Portable computing for most people means a laptop PC. However if you want to avoid the hassle of having to carry a laptop, then portable applications may be the thing for you. Using a portable application allows you to carry your favorite programs with you, on your USB drive. This has become a more practical solution now that the prices of USB flashdrives and USB hard drives have come down, and their capacities have increased.
Advantages of this include:
Portable applications may not work for you if:
Can I just copy a program folder off my PC onto my USB and work from there? Unfortunately it’s not always as simple as that. Part of the reason for this is that way the Windows installs programs on your computer. Usually a program has a folder that it lives in, and then there are connections to the Windows Registry as well as connections to library files in the Windows folder. This means that you may not be able to simply copy the program folder to your USB drive and run it from there.
Occasionally you may find that older versions of programs will work in this fashion – the simplest way to find out is to try.
Libraries of portable applications There are a number of websites that contain free or public domain software that can be run from a USB memory stick or hard drive. Here are two sites to get you started:
http://portableapps.com/
http://www.pendriveapps.com/
More information is available at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_application
Advantages of this include:
- Security – Your applications and data are kept with you.
- Familiarity – you don’t need to relearn new applications on a different PC or cope with different versions of software that might exist on your home, work, internet café PC, etc.
- Convenience – If you work on windows based PCs then this may be an effective way for you to work portably. This can possibly save you the hassle of having to tote around a laptop and its associated peripherals.
Portable applications may not work for you if:
- Your applications need specialised hardware.
- Your applications have high-end hardware requirements.
Can I just copy a program folder off my PC onto my USB and work from there? Unfortunately it’s not always as simple as that. Part of the reason for this is that way the Windows installs programs on your computer. Usually a program has a folder that it lives in, and then there are connections to the Windows Registry as well as connections to library files in the Windows folder. This means that you may not be able to simply copy the program folder to your USB drive and run it from there.
Occasionally you may find that older versions of programs will work in this fashion – the simplest way to find out is to try.
Libraries of portable applications There are a number of websites that contain free or public domain software that can be run from a USB memory stick or hard drive. Here are two sites to get you started:
http://portableapps.com/
http://www.pendriveapps.com/
More information is available at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_application
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