Tektodo

A tutorial on PortableApps

Have you ever wished you could take your computer wherever you go?  Maybe you found some great websites for a school project and want to bookmark and visit them at home, or maybe you want to work on a paper on a computer that doesn’t have a word processor.  Sure, you could use a laptop, but it has limitations, such as size and weight.  So what are you supposed to do if you want to bring your computer with you, but don’t want to carry a laptop around?  Luckily, there is a pretty neat way to keep track of your data using an open-source program called PortableApps

With PortableApps, you can essentially bring everything you need with you, all in a device smaller than a pack of gum.  PortableApps, as the name implies, provides you with a wide variety of programs to choose from, such as OpenOffice for creating documents, spreadsheets and other office-related activities, Firefox for web browsing, Thunderbird for email and The GIMP for image editing; it even includes a portable anti-virus program.  So how does all this work?

First off, in order to use PortableApps you will need a flash drive.  You also will need to be running Microsoft Windows 98/Me/2000/XP or Vista.  If the computers you will be using run Windows, you’re all set.  In order to get PortableApps, just go to the PortableApps website, located here: http://portableapps.com/.  Be careful, there is a portableapps.net website; this is a completely different program.

Once on the PortableApps website, click on the “Suite” link near the top of the page.  You will be presented with two choices, “Standard” and “Lite”.  Which version you choose depends on how big your flash drive is.  If your drive is 512 MB or larger, you should be all right downloading the Standard version.  If you have a smaller drive, or simply want more space on your drive, download the Lite version.

Once you have downloaded PortableApps, double-click on the file, this will cause a window to pop up asking you where to install PortableApps.  Click on the “…” button and then navigate to your flash drive.  Once you have specified where you want PortableApps to be installed on your flash drive, click “Install”.  Depending on your flash drive and which version you downloaded, this process could take anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour.

After PortableApps has been installed, you can double click on the PortableApps icon within your thumb drive, which will launch PortableApps, displaying a red menu at the bottom-right hand corner of the screen.  From this menu you can launch programs, go to your documents, music, pictures, video and many other things.  You can remove any program you want by simply opening your thumb drive’s folder and deleting the folder corresponding to the application you don’t want.  If you want to add a program, you can go to the PortableApps website and click on “Applications” where they have a wide range of additional programs to choose from.

One of the great things about PortableApps is that since all your programs and files live on your flash drive, you don’t have to worry about leaving anything behind on the computer you happen to be working at.  Your Internet history, bookmarks, documents, program settings, all of these will stay with you on your flash drive, as long as you are using the PortableApps applications.  If you don’t use the version of Firefox included with PortableApps, your information will remain on the computer you used.

Those of you who own newer flash drives may already have a similar program called U3.  This program is essentially the same as PortableApps, although it is proprietary, meaning that it is a product created for profit and therefore, if you want to add new programs to U3, you have to pay for them on the U3 website.  However, even if you already have U3, you may want to consider giving PortableApps a try; it is a great program with lots of supported applications and will surely help you be more productive.

Filed under: Computers, Technology Tagged: | Firefox, GIMP, Microsoft, OpenOffice, PortableApps, Thunderbird, U3, Windows