Portable Apps! Apps on the go.

This portable apps post is focused exclusively on apps for the Windows operating system.

Apps. What are apps? Well, apps is the new buzzword in technology for applications. Nothing new, we have had applications since the first script was written on a mainframe computer. Yes, apps (or applications) have come a long way, and apps are available for everything from a desktop computer to a smart phone. In technology today, the focus is on apps that you install on your smart phone or tablet. But this blog is about portable apps.

So, what are portable apps? Portable apps are applications that you run on a conventional computer (desktop or laptop). What is so unique about portable apps? The fact that you don't have to install them to run them! See, with conventional applications, you have to go through the install process, that while installing the application to your computers hard drive and setting program variables, also makes a number of changes to your system registry and operating system. Over time, this will cause a computer to run slower and overall cause a degree of "bloat" on your computer. With a portable app, no changes are made to your computer. The application is totally self-contained.

I know what you are thinking; "what's the big deal about a portable app"? Well beyond the fact that you don't have to go through an installation process, you have several advantages to traditional applications. Let's look at one scenario. In your job, you travel a lot. you use a web browser to check on emails, do research and other tasks such as calendar entries. You have access to computers in the places you visit (such as schools) but you don't want to use their browser. You could have a portable web browser on your usb drive and use it instead. What are the advantages of using a portable web browser? You can configure the portable web browser with all your bookmarks, extensions and settings. You can also be assured that all of your passwords, cookies, history, settings and cached browsing files remain on your USB drive and not on the client computer that you are using. Another advantage is you get to choose the specific browser you want to use as opposed to what is installed on the computer you are using. Another advantage of using portable apps is, you can setup and try software out on your computer without actually doing a full installation. That way, if you do not like the program, you can just delete the app and no harm is done to your computer.

Just because I used a web browser in the above example, don't think that is all portable apps has to offer. Recently, I counted 343 portable apps listed for download on their web site! The apps are listed under the following categories: Accessibility, Development, Education, Games, Graphics & Pictures, Internet, Music & Video, Office, Security and Utilities.

I'm sure that some of you are still wondering how to use portable apps, or how they would be beneficial to anyone. Think of it this way: you are working on a project that requires you to have access to a web browser, a word processor, an FTP client, an HTML editor, and a photo editor. You are working on this project in several locations on several computers. You could install all of the apps you need from the portable apps web page onto a USB drive and copy all of your data on the drive as well. At this point, you now have all you need on your USB drive to do your work on-the-go! All you need is a computer. You don't have to worry if the computer has all of the applications you need. They are all on your USB drive.

So, how does one actually configure a USB drive so you can use portable apps? First, get a good USB drive with plenty of space. On the USB drive, create a folder named "portableapps". Then go to the portable apps web site and download the apps that you want to use. Then, navigate to the folder that contains your portable apps downloads. Double-click on the "installer". When the installer opens, one of the prompts you will receive is: where to extract your app to. Choose the portableapps folder on your USB drive. Keep in mind that there is no installation process, in the sense of a traditional installation. What the installer does is extract the files to the destination folder. Remember, these apps are totally stand-alone, meaning, they do not need to install anything to the host computer or make any changes to the registry of configuration files. That is the important thing to remember with portable apps.

You also have the option of placing your portable apps into a DropBox folder. Your apps will run just fine from DropBox (as long as your host computer is running a version of Microsoft Windows). Portable apps can also be setup on an external hard drive or network drive. You can also download the PortableApps Platform, which is a total solution for portable apps and includes a menu system for your portable drive. They also have a good support page to help you out with any issues you may have. Although portable apps are directed toward the Microsoft Windows crowd, you can run them on a MAC and Linux with a little work.

Portable apps are a great resource for the tech savvy user. Take a few minutes and head over to the PortableApps website and check out their offerings. Find an app you would like to try out, download it and give it a whirl!