There have been a few different reasons you would choose to use a portable program, which is software that can run on a device without being enabled. If you also turn back and forth between your work and home computer, you can move a portable app via USB flash disc, portable hard drive, or the cloud from one machine to another. Enabled programs take up room on your computer, which could make it run slower.
The best part of portable software is that it can be used without installing on the system and don’t need any kind of permission to launch it.
Quick Overivew
30 Free Potable Apps
If you’re searching for or only curious about these advantages, check out our list of the best 30 portable applications that is perfect for techs and for general users that don’t need any installation.
Media editors
Audacity
Free audio editing Audacity is one of the best. It must be in the toolbox of everything. The audacity isn’t something easy to remember. You can cut, copy, break and blend audio 6 Incredible Audacity equivalents for the creation and mixing audio 6 Incredible Audacity alternatives for recording and editing audio There is nothing inaccurate about Audacity, and we suggest that you try it if you don’t.
CDex
This can be termed as the CD ripper at its best, most easy, and quickest ever. It has the ability to rip cd’s into MP3 formats, along with their metadata (by linking to an “external database”). You should add all of your music to new playlists and shut your machine off when you finish ribbing, making it the perfect task to start and go to bed.
VirtualDub
This software is an application for video capturing and editing. It can also be augmented with video philters from third parties. The main focus is on AVI file storage, while it is able to read (not write) MPEG-1 and manipulate image sets for BMP.
Media players
AIMP
This software is a genius tool that allows multi-format, various playlist playlists, audio translation, naming and marking, and simple music organizing. It even works as an alarm clock, waking you up to your favorite songs.
VLC Player
This popular player needs no introduction. This tool handles pretty much any file format you want to launch. Plays DVD, video streaming, and music. Most Windows users can easily install VLC Player and it supports almost all audio and video formats.
Foobar2000
It is an outstanding lightweight music player with various skins, playlists, load and replay capability. Audio CDs are also upgraded. Foobar2000 supports various types of files, advanced tagging, and flexible keyboard shortcuts. If you choose the default “portable update” when you press the executable, it will un-plot when the executable for Fobar2000 appears to need download. Uninstalling the unzipped files you can do, however, Windows computers are needed.
Classic media player
This tool emulates the original Windows Media Player. For those unfamiliar with the application, it is similar to VLC Player in that it can play almost any video file, and it is open source. But above all, MPC costs nothing while offering one of the best viewing experiences.
Website: https://mpc-hc.org/
Notes
PNotes
This tool is an easy-to-use sticky note manager. It is provided with skins, flexible viewing options, and a built-in scheduler. You can put it on your USB flash drive, iPod, portable hard drive, or a CD and use it on any computer, without leaving any personal information.
Minimalist word processor Q10
It’s a Free word processor just like Wordpad but what makes it unique that completely fills the screen with the word processor. You have to press Ctrl + Q or Windows key to exit the interface. Q10 comes with and without spell checking. The portable version comes with spell checker features. It is easily the thinnest word processor I know of. In addition to the optional spell check feature, you also get a word and page count. Otherwise, that’s it.
Website: https://q10.en.softonic.com/
Productivity
Google Chrome
Most probably you have been using Chrome and the portable version is ditto same. It comes with same features like bookmarks, addon, auto-updates, etc.
Text 2 Folders
Text2Folders is a very useful software that allows you to make parent and child folders in just one click. Just write the numbers of the folders you want in a text file. Therefore, if you want five folders, you must type “1, 2, 3, 4, 5” (without parentheses) in the text file. Save and close. Then with this tool navigate to the text file and start it. It will then instantly create five folders for you in the same location as the text file.
Website: https://www.dcmembers.com/skwire/download/text-2-folders/
Zip2Fix
ZIP files (also known as “Zip” attached to a file name) are great for collecting and compacting many files together. But it gets corrupted just like any other computer file. So how do you try to recover what you can, when a zip file breaks down? Use Zip2Fix. With Zip2Fix, you will scan the damaged Zip file (and therefore cannot be opened), and see if there are any files that can be recovered.
Awesome Duplicate Photo Finder
It is very easy to accumulate things on our hard drives. Just add the photo directories on your hard drive that you want to scan and you will get to work finding the duplicates. When you are done, you will find similar images, they will be presented side by side with a probability in percentage terms of the probability that the photos are similar. Then you decide which one you want to keep and which one is discarded.
Website: https://www.duplicate-finder.com/photo-download.html
DataCrow
In case, if you have a number of particular files like DVDs, Videos, Books, whatever, then keeping them in a catalog will make your job easier. That’s where this particular application comes in. Just choose your category and add the details. It’s a bit on the basic side, but that will appeal to those who are into minimalism.
Website: https://www.datacrow.net/
Free Download Manager
The first thing you have to do is that it can automatically detect downloads that start in both Firefox and Chrome. So, there is no need to actually start it in this tool. As long as the app is running in the background, it will know when something starts up in one of those browsers. It will also monitor the clipboard for any downloads.
Diverse
Etcher
If you ever need to create a live Linux USB drive, look no further than this application. It automatically performs validation checks on completed image burns. And besides that, it is one of the easiest portable apps to use. The easiest to use and best-designed application for recording images is this wonderful tool.
LicenseCrawler
You will need to clean your computer at some point. May what the reason be, you will need the license keys for all of your paid software, and willing to bet dollars on donuts so you don’t have them written yet. Before cleaning your hard drive, run this little program, and the license numbers stored in the Windows Registry will be displayed in a handy text file that can then be saved. Just remember to save it to a USB drive or email it. Don’t leave it on the disk you are going to clean, is what we are saying.
ToddlerTrap
This application has two purposes. What it does is it disables the keys on your keyboard, for when you’re away from the computer. First, this can be used to prevent your kids from deleting and messing up that 100-page report to their boss. But second, and that’s what I use it for, it can be used to clean your keyboard without watching the keys go crazy on your monitor.
Website: https://www.dcmembers.com/skrommel/download/toddlertrap/
LinuxLive USB Creator
Linux is a great alternative system if you’re tired of the usual Windows or Mac scene. And we’ve covered Linux extensively over the years. LinuxLive USB Creator is an application that easily and effortlessly installs any version of Linux on your USB device.
Website: https://www.linuxliveusb.com/
UNetbootin
UNetbootin can take an ISO image and burn it to a USB stick. That is useful for when you need an installable media to maintain a Linux distribution. In my personal opinion, this software works even better than the LinuxLive USB Creator due to its simplicity and ease of use.
Security and Privacy
Eraser
If you are selling your computer, or are security conscious, then Eraser should be on your USB stick. The reason you need a secure erasure method is that Windows files can be recovered on your computer before panic takes over. The Windows Trash just deletes the file and returns you disk space, but the file is still there. Anyone with the right software (easily and simply available online) can retrieve the file. Eraser puts an end to that.
PWGen
This is a password creator that will help you out with large numbers of passwords or security phrases cryptographically consisting of words randomly drawn from a dictionary for you. It offers many options for customizing passwords based on various user needs.
ClamWin
It is an antivirus program, which gives you features such as virus-detection (obviously), as well as regular virus engine updates. However, you must remember that due to its portable nature, this is not a real-time scanner. This means that it will only detect a virus if you manually give it a file to check. Also, scheduled scans and updates are also not possible, so you have to update them manually.
CyberShredder
You can use this other than Eraser. You have to drag and drop files onto its interface and say goodbye to those files. If you are the paranoid type (and you should, because they really are after you), then this tool is essential to make sure that those deleted files stay deleted.
Website: https://www.portablefreeware.com/?id=202
Communication
Telegram
It is one of the best known, but not frequently used, open-source WhatsApp alternatives. It works as a standalone messenger or as a direct replacement for your mobile SMS app. Conversations with Telegram have encryption and threading. Overall, it’s a great and secure alternative to some of the less secure messaging apps out there. However, while the Telegram application is open source, the servers that handle Telegram data are not open source.
YakYak
YakYak is a kind of wonderful app that actually works like any other chat software for the desktop. Start conversations, receive them, receive notifications of new chats, and send images. There is video and audio integration too, but that opens up in Google Chrome.
Email Stripper
A favorite if you have friends and family who insist on forwarding chain emails to you, with dashes in them. If you want to chain the email nice and clean, please run the test this tool. Once the text is inside the box, press, destroy it! and bingo, the text will appear nice and clean. Copy places the clean text on your clipboard, ready to paste into a new email.
Website: https://www.papercut.com/products/free-software/email-stripper/
Image editors
GIMP
Who does not know this app? It emulates many Photoshop features, except for the fact that you are not paying for this tool. Also, like Photoshop, it has many features with a steep learning curve. We know this tool for years, and we know we’ve only scratched the surface.
Website: https://www.gimp.org/
JPEG view
JPEG View will open and display JPEG images as the application’s name suggests. It also contains images of BMP, PNG, GIF, TIFF, etc. Users can also do a few other basic editings on such photos like altering the contrast, lighting, sharpness, and a few others. It is more or less a very straightforward image observing application. Although some people prefer IrfanView’s complexity, others prefer JPEG View simplicity.
Website: https://sourceforge.net/projects/jpegview/
Image viewers
IrfanView
This is superior to Windows’ default image editor in every way you can imagine. It is amazing for batch edit images and for very quick modifications to screenshots and photos. It is also extremely extensible with thousands of plugin filters available. So why is “Viewer images” and not “Editor images”? Because it can do both. It is also great as a fast light app for viewing images (either individually or as a slide show).
XnView
A simple and pleasant application that scans your hard drive and presents you the images so that you can easily view them. In addition to looking at the images, you can also view their properties, including EXIF data. You can import 400 different file formats and export your photos in one of 50 file formats. Plus, slide shows, print support, and side-by-side comparison.
