List of portable software
This is a list of software programs that are not required to be "installed" onto a computer's permanent storage device to be executed, and can be stored on a removable storage such as a USB flash drive and used on multiple computers. Ideally it can be configured to read its configuration from the same location as the software. This should not be confused with software portability, which is the ability for software to be run or compiled with little modification on diverse computing platforms. Most software on this list can be run on multiple computers of the same hardware and operating system platform only.
The distinction "portable" is mostly inapplicable for Apple Macintosh software, as the standard packaging and installation method of the Macintosh platform makes most applications already portable. However, most Macintosh applications store their preferences on the computer rather than the drive they are being run from; while it would be possible to configure an application to behave differently, this is uncommon. Portable Macintosh apps are also included in the below list where available.
See also: List of open source software packages, list of Unix programs, list of GNU packages, list of KDE applications, list of GNOME applications, freeware, shareware, public domain, proprietary software.
This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. |
Internet
Download managers
- HTTP Get - compact manager used for downloading all web content via HTTP
- SpiderZilla (site) - Firefox/Mozilla extension which works as a website downloader
- Speedy (site) - simple download manager, which uses up to four connections per file to increase download speed
- WackGet (site) - open source, minimalist download manager, which maintains a list of files in the order you indicate
- Web Downloader (site)
- Wget (site)
Email Clients
- eMailaya A very powerful yet easy to use email client.
- JBMal A Windows e-mail client that supports POP3, SMTP, SSL/TLS and all essential mail client features.
- KomaMail (site)
- IMAPSize
- i.Scribe
- MailReactor
- Mozilla Thunderbird:
- nPOP A handy, tiny and multiple account email client.
- The Bat! Voyager (site)
- Opera Portable - Small Version(site)
- Opera Portable - Opera@USB - Full function Version(site)
- Outlook Express Tweaker
- Pegasus Mail (site)
- Phoenix Mail
- Pimmy
- Pine (Only Windows version (PC Pine) works portable)
- Popcorn (download site) (site)
- PopMan
- PopTray
- QM
- Qmail
- Scribe Mail (site)
- Vallen POP3 Mail Checker
Email Servers
Instant messaging
- Adium
- BsfLITE (site) - Tiny multiplatform command line aim client
- Easy Message Express
- Gaim (site)
- Just Another Messenger
- Miniaim (site)
- Miranda IM
- Portable Miranda IM (site)
- Mobility IM ( Secure distribution of Gaim )
- PixaMSN --does not work properly; author please correct program--
- Portable PSI (site)
- QIP (site)
- &RQ (site Icq client)
- Skype (site)
- Speak Freely (site)
- TerraIM (site)
- Trillian Anywhere (site)
- XAmsn (site)
- XWengo (site)
- YahElite
- Dana (site)
- HIRC
- HydraIRC
- MegaIRC
- mIRC (site)
- Portable Newspeak (site) - Cocoa IRC client for Mac OS X
- Xchat
- Portable X-Chat Aqua (site) - X-Chat IRC client for Mac OS X
- TinyIRC (site)
RSS Readers
- Abilon
- RSSOwl
- GreatNews (http://www.curiostudio.com/) - reads RSS 0.9x, 1.0(rdf), 2.0, Atom 0.30 and 1.0
- Portable Feed (Mac OS X) (site) - light RSS/Atom newsreader
Podcast managers
- Podcatcher on a stick (site) - installs on the MP3 player/USB flash drive and downloads podcasts to its USB harddrive. Supports Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.
- myPodder (site) - the next generation of "Podcatcher on a Stick" from the same developers. Ties in to web services that provides a universal one-click subscription from any web site or directory without installing anything on your computer.
Portable Search Engine
- Gaviri PocketSearch PocketSearch (site)
- Azureus - needs Java Virtual Machine in order to run (site)
- BitComet (site)
- BitTornado (site)
- Emule (site)
- Dynamic Torrent Search (site)
- µTorrent (site)
- zDC++ (site)
- Keep in mind that some web browsers may cause problems while in archive since they tend to constantly backup their own history files, which need to be subsequently archived. Though this doesn't necessarily foretell that an issue is present, many users may find it irritating to be forced to constantly backup those files. In that case you have two choices; either take the browser out of archive entirely or change your preferences on that browser so certain temporary files are not stored.
- Crazy Browser (site)
- Firefox:
- Ghostzilla stealth web browser (site)
- GreenBrowser
- iCab freeware multilingual web browser for Apple Macintosh computers (iCab website)
- K-Meleon Web browser based on Gecko (site)
- Lynx Text based web browser
- Maxthon Combo (site)
- Opera:
- Off By One Web browser (site)
- Pocket Flock (web browser) (site)
- Portable Camino (site)
- Portable Camino (site) for Mac OS X
- Torpark (site) Anonymized Portable Firefox using the EFF(site)'s anonymous Internet communication system Tor (The Onion Router) (site)
- WinWAP Smartphone Browser Emulator {[1]}
Wikis
- airWRX (site) - Extensible WYSIWYG wiki environment (in development)
- MediaWiki (site)
- PmWiki (site)
- TiddlyWiki (site) - Personal web notebook that runs standalone in a browser
- Wikidpad (site) - Personal wiki that can be installed to a usb thumb drive
Networking
FTP Clients
- DropUpLoad
- FileZilla (site)
- FTPUpload
- FTP Wanderer (site)
- i.FTP (site)
- MOVEit Freely (site)
- Portable Cyberduck (site) - FTP and SFTP client for Mac OS X
- Save2FTP
- WS FTP (site)
FTP Servers
- Baby FTP Server
- BarracudaDrive (WebDAV file server)
- Quick 'n Easy FTP Server
- TYPSoft FTP Server
Program management
- ASuite 1.2b (site)
- Colibri (site)
- Hidden Menu (site)
- TinyComp (site) With Auto-Play features!
- Launcher (site)
- Launchy (site)
- Mayk (site)
- OneButton (site)
- PStart 2.08 (site)
- Remora USB Quick Launch (site)
- Run! (site)
- START (site)
- T-Launch (site)
- Tab BarLaunch (site)
- ubSpawn (site)
- XP Syspad (site)
- winPenPack Launcher 1.2b3 (site)and individual site]) and X-Program Launchers
SMS Messaging
- portaPuTTY - A hacked version of PuTTY that stores all its information in files, not in the registry.
- PuTTY (site)
- WinSCP - Freeware SFTP and SCP client for Windows.
Miscellaneous
- WinWAP Smartphone Browser Emulator {[2]}
- CurrPorts (site)
- Performance Pinging (site)
- SoftPerfect Network Scanner (site)
- TCP Optimizer (site)
- XAMPP (site)
- Xming (site)
- Winips (site)
Multimedia
File Converters
- 3GP Converter (site)
- Audiograbber (site)
- BonkEnc (site)
- CDex (site)
- lamedropXPd (site)
- MediaCoder (site)
- mp4UI (site)
- oggdropXPd (site)
- r8brain (site)
- Riva FLV Encoder (site)
- Stoik Video Converter (site)
- SUPER (Build 16 and below) (site)
- TMPGEnc (site)
- winLAME (site)
CD/DVD Burning
- BurnCDCC (site)
- Burrrn - create audio CDs (supports many formats) (site)
- CDBurnerXP Pro (site)
- DeepBurner Portable Edition (site)
- SilentNight Micro CD Burner (site)
- Small CD-Writer (site in russian)
- LC ISO Creator - Create ISO files from CD / DVD-ROM ([3])
Editors
- Audacity:
- mp3DirectCut (site)
- Media Tagger (site)
- MP3 Tag Tools (site)
- Subtitle Workshop: (site)
- Taginator (site) - Taginator is a program that allows you to batch write MP3 Tags for multiple MP3 files at once.
- U-myx (site) Interactive music format, enables music fans to make their own, personal mixes of major artists songs, without requiring any specialist knowledge or equipment. The standalone U-myx editing application can only be downloaded with sample files.
Media Players
- 1by1 (site)
- Billy (site)
- BSplayer (site)
- Portable BSplayer (site)
- CD (site)
- CoolPlayer (site)
- Foobar2000 (site) - not for Windows 98
- Fusion Media Player (site)
- GSPlayer (site) - only Pocket PC
- HACP
- Media Player Classic (site)
- MicroWAV (site)
- Milkytracker (site) - not for Windows 98
- Mplayer (site)
- MPUI (site)
- Multi Media Center (site)
- mv2 player (site)
- SilentNight MP3/CD Player (site)
- System Tray Play (site)
- The Core Pocket Media Player (site)
- TPlayer (site)
- VideoLAN: (site)
- XMPlay (site)
- Winamp (site)
Recorders
- ASFRecorder (site) - download ASF, WMV, WMA, and more from websites
- StationRipper (site)
- StepVoice Recorder (site)
Slide Show Applications
Video Authoring
Video Capture
- AMCap (site)
- WinDV (site)
- STOIK Capturer (site)
- VirtualDub: (site)
Miscellaneous
Document Based
Office suites
- Floppy Office (site)
- OpenOffice:
- Papyrus (site)
- Portable StarOffice (site)
- RagTime for Windows and Mac OS; fully integrates in a single document -even in a one-page document- word processing, spreadsheets, graphics, diagrams, illustrations, video and GIS files, etc. (RagTime site (German), RagTime site (English))
Word processors
Editors
- CopyWriter (site)
- EditPad Pro - commercial (site)
- edxor (site) - Wintel, *full* feature set, handles encryption/decryption, coded in assembly, *fast*
- GreenPad (site)
- Meditor (site)
- Notepad++ (Notepad++ Site)
- Notepad2 (Notepad2 Site) - programmer's text editor.
- NoteTab Light (site)
- PSPad (site) - for portable using choose CAB archive
- TED Notepad (http://jsimlo.sk/notepad/) - for portable using, create a tednpad.ini file
- The SemWare Editor - TSE Pro - commercial (site)
- SciTE (site)
- Vi and Vim (gVim site) (site) - for advanced users
- Yadabyte Notes (Site)
Viewers
Readers
Applications
- AcroPAD (site)
- Free PDF Compressor (site)
- GUI for PDFTK (site)
- PDFproducer (site)
- PDF Version Converter (site)
- Scan2PDF (site)
- Tomahawk PDF+ (versions 2.5.0.2 and below) (site)
Desktop Publishing
Web Editors
- Portable NVU (site) Portable NVU is the easy-to-use NVU web editor packaged as a portable app, so you can edit your website on the go.
Calendar management
- Portable Sunbird (site) is the handy Mozilla Sunbird calendar and task manager packaged as a portable app, so you can take your calendar and to do list with you.
- UK's Kalender (site)
Miscellaneous
Security and Encryption
System Audit Applications
- Integrity Checker (site) checks the integrity of files to ensure they have not been tampered with. Files protected will have their "known good" size stored together with either a hash or HMAC generated from the contents of each file. By comparing this information with what is actually stored later, any changes will be flagged up for attention.
- Belarc Advisor (site) - Belarc Advisor builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware, missing Microsoft hotfixes, anti-virus status, and displays the results in your Web browser. All of your PC profile information is kept private on your PC and is not sent to any web server.
- WinAudit (site)- PC audit and inventory of software, licenses, security configuration, hardware, network settings...Text/html/csv/pdf/e-mail/database outputs available (can easily be 110+ pages of info!). Generally more detail than Belarc Advisor, but Belarc also good for more streamlined information.
Password Management
- Acerose Password Vault (site)
- Any Password Pro (site)
- Dekart (site)
- KeePass
- Pass2Go (Portable Roboform) by Siber Systems Inc. (site)
- Password Safe (site)
- PINs (site)
- Yadabyte Passwords (site)
Anti-Spyware/Malware
- Ad-aware (site)
- CWShredder (site)
- Doctor Alex (site)
- EliteToolbar Remover (site)
- HijackThis (site)
- Killsgrunt (site)
- Look2MeRemover (site)
- Spybot - Search & Destroy (site)
- XWinPooch (site)
AntiVirus
- X-ClamWin Portable Antivirus (site)
- ClamWin Free Antivirus (site)
- KL-Detector (site)
- Rootkit Revealer (site)
- Stinger (site)
- Trend Micro System Cleaner (site)
- MicroWorld AntiVirus Toolkit Utility (site)
Firewalls
- FirewallPApi (site)
- ISafer (site)
Real-Time Disk/Volume Encryption
- Cryptainer LE (site) - Free 128-bit encryption software that creates an encrypted container (vault) of up to 25MB per volume to store any type of data. Simple drag and drop operation. NOTE: Install program to hard drive first, then go to Tools menu, click on "Install Cryptainer Mobile" and install to mobile drive location; then you can access a volume you create on the mobile drive with Cryptainer Mobile. NOTE: This feature requires a driver, which only users with administrator privileges can launch.
- Dekart Private Disk (site) - Commercial (not free) disk encryption software with AES 256-bit encryption
- FreeOTFE (site) - Free open-source on-the-fly disk encryption software that offers a "portable mode". Supports many different cyphers and allows "hidden" volumes to be created, giving plausible deniability of their existence and increased security. Also features compatibility with Linux disk encryption (including Cryptoloop "losetup", dm-crypt and LUKS). NOTE: This feature requires a driver, which only users with administrator privileges can launch.
- TrueCrypt (site) - Free open-source disk encryption software for Windows XP/2000/2003 and Linux (TrueCrypt also provides plausible deniability or deniable encryption). It can run in portable mode. While files stored on a TrueCrypt volume are being read, they are decrypted on-the-fly to RAM. NOTE: This feature requires a driver, which only users with administrator privileges can launch.
File Encryption
- CryptoStick Software (site) - Proprietary (not free) encryption software
- Remora USB Disk Guard (site) - Free file/folder encryption in your USB disk. 128-bit encryption, and very easy interface.
- Yadadisk (site) - Free open source simple, fully portable file encryption for Windows XP. Files are stored unencrypted on a disk whenever you need to access them.
Miscellaneous
- IE Privacy Keeper TakeAlong version (site) -
Mobile version of their software at http://www.browsertools.net/IE-Privacy-Keeper ...note the differences in the mobile version at the "TakeAlong" site. Flexible program clears IE and Firefox browsing history, URL history, typed URLs, temp Internet files, cookies, recent documents, auto-complete history, windows temp files, recycle bin, and more. You can opt to keep specified cookies. Make sure to download correct version (TakeAlong).
- LockNote (site) - Free open source text editor that encrypts your file using AES 256bit encryption.
Graphics
3D Modeling
Editors
- @icon sushi (site)
- ArtRage (site)
- EVE (site)
- GIMP:
- i.Mage (site)
- Inkscape:
- JPEG Comment Editor (site)
- XPaint.NET (site)
- PaintStar (site)
- XPhotoFiltre (site)
- Pixia (site)
- SnIco Edit (site)
- XTuxPaint (site)
- ZPaint (site)
Processing
- Cas (site)
- EasyThumb (site)
- FastStone Photo Resizer (site)
- Free Digital Camera Enhancer (site)
- HTML Image Page Builder (site)
- JPEGCrops (site)
- JPEG & PNG Stripper (site)
- jpgQ (site)
- Image Analyzer (site)
- Imagicon (site)
- Noiseware Community Edition (site)
- Photo Resize Magic (site)
- RedEye (site)
- Segger (site)
- SharpControl (site)
- TweakPNG (site)
- zphoto (site)
Viewers
- ComicsViewer (site)
- cPicture LE (site)
- FastStone Image Viewer (site)
- Irfanview (site)
- Preclick PhotoBackPack (site)
- Shutterfly Studio for U3 (site)
- Xnview (site)
Miscellaneous
- CatchColor (site)
- HoverSnap (site)
- DeKnop (site)
- Icon Sucker 2 (Standard Edition) (site)
- UnFREEz (site)
Games
It has been suggested that List of Portable Computer Games and Talk:List of Portable Computer Games be merged into this article. (Discuss) |
List of Portable Computer Games
Database Management
- MyKeyDb from Jans Freeware (site)
- Visual Foxpro from Microsoft - Commercial (site) - Just need vfp9.Exe and VFP9ENU.dll to run (other versions/languages may vary). No install necessary.
Educational
- Celestia (site)
- Dream Kana (site)
- Learn Kana (site)
- Maxima (site)
- Periodic Table (site)
- Solar System Information
- Stellarium (site)
- Tux Typing 2 (site)
File Archivers and Extractors
- 7-Zip
- X7-Zip (site)
- Freebyte Zip (site)
- HJ-Zip (site)
- MyZippa (site)
- Simplyzip (site)
- Universal Extractor (site)
- UnZip (site)
- UPXer (site)
- UPXShell 9site)
- UPX Tool (site)
- Vallen Zipper (site)
- Winrar (site)
- FilZip (site)
Operating Systems
Miscellaneous
- TinyComp (site). TinyComp is a simple tool to start user defined applications designed to run portable applications from removable drives. (Shortcut uses relative paths, will work regardless of drive lettering).
- Ocean Research Library (site). A free collection of the World's Religious literature managed by a unique book-centered research engine. It contains over 1000 books of 10 world religions in English as well as collections in six other languages (French, Spanish, German, Russian, Dutch, and Portuguese).
- Portable Check Off (site) To-do list manager for Mac OS X
- Instant Rails (site), a one-stop Rails runtime solution containing Ruby,
- HFS - HTTP File Server (site), a file sharing software using highly compatible web technology. easy to use.
- Hypercard a Hypertext-based programmable database, developed by Apple Computer in 1987 with several improvements until 1992, it is no longer maintained although it can still be bought. It is considered a forerunner of the web browsers.
Rails, Apache, and MySQL, all preconfigured and ready to run (currently only on Microsoft Windows).
- Sveglia (site), a simple alarm clock. With Sveglia it is possible to activate an alarm, run a program, shutdown or restart the PC at certain time.
- Weather Watcher (site)
External links
- PortableApps.com - Collection of Microsoft Windows portable applications
- OS X PortableApps - Collection of Mac OS X portable applications
- winPenPack - Italian site: collection of portable software
- TinyApps - Tiny applications for your USB flash drive
- Portable Freeware - The Portable Freeware Collection
- No-Install - Many useful USB apps and USB news
- USBApps - Listing of USB flash drive applications
- Portable Apps Collection - Large collection of portable apps
- StandAlone - Stand alone applications for your USB flash drive
- kikizas.net - Freeware programs to run from a USB stick
- Ceedo - Portable environment allowing you to run any software on any usb drive.
- U3 - promoting a "smart drive" platform (tied to hardware)
- Install Mediawiki on a USB Stick
- Installing a SLAX compilation to a USB stick through Windows
- AppOnKey.com - Portable Environment, soon free beta.
- FramaKey - French/English site: packaged or standalone applications.
- Bureau de Poche - French site: packaged applications.