Portable Freeware Applications

This stuff can be installed on any portable drive, i.e. USB thumbdrive, PDA or an iPod. You can use them at work, school, or any other place where you can plug in your device. Check them out, you can either scroll-down for relevant category, i.e office software, email tools, messengers, games, etc. or get a all-in-one package (all essential tools). While there are more apps for windows users, I tried to include a mac version for each essential tool. All free. Enjoy!

What is a portable program? : A portable program is a piece of software that you can carry around with you on a portable device and use on any other computer. It can be your email program, your browser, system recovery tools or even an operating system. The coolest part about it, is that all of your data and settings are always stored on a thumb drive so when you unplug the device, none of your personal data is left behind.

1. Portable Office Software
2. Portable Email/Calendar/ToDo Programs
3. Portable Text and Voice Messengers
4. Portable Media Tools (Audio / Video)
5. Portable Graphics Viewers and Image Editors
6. Portable Browsers and Web Tools (FTP, Feedreaders, Torrent clients?)
7. Portable Security Software
8. Portable Games
9. Other Portable Utilities
10. Portable Developer Tools (Techies Only)
11. All-In-One Packages
12. Portable Operating Systems (/HowTo/ Articles)
13. USB ThumDrive Tips

• Abiword [Win (6.3 mb) / Mac (9.5 mb)] – word processor (compatible with Microsoft word)
• OpenOffice [Win (65 mb) / Mac (127 mb)] – free alternative to Microsoft Office (fully compatible with Microsoft Office docs)
• PDF Viewers: Sumatra [Win (1.1 mb)], Foxit PDF Reader [Win, (1.8 mb)]
• Notepad ++ – feature-rich Notepad replacement.

• Mozilla Thunderbird – [Win (6 mb), Mac (20.5 mb), Cross-Platform (Win, Mac)] – very good email client (built-in address book, import/export, tons of addons)
• Calendars: Mozilla Sunbird [Win, 5.6mb], Sunbird [Mac, 9.7mb], Lightning [Win, 1.3mb) – Thunderbird addon
• Mail [Mac] – requires locally installed Mail.app
• iCal [Mac] – requires locally installed iCal.app
• Address Book [Mac] – requires locally installed Address Book
• Quick Mailer [Win, 20kb] – tiny program for sending quick e-mail messages
• gDisk [Mac, 1020kb] – handy program that turns your gmail account into a portable hard drive. (More stuff for gmail)

• All-in-One (Yahoo, MSN, ICQ, etc.): Gaim [Win, 6.9 mb], Miranda IM [Win, 1.2 mb], Adium [Mac, 15.5mb], Trillian [Win]
• iChat [Mac] – requires locally installed iChat
• Newspeak [Mac, 1mb] – Newspeak Cocoa IRC client
• Skype – explains how to make skype portable

• Audacity [Win (2.4 mb), Mac (5mb)] – simple audio editor and recorder
• VLC [Win (9.3 mb), Mac (24 mb)] – powerful media player that plays almost all popular audio and video formats
• K-Lite Mega Codec Pack with Media Player (resource unaccessible) – another powerful media player for playing all conceivable formats
• iShout [Mac, 7mb] – record and listen to your favorite internet radios.
• CocoaJT [Mac, 8.7mb] – stream live TV programs from major broadcast channels.

• GIMP [Win (8.6 mb), Mac (87.5 mb)] – free alternative to Photoshop
• IrfanView [Win, 1013kb] – fast graphic viewer with basic image editing features
• XNView [Win, Mac, Linux] – image viewer and converter (supports more then 400 image formats)
• Inkscape [Mac, 24.6mb] – scalable vector graphics editor

• Firefox [Win (5.8 mb), Mac (21.9mb), Cross-platform (Win, Mac) ]
• Other browsers: Camino [Mac, 16.2mb], Opera [Win], Safari [Mac] – requires installed safari
• Feedreaders (RSS, Atom ?): RSSOwl [Mac, 5mb], Feed [Mac, 564kb], GreatNews [Win], Sage [Win, 0.2 mb]
• FTP Clients: Filezilla [Win, 2.3 mb], FireFTP [Win, 0.1mb], CyberDuck [Mac, 9.9mb]
• TrayURL [Win] – bookmark manager
• uTorrent [Win] – popular torrent downloader

• Antivirus: ClamWin [Win, 5.9mb], Dr.Web CureIt [Win, 5.5 mb]
• Keepass Password [Win, 1mb] – securely store and manage your passwords
• Omziff [Win, 0.5mb] – lets you encrypt/decrypt a file, using secure encryption algorithms. Also includes a password generator, file shredder, file splitter and some more tools.
• LockNote [Win] – simple text file that lets you store sensitive info with 256bit password encryption.
• RoboFor2Go [Win] – secure password manager and form filler
• Smart Sniff [Win, 57kb] – lets you inspect network traffic that passes via your network adapter.

• Sudoku – popular puzzle game
• Bricks2000 – popular Tetris clone
• Logix – something similar to minesweeper
• Gem Drop – fast-paced puzzle game
• GeneRally – 2D racing game
• Nagaskaki – chess game
• NarkoMania – cool minesweeper clone
• NeverBall – part puzzle, part action game

• 7Zip [Win, 1.1 mb] – file archiver and compressor, supports 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2, TAR, RAR and more
• Registry Tweaker [Win, 1.52mb] – registry tweaking tool
• Restoration [Win, 229kb] – handy program for recovering deleted (or formatted) files
• YamiPod [Win] – powerful iPod manager (copy mp3/AAC files to and from your iPod, import/export playlists, search for songs, remove duplicates). More iPod tools
• Drive Manager [Win, 1191 kb] – quick summary for each local and removable drive.
• PStart – lets you organize and create menu-like list for quicker access to your portable programs.
• SyncPAppX – script that syncs preferences between portable and local applications.
• RQ Money – handy utility to manage your credits and debts
• SIW – a system analysis tool that tells you almost everything you need to know about a computer, i.e. hardware, configuration settings, etc.
• WinAudit – one more analysis tool
• Convert [Win, 155 kb] – fast metric unit conversion tool (distance, temperature, volume, time, speed, mass?)
• UK Calender [Win, 321kb] – straightforward calendar with ToDo and reminders
• CPU-Z [Win] – provides detailed info about your processor and other components
• Country Codes [Win, 1358 kb] – a small database of country codes and additional information for all countries.
• TreePad Lite [Win, 866kb] – personal database program, lets you store all your notes, emails, bookmarks, etc. into one well-structured file
• StartupList [Win, 158 kb] – displays all items that are in any way related to your computer startup and are executed without any user interactions
• eTextReader [Win, 279kb] – read plain text files provided by Project Gutenberg in a book-like manner.
• Index Your Files [Win, 640kb] – provides an easy way to create index databases (of specified folders and drives) for quick file/term search
• RockXP [win, 768kb] – handy utility for retrieving Win XP?s product key
• WhoisThisDomain [Win, 42kb] – view owner and registration info for any domain name
• Converter – portable unit conversion utility

• Nvu [Win (7.3 mb), Mac (12 mb)] – easy-to-use webpage editor. Simpler alternative to Dreamweaver and Microsoft Frontpage
• Server2Go – Apache webserver (no configurations needed)
• InstantRails[Win, 60mb] – contains Ruby, Rails, Apache, and MySQL, all preconfigured and ready to run.
• Putty [Win, 0.9 mb] – lightweight telnet and SSH client
• Follow-Me IP – displays your external IP address
• XAMPP [Win, 25/17 mb] – integrated server package of Apache, mySQL, PHP and Perl. Just Unzip and Run
• HTTP File Server [Win] – simple and easy-to-use file server for personal file sharing.
• CurrPorts [Win, 46kb]- lets you view a list of ports that are currently in use, along with applications that use them
• FTP Servers: Quick?n Easy FTP Server [Win, 355kb], PureFTPdManager [Mac, 10.9mb]

• PortableApps Suite [Win, 89.5mb] – includes 7 programs for essential needs (office, email, IM client, etc.) + cool Startup manager and backup utility
• FSuite [Mac, 668.3mb] – over 30 useful tools in one file (Office, Graphic, Audio, Video, Internet, Developer Tools and Games)

• Mac OS Classic 7
• Portable Linux: Knoppix, Ubuntu
• Win XP

• How to create a bootable USB key
• Never Forget your USB Stick
• QuickLaunch your USB workspace