PortableApps: The right app at the right place

While sitting in the Oracle training I missed a convenient working environment (The computer runs Win2k and the only app is a Internet Explorer 6.0!). Fortunatly I just bought an 2GB USB stick to install some stickware some time – and now I have a use case to do it now.

So I found PortableApps – an very promissing suite of portable applications (I wanted firefox with some extensions, a ssh client and an useful editor). Installation was as easy and simple as downloading a 30MB file from their website (the project is hosted on sourceforge.net) and runing the application. It asks for the destination directory – the stick – and copies all neccessary files there. Ready! Additional applications can be installed the same way.

After starting the launcher (an autorun.inf file on the stick starts the launcher if enabled) it resides in the systray. Cool!

As my personal security feature I backed up the stick and can reset it after every usage in an insecure environment (as the class room of a training center is). PortableApps comes with a facility to backup your personal data from a stick or restore them again.

And a last remark: There are plenty of other application suites available. And you can install a lot of portable applications directly (without an application suite as PortableApps) as well.