The beginner’s guide for portable applications - part 1

Although I’m a very big fan of Jeff Dunham, this is not an article dedicated to Jose Jalapeno. Its purpose is a bit, let’s say, dorkier, but very useful. Using your computer actually means using applications installed on that computer: browsers, messengers, office suites, audio/video players, graphic viewers etc. But what happens when you go to another computer? You have another person’s applications personalized by that person. What happens when you have to reinstall your Windows? All those applications must be reinstalled and customized again. How can you go from any Windows to another and still have your same applications customized as you like? How to avoid reinstalling software when working on a brand-new Windows? Easy: Use portable applications! All you need is a memory stick; I’ll provide all the information you need in this article.

The majority of portable applications will run from any type of memory stick (even from an iPod or MP3 player), but some of them are specially created for a specific type of flash drive: an U3. Nowadays they’re really easy to find and buy, so if you decide to use software that specifically requires an U3 drive, don’t hesitate to go to your nearest IT shop or buy one online.

Installing portable applications is so easy, even a kid can do it. In most cases all you have to do is extract the files from an archive to your memory stick and you’re ready to go. Some portable applications use installers that only ask for a location where to extract the files. That’s all! You don’t have to worry about shortcuts, services, toolbars, registry entries or any other useless crap.

Let’s start with the basics: Since we’re on the internet, you’ll need a browser. If you’re a fan of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer you can choose from a variety of much more advanced web browsers, such as Maxthon, GreenBrowser and Avant. But of course, world-renown browsers like Firefox and Opera are also portable.

Chatting with your online friends is easier than ever: there really is no need to install Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger, ICQ and who knows how many other instant messaging programs. You can use only one program that will replace all of them and you even have a choice. You can either use 100% free and clean application like Pidgin or Miranda, or you can use Trillian, which is free for non-commercial use only.

Checking your e-mail using Outlook or Outlook Express may be very handy, but it also forces you to run those programs only from the computer they’re installed on. Using a portable e-mail client, this will no longer be a problem. Here are some of our suggestions that really deserve a try: Thunderbird, Voyager and DreamMail.

When you’re on another person’s computer, you’ll be able to listen to your music from your playlist in your favorite music player, without changing a thing in that person’s audio player. All you need is a portable audio player: you can use one of the ‘classics’, Winamp or Foobar, or you can give Xion, Spider Player or TPlayer a try. Of course that’s also true in the case of video players; pctipsbox provides portable versions of popular players like VLC, Mplayer or MV2 Player. You can even record videos with CamStudio and AviScreen or process them with VirtaulDub, MediaCoder or Avidemux.

If you’ll need an image viewer or processor, we’ll give you a wide variety of software from where to choose. Graphic viewers like FastStone Image Viewer, FastStone MaxView, IrfanView or Xnview are free to use, but also portable, so you can view pictures with your favorite program, no matter where you are. If you wish to process them, feel free to choose from the portable versions of Gimp, PhotoFiltre, PhotoScape, PaintStar, i.Mage, PhotoBackPack.

Microsoft Office is far from free or portable, but here are some freeware alternatives that can be easily installed on a flash drive. If all you need is to edit a document or text file, you should try a smaller program, like Abiword, Scribus, EditPad Lite, AkelPad, GVim, Notepad++ or the trial version of Atlantis Word Processor. But if you’re searching for an office suite, OpenOffice is the answer or maybe even the trial version of ThinkFree Office.

Viewing a PDF file is now easier than ever. Until now you had to download, install and wait until Adobe Reader started. Not anymore! Here are some free portable PDF viewers that will surely make you forget all about Adobe: PDF-XChange Viewer, Foxit Reader for U3 and Sumatra PDF. Moreover, now you’ll be able to create or edit PDF on the fly with small portable application like Swift PDF and PDFTK Builder.

Like all computers and drives, your memory stick will need some kind of protection against malware. So, the safest way to ensure your protection is, of course, using an antivirus. You can try freeware products like Portable Antivirus or Clamwin or you can give a try to Avast (60 days trial) and McAfee VirusScan USB (30 days trial).

These are the must-have portable applications for any PC user and, if you didn’t notice yet, most of them are free and do not require an U3 flash drive. In part two of this article, we’ll go through other types of portable software, not necessarily needed by all Windows users.