The PC Utilities Guide to...

Portable software

You don't need a laptop to have access to your favourite programs when you're on the move — store portable versions on a USB stick and access them on any PC

Most PC software needs to be installed in order to work properly. During the installation process, applications typically copy files to various areas of your hard drive, adding shortcuts to the Start menu and/or desktop, and making any number of unspecified changes to the registry.

After a while, the hard drive can become terribly cluttered with countless files and folders. The registry may become filled with irrelevant data, which your computer struggles to comprehend, and there are so many program shortcuts on the desktop that you can't see the lovely backdrop you spent three hours searching for online.

Uninstalling some of the programs you no longer use can help to cut back on the clutter and trim down the registry, but it's a sad fact that few uninstall routines are 100% effective. Most leave behind redundant files and registry data, whilst others may fail to work at all, leaving an unwanted stain on your system.

This is often seen as an inevitable part of working with Windows, but this needn't be the case. Not all software needs to be installed — some applications are entirely self-contained. They leave no mark on the computer, don't store any files outside of their own folder, and make no changes to the registry.

Not only do they cut down on clutter, because there's no dependence on registry entries of external files, these applications can be taken freely from one PC to another. Modern USB drives are big enough to hold an entire suite of programs and still leave space for your personal images and music files. Nowadays, you can buy a 4GB flash drive for less than £20, and prices are falling all the time.

Some of these programs are completely self-contained in one executable, which can be loaded from any location on the hard drive or from a USB stick. Others are installed to a single folder without affecting any other part of the PC — when you delete this folder the program is completely removed, without leaving any unwanted traces behind.

We've brought together our pick of some of the best portable applications available, so you can start compiling your portable software suite right away.

— Luke Whittaker. This article is an excerpt from a larger article in issue 111 of PC Utilities magazine. Each month PC Utilities magazine reviews scores of great new programs. Have you considered taking advantage of our no-risk subscription offer?

This page was last updated on 21 Jul 2009

# Name
1

7-Zip Portable REVIEW PIC
Create and manage a range of compression file types from a portable application

2

AbiWord Portable
Run a complete word processing tool from a USB flash storage device

3

BonkEnc Portable PIC
Extract audio from CDs and encode/re-encode audio files using a selection of formats - portable

4

CCleaner Portable PIC
Clean up your PC, removing all unnecessary temporary and backup files - can be run from a portable drive

5

ClamWin Portable PIC
Take a complete antivirus suite with you wherever you go - Open Source

6

Cornice Portable PIC
Take a handy image viewer with you wherever you go

7

Eraser Portable REVIEW PIC
Securely erase data beyond the capabilities of most retrieval tools - can be run from a portable drive

8

FCleaner Portable REVIEW PIC
Clean up your hard drives and optimise your PC - portable version

9

GIMP Portable REVIEW PIC
Take a copy of the Open Source image-editing suite wherever you go with this no-install version of The GIMP

10

JkDefrag Portable REVIEW PIC
Optimise your hard drives by ensuring data is thoroughly defragmented - portable

11

KeePass Password Safe Portable REVIEW PIC
Store your passwords in one single secure location, which can be stored on a portable drive

12

Kruptos REVIEW PIC
Encrypt, decrypt and protect files and folders on your PC or portable storage devices - requires the .NET Framework

13

MojoPac Free
Carry all types of applications with you on a portable drive by storing your Windows environment data to your external hard disk/iPod

14

Mozilla Firefox Portable Edition
Set up a customised version of Mozilla Firefox 3.0 that runs from a USB flash drive

15

Mozilla Thunderbird Portable Edition
Set up a customised version of the Mozilla Thunderbird email client that runs from a USB drive

16

OpenOffice.org Portable
Run the complete OpenOffice.org 3.0 suite of tools from your USB flash drive or iPod - includes a word processor, spreadsheet, database tool and more

17

Opera@USB
Take the powerful Opera Web browser with you wherever you go with this portable build.

18

Pidgin Portable PIC
Chat with contacts across the AOL, Yahoo!, MSN, ICQ and Jabber networks wherever you go with this versatile no-install chat client

19

Portable Defraggler
Efficiently defragment your hard drives - can be installed to and run from a USB drive

20

Portable Recuva
Recover deleted files - can be installed to and run from a USB drive

21

Portable TaggedFrog
Organise files, documents and Web links using keyword tags

22

Sumatra PDF Portable REVIEW PIC
Take a PDF viewer with you wherever you go with this portable alternative to Adobe Reader

23

VirtualDub Portable
Capture, process and edit video footage wherever you go with this portable version of VirtualDub

24

VLC Media Player Portable PIC
Play most audio and video formats from a no-install player you can store on a USB drive