If you work on public computers (school libraries), or switch between computers very often you know how annoying it is to not have your favorite web browser or other small applications that you use frequently. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could take a copy of your web browser with you and have all of your bookmarks and favorites? Well actually you can do just that.
Portable Apps.com Platform
The Portable Apps.com Platform was designed to let you take your computer with you. It allows for the ability to install software on to a flash drive or in the cloud. You can then run this software on any computer. I have found this to be extremely handy. When I am working on a public computer I simply plug in my flash drive and open up the Portable Apps Platform. I can then access my portable FireFox browser. I have the Firefox sync setup so not only do I have all of my history and browsers that I do on my computer, but any new history or favorites will be saved and synced to the Firefox on my computer as well. Essentially, I am literally working with the same exact browser that is on my computer.
Both Mozilla FireFox and Google Chrome have similar sync options so you can stay with the browser that you choose.
It does not stop with web browsers though. There are tons of portable applications that you can install on your flash drive from text editors, media players, forms of office, games, and much more. Take a look at the full list here:
Portable Apps.com App Directory
Here are a few that I use and would recommend:
Open Office – Free Version of Microsoft Office
VLC – Media Player any audio/video file
Audacity Portable – Free Powerful Audio Editor
McAfee Stinger – Free antivirus to clean up computers
Notepad++ – Advanced Text editor