Example of a 4
GB 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 computer program must:
- 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.
- 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
- 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).
Bundles
Launchers
Development
Scripting languages
- Portable Python
- Portable NSIS Version
- Portable AutoIt
- Portable AutoHotkey (for portability download the zip file from autohotkey.com)
Compilers
Setup creators
Visual mapping/productivity tools
Graphics
3D modeling and rendering
- Anim8or – Free 3D modeling and animating software.
- Blender:
- BlenderPortable
- Blender Pocket
- XBlender[3]
- K-3D
Animation
Graphic editors
Icon editors
Viewers
Document-based
Office and publishing
Editors
- 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
- 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
Games
Emulators
Plug-in emulators
Internet
- 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
- RSSOwl Note: needs Java runtime environment.
- Opera (Integrated RSS/Atom client)
- SE-RssTools Note: needs Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0.
- 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
- 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
File converters
Editors
Audio/Midi sequencer
- Reaper has a .bat file for a USB stick installation
Players
Recorders
Video capture
Networking
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.
- SeaMonkey
Calendar management
File management
- 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
Readers
Writers
Security and encryption
Password management
Anti-spyware/malware
Antivirus
Real-time disk/volume Encryption
System maintenance
Optimization and cleaning
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.
- CPU Speed Pro
- AIDA32 – freeware system information, diagnostics, and auditing program
- Speccy – System information tool.
Partition/file recovery
See also
References
