Download portable versions of programs

Technically speaking P-Apps works with all Windows software that have installers. However, at the time of this writing P-Apps is a fairly new program at v1. P-Apps works by taking a snapshot of your system before you install a program, taking a snapshot of your system after you install a program, comparing the two snapshots, and storing the differences i.

Because of the way it works — i. The first limitation is in order to create a portable package of a program, you need to actually install that program on your computer so P-Apps can record what changes the program makes to create a portable version. The second limitation is you must ensure you have no other program running in the background making changes to your computer while you are using P-Apps. Besides, you will be unable to create and export PDF-files. It has the tools for working with PDF-files which the free versions are distinctly lacking.

It allows you not only to create PDF-files and export them to Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint but also enables sharing files and comparing different versions. For those of you who are used to work from your smartphones should give it a try to Adobe Reader Mobile designed for iOS and Android devices. Printing, viewing, editing and commenting PDF-files has never been easier as with this app. Some components of Foxit Reader, namely the ribbon menu, are inspired by the Microsoft products.

The software is indispensable for those who need to create, export, convert PDFs to images, read, sign and comment PDF-files. Foxit Reader owes its popularity to its simple design. The one thing that the free version lacks is the OCR tool. This software allows users to search through an open document and, if necessary, to rotate it.

Forget about different modes of reading as well. Download free trial! Try NordVPN! With this app you can download videos and playlists in all kind of formats, from just about every major website. Free software OS: Version: 2.

It may be disabled when installing or after installation. Free Trial version available for download and testing with usually a time limit or limited functions. No installation is required.

It works on bit and bit Windows. It works only on bit Windows. It works on bit and bit Mac OS. You can sync them along with their settings to your other PCs using something like Dropbox. Or, you can just use an app once without having to worry about it leaving cruft on your system. Sure, there will always be apps that you need to install. But many apps come in both flavors, which means you can choose between an installer and a ZIP when you download it.

Of course, there are some downsides to using portable apps. You could consider this one both an upside and a downside. Otherwise, you can corrupt the apps or cause settings not to be saved properly. That said, the advantages of portable apps usually outweigh the disadvantages—particularly if you move around to different PCs a lot.

If you think of portable apps as mostly system utilities tech support folk carry around, you might be surprised to find that there are all kinds of portable apps out there.

You can read about a bunch of them in our guide to the best free portable apps for your flash drive toolkit. In addition to all these standalone apps, you can also download application suites that you can install to a USB drive.

These suites usually provide you with a Start menu-style launcher for accessing the apps, and some also coordinate app settings for you. Many of these suites boast hundreds of free portable apps to choose from, essentially allowing you to create a complete, portable workspace.

In some cases, portable apps are only available through a software suite like this. For example, PortableApps. PortableApps does offer the advantage of being able to choose exactly which apps you want to include.

It is often possible to make a regular app portable, but it can be a bit finicky and usually takes a bit of work. Another option for making an installable app portable is to virtualize the app.

VirtualBox itself is a free virtual machine offering from Oracle that can run on pretty much any desktop operating system. Portable VirtualBox is a wrapper for VirtualBox that turns it into a portable application you can install on a USB stick or external hard drive. Cameyo is another interesting virtualization option. Instead of running an entire virtual machine from your portable drive, you create a virtual machine on your desktop system. You then use Cameyo to record the installation of an app within that virtual machine.

Cameyo is also free for home or small business users. Browse All iPhone Articles Browse All Mac Articles