Portable Software that you can Load on a USB Drive

Portable Software or Portable Apps are small, light programs that you can load on a removable drive like a USB Flash drive. These applications can be run directly from the removable drive on any computer without leaving any traces behind when the drive is removed. These are ideal for people who move around to many different computers.

Portable apps are nice because I can easily pass them to a colleague or friend ("Hey, try out this latest version of Firefox with my favorite addons!"), or help out friends when they run into problems with their PCs (eg. file recovery, network diagnosis). I can upgrade to a newer machine and have my favorite apps up and running in no time, instead of having to spend the entire day swapping CDs and reinstalling/reconfiguring apps that I need. This really made my computing life better.

Now you can carry your favorite computer programs along with all of your bookmarks, settings, email and more with you. Use them on any Windows computer. All without leaving any personal data behind.

Programs in this category are typically 'lite' versions of their parent software, but there are many exceptions.

To be considered portable, 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.

I will include links to great sources for information and applications that can be loaded onto your USB Flash Drive:

PortableApps.com - Portable software for USB drives

Carry A Computer in your Pocket

List of portable software - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Portable Freeware Collection - Latest entries

100 Portable Apps for your USB Stick

Pendriveapps |Free Portable Software USB Flash Drive Applications