In the many articles in this blog, which talk about programs, it often happens to report the "portable" versions, which literally means portable, but technically means "without installation". Portable programs can, therefore, be run immediately after downloading them, can be moved to any folder without problems and can be saved to a USB stick to keep them always at hand.
The important technical aspect of a portable program that, after downloading it, you only have to start to use it, is that it can be copied to a USB stick and can be used on any PC, without making any modifications, without installing anything and therefore without leaving tracks.
For example, you can use someone else's computer (friend, relative, employer, Internet café, etc.) by connecting our USB stick with the programs that we are used to using inside.
In this post we see how to install portable programs on a USB stick and what the "portable Apps" can be important to use, those that are worth keeping always at hand.
First of all, I should refer to another article where I had already written the extended list of the best portable PC programs .
Below is a more selected and restricted list with the most important of those portable programs to download and install on your personal USB stick . To install them, all you have to do is copy or move the downloaded file to the USB stick.
1) Firefox, the browser is available as a portable app, in the same version released by Mozilla on its official website.
2) Chrome can also be installed on a USB stick as a portable program.
3) Skype, for chatting and making calls, can be installed on the USB stick in its portable version.
4) VLC Player, the most popular and most reliable video viewing program, is available in a portable version
5) CDBurnerXP, easy and free disc burning program, which is worth installing on the USB stick.
6) KeePass, very good and very secure password management software, to keep all the passwords of the web accounts always with you, on the USB stick, protected from unauthorized access.
7) LibreOffice, the free alternative suite to Microsoft Office for writing Word documents, Excel tables and Powerpoint presentations.
NOTE: You can also use the Office Tiny Office mini suite, which takes up very few MB of space.
8) Eraser, a tool that deletes files permanently and safely, so that you can delete any personal trace on the computer used.
9) Portable antivirus to make anti-malware scans on your PC, to remove adware and malware on a computer, to be used before doing any work on another person's PC, to be sure that there are no viruses that can steal our information.
10) Irfanview, the best program for viewing images.
Many other applications and programs in portable version can be downloaded from the Portable Apps site which is the main collection of this type of software. The programs are all there: those for listening to music, for watching videos and films, for burning CDs and DVDs, for surfing the internet, for writing, for viewing images, for using Office programs, for doing system diagnostics, to scan networks, to recover passwords, to do photo retouching, to sync iPhone, to read PDF files, to read emails, to chat on Facebook and many other utilities.
PortableApps also provides a portable app management program, which after installing (i.e. copied) on the USB stick, functions as a Start menu to quickly find the program we need. After downloading, the PortableApps program has a guided installation procedure which allows you to install the program directly on the USB stick connected to the computer. You can also select an alternative location if you want to save PortableApps to a different folder or to another drive.
If desired, with Portable Apps, it is also possible to use portable apps as synchronized cloud programs on all PCs, as explained in another article.
Another suite of portable programs is the one distributed by the LiberKey site, which allows, after installation on a USB stick, to download a collection with almost 300 programs all organized into categories and bootable via a Start menu. It almost becomes as if you were copying an alternative operating system to Windows on the USB stick, with your favorite programs always available on the desktop, which you can launch from your start menu.
Another collection of portable programs is that of WinPenPack, also in Italian, with a whole series of free software to compose a real portable operating environment. There are several versions of this suite: Essential, Full and then also Personal, with different selections.
Three other packages of portable program suites are: PStart, Zero Install and SySmenu .
These three collections include only opensource programs and are available, in Italian, both for Windows and for Linux and Mac. In general they have the advantage of being better customizable, both in the number of programs and in their organization in the start menu.
Finally, if you don't find your favorite program in the lists of portable ones of these sites and collections, you can always convert a normal program installed on your PC into a portable version.
For this operation, the tool to be used is Cameyo to create portable programs of those installed .
