A Directory Of Programs Designed For USB Drives

Update: Nov 28, 2006... Alan in the comments tells me of Pstart, "a simple tray tool to start user defined applications. Designed to run portable applications (like portable Firefox & Thunderbird), you can start anything runnable from USB key devices or removable disks."
 

Please keep the suggestions coming, either via the comments or by emailing me directly (link on the left). Comments will be trawled and suggestions added.

Here’s a directory of applications designed to run on USB drives, flash drives, key fobs, thumb drives, whatever you want to call them, a subject I wrote about in the AWSJ and WSJ.com (subscription required; sorry). This doesn't claim to be an exhaustive list, but I've tried to keep it as up to date as possible.

Editors/Readers

• Editor: Papyrus, EditPad, Atlantis,
• Office: AbiWord, OpenOffice (instructions in a PDF here)
• Outliner/note taker: TexNotes Pro
• PDF reader: FoxIt PDF Reader
• Web Authoring: NVU
• Wikis: MediaWiki

Web

• Browsers: Portable Firefox, OperaUSB, Portable Safari
  
• Offline browser: HtTrack, Webaroo (for U3)
  
• Chat/instant messaging: ICQ (not yet available), Miranda, Trillian Anywhere, Easy Message, AltMe
• Email: JBMail, Portable Thunderbird, EmailVoyager, PocoMail PE, FoxMail, i.Scribe / InScribe, Email Segway, Email Commander, Reach-a-Mail, a 'complete portable email system',
  
• FTP clients: FileZilla
• Bookmark manager: Bookmark Base

Utilities/OS

• Alternative Windows shell: BBLean
• File manager: Total Commander
• Network diagnostics: PingPlotter
• Operating Systems: Linux, Windows CE, VPM (Linux), Damn Small Linux
• Servers: The Uniform Server, MiniServer
• Start menus/launchers: Absolute Startup manager, Startup Control Panel, PStart,
  
• System information tool: SIW
  

Security

• Anti malware: Ad-Aware
• Encryption: CryptoAnywhere, Cryptainer, Portable Vault, TrueCrypt, useful guide on encrypting a drive from dekart, CryptoStick,
• Password manager/logon: Roboform Portable, DigiSAFE PassVault, Password Agent, Keepass, CyberScrub KeyChain (also files in forms), Arovax TraySafe, Proteg (from Inflexpoint), Password Manager, Blue Micro USB Flash Drive Logon, PasswordVault
  

Productivity

• Animation: Anim8or, PePaKuRa
• Calculator: Calc98
• PIMs/organisers: EssentialPIM, Sunbird , AZZ Cardfile
• Sticky notes: ATNotes
• Task Organisers: ToDoList
• Lotus Notes on a Stick
  

Leisure

• Games: Beneath A Steel Sky, Flight of the Amazon Queen
• Music: Zoom Player, XMPlay, Coolplayer, MPUI (frontend for MPlayer), foobar2000,
• Video player: Media Player Classic

Resources

• Medical: Angel Mobile Medical Profile, personal medical history (Med-a-Drive)

Hardware/packages

• Tax software: TaxCut
• A USB drive for the blind: Serotek's FreedomBox is a USB drive containing a text-to-speech and speech-to-text software as well as mainstream applications like Word, Firefox and Skype. This enables blind people to use any Windows computer just by plugging in their  drive. Prices at $129 (or £69). (via isolani)
• Portable VoIP Phone: "Skype 2.5 has been built into the Virtual CD-Rom, no need to download Skype software to your computer, you only need to plug the Flash Drive Phone into any internet connected PC or laptop, the Skype 2.5 will pop-up automatically... [also] compatible with all kinds of softphones, including VoipBuster, VoipCheap, Voipstunt, Firefly, X-pro, Net2phone, Eyebeam, etc."
• One touch USB hard drive backup: Pexagon Store-It
• Lighting control software: Martin Lightjockey 512 USB,

Other directories/resources/blogs:

• kikizas.net
• TinyApps
• NoInstall
• USBspace.com
• USB Flash Drive Freak
• USBApps
• Portable Freeware
• Stand Alone
• What’s On My Pen Drive?
• Haxial (actually software written by them for XP and Macs: All work on USB drives)
• Engadget posting + comments

 

Comments

[Greg]

Very nice list... And good timing. I just got my first USB drive yesterday.

One category of programs I'm also adding to my drive are utilities. SysInternal's utilities (http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/utilities.shtml) are must have...

Anyway, thanks again for taking the time to post this...

[MattA]

Two interesting links regarding this.

http://www.engadget.com/entry/1409518962884828/

http://www.mildewhall.com/pendrive/mypendrive.html

[Joe]

The URL for AbiWord for thumb drives is actually: [ http://sourceforge.net/projects/abiwordftd/ ]. Thanks for the list :).

[lyndon]

ATNotes a nice 'sticky notes (freeware) program that has been around for almost forever.
http://atnotes.fr.st/

MissLonelyNotes a tricky looking index card style note taker that has undergone an update. I haven't tried the update, but the original version (purchase req'd) runs from a USB.
http://www.mindola.com/

You never know what will run from a USB :-)

[Stef]

Nice selection of apps. I use Editpad (top notch text editor) from JGsoft. it will run right off of the drive and it is tiny, it'd even fit on a floppy if you strip out the help files and dictionary... It's all I need to write :)

www.editpadpro.com/editpadlite.html

[Robin]

I installed Winamp5.something on my USB MP3 Player, and as far as I can tell, it works the same way as Firefox Portable or Miranda.
I Really enjoy using my favorite apps at school or at work instead of having to settle for some substandard program such as AIM Express or the like.

[PLJack]

Email Segway works fantastic on USB drives.
I've been reading email off a USB for over a year.

[Matt]

EssentialPIM is really cool, but make sure you get the standalone USB version.
Another Music app is Coolplayer (http://coolplayer.sourceforge.net). Works really well on a USB drive.

[kost]

I use Keepass (http://keepass.sourceforge.net/) for secure storing my passwords on USB-drive.

[Karen]

Great list!

My favorite is missing, however. http://miniserver.sourceforge.net/

Apache, PHP, MySQL, and PERL all on a thumbdrive!

[mnimyi]

BBLean (http://bblean.sourceforge.net), an alternate shell for Windows modeled on Blackbox, will run from any directory, including a USB key. You can run it over Windows Explorer, and have a full-fledged shell, complete with hotkeys, a custom visual style, and launch bar from which to run your standalone apps.

[mnimyi]

Correction, that is http://bb4win.sourceforge.net/bblean/

[Nilesh]

try this site dude,

http://www.portablefreeware.com/all.php

[Cory]

You can run TexNotes Pro from a USB drive, works quiet well, can also simple use it to generate an executable that can have all your notes in an easily transportable and useful format.

[Mayagrafix]

Best thing sinced sliced bread! Is it possible to insert a USB drive into a camera and download the pix to it? Please contact me with info.

[Andrew]

RoboForm makes a portable version of it's 1-click Password Manager/Form filler called Pass2Go. Pass2Go was designed specifically to run on USB Flash drives.

http://www.pass2go.com

[Mihai Lupu]

SIW (System Information for Windows) runs from an USB drive.

It can be found here:
http://www3.sympatico.ca/gtopala/siw.exe

Homepage:
http://www3.sympatico.ca/gtopala/about_siw.html

[Chris Busse]

Virus clean up on USB drive...

... a friend of mine uses the Trend Micro Damage Cleanup Engine with a USB key to remove viruses from computers. His company requires that any computer that gets infected be immediately removed from the network, so this method allows him to have the latest virus definitions in a portable format:

http://www.trendmicro.com/download/dcs.asp

[Linda]

Another site is usbapps.com, there's a bunch of information about this there.

[Jim Weller]

Thanks for the firefox bit.

To make your keychain a security access device don't forget:

putty and pageant
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/

winscp (can use pagent)
http://winscp.net/eng/download.php

GnuPG
http://www.gnupg.org/

WinPT
http://www.stud.uni-hannover.de/~twoaday/winpt.html

PS You're blog won't except an https URL in the comment form.

[Chaos750]

Another linux distro for USB is www.damnsmalllinux.org

It is avaliable in an 'embedded' version which lets you boot off a hard drive image into a virtual computer, so all of your settings stay the same. You can even run it under windows!

[Dominik Wagner]

you forgot Papyrus (http://www.rom-logicware.com/papmobil.htm) a cross platform text editing package

[Matt]

It should also be noted that mIRC can be installed directly onto a thumbdrive using the standard installer.

[Matthew Allen]

i.Scribe / InScribe - Small but featured email for USB drive:
http://www.memecode.com/scribe.php

[moe]

have you seen http://www.trilliananywhere.com/ sounds like a better choice for "portable" IM..

[leftyfb]

For people interested .. I have started a site for JUST this type of stuff. http://wwww.no-install.com I list most of the applications mentioned here along with more. It would be great if people could contribute links to download more, related articles and info and anything that might be of interest to the community. Feel free to sign up.

[brian]

Wow, lookat that search-optimized iomega page!
(TITLE)Iomega : active disk: zip: backup: cd rw: removable storage: network attached storage: cdr: zip 100: data backup: floppy disk: active disk: cd burner: nas: hdd: data recovery service: zip 250: iomega data recovery: backup: nas: cdr(/TITLE)

[brian]

Oops, meant to include this in my OT post above. (below?) The iomega page mentions putting OO.o onto their disk. Have you tried that?

[bubazoo]

Password Agent also has USB Thumb drive support

http://www.moonsoftware.com/pwagent.asp

a nice little password manager I can't live without. only wish there was a "linux" version :(

[DB]

Another one I run from a thumb drive is FileZilla - http://filezilla.sourceforge.net/

Means that wherever you are you have a highly functional, secure ftp program to access any files you've stored elsewhere

[.dan.g.]

ToDoList is a freeware task organizer, which can and is, run off a USB drive.

find it at: http://www.abstractspoon.com/tdl_resources.html

[Jambarama]

I've always loved Media Player Classic. It can read any video file I've ever run across (even .mov, .asf, .wmv, .rm etc) as well as DVD's. And it is only a meg and a half. Your can find it here: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/guliverkli/mpc2kxp6484.zip?download

[Jeff]

Don't forget my favorite encrypted password keeper KeePass!

[Dave Burt]

Pimki[0] is a (good) PIM based on Instiki Wiki[1]. They both require nothing but Ruby[2], and will start up a web server with one click; fire up your browser and point at localhost as the interface. You can easily eliminate the dependency on Ruby, too, with RubyScript2Exe[3].

Simple! Wiki or PIM, web-based, portable.

[0] http://pimki.rubyforge.org/
[1] http://www.instiki.org/
[2] http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/
[3] http://www.erikveen.dds.nl/rubyscript2exe/

[Haxial Software]

Hi there, re your article about software that runs on USB thumbdrives. All our products have always been able to run on USB thumbdrives or any external drive. No special version is required, just download the normal version and put it on your external drive, and it works the same as if it was on the internal (there is no installer, and settings files are stored in the same folder as the program, not in the registry). www.haxial.com
Thanks.

[Joel Ebel]

First off, RUNT Linux ( http://www.ncsu.edu/project/runt )is a great linux distro you can just unzip onto a pen drive and run a script to make the drive bootable or create a boot floppy.

Secondly, I've posted a complete list of all the tools I keep on my pen drive here:
http://moses.sca.ncsu.edu/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=184#184

It's got a few tools you list, and several that are a little different. Several are useful installers to keep around, and several are single static binaries that I always like to have around, like putty, WinSCP, VNC, and MS Remote Desktop Client. unixkit-tiny has lots of useful utilities, like cygwin, but not requiring access to the registry. I also keep around a copy of McAffee stinger for quick virus scans. Plus lame and vorbis-tools for audio encoding. Take a look at the link above.

[any]

What about DamnSmallLinux ?

It was one of the first distros to have a USB Pendrive version,
and still includes a simple USB Pendrive installer.

The latest version uses qemu to boot 5 ways.
1. Emulated in Windows
2. Emulated in Linux
3. Native USB Boot (USB-ZIP)
4. Boot from floppy
5. Boot from CD

[SP]

my take on these usb apps that I did for a research project

http://www.ncl.cs.columbia.edu/publications/cucs-047-04.pdf

it actually got accepted into the W3C's WWW 2005 conference, so going to be presenting it in japan in 2 months.

[Rao]

For passwords, my personal favorite is Passvault Password Manager. Allows me to store and auto-fill passwords from my USB thumbdrive intuitively. Encrypts files too, and since no install is required, works happily in my school computer lab (aargh...those sysadmins dun give us access to install applications)

http://www.download.com/PassVault-Password-Manager/3000-2092_4-10371850.html?tag=lst-0-1

[clem]

2 former commercial games, now free and for Windows (thanks ScummVM), run fine from my USB drive:

http://www.unet.univie.ac.at/~a0200586/videogames/steelsky/
http://www.unet.univie.ac.at/~a0200586/videogames/fotaq/

thanks!
clem

[Caligula]

Other considerations in utilising a USB pen- drive are :
- incorporating a Boot program for XP and 98SE
- incorporating 'fixes' dor a number of prevalent bugs and trojans such as 'eMellisa' and 'eDoom'that can be introduced into any PC with USB access set from BIOS.
- incorporate either a replacement 'Flash' or restored parameters to a compromised MBR.
- the use of readily portable tools for determining Hardware and Software lists from an unknown PC ( such as 'Device Identifier' , 'Belarc Advisor' 'TreeSizePro' et alia.
Remember , too that there seem to be 3 speeds of Version 2 USB.....predominantly 'enhanced' and 'Super' ( although there is not a lot between them ).
Regards......................Caligula

[jhobbit]

Roboform runs nice from USB drive, free, keeps all my passwords, and personal data

[Navigator]

Crossroads Access has launched Angel Mobile Medical Profile allowing all ‘untethered’ people to securely carry their pertinent medical information with them on a USB Drive in the event of a medical incident or emergency...@ www.YourGoldenHour.com

In Your Golden Hour, the 60 minutes after a medical event, incident or accident, decisions are made that determine your emergency treatments and outcomes. What is unique with their USB applications is that when plugged into any computer USB port, Angel automatically “SNAPS OPEN” to show vital information supplied by the owner that healthcare professionals need to save lives and reduce needless pain and suffering.

Angel provides an easy to use device that carries all the owner’s medical records, medications with dosages taken, medical alerts, dental records, X-Rays, and MRIs and advance care directives to extend Your Golden Hour.

Angel contains no proprietary technology so that it is easy for both the owner and EMS or healthcare professionals to use.

[pavlion]

What about DamnSmallLinux ?

--------------
http://www.masbromas.com/

[jher]

SecureCRT also works from a pendrive

http://www.vandyke.com/support/tips/usbdrive.html

[Monte]

Another good development program that works on removable media is Eclipse (http://www.eclipse.org/). As of the last version, 3.0.1, installation isn't necessary, just an unzipping and running of the executable. I added PHPEclipse (http://www.phpeclipse.de/tiki-view_articles.php), then copied the entire directory to my thumb drive and have had no problem running.

[anon]

It is posible to run MediaWiki off a memory stick, or other removable media:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_on_a_stick

[Padman]

I having a note book which runs on win 98 OS.

I find problem using pen drives.My system cant detect the pen drive.
Please advise where can i find the driver for pen drives compatible to win 98 os..

tq

[Paul]

A few more handy programs that will run just fine on pen drives are worthy of mention:

Easy Message
Adaware 6 Pro and freeware versions
Smartripper
Virtualdub
DVD Shrink
Everest Home Edition
AVIcodec
TMPGenc Plus
Whisper32
Lupasrename
TCPview
Portable Roboform
Calc98
MBRtool
MWSnap300
Syncback
PingPlotter
CDex
Directory Lister
Cryptainer Moble

[Paul V de Lacy]

Hi,

Check out www.U3.com for Sandisk and M-Systems' joint platform allowing developers access to 50% of world's flash drives.

McAfee & Corel are in as are ICQ and Mozilla

Paul

[Trevor]

You have got to tell me that there is a zip/unzip program that will run off a USB drive!

Useful site but no mention of zip stuff. Would love to know and thanks!

[Alan]

Some interesting tiny applications which could fit in a USB pen...

http://www.tinyapps.org/

[SAL]

I can't live without:

Total Commander (Full featured file manager, FTP client and much more):
http://www.ghisler.com

FoxMail (Freeare mail client with remote management support):
http://fox.foxmail.com.cn/english/

FoxIt PDF Reader (Lightweight PDF reader):
http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php

HtTrack (Free off-line browser --> it downloads whole sites):
http://www.httrack.com/

[Peter]

I use The Uniform Server at http://www.uniformserver.com

It is very small and eays to use. Also 10x smaller than XAMPP or any other WAMP Package...

[ram raviindran]

Do you know a program that will temporarily install a font
from usb drive and then remove the font when the application
is over. This will be helpful to use a non-english language in
a word processor program

[Alec]

http://standalone.atspace.org/index.html
is a whole site dedicated to standalone application !

[Danny]

Carrying a thumbdrive is like carrying my car keys, I got to have one with me for work or for the off chance that I need to connect to a friend or family members computer.

[miki]

http://www.dekart.com/support/howto/encrypt-flash-drive-cd-dvd/ - AES 256-bit encryption for the USB drive or any other removable media

[speedwell]

I tried to put OpenOffice.org on my USB drive and run it on my computer at work. I followed all the instructions in the PDF file. It still installed to my computer and made registry entries, as well as defaulting all my MSOffice programs to itself. I'm still trying to clean up after that debacle.

Anyone know what I should have done instead to get OO.o to run off my USB drive without raping my work computer???!?

[Marinik]

Atlantis Nova is a freeeware, small and complete word processor. It work from USB drivers. <1Mb!!!

[Anonymous]

I'm looking for a small utility that I can run on my USB drive (without installation or gunk in the registry!) that will allow me to shut down the USB drive for safe removal from the system. The computers at my school have software that prohibits using the standard USB utility that comes with Win2k, so I need some way to safely shut down this drive. "Safely Remove" doesn't work because it needs to be installed.

[fad]

look out for pstart!
it's a kind of portable start menu.
much easier than starting every programm manually.

http://www.pegtop.net/start/index.htm

[BeLeBo]

Take your firefox bookmarks anywhere as well:
http://www.extensionsmirror.nl/index.php?showtopic=1048#collaborative_surfing

[BeLeBo]

And for portable firefox.. forget trying to keep your bookmark lists up to date: remotely synchronize them:

http://www.extensionsmirror.nl/index.php?showtopic=1048#collaborative_surfing

[ohtani]

former version

[Demetris]

http://www.kikizas.net/en/usbapps.html

is another list of free and freeware USB apps.

[Andreas]

Here is a maybe useful discussion about USB freeware:

http://www.trap17.com/forums/usb-key-freeware-collection-t21761.html

[Daniel]

I have on my 512 MB drive...

Firefox and Thunderbird and the installers incase I'm at someones house who wants to try them out

CAM Unzip a free zip/unzipper at camunzip.com I think.

UPX, an .exe compressor.

about 20 MP3's

The driver for my mp3 player

[chrisrg]

I've successfully used AltME [ http://www.altme.com/ ] Instant Messenger from a USB drive on the hoof.

[Derek]

A program that I like is Mike Lin's Startup Control Panel. It allows you to stop programs that automatically startup with the computer and does a better job than MSCONFIG. And it's on 76Kb in size.

Get it at http://www.mlin.net/

Autoruns 8.0 also does the same but it is a little bit more complicated but has a few more features. http://www.sysinternals.com

Derek

[RedFox]

For audio, I recommend foobar2000 (http://www.foobar2000.org/) which is much more efficient than zoom player at such tasks.
Once installed, you can copy the installation folder anywhere you want.
Caution: it can be complex to customize...

[RedFox]

For audio, I recommend foobar2000 (http://www.foobar2000.org/) which is much more efficient than zoom player at such tasks.
Once installed, you can copy the installation folder anywhere you want.
Caution: it can be complex to customize...

[Daniel Kim]

Anim8or is a stand-alone Windows app that lets you create 3-dimensional graphics. After installation, the .EXE can be copied onto a USB drive. It's at http://www.anim8or.com and is free.

A companion product is Pepakura, which can take a .3DS file output from Anim8or, and create a paper-craft printout you can use to cut and paste a 3-d model of your creation! The feature-limited freeware version is at http://www.tamasoft.co.jp/pepakura-en

[bigj121]

MPUI is linux's media player that plays EVERYTHING media. They have ported it over to M$ and it works GREAT. Even DVDs play great. Give it a try!

[Joseph F. Richmond]

How about a razor-sharp, no-questions-asked file deleter that will delete ANY file that you point it to?

[RV]

try the swissbit victorinox USB drive guys! Its got a light, pen, knife, scissors and a USB flash drive(64mb TO 2GB available on ebay) built in! U can even take out the drive by itself if u r traveling and can't take the knive on the plane!! http://www.swissbit.com/haupt.asp?nv=2288&spr=2
BTW, that's a ton of programs on this page. is there a compilation from all these comments?? Please??

[Ahmed]

Nicely done mate, this is a really good wealth of information.

[Ernest Cox]

Good day

I heard Jeremy Wagstaff's commentary on the BBC World News this morning about the hazard of bacterial contamination of kayboards.

The BBC web site has portions of the material incorporated into the wonderfully entertaining (but enlightening) commentary ... but they did not have anything about the "cleanable" sealed keyboard that is now commercially available.

Is it possible to obtain a transcript of the FULL text of this memorable commentary?

Thanks.

Ernest P. Cox
Key Tronic USA
ecox@keytronic.com

[Alan]

Hi

Just to share that we have security related apps that run on any thumb drive.

[Alexander Vihtyuk]

Our shareware ptoducts are tested to form from separately UBS drive:
Absolute StartUp manager ( http://www.absolutestartup.com ) and Tray Safe password manager ( http://www.traysafe.com )

But, you give me a idea - our licenses doesn't allow it! We should to fix them.

[Sam]

Add this to the list

Browser: Opera
http://www.opera-usb.com/operausben.htm

[Bill Adler]

CyberScrub KeyChain Password Manager and Auto Form Filler is a great FREE utility for the USD drive. Please see http://www.cyberscrub.com/keychain

[Thommes]

With the software Migo from Power House Technologie you can synchronize settings, directories, bookmarks and desktop-konfigurations on your USB-Stick to use them on any other PC without changing the configaration permanent.

[Thomas]

Is it possible to insert a USB drive into a camera and have the usb drive copy all the data stored on the camera?

[Thomas]

Is it possible to insert a USB drive into a camera and have the usb drive copy all the data stored on the camera?

[Alexander]

I would like to present you http://www.bookmarkbase.com - portable bookmark manager.

[Nigel]

USB drives have become very popular, but I think that some people don't think about the fact that they need to be protected too. That's why I use software like Portable Vault to protect the data I have on my USB drive. This way I don't have to worry.

[Sheeila]

To store my applications and data securely, I use TrueCrypt from http://www.truecrypt.org.
Basically I let PStart start a Perl script (both run from USB), which then mounts my TrueCrypt containers where my apps and data are stored in.

[Max]

I am using these portable apps:

FTP Commander - free ftp client

Mail commander - email client

NetMail - free email client

Just copy program's folder and run on any PC

Download from:
http://www.usbspace.com

[jgodsey]

may i suggest
azz cardfile?
http://www.azzcardfile.biz/

it is a very flexible shareware program
for all kinds of productivity uses.
i have been using it for AGES and it is so tiny. it's practically the 1st thing i toss on my thumb drives. IT and editpad.

[Jeremy Wagstaff]

Thanks, J. I've added it.

[Danny]

I really nice read thanks for that, picked up a view tips

[Web Marketing Mentor]

Great list, you saved me months of research. Thank you.

[trader]

Good!China keychain

[Cruise]

best site

[Computers]

best site

[Kelvin WIlson]

Hi.
I just wanted to say a big thank you for your site. I was in the process of building a usb app drive, and came accross your blog. Eventually your links brought me to the following website - PortableApps.com - and this makes me very delighted, as this collection of apps is what I needed.

What I did not realize was Win Clam is also portable, and it is a lovely edition for what I need to use my drive for.

Anyway a big thank you and a happy start for the new year.

your's

Kelvin

[Doug]

For your Editor area, there is Softmaker's Office 2006 that can now be installed on a USB drive.

[Neale]

Thanks thats great advice even 2 yrs on

[boibin]

Importateur - grossiste informatique, matériel multimédia, nous pouvons répondre à vos besoins : revendeurs, comité d'entreprises, cadeaux...
Grossiste informatique