Useful programs on your computer. Portable software: where to find and how to use the best portable software

Flash drives, having a significant volume, small size and low price, allow you to constantly have gigabytes of the necessary data in your pocket. If you download portable programs onto a flash drive, then it is very easy to turn it into an indispensable tool that allows you to more or less fully work on almost any computer.

This article will talk about the most useful and, at the same time, free portable programs that can be easily recorded on a USB drive and always be able to run them anywhere.

What is a portable program

Portable refers to programs that do not require installation on a computer and do not make any changes to it during operation. In most cases, the functionality of these programs is not affected or is only slightly affected. Thus, a portable program can be launched directly from a flash drive, external hard drive or even a smartphone connected in USB storage mode, use it and close it.

Where to download portable programs

A number of services allow you to download at once a set of the most necessary programs, after recording which on a flash drive, you will be able to choose the desired program from a convenient menu.

Services that allow you to create a flash drive with a set of portable programs:

  • Lupo PenSuite
  • LiberKey
  • CodySafe

There are others, but for most cases the listed sets are enough, in which you will find almost all the programs that may be required.

Now let's talk about the programs themselves.

Access to the Internet

Choosing a program for Internet access is a matter of your taste and needs. Almost all modern browsers are also available in portable versions: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Opera - use the one that suits you best.


To access FTP accounts you can use free programs FileZilla and FireFTP, providing easy access to ftp servers.

For communication - also full list programs, there are also Skype Portable and ICQ/Jabber clients, for example Pidgin.

Office applications

If you need to view and edit documents Microsoft Office, the best option for this would be LibreOffice Portable. Let's combine this free office suite not only with files in Microsoft Office format, but also with many others.


In addition, if you do not need all the functionality of office applications, there may be applications such as Notepad++ or Metapad for editing texts and code on a flash drive. A couple more substitutes for the standard Windows notepad with slightly more advanced functions are FocusWriter and FluentNotepad. And in my opinion, the most convenient editor for a wide variety of code with syntax highlighting is the Sublime Text application, also available in a potable version on the program’s official website.

Graphic editor

As already written, in the article we are talking about free portable applications. Those. not about photoshop portable. So, among the raster editors available in a portable version, the best is Gimp. It can be used for simple editing, cropping, rotating photos, as well as for more professional purposes. In addition, you can convert image formats using Gimp. Vector editor, which you should pay attention to is Inkscape, which allows you to do much of what is available in professional editors from Adobe and Corel.


If you do not have a goal to edit photos using portable programs, but only view them, the XnView and IrfanView Portable applications will help you here. Both of these applications support a variety of raster and vector formats, as well as animations, videos and icon sets. They also contain basic tools for editing and converting image formats.

Another portable application related to graphics and very useful is CamStudio. With this program you can easily record everything that happens on the screen, as well as audio on your computer, into a video file or flash.

Multimedia

To play a wide variety of multimedia formats: mpeg, divx and xvid, mp3 and wma, you can use the portable VLC Media Player program, it will eat everything. Also includes DVD, Video CD and streaming audio and video.

And two more programs that are directly related to multimedia:

  • ImgBurn - makes it easy to burn DVDs and CD from images, as well as create these images
  • Audacity is a pretty good portable audio editor in which you can cut music, record audio from a microphone or other sound source, and perform many other tasks.

Antiviruses, system

Best portable antivirus utility, in my opinion, can be considered AVZ. With its help, you can solve many different problems - tidy up the system settings when the pages of classmates and in contact do not open, find and eliminate potential threats to your computer.

Another useful utility is CCleaner, the functions and effective use of which I wrote about in a separate article.

Linux

It may also be convenient to have a complete operating system on a flash drive. Here are some of the miniature Linux builds specifically designed for this:

  • Damn Small Linux
  • Puppy Linux
  • Fedora Live USB Creator

And on the PortableLinuxApps.org website you can download portable versions of programs for these Linux builds.

Creating your own portable programs

If the listed programs were not enough for you, then you can always create your own. Different applications have their own methods for turning them into portable versions. But there are also programs that help automate this process, for example P-Apps and Cameyo.

Downloading portable programs in Russian for free for Windows 10 is in many cases more profitable than downloading similar programs in the regular version. Portable programs never require a key, which means they are free. Often, portable programs are complete copies of standard versions, which means you have nothing to lose by deciding to download just such a version.

Download Portable versions of programs

Portable - translated as “Portable”, these are specialized versions of programs that do not require installation. Not all programs can be made portable, but not everyone needs it. Often, portability is needed in situations where the program needs to be used on several devices at once, or even when you need to constantly change devices. If this sounds like you, then you need to download the portable versions rather than the regular versions. Absolutely all types of programs for Windows 10 are portable:


  • Browsers;

  • Graphic editor;

  • Office programs;

And these are just a few categories, but you can find portable programs of any type, class and level. Although there are programs that do not need portability. For example, or - they need to be installed separately on each computer.


The principle of operation of portable programs is simple - you download them, then write them to a flash drive or any other removable media. After this, you will be able to use these programs on any Windows 10 computer where you connect this removable storage device. This is convenient and saves a lot of time, because you don’t spend it on installation. The only negative is that the performance of the portable versions of the programs is sometimes inferior to the performance of the regular versions. But there are cases when such programs are simply irreplaceable, such as

Portable programs or portable versions of applications are designed to simplify the user's work on a PC.

Such software allows you not to waste time on installation, use programs even in operating systems with maximum settings security and allows you to work in the system, even if you do not have administrative rights.

They usually use portable programs on computers where installing third-party software is undesirable or impossible (both for security reasons and due to lack of space on the computer).


General information about portable applications

Portable programs are programs that do not require installation on a computer and do not make any changes to the operating system registry during operation.

Basically, applications whose distribution is marked portable have the same functionality as regular versions. Sometimes developers remove several resource-intensive features.

Among the advantages of using them are:

  • saving space on your hard drive. You can work with a portable program without even moving it to your computer - from the same disk or USB drive (and even from a smartphone) on which it was recorded;
  • absence of a warning warning about the need to run the application only under account administrator. Most common applications require a password or user rights. Portable versions eliminate this need;
  • the ability to launch the application from any folder. Thus, you can put all such portable programs in one folder or sort them in any way in a convenient way without fear that they will stop working.

Who makes portable builds?

The production and distribution of assemblies of portable applications are usually carried out by enthusiasts who strive to make the software convenient not only for themselves, but also for other network users.

Sometimes a portable program can be found on the manufacturers' official resources.

For example, Google releases a portable Chrome browser, updating its versions with the same frequency as for the regular version.

Kaspersky Anti-Virus has an official portable version of Curelt, which can scan the system for malicious code without installing it on the computer.

Where can I find portable software?

The search for portable programs and entire collections should begin on the sites of the same enthusiasts who create them:

  • one of best options– LiberKey portal;
  • The Free Soft website also offers a good selection, which contains programs and ready-made sets of portable applications;
  • one more is enough popular resource Portablik, which offers several thousand portable versions of popular software;
  • There are enough applications on the Portable Soft page.

Advice: on such pages you can find collections of programs to perform almost any task. However, you should first try to search for specific applications on the manufacturer’s websites - this way you will prevent your computer from becoming infected malicious code, which can be built into the program.

Best apps

In order to download the best portable software, you should know which programs can be classified in this category - there are quite a few options for such applications, and you may not have time to check the functionality and usability of each.

It is worth paying attention first of all to the following programs:

  • VLC Media Player Portable And MPlayer Portable allow you to listen to audio and watch video without installing a special player on your computer;
  • for editing audio tracks will do Portable AIMP or Audacity Portable;
  • you can edit videos using VirtualDub Portable, functional enough not only for capturing and cutting video, but also for dubbing films;
  • Portable Recuva will allow you to quickly recover lost files even from a formatted disk;
  • Dr.Web CureIt!– a portable version of Kaspersky Anti-Virus. Has no function automatic update anti-virus databases, which requires periodic downloading of a new distribution;
  • Simple Machine Protect- not bad free antivirus, whose capabilities also include managing system processes;
  • 7-Zip Portable, free application for data compression, which can replace the WinRAR archiver (paid by default);
  • GIMP Portable– a portable version of an image editing program. It is inferior in functionality to Adobe Photoshop (a portable version of which can also be found online), but is quite suitable for home use;
  • XNView Full Portable, an application for viewing and editing almost any kind of images;
  • Portable DeepBurner 1.9, a convenient and easy-to-use program for burning CDs and DVDs;
  • OpenOffice Portable, a package whose functionality when working with documents is not inferior to the regular version, including working with texts, spreadsheets and mathematical expressions;
  • AbiWord Portable, a good free and, moreover, does not require installation on a computer, replacement for the paid Microsoft Office package;
  • Mozilla Firefox Portable, Opera USB Portable And Chrome Portable– the same browsers that may already be installed on your PC, but more convenient. For example, thanks to the ability to use your favorite and familiar browser while on someone else’s computer.

Where and how to make a flash drive with programs?

To create portable programs, there are special utilities - such as, for example, Cameyo or Portable P-Apps. However, in addition to having the programs themselves on the flash drive, which do not require installation, it is also advisable to properly manage them using the platforms that we will discuss below.

PortableApps is a software shell that can be downloaded from the manufacturer’s website. After downloading, the application will offer you an impressive list of portable software that can be stored on a flash drive.

By selecting (checking) the appropriate options, you will receive them on media and can easily manage them without searching for the distribution in different folders. The platform allows you to provide backup documents and files, change shell settings, add or remove programs from the list.

LiberKey an equally convenient and multifunctional program that allows you to create a flash drive with portable software.

After downloading, it allows you to download from the developers’ website any application from a fairly wide and constantly updated range. As a result of downloading, portable applications are placed in a kind of container, where they can be managed using a convenient menu with a customizable interface.

Portable but not safe

You can find dozens of versions of various portable applications and their sets on the Internet, but it is best to download them from the developer’s websites, and not from unfamiliar torrent trackers, from where you can easily download a virus to your computer.

Advice: look at the extension of the downloaded file. It is not advisable to download an archive or executable application.

However, some users know from their own experience that portable software is often infected with malicious code. Even using a proven service to receive new version portable program, do not forget to scan it with an antivirus.

Among other things, it is worth ensuring the security of the portable software itself - when connecting to other people's computers, the information on the flash drive can be destroyed. Therefore it is advisable to do backup copy such a disk.

Results

The advantages of portable programs allow you to use them on any computer.

The range offered by the developers of such software is wide enough to use them to launch and edit multimedia files, work with documents on the network, archive data, create images and even recover lost files.

In most cases, such programs can replace versions that require installation, but for your computer, in the absence of contraindications, you should choose regular applications that are more functional, faster and stable.