For the purposes of this list, a portable application is software that can be used from portable storage devices such as USB flash drives, digital audio players, PDAs or external hard drives. To be considered for inclusion, an application must be executable on multiple computers from removable storage without installation, and without writing settings or data onto a computer's non-removable storage. This includes modified portable versions of non-portable applications.

Bundles

• Ceedo
• MojoPac
• LiberKey
• PortableApps.com
• U3
• WinPenPack

Launchers

• Appetizer (Dock application)
• ASuite
• Launchy
• OpenDisc
• RocketDock

Development

Scripting languages

• Portable Python
• Portable NSIS Version
• Portable AutoIt
• Portable AutoHotkey (zip file)
• Portable Perl (Strawberry Perl Portable Version)

Compilers

• MinGW
• Tiny C Compiler

IDEs

• Alice IDE
• Portable Eclipse
• Portable Code::Blocks (needs MinGW installed, which is portable too)
• Portable Dev-C++
• Hackety Hack, which is an educational version of Ruby
• SharpDevelop Portable

Setup creators

• Nullsoft Scriptable Install System Portable (PortableApps.com format)

Visual mapping/productivity tools

• XMIND

Graphics

3D modeling and rendering

• Anim8or – Free 3D modeling and animating software.
• Blender:
  • BlenderPortable
  • Blender Pocket
  • XBlender

Animation

• Anim8or
• Blender
• Pivot Stickfigure Animator

Graphic editors

• ArtRage
• Artweaver
• Dia
• EVE
• Fotografix
• GIMP:
  • GIMP Portable VS 2008 is the Gimp portable version of Gimp on Windows platforms (Windows XP, Vista, NT Server 2003, NT Server 2008)
  • Portable Gimp – for Mac OS X
  • X-Gimp
  • X-GimpShop
• Inkscape:
  • X-Inkscape
  • Portable Inkscape – for Mac OS X
• IrfanView
• Pixia
• Tux Paint

Icon editors

• @icon sushi
• GIMP – Supports reading and writing Windows ICO files.
• IcoFX
• IrfanView – Supports converting graphic file formats into Windows ICO files.

Viewers

• FastStone Image Viewer: supports screen capture, multiple pix into a single PDF
• Irfanview
• XnView

Document-based

Office and publishing

• Abiword
• AllMyNotes Organizer
• Atlantis Word Processor
• Jarte
• LibreOffice
• OpenOffice.org
• Scribus
• StarOffice

Editors

• EmEditor Professional
• Geany
• Metapad
• Notepad++
• Notepad2
• NoteTab Light
• PSPad
• Q10
• SciTE
• Sublime Text
• TED Notepad
• Textpad
• UltraEdit
• VEDIT
• Vim

Personal notes

• Personal Knowbase

Educational

• Celestia
• GCompris
• Maxima
• Stellarium
• Calibre

Games

• AssaultCube
• Cave Story
• Dwarf Fortress
• Doom I / II
• Frets on Fire
• Kerbal Space Program
• Minecraft
• PokerTH
• Quake
• Secret Maryo Chronicles
• Tile World
• Warzone 2100
• Xonotic

Emulators

• DOSBox – MS-DOS emulator
• FCE Ultra – Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) emulator
• MAME – Multiple Arcade Machine emulator:
  • MAMEUI32
• VisualBoyAdvance – Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance emulator
• ZSNES – Super NES emulator

Plug-in emulators

• JoyToKey – Gamepad emulator

Internet

Web browsers

• Brave
• Chromium
• Falkon
• Firefox Portable
• Google Chrome Portable
• Links
• Maxthon Browser
• Opera
• Pale Moon
• Pocket K-Meleon
• Lynx
• QtWeb
• SeaMonkey
• SlimBrowser
• SRWare Iron Portable
• Sleipnir
• Waterfox
• XeroBank Browser

Email clients

• Mail – for Mac OS X
• Mozilla Thunderbird Portable
• Modest
• Pegasus Mail
• Pine
• Opera (has integrated Email client)
• SeaMonkey
• sylpheed (zip version)
• The Bat! Voyager

Instant messaging

• Adium – for Mac OS X
• aMSN
• Google Talk
• Portable iChat – for Mac OS X
• Miranda NG
• Monal
• Pidgin Portable (formerly Gaim Portable)
• Psi Portable
• Skype
• Trillian Anywhere
• Yahoo! Messenger

FTP clients

• WinSCP
• FileZilla
• Portable Cyberduck
• SmartFTP
• FlashFXP

Download managers

• Wget
• HTTrack
• Free Download Manager (installation required to create portable version)
• Opera (Integrated Download Manager)

P2P file sharing

• BitComet (needs msxml)
• Emule
• Opera (integrated torrent client)
• μTorrent (latest version)
• Halite
• FrostWire
• Limewire Portable
• qBittorrent Portable
• Vuze Portable

IRC

• ChatZilla Note: Requires a Mozilla based browser, e.g. SeaMonkey, or Firefox.
• Miranda NG
• mIRC Note: There is a U3 version of mIRC that can be installed on U3 drives. The original application is portable, leaving behind only the license key in the registry. (This may not be true with the newer versions that are Vista-compatible, as their default user data area was changed to the user's application data folder.) Since v3.1, it can be started from a command line using the -portable switch to use settings, DLLs, and license keys that are stored in the same folder as mirc.exe.
• Nettalk
• Pidgin (formerly Gaim)
• Opera (Integrated Irc client)
• HexChat
• Portable X-Chat Aqua – for Mac OS X

RSS, Atom readers

• RSSOwl (needs Java runtime environment)
• Opera (Integrated RSS/Atom client)

Telnet, SSH clients

• portaPuTTY
• WinSCP Portable Edition – SFTP/SCP/FTP client, remote file manager, GUI

Podcast managers

• Juice

Anonymity/Anti-censorship

• Tor Browser Bundle

Local wikis

• EverNote
• TiddlyWiki
• DokuWiki

Miscellaneous

• Ahnenblatt multilingual Genealogy software
• Moka5 LivePC Engine (Portable VMware). Dynamically loads and unloads network drivers and requires administrator rights.
• Mojopac portable chopped down copy of windows. Requires administrator rights.

Multimedia

File converters

• Any Video Converter
• Audiograbber
• CDex
• FormatFactory
• fre:ac
• MediaCoder
• TMPGEnc

CD/DVD burning

• CDBurnerXP
• DVDStyler
• DeepBurner Portable Edition
• InfraRecorder
• Portable ImgBurn

Editors

• Portable Audacity – for Windows and Mac OS X
• mp3DirectCut
• GoldWave
• VirtualDub

Audio/MIDI sequencer

• Reaper has a .bat file for a USB stick installation

Players

• RealPlayer
• FLV player
• Media Player Classic
• foobar2000 – only supports xp and forward
• MPlayer
• SMPlayer (7zip version)
• Songbird
• K-Multimedia Player (zip version)
• The Core Pocket Media Player
• VLC Media Player
• Winamp

Recorders

• Streamripper

Video capture

• VirtualDub

Video repair

• Stellar Phoenix Video Repair

Networking

HTTP servers

• HFS
• Node.js
• XAMPP

Miscellaneous

• Netcat
• Proxomitron – Filtering Web Proxy
• Xming
• Wireshark
• RealVNC

Remote desktop

• AnyDesk
• RealVNC
• TeamViewer
• TightVNC
• UltraVNC

Other tools

Web editors

• Portable Nvu and KompoZer – for Mac OS X and Windows.
• OpenOffice.org Portable – Complete office suite, which includes HTML editor.
• SeaMonkey

Calendar management

• Portable Sunbird – for Mac OS X, and Windows
• Portable iCal – for Mac OS X

File management

• Directory Opus by selecting the USB/U3 export option
• Servant Salamander 1.52
• Total Commander
• X-file X-file for Windows 98SE/2K or later
• XYplorer

File archivers/extractors

• 7-Zip
• Filzip
• PeaZip, for BSD, Linux and Windows
• WinRAR, Portable version for Windows, still requires having a license for a regular version of WinRAR. The version number for WinRAR Unplugged is 3.8.0.1, while the latest WinRAR for Windows version is 4.11

PDF tools

Readers

• Foxit Reader
• STDU Viewer
• Sumatra PDF
• PDF-XChange Viewer

Writers

• Portable OpenOffice.org – for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X

Security and encryption

Password management

• KeePass Portable
• Password Safe

Anti-spyware/malware

• Combofix
• HijackThis
• Spybot – Search & Destroy
• SUPERAntiSpyware

Antivirus

• ClamWin Portable
• GMER
• Sophos Anti Rootkit Tool

Steganography

• OpenPuff

Real-time disk/volume Encryption

• FreeOTFE / FreeOTFE Explorer

System maintenance

Optimization and cleaning

• CCleaner

Storage management

Visual maps of free space and biggest files and folders on hard drive.

• WinDirStat
• Defraggler

System information

• CPU-Z – CPU and memory hardware details – clock and FSB speeds, SPD, OS version.
• AIDA32 – freeware system information, diagnostics, and auditing program
• Speccy – System information tool.

Partition/file recovery

• Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery
• PhotoRec
• Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery
• Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery
• TestDisk
• Recuva – has U3 variant.

See also

• Portable Application
• List of LiveDistros
• Live USB
• Portable application creators
• VMware ThinApp, a virtualization suite (with the ability to make portable programs)
• Windows To Go

References