February 27, 2010 · 11:03 am

Need a Portable Application? – Take Your Pick

I’m old enough to still be amazed by technological advances – I’m like a small child when it comes to this. I doubt if I’ll ever lose this “starry eyed” view of technology. I certainly hope not.

I often think back to my first Hard Drive; which cost me $800 – 10 Megabytes with a seek time of 96 seconds. Yep, 10 Megabytes, not 10 Gigabytes. Today, a huge HD (two Terabytes), might set you back $150.

The USB Flash Drive has seen the same progression – massive increases in storage capabilities, coupled with giveaway prices. Not so long ago, my first flash drive ( 128 MB), cost me $50. Today, it’s easy to find a 4 GB flash drive for $5. I find that amazing!

The low cost of a flash drive gives us opportunities, in computing, that would have seemed like science fiction not long ago. Portable Apps Suite is a perfect example of these new opportunities.

With Portable Apps Suite, (free to use, free to copy, and free to share), you can carry your favorite portable computer programs with you on your USB flash drive, iPod, or portable hard drive, to school, work, or your hotel while you’re taking that much deserved vacation!

Portable Apps Suite allows you to play your media files, browse the net, compose documents, or check your email on the road. The applications can be used on any Windows computer, and on shut down, to insure your privacy, will not leave any traces on the host computer.

PAS is a collection of portable applications which includes, ClamWin Portable (antivirus), Mozilla Firefox Portable Edition (web browser), Gaim Portable (instant messaging), OpenOffice.org Portable (office suite) compatible with Microsoft Word files,

Sudoku Portable (puzzle game), Mozilla Sunbird Portable Edition (calendar/task manager) and Mozilla Thunderbird Portable Edition (email client), all preconfigured to work portably.

portable-apps

You can install any of three variations of Portable Apps Suite based on your preferences, or your USB drive’s capacity.

Standard Suite – All applications as noted above

Lite Suite – AbiWord Portable substituted for Open Office

Base Suite – Basic Menu Program – add only the applications you choose

All versions of the Portable Apps Suite include the integrated Portable Apps Menu and the Portable Apps Backup utility, along with a set of custom icons, auto play configuration, folders, and a quick start shortcut.

System Requirements: Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, and Wine under Linux/UNIX/BSD/Mac OS X

Download at: PortableApps.com


Additional free portable applications, at PortableApps.com.

clip_image001Accessibility

clip_image005Development

clip_image012Education

clip_image016Games

clip_image030Graphics & Pictures

clip_image038Internet

clip_image055Music & Video

clip_image064Office

clip_image075Operating Systems

clip_image077Utilities

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16 Comments

Filed under downloads, flash drive, Free Office Suites, Free Word Processors, Freeware, Open Source, Portable Applications, Productivity Software, Software, USB, Utilities, Windows 7, Windows Tips and Tools, Windows Vista, Windows XP

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16 responses to “Need a Portable Application? – Take Your Pick”

  1. mark
    February 27, 2010 at 1:13 pm

    Hey Bill,
    Great list of portable’s, some people install them on their hard drive since they have a smaller footprint then their “regular” iterations. I have been pretty bust lately, vacation, then catching up from vacation at work, but I hope to catch up on your posts, always worth my time.
    Mark
    PS I manged to get in some cross country skiing up in the Sierra, were having a great winter for once!

    • Bill Mullins
      February 27, 2010 at 2:10 pm

      Hey Mark,

      I wondered where you were – was thinking about you the night before last. I take it you mean you have lots of snow up in the Sierra. The Winter here has been the most unusual I can ever remember – very little snow. We had about 20 inches, or so, yesterday – a rare event this Winter. I had to shovel for the first time since mid December, versus almost 8 feet of snow by this time last year. People like Rick Robinette, (Whats on my PC), down in Maryland, have gotten all our snow. Yay!!

      Interesting observation on portable installs on a HD – I’m one of those guys.

      Best,

      Bill

  2. Pingback: Need a Portable Application? – Take Your Pick « Jerry620’s Blog

  3. Liam O' Moulain
    February 27, 2010 at 2:20 pm

    An amazing collection of portable apps.

    Thanks Bill,

    Liam

  4. SMallard
    February 27, 2010 at 6:38 pm

    Awesome list! As usual great article and resources that are truly useful.

    Steve

    • Bill Mullins
      February 27, 2010 at 7:13 pm

      Hi Steve,

      Thank you – appreciate that from a pro like you.

      Trust all is well at the College.

      Best,

      Bill

  5. vhick
    February 27, 2010 at 9:07 pm

    Great list of portable programs in portableapps.com. I’m already used some of them in my data drive to reduce the size of my system drive. I have some good freeware portable here portablefreeware.com.

    Thanks sir Bill.

    • Bill Mullins
      February 27, 2010 at 9:40 pm

      Hey Vhick,

      Like you, I have some portable apps installed on my data drive – they work great.

      Thanks for the link to portable freeware – a top site.

      Best,

      Bill

  6. rodzilla
    February 27, 2010 at 11:08 pm

    10MB for $800 ? You must have got in after the price crash Bill. :)

    My first HD was a 10mb 5.25″ 2.5 height monstrosity which cost me $2400. (5.35″ 360k floppies were around $4 each at the time.) That’s the only piece I didn’t lose money on … a guy bought it about 15 years later for his “Technology Museum” for $2500.

    I still have two “massive capacity” CDC Wren 40MB HDs which cost me $1120 each in an Amiga 2000 with 8MB ram which cost $330 per MB, and heaps of other stuff that I can replace with bigger/better/faster for 10% or less of what I paid for it.

    Those are 1980s prices.

    As technology powers ahead manufacturing costs (usually) come down, but cutting edge tech is always expensive when it first hits the streets.

    I paid $170 for a 4GB USB flash drive a few years ago. I just did a quick scan on the web and found a (genuine, not Asian fake) Name Brand USB2 flash drive for $13.60.

    Unless you’re a hardcore “must-have-the-very-latest-right-now” technofreak … WAIT! :) :)

    • Bill Mullins
      February 28, 2010 at 10:43 am

      Hey Rod,

      It sounds like we’re coming from the same place, and that makes me feel less like a dinosaur. lol

      Just one more “I remember” – (back in 82?) I bought a Tandy 1000 TX which cost me $3,800. Can’t remember the specs, but I now whine piteously when I have to pay $700 for a quad core!

      Your point on “waiting” is well made. Personally, I’ve made that adjustment (not without some pain), and now I “wait”.

      Best,

      Bill

  7. Adrian
    February 27, 2010 at 11:41 pm

    You can add other portable apps, e.g. Revo Uninstaller or CCleaner portable to the PAS menu.

  8. Pingback: Batam Underground » Blog Archive » Need a Portable Application? – Take Your Pick « Bill Mullins …

  9. Ramblinrick
    February 28, 2010 at 7:29 am

    Bill,

    I see you got your dose of snow (and a lot of it)… Weather is warming here (for now)….

    Hey, this is absolutely a great list of portable apps you have laid out here for us. Almost deserves its’ own page. Thanks for doing this, for I know I’ll be grabbing a few of them.

    Rick

    • Bill Mullins
      February 28, 2010 at 10:32 am

      Hey Rick,

      Glad to hear the weather is treating you folks a little better. Good point on the separate page – worth thinking about.

      Bill