PortableApps.com

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PortableApps.com
Type Community
Founded 2005
Headquarters US
Industry Computer software
Website PortableApps.com

PortableApps.com is a compilation of free and open source applications founded by John T. Haller, and members of the site's community. The applications run directly from any storage equipment, like a flash drive, iPod, external hard drive, or directly from a computer. These applications have the feature of not leaving any data on the host computer. They are also modified to minimize drive usage. Most of these applications can run on almost any computer with Windows 95 and above or with Linux under Wine.[1]

Being hosted on SourceForge.net, the PortableApps.com project has gained some popularity. [2] It currently sits at number four in the total weekly downloads on SourceForge[3]

All launchers and included applications are fully free and open source, usually under the GNU General Public License [4]

Contents

[edit] Portable Application

Main article: portable application

A portable application is a computer program that can be carried around on a portable device and used on any Windows computer. Software is typically loaded onto a USB flash drive, USB hard drive, iPod or other removable media. All of the program settings and data are stored on the portable media. When the program is shut down and the device is unplugged, no personal data should be left behind. There are no registry entries, no administrator privileges or additional software needed.

[edit] History

PortableApps.com started out as a batch script to run Firefox from a flash drive.[5] John T. Haller then expanded the project to include Portable Thunderbird and OpenOffice.org. Soon, the completely open source suite of programs outgrew Haller's personal site and Haller moved it to a community site. This site now serves as a location to centralize the knowledge and development efforts of multiple portable application projects.

[edit] Applications

Some of the most famous applications made by PortableApps.com are Firefox Portable and Thunderbird Portable; but there are several others, like OpenOffice.org Portable - an office suite, ClamWin Portable - an antivirus, and VLC Portable - a multimedia player. Many forum members help creating and developing more portable applications.

[edit] Community

The PortableApps.com community tries to help the applications development by reporting bugs, giving suggestions and making even more applications portable. The site currently hosts various projects created by forum members, including Toucan and WinMerge Portable. Hosting more applications created by the community is planned.[6]

[edit] PortableApps.com Platform

The flagship product of PortableApps.com is the Platform, which includes both the PortableApps Format and the Menu.

The PortableApps Format is specified by the .paf.exe file extension. Applications packaged in the format must conform to specific specifications, which include an INI file with details on the package, separation of application and data and HTML documentation. This allows for simple backup of data with the PortableApps Backup utility.

PAF installers (files with the .paf.exe extension) are usually NSIS launchers, but can also be 7-Zip self extractors, or indeed any executable. These types of "installers" are being phased out in favour of a more friendly official installer. This allows for silent installation from the command line which may be featured in a future version of the PortableApps Menu. All of the official applications available at PortableApps.com are now formatted under the PAF.

The PortableApps Menu (PAM) is included in a suite package, which includes many popular applications. [7] The installer extracts a launcher for the PAM, a Documents folder, a folder named PortableApps (which holds installed/included applications and the menu) and an autorun.ini. The PAM can be downloaded in the Standard, Lite, or Basic edition, however there are plans to create more suite versions. [8]

[edit] Criticisms

There had been some criticism regarding the delay between the official release of an application, and the availability of a portable version. Also, there are only a limited number of applications available compared to some other platforms. Though, unlike U3 and Ceedo, anyone can easily add any portable software to the PortableApps.com Menu.

There is a bug in Firefox Portable which may leave files behind when associating a file from the internet with another program. This can easily be avoided by closing the associated file before closing Firefox.

Furthermore, some of the applications "released" by PortableApps.com are inherently portable, with official versions of the software being released (for example) in ZIP format, and can simply be uncompressed and copied to a USB drive, where it would be ready for use anyway. The repackaging of these applications only serves to integrate with the PortableApps.com menu.

Even if autorun is enabled on the PC it's being used on, the PortableApps menu can't run automatically unless set up to do so on first install under Windows XP or Vista. Instead the user has to be prompted if they want to see it or not. U3 uses a hardware component to fake a cd drive, to use the autorun feature so that a menu is possible from insertion.

[edit] List of Portable Applications

[edit] Accessibility
  • On-Screen Keyboard Portable
  • Virtual Magnifying Glass Portable

[edit] Development

[edit] Games

[edit] Graphics & Pictures
  • GIMP Portable - advanced image editor

[edit] Internet

[edit] Music & Video

[edit] Office

[edit] Utilities

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ PortableApps.com OS Compatibility List. PortableApps.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-20.
  2. ^ SourceForge.net Top All Time Downloads List
  3. ^ SourceForge.net Weekly Downloads List
  4. ^ PortableApps.com. PortableApps.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-20.
  5. ^ Haller, John. Portable Firefox. Retrieved on 2007-10-20.
  6. ^ PortableApps.com Update (Week of Feb 18, 2007). PortableApps.com. Retrieved on 2008-02-25.
  7. ^ PortableApps.com Suite Page. PortableApps.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-20.
  8. ^ Haller, John. PortableApps.com Suite 1.1 App Inclusion Ideas. PortableApps.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-20.

[edit] External links

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