Saving your favourite software as portable apps to a USB means you can use them on any PC. Edward Munn rounds up the best ones
Take your favourite browser with you
Using Chrome’s portable app (bit.ly/pchrome409), rather than simply logging into your account in the Desktop version, is more secure because your browsing history and other elements will be kept on the USB stick and leave no trace on the PC. However, there are some drawbacks. For example, you can’t move saved passwords – and some other settings – from one PC to another, because of the way Chrome stores them. They won’t be left behind on a PC you’ve used, but they can’t always be retrieved when you log into another computer.
Like all apps packaged by PortableApps.com, the portable version of Chrome doesn’t need to be installed on your PC. You just run a set-up file, which is much quicker. When you click the green download button, the file will be automatically downloaded from SourceForge.
Firefox Portable (bit.ly/pfirefox409) is virtually indistinguishable from the full Mozilla browser. It offers the same range of excellent features including a customisable layout, Reading Mode and Private Browsing, and you can even use Firefox Sync to make sure that your bookmarks, history, tabs, passwords and add-ons are up to date across all your devices.
Similarly, the portable version of Opera (bit.ly/popera409) differs little from the full, desktop browser. To save your passwords (and some other information) when you move from one machine to another, use the browser’s Synchronisation feature.
Work from anywhere
It’s frustrating to save your work to a USB stick and then find that you can’t open it because the PC you’re using doesn’t have the right software installed. You can avoid this problem by downloading a free portable office suite. Like its desktop counterpart, Libre Office Portable (bit.ly/plibre409) offers a comprehensive range of tools including a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation software. If you prefer OpenOffice, grab its portable version from bit.ly/popen409.
Take care when installing these office apps because their download pages often contain download buttons for ads and programs you don’t want. We saw one of these on the page for OpenOffice, and several alongside other programs on PortableApps. Downloading the correct language pack is similarly confusing. Our screen grab above shows three download buttons: you need number 2, which is 826MB when installed and contains the ‘standard’ language pack containing UK English (among others). The download to its right contains more languages, and is a bigger app (1.5GB).
Manage your emails and contacts
If you don’t like webmail and miss your email software when you’re away from your PC, why not take it with you? Mozilla’s Thunderbird (bit.ly/pthunderbird409) is available as a portable app that lets you open your emails and address book on any PC.
Opera Mail Portable (bit.ly/poperam409) is another excellent, customisable option. It intelligently sorts your emails to show all the messages in a conversation, and also has a built-in feed reader to help you keep up to date with your favourite websites.
Chat from anywhere
One of our favourite messaging apps is Telegram, available as a portable app directly from its developer (desktop.telegram.org) or bit.ly/ptelegram409 if you’re building a PortableApps suite). It uses very strong encryption, and you can set your messages to self-destruct. Skype is also available as a portable app (bit.ly/pskype409) so you can make audio and video calls from any PC and avoid the inferior beta web app. Pidgin Portable (bit.ly/ppidgin409) lets you chat to AOL, MSN and Yahoo users.
Keep your passwords safe
Chrome and Firefox save your passwords to speed up logins on the web, but this makes your private data vulnerable should your PC end up in the wrong hands. For this reason, you might prefer to save your passwords to a portable password manager such as KeePass, (keepass.info/download.html or bit.ly/pkeepass409 from PortableApps). This means you can be confident that the only copy of your passwords is encrypted and on your person at all times.
LastPass users can use a portable version, too. It’s available exclusively from the LastPass site (bit.ly/lastpass409) but it only works in Firefox Portable and Chrome Portable.
Fix anyone’s PC
If you’re the person family members and friends call on to fix their computers, you can make your emergency visits more successful by building a USB stick containing essential PC-rescue tools, including antivirus scanners, clean-up programs and uninstallers.
The hugely popular junk-removal tool CCleaner is available in portable form (bit.ly/ccleaner409), as is SUPERAntiSpyware (bit.ly/superanti409), which scans and removes more than a million malware and spyware infections. Portable versions of IObit Uninstaller (bit.ly/piobit409) and Revo Uninstaller (bit.ly/prevo409) are available from PortableApps.com, should you need to tackle stubborn software that Windows can’t remove.
If you’re trying to fix a PC that won’t boot, use YUMI Multiboot USB Creator (bit.ly/yumi409 or bit.ly/pyumi409) to install multiple operating systems (Ubuntu in the screen grab above), diagnostic tools and antivirus on a USB.
AVOID CORRUPTING YOUR FILES
When you run portable apps from a USB stick, it’s vital to ensure that you eject it safely before removing it from the port. Failure to do so could corrupt the apps and result in data loss. To avoid this, close all portable apps and files saved to the drive when you’ve finished with them, then click ‘Safely Remove Hardware and Eject Media’ from the System Tray before selecting ‘Eject JumpDrive’ for the appropriate drive.
MANAGE YOUR PORTABLE APPS IN ONE PLACE
Most of the apps in this feature are available from PortableApps.com (see all links on this page starting with ‘bit.ly/p’). The advantage of downloading them from this site is that you can also install the PortableApps.com Platform to build your own suite of portable apps.
Visit portableapps.com/download, download and run the setup file and choose where you want to install the PortableApps Platform. Once it’s set up, any PortableApps.com apps you install will automatically be added to the launcher when you first run them. Apps you’ve already installed from the site can be added by moving their folders to the ‘PortableApps’ folder. Portable apps not downloaded from the site can also be added to the launcher, but there’s no guarantee they won’t leave information on the PCs they’re used on.