BrianJarrett.com

Recently I’ve started making real use of portable applications running from my thumbdrive. There are a lot of portable apps available but I’ve also had to search for some of them. I thought I’d use this page to showcase the portable apps I use in hopes that it’ll make your search easier by organizing them all in one place.

Many of the portable apps I use on my thumbdrive come from PortableApps.com. They also have a really nice start menu that, once installed on your thumbdrive, will allow easy access to your portable apps. What’s also nice is that it’ll work with any .exe so it’s not restricted solely to apps from PortableApps.com. I have several apps I’ve downloaded from elsewhere but have easy access to via the PortableApps start menu.

These are the same apps I use on my home computer so I’m getting the same user experience whether working at home or on my thumbdrive. The consistent quality and look and feel across platforms is very important.

So here’s what I have on my thumbdrive now:

7-Zip
7-Zip replaced my old hacked version of Winzip. It handles seven different kinds of compression, way more than I really need.

Allway Sync
Synchronization software to keep your thumbdrive synced with your computer. The basic edition is free for personal use and they have a stand-alone version that will run completely from a thumbdrive. (I actually prefer Beyond Compare for file/folder synchronization but it won’t run from a thumbdrive. Allway Sync is an adequate replacement for use on the thumbdrive.)

ClamWin
This is portable anti-virus. I use Avast! at home but on the road I keep this handy.

Eraser
Shreds files to make them unrecoverable.

FileZilla
Full-features FTP client. It also handles SFTP which is most important to me since I run an ssh server.

Firefox
The only web browser I use. I sync my bookmarks to my thumbdrive so I always have them with me.

FastStone Image Viewer
This is a great image viewer and editor that can be used for virtually all basic image manipulation. It has a wonderful thumbnail viewer and will do slide shows. Basic image editing is available (remove red-eye, crop, rotate, etc) and it handles most image formats. The interface is clean and intuitive. I actually replaced Paint Shop Pro with this app.

Gimp
For anything that you can’t do with the FastStone viewer you can use Gimp for. I use this to do the “heavy lifting”, stuff that FastStone doesn’t handle.

gVim
The graphical vim editor. Great for programmers, especially those with a Unix background. I use it very often for coding and regular text editing.

KeePass
Stores all your passwords in an encrypted database file.

Notepad++
This is a great editor for coders. It comes with the function navigator installed to allow you to identify and go to functions contained within the source code. It has syntax highlighting and code folding as well as tab lines for lining up if statement and for loops. I just wish it could understand vi commands! I’m using this as much as vim anymore now.

OpenOffice.org
The entire OpenOffice suite on a thumbdrive. Text editor, spreadsheet, presentations and more.

Perl (via XAMPP)
XAMPP actually installs Apache, MySQL, PHP, and more server software. Once you go to the provider’s site you can download and install Perl as well; that’s what I use this for.

Pidgin
Instant messenger that handles AIM, Yahoo, MSN, ICQ, Jabber and more.

PNotes
PNotes is a small, light application that allows for the creation of virtual “sticky notes” on your desktop. My desk soon becomes overrun with old sticky notes that ultimately get lost so this little apps works nicely to replace those. I use it just like a sticky note; I write a quick note for a reminder and when I’ve finished it Ijust delete the note. There are different skins available to give your notes a customized look. This app actually turned out to be more useful than I first imagined it would be. My wife even uses this now.

PStart Menu
Provides a start menu for all your portable apps. Highly configurable. There’s also the PortableApps.com Start Menu as well.

puTTY
TTY client. The portable version remembers all your settings without requiring the registry. I wish I had this years ago.

RealVNC Viewer
The stand-alone RealVNC viewer. (You could also use the UltraVNC viewer as well.)

Sumatra PDF
A simple, portable PDF viewer.

Ted Notepad
A simple notepad editor. It actually has a lot of features but it’s really lightweight. I use this to type simple text; it’s fast, it’s small, and it’s clean. Since I use Notepad++ primarily for coding this little editor allows me to have my own notepad without having to use the Windows notepad.

TrueCrypt
Outstanding encryption software. Once the full version is installed it will allow you to install the software on a thumbdrive as a “traveler disk”. This installs a stand-alone version of TrueCrypt on the drive. You could then create a TrueCrypt container file on the thumbdrive and mount it as a encrypted disk, all self-contained.

WinMerge
This is diff tool to compare the contents of two text files. If you’re a programmer you’ve used one of these before. Great for finding differences in two versions of source code or even output or config files.

This list is by no means exhaustive; there are many other portable apps available but these are the ones I find most useful to me. PortableApps.com probably has the most in one place but a Google search will return more. Hopefully you find this list useful. If you run into any bad links or incorrect information let me know below. Also, feel free to add your own suggestions below if you like.