Silver Clipboard

Portable Applications on Your USB Drive

Locked-down computers, like those at work or in Internet cafes, are a necessary computer-security evil. While their high security helps prevent them from becoming part of a spam-spewing zombie horde, you can’t do much on them. It’s frustrating to need a program but when you try to install it, you get the ‘Administrator access needed’ window thrown in your face.

PortableApps.com gets around that problem. They make versions of open source programs that don’t need to be installed on a computer to run. Load them onto your USB drive and you can use them anywhere, even if you just have lowly guest access. I particularly rely on their Open Office portable, GIMP portable, VLC portable and Notepad++ portable.

Not sure what you’ll need? Then just grab their suite of nearly everything.

Now if they just had a TrueCrypt portable…

[Click here for portable apps]

--

Header photograph by wrestlingentropy