Download and use portable applications

Let’s get portable
To proceed you need a portable storage device with at least 256MB of space available. Slot it into a USB slot on your PC. Now launch a web browser and visit the Portableapps website.

This is a project to build as many open-source (free) portable applications as possible. To name just a few, there are portable versions of the Openoffice suite, the Firefox web browser and the Thunderbird email program.

There is also an instant messaging tool, anti-virus software, password managers, graphics software and games ­ and each one runs straight from a USB memory key.

These portable applications are available pic’n’mix-style, so you can just take the ones you need, or the most popular ones can be downloaded as a loosely integrated applications suite.

We recommend downloading the packaged suite because it comprises the most useful applications. However, it does require 355MB of space on your portable storage device, so if you don’t have this much spare you will need to be more selective.

From the Portableapps home page, click the Download Now link. Now choose one of the three download options: Platform Only, Suite Light and Suite Standard. If you have at least 400MB of spare storage space on your portable device, pick Suite Standard, as this is the comprehensive package mentioned above.

If you have less space available, Suite Light takes up just 150MB installed, but it drops Openoffice. Finally, the Platform Only option will occupy a mere 1.3MB on your USB memory key, but it doesn’t include any portable applications: just the Portableapps menu system. If you choose this last option, you will later need to download and install the applications you want manually.

We will proceed on the assumption that you have enough space to use Suite Standard. Left-click the big red Download button under the Suite Standard heading and then wait while the Portableapps page transfers you to the download page over at the Source Forge website.

If Internet Explorer displays a security warning in its yellow Information Bar at the top, click it, select Download File. When the File Download dialogue box appears, click Run. The download is around 124MB, which will take a few minutes to complete, even on a fast broadband connection.

When the download has finished, the Portableapps installation wizard will appear. Take note of any further security warnings displayed by Windows, but click Run to allow the wizard to continue. Now follow the prompts to install the suite to your USB memory key or other portable storage device.