Avoid the hassle and risk of downloading and installing programs by running them in your browser instead. Jonathan Parkyn reveals the easiest and cleverest ways to use software online
Run programs from the cloud using Cameyo
You’re probably already familiar with the concept of portable apps – programs that you can run from a USB stick, rather than having to install them on your PC. But what if the apps themselves were stored in the cloud rather than on a physical drive? That’s precisely the idea behind the brilliant Cameyo (online.cameyo.com/public), which offers a massive library of apps including VLC, Foxit Reader, OpenOffice, Picasa and many more, that you can run straight from your browser.
To get started, just click an app, then click Play – there’s a brief pause while the app buffers but, once it has loaded, it runs in your browser pretty smoothly.
You can use most Cameyo apps without even needing an account, although not all of them work in your browser. If you sign up with Cameyo (which is free), you’ll unlock further useful features, including the ability to access your favourite apps from anywhere, connect to your Dropbox account and, as we explain in the next tip, upload your own apps to the service.
Upload any program to the cloud
If Cameyo doesn’t yet have the app you want, then there are a couple of ways to manually add it to service. For example, you can sign into your Cameyo account, click Add App on the left, then select ‘Create a new Cameyo package (from software installer)’ and either point Cameyo directly to the URL for the program or choose ‘Local machine’ to upload the EXE file from your own PC. By default, Cameyo will only store your app for seven days but you can get around this by storing it permanently in your own Dropbox space instead.
Even cleverer is Cameyo’s Desktop uploader (bit.ly/uploader370), which lets you turn programs into portable apps and upload them by ‘recording’ their installation procedure. Run the tool and choose ‘Capture an installation’. The program will take a snapshot of your PC. When prompted, install your program as normal and click ‘Install done’ in the Cameyo window when it’s complete. When the tool has finished packaging the app, use the Add App option on the Cameyo website as described above, but this time opt for ‘Upload existing Cameyo package’ and select the app from your PC. The downside here is that you need to physically install the program on your PC in order to upload it.
Cameyo is based on virtualisation technology and, theoretically, this means you can use it to run any Windows program. However, several of the apps we tried to upload failed for some reason. There are also limits to the file size – 120MB if you point Cameyo to a URL and 30MB if you’re uploading from your PC. Some anti-virus software wrongly flags Cameyo as a threat, rest assured that we’ve found it’s completely safe to use.
Use Chrome app versions of popular programs
Google’s Chrome OS is designed for using web apps, but you don’t need a Chromebook to take advantage of this approach. If you use Chrome as your browser, you can get a taste of Chrome OS on your PC by adding apps – visit bit.ly/chromeapps370 to see what’s available.
Chrome’s app library is growing all the time. Most Chrome apps are free and there are browser-based equivalents for many programs. Evernote, Pixlr, Spotify, Zoho Docs and Microsoft Word Online are among the big names but there are many other great tools, including music players, file converters and more. You’ll even find free browser versions of popular games, such as Cut the Rope, Angry Birds and Bejeweled.
The benefits of Chrome apps are that you can sync them between PCs just by signing in, they’re always kept up to date and, because they’re hosted on the web (although some also work offline), they’ll never infect or crash your PC.
Switch from office software to online tools
Of all the software installed on your PC, the programs you use the most are likely to be your office applications, such as your word processor and spreadsheet program. Microsoft’s Office has always been expensive, but its recent switch to annual subscription fees (up to £80 a year) means that it’s now out of reach for many of us.
The good news is that, these days, it’s entirely possible to avoid installing – or paying for – office tools. Microsoft’s often overlooked Office Online (office .live.com) provides fully-functioning online versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint, and lets you store all your documents online in OneDrive, for free. The online versions don’t have all the bells and whistles of their Desktop equivalents but the most useful tools and features are present, including a bucketload of free templates.
And Microsoft’s web apps aren’t the only good online office tools; Google Docs (drive.google.com) and Zoho (www.zoho.com) are both great, while the popular office suite LibreOffice (www.libreoffice.org) is set to launch an online version soon.
Use web-based versions of your favourite software
It’s not just office suites you’ll find online. Developers of many big-name programs have started offering webapp versions of their popular tools. Why pay for and install the full version of Photoshop, for instance, when you can simply open your browser, go to www.photoshop.com/tools and upload an image to Adobe’s Photoshop Express Editor instead?
In some cases, you can avoid installing an application altogether. Spotify users, for example, may assume that you need to use the Desktop application to stream music on your PC, but there’s a perfectly good web player you can use via your browser at play.spotify.com. Evernote Web (www.evernote.com) and Kindle Cloud Reader (bit.ly/kindle370) are other good examples.
Run classic software and games in your browser
As well as giving you online access to all the latest web apps and programs, your browser can also act as a window to the past, thanks to the Internet Archive’s amazing collection of software (bit.ly/archive370). Here, you can load and run thousands of computer applications and video games from yesteryear right inside your browser, including old programs for systems such as the ZX Spectrum, Atari Computer, Apple II, MS-DOS and more.
If you’re anything like us, you’ll immediately indulge in a little digital nostalgia, recreating your misspent youth as you replay your way through classic games such as Elite, Chuckie Egg, Jet Set Willy and many, many more.
RUN ANDROID APPS IN CHROME
Some Android apps run natively in Google’s Chrome OS and, with a bit of jiggery-pokery, it’s also possible to run them on your PC via the Chrome browser. You’ll need to install the ARChon Custom Runtime (bit.ly/archon370) – an engine that runs Android apps on your PC – and enable Developer Mode in Chrome so you can load ARChon as an extension. You’ll then be able to run some Android apps in a browser tab, just as you would on your phone or tablet.
A warning, however – this hack isn’t for the faint-hearted. It comes with no guarantees and, if you decide to proceed, then you do so at your own risk. See bit.ly/androidchrome370 for full instructions and bit.ly/appslist370 for a list of apps that work with ARChon.