Portable Applications that should be on your USB Drive

June 25th, 2007

7 Comments Written by Ryan

USB Knife If you’re anything like me your Flash drive is almost like carrying a pocket knife. Mine contains a whole arsenal of applications and tools that are always ready to assist me. I’ve always got it with me wherever I go, and it definitely comes in handy when I’m repairing someone’s computer.

So what kind of apps do I normally carry? Here are the ones you’ll never find me without:

PStart - This is a must as I’ve previously stated. It serves as a central way to manage all of the applications on your drive.
Filezilla - Easily connect to my home FTP no matter where I’m at.
Firefox - There’s nothing worse than trying to fix someone’s computer with a browser that looks like this, so I always carry my own which lets me get things done without the clutter.
Startup List - Gives me a quick list of everything running on a computer, which can be essential when working on a computer other than your own. You’ll be surprised at how much "behind the scenes" software people have running. It also shows things like which Internet Explorer toolbars are installed, but the downside is that you can’t delete anything from this program.
Foxit PDF Reader - Lighter, faster, and better than Adobe Acrobat Reader. You’ve gotta have this, because you won’t want to use Acrobat when you come across a computer without Foxit installed.
Trillian - Let’s me chat with friends even when I’m away from my computer, although lately I’ve been using Meebo for this.

For the most part that is everything I carry on my USB drive. So let us know what apps you carry around, and if you are looking for more great portable programs checkout The Free Geek, PortableApps.com, and Portable freeware Collection.

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Tags: Freeware, Software, Portable Application

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June 25th, 2007 at 7:42 pm Claus Valca

Here is my extensive list of USB apps.

More geared to a network system administrator/support staff tech.

To save space in the comments I’m going to link to my blogpost…please forgive…I am really trying to be considerate. I know Ryan really doesn’t want me to fill up his post with a 2-ft long comment!
Portable SysAdmin Tools
June 25th, 2007 at 11:19 pm The Slasher (All-Star)

I used to use PStart but I find PortableApps menu starter much nicer.
June 26th, 2007 at 6:49 am s427

I’d use Process Explorer NT to see every application that are running on a computer (and which files are locked by what app, and so on). I’m not a 100% sure that it works on a USB key, but since it doesn’t require any installation (just copy the exe and you’re done), I guess it does.

Instead of Trillian I use Miranda, but here again I don’t know if it works on a USB key (I guess it does).
June 26th, 2007 at 7:46 am Carl

Portable Putty - creation of secure tunnel to home network
UltraVNC - remote control and file transfers from home network (not sure if this is 100% portable, as it may leave files on the PC, but it does run without admin privs)
Portable 7-Zip - Allows me to uncompress most archive formats
Portable Firefox - obvious reasons
Directory Opus - The new export to usb feature of version 9 allows me to use the best filemanager everywhere I go
Space Monger - This is a disk utilization program that graphically shows where all the hd space has gone. It’s also handy to find lost folders on a network share
Autohotkey - Automation program that I use to simplify repetitive tasks

I have more, but those are the big ones I use regularly
June 26th, 2007 at 10:53 pm Ryan (Author)

Claus Valca wrote:

Here is my extensive list of USB apps.

More geared to a network system administrator/support staff tech.

To save space in the comments I’m going to link to my blogpost…please forgive…I am really trying to be considerate. I know Ryan really doesn’t want me to fill up his post with a 2-ft long comment!

Portable SysAdmin Tools

Wow, is that a Flash drive you carry or a hard drive.

The Slasher wrote:

I used to use PStart but I find PortableApps menu starter much nicer.

I’ve never actually tried the PortableApps launcher because I wasn’t sure if it could be configured with my own programs.

s427 wrote:

Instead of Trillian I use Miranda, but here again I don’t know if it works on a USB key (I guess it does).

I’ve never actually tried Miranda, but have heard good things about it. I’m pretty sure that it does work on a USB drive so I’ll be checking into that. Thanks!

Carl wrote:

Portable Putty - creation of secure tunnel to home network
UltraVNC - remote control and file transfers from home network (not sure if this is 100% portable, as it may leave files on the PC, but it does run without admin privs)
Portable 7-Zip - Allows me to uncompress most archive formats
Portable Firefox - obvious reasons
Directory Opus - The new export to usb feature of version 9 allows me to use the best filemanager everywhere I go
Space Monger - This is a disk utilization program that graphically shows where all the hd space has gone. It’s also handy to find lost folders on a network share
Autohotkey - Automation program that I use to simplify repetitive tasks

I have more, but those are the big ones I use regularly

Thanks Carl! I just put the Space Monger on my drive.
October 31st, 2007 at 7:50 am Suzan Lawrence

I use i-Flapp Apps-D on my USB. I am able to plug in anywhere at anytime and not leave a trace of my files on the guest computer that I may be using. I am able to launch all my outlook mail files, MS Office, Photoshop, MS Project and many more applications. It is like having my personal laptop with me at all times.