular choice for
portable malware scanning; it makes the top spot here mainly for lack of
competition from truly portable apps! In any case, it scans for both viruses
and spyware. But it won't provide real time protection, and it doesn't have
scheduling or program updating in the portable version. It allows you to
update the database with the newest threats any time you want , but dialup
users will have great difficulty getting them initially, if they are patient
enough to get them at all (it took me a morning while surfing around doing
other stuff!). Verified TruPortable.
Be sure to upload any newly downloaded or suspicious
files to an online multi-scanner such as Virustotal or Jotti before copying
them to your flash drive and use ClamWin for regular scanning. Additionally,
I suggest periodic scanning with your regular antivirus and antispyware
software when you can. Many of the best antivirus and antispyware
scanners/removers must be installed.
General Tips: Safe Portable
App-ing
Online Scanners for New Downloads: Virustotal | Jotti
Additional Portable Apps for
Anti-Malware Removal
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SUPERAntiSpyware: www.superantispyware.com/portablescanner.html
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Bootable CD/DVD: Avira Rescue
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Manual Inspection Tools
(advanced): GMER | a-squared HiJackFree (Writes
settings to registry)
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Related Guides/Lists: Probably the
Best Security List in the World | Spyware
Removal Guide
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Description: Comodo System Cleaner continues to
improve since the first time I saw it. It has three main cleaners (disk,
privacy, registry) and a "clean my computer" one-click button to
run them all. It uses a two step "safe delete or registry
protection" procedure to prevent you from deleting essential files or
registry entries, including a built-in backup and restore tab and a restart
of the computer. The second step requires you to restart the computer before
finalizing its actions. In addition, it allows you to set a new restore point
before cleaning for a third safety precaution. Why all the fuss? Well,
automated cleaning is risky business, so also be sure to have a good backup
of your files and a drive image.
It also comes with many other cleaning and system
utilities. You can manage autorun entries (startup-up programs, services,
etc.), erase selected files/folders or the free space, view system
information, uninstall software, and tweak system settings. It downloads a
help file through an updater if you need it; otherwise, the internal updater
is disabled in the portable version. Creates files and folders in
your user folder ("ComodoGroup" in "roaming").
Best Free Portable Disk Defragmenter:
Description: "A solid combination of
performance, stability and usability from Piriform. With a very clean
interface design based on the common Windows defrag interface, Defraggler is
incredibly easy to use and offers all the options you need to keep your
machine running smoothly – including the ability to defragment individual
files and folders as well as an in-built defragmentation
scheduler." Verified TruPortable.
All of the portable websites have ignored
MyDefrag's existence so far. It doesn't help that its author argues against
any positive reasons for someone wanting to have a "no-install"
version (here).
However, MyDefragGUI ignores JK's reservations and makes MyDefrag portable.
MyDefragGUI is an alternate interface designed to make running MyDefrag
easier. It's an excellent choice for boot optimization and multiple
sorting/optimizing scripts. The daily optimization script in particular helps
to balance the wear and tear caused by defragging itself with the benefits of
defragging (in saving wear and tear over time).
Alternate Products: MyDefragGUI
Description: One of the essentials for a portable
collection and getting closer and closer to an all-in-one utility. It hits
several of our articles for different purposes and could compete for many
more. "It's very effective in freeing up disk space by removing unused
and temporary files, cookies, Recycle bin entries, history and cache files in
many applications, and much more."
Plus it cleans the registry, manages the startup,
uninstalls software, securely erases anything it deletes, wipes the free
space and MFT, deletes old system restore points, manages cookies, or runs as
a task with the /AUTO command argument. Verified TruPortable.
Best Free Portable Memory
Optimizer:
Description: Some people argue that memory
optimizers aren't needed anymore. "But CleanMem seems to work and it
helps you automatically recover memory and file cache space to improve
performance. The program will install and run every 30 min via the windows
task scheduler. It doesn't run in the background constantly."
Just extract the ZIP download file to a folder of
your choice and click "schtasks.exe" for it to run automatically by
the task scheduler, but don't use either of the BAT files since they aren't
needed in the portable version and they install files to
c:\windows\system32.
Best
Free Portable Secure Delete:
Description: It's easy to recover deleted files
unless you routinely wipe the file data away. Eraser "overwrites the
data area with your choice of random data patterns, and also wipes data in
the recycling bin, unused disk space, and a number of other places where data
can secretly lurk." Creates an INI file in C:\windows.
Many file cleaners include secure erasing such as
CCleaner and Revo Uninstaller. But even if you securely delete files with
something like CCleaner, I recommend regular free space wiping to increase
the effectiveness of erasure (1 pass is usually enough on modern drives).
Alternate Products: EraserDrop
Portable
Best Free Portable Program Uninstaller:
Description: Revo uninstalls software and scans
for any leftover remnants. It's "the only freeware product I know of
that will make a decent job of cleaning up a failed install." Additionally,
click "Tools" for its startup manager, list of windows tools, and
junk files scanner. Don't miss the "Tracks Cleaner" right below the
Junk Scanner for its several other cleaners (browser cleaner, Office cleaner,
Windows cleaner, free space wiper, file shredder). Verified
TruPortable.
Automatically Uninstall Junk from a New PC: PC Decrapifier (TruPortable)
Best Free Portable Startup Manager:
Autoruns -- Download or
Run Online | Forum
Description: If you have many unnecessary startup
programs and tray icons hogging your RAM space and slowing your PC, then you
can get many specialized startup managers beyond CCleaner and Revo above. For
users who want to manage all possible startups, Autoruns is a gem. It allows
you to manage auto start programs by simply unchecking them (so you can turn
them back on if you really did need them), but you can also manage scheduled
tasks, services, drivers, sidebar gadgets, and many other things. Writes
settings to registry.
Other users may be content with Starter or
WinPatrol below.
Alternate Products: Starter (follow
steps to make it portable) | WinPatrol To
Go
Best Free Portable Windows Tweaker:
Description: Sometimes windows comes with more
extras than you need or want, and sometimes its default applications have a
mind of their own and represent a privacy or control threat to the user! You
won't be able to completely get rid of Windows Media Player or Internet
explorer with this tool, but it takes a good shot at them!
"UWT is a well equipped tweaker utility that
supports Vista/Windows 7 (32/64 bit). Besides others it covers user account,
security, performance and internet tweaking. The only thing that did not work
on my 32Bit Vista Home Premium was the Network tweaking option. I received an
error message and the page would not show. Still, UWT is a great tweaking
utility worth a try." Copies files/folders to the system
directory.
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Description: One of the greatest names in
freeware is the OpenOffice software suite for productivity, including word
processing, spreadsheets, databases, powerpoint presentations, graphics, and
a couple math apps. Merchants often advertise commercial counterparts to
OpenOffice (mainly Microsoft Office) to customers buying a new PC, which come
at a very expensive price. OpenOffice allows you to smirk back at them with
confidence!
OpenOffice is free and open source, it does
almost everything commercial suites do, and it saves/loads document formats
compatible with Microsoft Office. You can get the PortableApps version or the
winPenPack x-version. Verified TruPortable.
LibreOffice is proving to be very popular and well
worth the down load and can be downloaded fromportableapps.com
If you need to use certain wizards or database
functions, you will need Java Portable or
to portablize
Java. Otherwise it's not needed.
Other Download Sites: winPenPack's X-OpenOffice
Alternate Products: SoftMaker
Office (no portable download and writes to registry,
see steps to make it portable)
Best Free Portable Word Processor:
Description: If you only need a lightweight word
processor, then AbiWord is an excellent choice. "It's a multi platform
application and reads many standard document types (OpenOffice, MS Word,
WordPerfect, RTF, HTML...)." You can add extra plugins and tools to
enhance it (such as dictionaries or fonts), see here for
how.
Alternate Products: Jarte (requires
INI file to make it fully portable) | Tomahawk PDF+ (TruPortable)
Description: There are many lightweight
alternatives to Adobe reader. PDF-XChange is an excellent choice for its good
text clarity, and its ability to make annotations without watermarking.
"It loads reasonably fast, prints PDFs, exports PDF documents to many formats
(BMP, JPEG, TIFF, PNG), magnifies text, and extracts text and images. It also
allows you to save and fill Adobe PDF forms." And the portable download
is half the size of the regular installer. Verified TruPortable.
Alternate Products: Foxit Reader (writes
settings to registry) | Cool PDF
Reader (TruPortable) | Sumatra PDF
Portable (TruPortable)
Best Free Portable Personal Finance Software:
Description: If you need specialized financial
software to avoid messing around with custom spreadsheet functions, GNUCash
can make things easier. "It will ease you into accounting equations and
help you keep tabs of your budget. You are allowed to easily create as many
accounts as you need. The program has a reporting and graphing module to
generate a full suite of standard and customizable reports, including balance
sheet, profit & loss, portfolio valuation, etc. On the downside, it
doesn't provide encryption of files, but you can rely on third party
encryption software to keep files confidential and secured if
necessary." Its online banking features write settings to the
registry.
If you need to automatically retrieve financial
quotes, see just below here for
information on Perl Portable.
Alternate Products: RQ Money (TruPortable)
| Money Manager
Ex (Writes to the registry)
Description: Personal Information Management
(PIM) software helps store and organize your information electronically.
EssentialPIM Free includes "tools to satisfy your calendar, contact
management, to do list, notes and email needs." The portable version
saves all your data in one file and encrypts it (with standard Rijndael, a
128 bit key). Get the "free portable" version (ZIP download).
EssentialPIM also has additional syncing and
scheduling features: "It does many of the same things as Outlook and can
import your Outlook data and/or Outlook Express contacts as well. There is no
way to schedule repeating to-dos, but by creating an all day repeating
"task" (which is essentially an appointment) you can effectively
create a repeating to-do which begins before the day grid." Verified
TruPortable.
Related Portable Apps
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Convert Images to PDF: i2pdf
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PDF Tools: PDFTK Builder
Portable
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Text Editor: Notepad ++ | EditPad Lite
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Sticky Notes: PNotes
Portable
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Outliner: TKOutline
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Description: XnView is "a heavyweight
champion. Like Irfan, it's very versatile; it can read and display nearly 400
types of graphic files, and convert any of these to more than 50 formats. It
displays images very quickly, and these may be viewed full screen, as
slideshows or as thumbnails. It's quite capable at processing images, too;
you can rotate, crop, resize, adjust brightness and color, apply filters or
effects, create a web page and much more". To make it fully
portable, see here.
This category has many excellent freeware
options; make sure to check out IrfanView or FastStone Image Viewer below.
Alternate Products: IrfanView | FastStone Image Viewer (TruPortable)
LightBox/Sagelight Image Editor -- Download
Description: If you just need a simple, basic
editor than Lightbox is the top pick. It "has an attractive user
interface that is straight forward, and offers intuitive slide-bar
adjustments for your images. It also has split screen views to help you
compare your images before and after the corrections have been made. It
includes simple tools to correct red-eye, sharpen, crop, re-size, add
borders, and print. The free version is a gem that you will want to check
out". If you need more powerful features, check the alternatives below
and the product review article.
Alternate Products: PhotoFiltre | GIMP Portable (TruPortable)
Related Portable Apps
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Color Picker: Color Cop (v
5.3 only)
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Icon Editor and Replacer: Greenfish Editor Pro
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Photo Resizer: FastStone Photo Resizer
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Portable Firefox -- Home | Download | PortableApps
Guide
Description: Firefox is an excellent Internet
browser to use for portable surfing, with many built-in security measures
and addons. Additionally, you can run it from your flash drive so that
most of your tracks will be stored on the flash drive and not on the computer
you use. Note that some addons may not be portable.Creates crash files by
default in the user AppData folder. In order to make it fully
portable, see here.
Portable Firefox is excellent for use in a flash
drive since it's specially configured to reduce reads/writes to the disk and
to run faster from a portable device. But note that you must run only the
FirefoxPortable EXE file, otherwise it won't be portable anymore.
PortableApps is currently working on a portable version that allows trace
free updates with the internal Firefox updater (at current it now works but
with writing to the user folder).
Also note that the portable version is about 40
MBs more resource intensive than an installed version, so for home browsing
you might want to use an installer rather than a portable version.
PortableApps has an excellent and informative
download site for their version of Portable Firefox (use thePortableApps
Guide for installation tips). You can also get the
winPenPack X-Firefox version, but it's much more difficult to setup unless
you use their suite.
Other Download Sites: winPenPack's
x-Firefox
Other Portable Internet Browsers: SRWare Iron | OperaUSB/Opera Portable (TruPortable)
| QtWeb(TruPortable)
Description: "It's a highly customizable
email client with an intuitive user interface. Highly expandable through
add-ons." I was surprised by how quickly it works and how easily it
interacted with my online email provider (Gmail). It made a complete copy of
my Gmail account and checked for any new messages regularly. The interface is
very easy to navigate, considering it's just like Firefox (and that happens
to be my main browser). That said, it's not a light application and some
extensions may not be portable.
If you want a lightweight email client to run
from the tray and just check your mail, then POP Peeper is an
excellent option. See these steps to
have POP Peeper store your data in its own folder. Another option is to
set it to never store data to the disk, or manually enter its
"data" folder path in the storage options.
Description: "For most users, I think Pidgin
currently fits the bill best. It's easy-to-use, cleanly-designed, and very
functional. Being non-commercial, open-source software makes it even easier
to support. I can confidently recommend Pidgin as the first choice for a
multi-protocol IM client." It aptly calls itself "the universal
chat client." Check its home page for a long list of supported
clients. Verified TruPortable.
Skype,
on the other hand, allows free Skype-to-Skype phone calls with video, but it
also has instant messaging and many other features (voicemail, SMS,
forwarding). Also TruPortable.
Description: "Bittorrents are fast,
equitable, and efficient download formats, and µTorrent is the most popular
client for this format. Its positives are: Excellent performance on all test
torrents. Small, lightest (tie) on system resources but has all the needed
features. Excellent support. Always improving as a bittorrent client.
Negatives: Several 'highly critical' security alerts (now patched) were
issued in 2008 by Secunia." Followthese steps to
force it to write settings to its own folder.
Best Free Portable Download Manager:
Description: "A good choice for its
stability and support for various browsers. Supports IE, Firefox, Opera,
Chrome and Safari. Other features include simultaneous multi-part downloads,
flash video download, restart and recover, powerful scheduler, management of
downloaded files, downloads from RapidShare, prioritized and partial torrent
downloads, etc." Writes some non-user oriented settings to the
registry.
Alternate Products: DownThemAll! (Firefox
Extension)
Description: "FTP clients are programs that
reside on a PC, enabling fast bulk file transfers between the PC and a
server. They are very useful when you need to download or transfer more than
a few files and are an essential tool for website management."
"With a robust feature set, ease of use, and
browser integration, FireFTP should serve the needs of all (except perhaps
the heaviest power users) and is quickly becoming one of my favorite FTP
clients."
Alternate Products: FileZilla
Related Portable Apps
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HTML Editor: KompoZer
Portable
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Website Ripper: HTTrack
Portable
·
Download/Upload Meter: MISPBO Network Monitor
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Description: InfraRecorder is a common choice for
a simple burner (its the top pick at PortableApps.com & Lupo PenSuite for
example), but ImgBurn is our "Top Pick" and can be made portable
(see alternate products). InfraRecorder is portable out-of-box and therefore
excellent for average users. It can create data discs, audio & video
discs, write images for bootable discs, copy discs, read discs, and
erase/format discs. The welcome screen is optional, but its built-in help
didn't work for me.
"It works with all types of CDs and DVDs
including dual layer discs. It even includes full command line support like
CDBurnerXP. The interface is clean and simple without a lot of extras to make
things confusing. InfraRecorder is a respectable burning program, but it has
a few disadvantages as well. It does not support Blu-Ray discs or HD-DVDs. It
also does not include many advanced options for tweaking the burn process to
perfection like ImgBurn. Its interface isn’t as nice as that of BurnAware
Free, and it doesn’t have any extra features like CDBurnerXP." Verified
TruPortable.
Alternate Products: CDBurnerXP (requires
Microsoft .NET Framework) although it does have disk spanning feature which
is easy to use.
| ImgBurn (see
steps to make it portable) | DeepBurner (borderline
portable)
Description: Media players are good for playing
your audio and video files and CDs/DVDs. The KM Player is "easy to use
and install, has awesome playback, and plays most everything without need to
download extra codec packs, making it easy to use for those with less
experience. Other features include setting multifarious audio and video
effects, slow down or increase playback speed with regular tone, etc."
First you need to click on the download file to
have it self-extract to a folder of your choice. Then it requires a simple
setting change in the interface to make it portable: use a right click on it
anywhere > Options > Preferences > General > check "Store
settings to KMPCfg.ini". See an alternative option here.
None of the media players run with stealth and
variously write to the registry or user folder.
Alternate Products: Media Player
Classic HomeCinema | VLC Media
Player Portable
Description: Sometimes media players are not
enough for music lovers, and we have to search around for a suitable music
player by trial and error. Jaangle has an intuitive and user-friendly
interface for playing music, an excellent library for music managing, and
very interesting download capabilities of artist photos/bios, song lyrics,
etc. Download and extract the "files only" version.
However, it doesn't rip or convert music files,
but to do that try BonKEnc (TruPortable).
Description: Once upon a time, I often resorted
to Windows Media Player (WMP) mainly because it's rather good for the initial
tasks of tagging and cover art finding. But TagScanner is even better and
allows me to shut down WMP for good! It "supports basic and extended
tags and is complete with Music Renamer and Tag Processor. You can preview
tags and cover artwork from an online database before saving. However, it
does not come with a normal windows menu. You may need to spend some time to
get yourself familiarized with its user interface". Verified
TruPortable.
Description: The vendor describes Avidemux as a
"free video editor designed for simple cutting, filtering and encoding
tasks". It has many tutorials and guides at its Wiki to help with these
tasks. It's "designed for multi-purpose video editing and processing,
and can be used on almost all known operating systems and computer platforms.
It's simple to use and supports many file types, including AVI, MPEG, MP4,
and ASF". Writes settings to user folder.
Alternate Product: VirtualDub (TruPortable)
Related Portable Apps
·
CD Ripper/Converter: CDex Beta (see
steps to make it portable)
·
Audio / Video Format Conversion
Program: iWisoft Free
Video Converter (see steps to make it portable)
·
Audio Editor: Audacity | Wavosaur | mp3DirectCut
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Description: Toucan has a simple interface for
syncing and backing up. It allows you to easily keep the same files and
folders on multiple locations. If you want to sync to a flash drive, just use
its "mirror (update)" function to periodically add new programs and
remove unwanted programs from the flash drive. Or use its backup tab to
archive your folders and files to a backup location. The encryption and other
components look much more complicated for some users. But it comes with a
help manual if you need its advanced features.
"If you are looking for a light weight
portable backup solution this little app has your number. It supports
incremental and differential backups, zip or 7-zip compression, AES 256 bit
encryption using ccrypt, and a simple restore feature." Verified
TruPortable.
Another interesting approach is to backup
portable apps or your essential archives to a secure online backup site. For
example, Windows Live Skydrive allows
25 GB of space, or use DropBox if
you don't need as much space and want to share files. See our review for
other options.
Alternate Sync Products: FreeFileSync | Folder Synchronization
Utility
FileHippo Update Checker -- Download
Description: Keeping software up-to-date is
sometimes essential for security, especially with critical Windows updates
and risky software (browsers, office document apps, media players, PDF
viewers, Java/Flash player plugins, etc.). Secunia OSI is
an excellent online app to run every once in awhile, but it requires the Java
plugin. It searches for apps with security flaws, and it scans for Windows
patches to make sure you haven't forgotten or ignored the sometimes annoying
Windows update messages! But it's limited to risky and common software.
To check for newer versions of the rest of your
software, you can use a general software update monitor to automatically
search your PC for applications in need of updates. FileHippo's Update
Checker is "easy to use and provides direct download links" from a
very reliable site. You can also click on "Settings" and add custom
search locations, such as for your portable app folders. But it only searches
for the updates of apps listed on its download site, so it may not be enough
on its own and may require supplemental manual update checking.Writes
setting changes to registry.
Best Free Portable Screen Capture Utility:
Description: Again Windows comes with only very
basic screen capture features. You can use the "Print Screen"
button to copy the screen to the clipboard (or hit ALT at the same time to
copy an active window to the clipboard), but PicPick has better flexibility
and features, and many additional tools. It's "user friendly and
suitable for most average users. A right click on the tray icon shows a
context menu for capturing full screen, active window, window control, rectangular,
fixed or freehand region. Supports auto-scroll, dual monitors, sound effect
and multiple formats. An image editor is included, plus extra features such
as a color picker, screen ruler, protractor, cross hair and
whiteboard." Verified TruPortable.
Alternate Products: FastStone
Capture (TruPortable)
Best
Free Portable File Manager:
Description: If you have had two or three windows
Explorers open, then you might benefit from a feature rich file manager.
xplorer² lite "is easy to use and learn, has a similar interface to
Windows Explorer, and supports dual panes and folder tabs." Now, if I
could just remember to use it! Verified TruPortable.
Alternate Products: FreeCommander Portable | XYplorer
Description: Encrypts your files to protect your
personal information while in transit or in cases of stolen or lost computers
or flash drives, or just to lock out prying eyes and malware from your
personal or private files. "TrueCrypt is a seasoned, widely-used
encryption program. Its open source status allows the all-important peer
review of the source code required for a trustworthy encryption program." Limited
function in portable version and writes settings to registry.
Other types of freeware also encrypt to some
extent, such as file archive and folder sync programs.
Related Articles: Portable
Mode/Traveler Mode | Encryption is
Not Enough | Encryption
Utility for Work
Alternate Products: FreeOTFE (Creates entries in
registry)
Best
Free Portable Zip Utility:
Description: A much better app for archiving is
the portable 7-Zip. It allows you to compress, encrypt, and set passwords for
your backups. I found it easy to use. It was especially good for
uncompressing files/folders in its file manager. "It's easy to install,
gives meaningful error messages, and is capable of uncompressing from
multiple embedded files. Even though it handles fewer archive types than some
other programs, it's a fantastic program that will fill 99% of all your file
archiving needs." Verified TruPortable.
Use Peazip or IZArc (etc.) below if you need
additional formats.
Alternate Products: PeaZip (TruPortable)
| IZArc | Universal
Extractor
Best Free Portable Data
Recovery / File Un-delete Utility:
Description: Recuva is a "quick simple
solution, copes well with the flash memory used in digital cameras, MP3
players, or USB drives". It recovers files from damaged or formatted
drives, deleted emails (Outlook, Thunderbird Windows Live), and deleted iPod
music. On its default settings, it has fast scans, but if you need to do a
deep scan to find a deleted file, then it will take much longer. Make sure to
recover files to a different drive to improve your chances of recovery. As a
nice extra, it can erase most files it finds. Verified TruPortable.
Best Free Portable System Information Utility:
Description: Windows has some built-in system
information features in its control panel. But SIW is a much better option
and it does even more than all the scattered Windows tools lurking in unseen
places. It "displays detailed specs for motherboard, BIOS, CPU,
devices, memory, video, disk drives, ports, printers, operating system,
installed programs, processes, services, serial numbers (CD keys), users,
open files, system uptime, network, network shares, as well as real-time
monitors for CPU, memory, page file usage and network traffic. It also
displays currently active network connections, passwords hidden behind
asterisks, installed codecs, and more."
I did receive an antivirus warning for its Eureka
password revealer, but that's a false positive if user initiated. The
network activity meter didn't work for me (probably my firewall is the
culprit). And I much prefer to use the handy Process Explorer to view running
processes and CPU/Memory activity. But the great thing about SIW is that it brings
together all your system information into one portable app. Verified
TruPortable. Advisory: SIW is bundled with OpenCandy. More
information here.
Alternate Products: PC Wizard (Writes
settings to registry) | CrystalMark2004
Description: "It finds files on your hard
drive faster than any product we’ve tested. Even on a terabyte sized drives
containing hundreds of thousands of files your search results appear near
instantaneously. That’s impressive in itself but there's more. Everything
indexes your disks in seconds rather than hours. That means no more laborious
background indexing that slows your computer to a crawl. Everything only
searches file names not the contents of files. However in this role it is a
product without peer." Verified TruPortable.
Related Portable Apps
·
Duplicate File Detector
(All TruPortable): CloneSpy | Easy Duplicate
File Finder
·
Disk Analyzer: TreeSize Free | Folder Size | WinDirStat
·
Process Viewer: Process
Explorer (Writes settings to registry)
·
Rename Utility: Lupas Rename | Bulk Rename
Utility
|
·
PStart
·
PortableApps Suite Launcher (platform
only)
·
The Portable Freeware Collection:
It's the only choice here without a program launcher and suite, but it's one
of the very best places for portable apps and commentary. It rates programs
on stealth and provides tips on making them portable if needed. You can also
look at download stats, user comments, dependencies, and products in similar
categories. The search engine returns portable apps and forum posts. And the
forum is especially helpful. Once the programs are on your drive, you can use
any of the portable app launchers.
·
Lupo PenSuite: Provides
an impressive number of apps (see full list, use tabs at
top). The details page for each app is very helpful, with ratings and related
links. It's a very good list and an excellent portable app site to explore.
·
LiberKey: It's rather
good at choosing portable apps for its launcher. For example, I would keep
the majority of its picks even in its basic suite (about 16 of 24). The
suite pages have links to product websites for many of the apps.
·
PortableApps.com: It's
the coolest looking site, with a professional looking launcher and a couple
default suites of apps. It draws from hundreds of portable apps and then
narrows them down to a select few, but I personally would only keep a few of
those (5 of the 13, including a game). The forum and guides are very helpful,
though. And the site is an important download source for its PAF versions of
portable apps. It also has a longer list of applications.
·
winPenPack: Once you get
past the awful look of the site and click the English translation, it has an
excellent suite of apps. It has the most default suites at 5 (see the comparison table) and
creates some of its own versions of open source portable apps ("x"
versions). I was unfamiliar with many of its choices, so it may require more
exploration and user testing than the suites above. Additionally, the
x-versions are much more difficult to setup than PAF versions, so I recommend
using PortableApps.com versions of portable programs unless you use the
winPenPack suite.
Portable OS:
·
Portable Ubuntu (limited
function in portable version)
|