An Updated Directory Of Programs Designed For USB Drives

Update Nov 6 2006: To avoid confusion I've moved all this back to the original page.

Here’s a directory of applications designed to run on USB drives, a subject I wrote about in the AWSJ and WSJ.com (subscription required; sorry). This list includes those suggestions kindly sent in by readers from the last posting. Please keep them coming (I haven’t checked to see whether those suggested run without hacks off USB drives, and I have left off some of the more sysadmin type tools the general reader might not have much appetite for.)

• Alternative Windows shell: BBLean
  
• Anti malware: Ad-Aware
  
• Browsers: Portable Firefox
  
• Calculator: Calc98
  
• Chat/instant messaging: ICQ (not yet available), Miranda, Trillian Anywhere, Easy Message
  
• Editor: Papyrus, EditPad
  
• Email: JBMail, Portable Thunderbird, EmailVoyager, PocoMail PE, FoxMail, i.Scribe / InScribe, Email Segway
  
• Encryption: CryptoAnywhere, Cryptainer
  
• File manager: Total Commander
  
• FTP clients: FileZilla
  
• Games: Beneath A Steel Sky, Flight of the Amazon Queen
  
• Medical profiles: Angel Mobile Medical Profile
  
• Music: Zoom Player, XMPlay, Coolplayer
  
• Network diagnostics: PingPlotter
  
• Office: AbiWord, OpenOffice (instructions in a PDF here)
  
• Offline browser: HtTrack
  
• Operating Systems: Linux, Windows CE, VPM (Linux), Damn Small Linux
  
• Outliner/note taker: TexNotes Pro
  
• Password manager: Roboform Portable, DigiSAFE PassVault, Password Agent, Keepass
  
• PDF reader: FoxIt PDF Reader
  
• PIMs/organisers: EssentialPIM, Sunbird
  
• Servers: The Uniform Server, MiniServer
  
• Sticky notes: ATNotes
  
• System information tool: SIW
  
• Task Organisers: ToDoList
  
• Video player: Media Player Classic
  
• Web Authoring: NVU
  
• Wikis: MediaWiki

Then there are all the applications designed to run on Iomega’s proprietary Active Disk, some of which also come in non-Active Disk versions. There are also some other sites that have collected these kind of applications:

• TinyApps
  
• NoInstall
  
• USBApps
  
• Portable Freeware
  
• 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

[BrokenClock]

You may add:
*webserver: ServCD http://sourceforge.net/projects/servcd/
*video tool: VirtualDub http://www.virtualdub.org/

[Noah]

Also, Password Manager XP (www.cp-lab.com)

[Duncan]

Is there a list like this for OSX apps?

[Ken]

NoteTab Pro will run off a usb drive.

[Carson]

The games on neave.com run incredibly on a flash drive.

[Steve Rubel]

Awesome list!

[C J Cockrell]

TrueCrypt (Free open-source disk encryption for Windows XP/2000/2003) Has a traveller mode, whereby you can run the program without installing it.
home page is http://truecrypt.sourceforge.net/

[colin]

VLC: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

a very good, very small, video and audio player and streamer

[Gadgetboy]

Dekart Private Disk for the Crypto part (http://www.private-disk.net)

[airWRX]

airWRX is an application framework that runs from a USB flash drive, and turns its PC host and other nearby PCs into a multi-screen, web-like work environment. airWRX makes a flash drive into a mobile application server, and any available PCs into your personal workspace.

The airWRX framework is lightweight, extensible, and includes full source code. airWRX enables developers to create sophisticated mobile and collaborative applications that unify PCs and data like no tools before it.

[rex]

filecommander
mahogany
mini apache
notepad++

[JW]

I'm told by Eyal Kaplan of Inmatrix that "Zoom Player is a powerful Media Player, with playback abilities ranging from MP3's, through a wide range of Media formats, including video. Zoom Player Professional can also be used to view DVD's and is the most powerful DVD front-end on the market today. Therefore it is clear that Zoom Player should be added or moved to the Media Players, or Video Players categories, rather than remain under Music, its current placing."

[La peste]

1 very good email client to be added: Foxmail
It allows you to send emails from any connected computer running Windows and it has also a remote administration module for you accounts.
http://fox.foxmail.com.cn/english/
1 remark for VLC mentionned by gadgetboy: This very good program doesn't need any codec installed to read a Divx... I have few movies on my USB drive and I can watch them on any Windows PC.
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

[Eric]

PSPad (http://www.pspad.com) is maybe the finest pure text editor I've ever used, is totally free, and runs like a charm on a USB disk. :)

[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

[kost]

I installed Opera on my USB Flash-drive. Works fine as browser/mailer/rss-reader.

Just install anywhere you want, while installing remove "different profiles foe differenrt users" and edit some lines in opera6.ini.

http://reg.kost.ru/02.09.2005/1

In Russian... But you can which see lines to change.

[Sam]

From the maker of i.scribe [email client]:

http://www.memecode.com/iftp.php

Portable FTP program that I have used. Lean and mean.

Blog on,
Sam

[Fausto Di-Trapani]

Hi, great forum

Being an extensive traveller, a portable computing environment is a MUST. A great little program I came across is Runit (http://magister-lex.at/RUNit/). It is a little program launcher with all its settings stored in an ini file (portable). I wrote a little batch file to edit the ini file to refer to new locations of programs when the drive letter changes, so far this little program has been the most useful of the lot for me as it allows me to easily access all my portable apps without having to browse through folders. Here is the batch file:
**********START BATCH FILE***************
@echo off
echo @echo off> volume.bat
echo set getdrv_=%%3>> volume.bat
dir | find "Volume" > go.bat
Call go
if exist volume.bat del volume.bat
if exist go.bat del go.bat
echo.
echo.
echo.
for /F "tokens=1" %%o in (.\olddrv.drv) do if %%o==%getdrv_% (
echo Current drive is %getdrv_%, INI drive reference is %%o. INI file references OK!
start runit.exe %getdrv_%:\USBAPPS\RUNIT\runit.ini
exit
) ELSE (echo Current drive is %getdrv_%, INI drive reference is %%o updating INI drive references!
echo %getdrv_% > olddrv.drv
sed "s/\%%o:\\/%getdrv_%:\\/g" runit.ini > runit.inz
echo y | del runit.ini
ren runit.inz runit.ini
start runit.exe %getdrv_%:\USBAPPS\RUNIT\runit.ini
)
exit
***********END BATCH FILE*****************

Effectively the script looks for the old drive letter (this will have to be set up manually at first in a file called olddrv.drv in the program directory - create with notepad) compares it to the current drive letter and if it is different, updates all the references to programs in the ini file.

You will need to have sed (Google search) in the same directory as Runit.

My directory structure is as follows
ROOT
USBAPPS
RUNIT

With this little program I am able to plug in my USB drive into almost any windows PC and have all my programs available through one small floating menu.

Active programs on USB drive now
Ad-Aware
Archive Pass Cracker
BatchCompiler
BSZipper
Cryptainer
Crypto Anywhere
DSCrypt
Edit Pad
Encryption
Essential PIM
EXEDepend
Foxit PDF Reader
HandySafe
HashCalc
Hex Editor
Internet
IrfanView
KeePass
LeechFTP
ListNetIP
Miranda IM
Office
Office Pass Cracker
OpenOffice
PicoPhone
Pop3 Server
PrcView
Private Disk
ProxoMitron
Putty
QZip
RecoverMyFiles
ResourceHacker
RightFTP
SecEXmail
Servers
Spider
Splitter
SSFTransfer
s-t-i-n-g-e-r
Sunbird Calendar
SuperScan4
Thunderbird Mail
UniServer
Unzipper
Utils
VisitURL
VNC Server
VNC Viewer
WackGet
Web Server
Win PW Crack
WinMX P2P
WinRAR
Winsin
xmplay

Any problems mail me.

[46664]

WASTE ...for exclusive encrypted mesh..perfect for file sharing..instant messaging..chatting...

heres their official site..

http://waste.sourceforge.net/

and here's a site that runs a public mesh.

http://www.waste.vimicorp.com/wp/

[Douglas McFadzean]

Easy ways of making the K-Meleon (Gecko-based) browser portable are described in detail on my webpage at: http://kmeleon.uk.to
Windows users will find K-Meleon loads faster and uses less system resources than Firefox!

[PJ Daniels]

AT Notes don't exist any more - it's been discontinued.

I'd luv a stickynote applet that's truly portable.

I use the portable version of Essential PIM (Free Version) - I'm happy with it, but I'll have a look at ToDoList app you use

In one your weekly BBC-WS sessions you mentioned web based word processor, any chance I sending the URL

Suprised that Mr Postman isn't mentioned. I use it in conjunction with Thunderbird Portable to access 4 mail accounts, include my home ISP.

I use the FTP extension to Firefox - excellent, as is the latest Tab Mix - it's Session Manager is excellent for Road Warriors

[alan]

pstart "portable start menu": launcher, to do list, notepad, search, system info.
www.pegtop.net

[pregnancy]

Pregnancy, Pregnancy Symptoms,detailed list of pregnancy symptomsPregnancy Calendar,Follow your pregnancy weekSigns Of Pregnancy,early pregnancy symptoms and signs Pregnancy Calculator,You can use this calculatorPregnancy Test,Result Pregnancy Test is... biz.yahoo.comStages Of Pregnancy,Pregnancy Stages and SIGNSEctopic Pregnancy,treatment of ectopic tubal pregnancyPregnancy Due Date,estimated due datePregnancy Due Date Calculator,Pregnancy Pictures,Pregnancy Weekly, Pregnancy & Childbirth. Google DirectoryTeenage Pregnancy,Teen Pregnancy and Related IssuesKatie Holmes Pregnancy Pictures,Online Pregnancy Test,test to determine your oddsPregnancy Questions,Pregnancy By Week,Follow your pregnancy week by weekEarly Pregnancy,typical early pregnancy on msnPregnancy Weight Gain,monitoring of your weight Tubal Pregnancy,ectopic tubal pregnancy and infertility issuesImplantation Bleeding Pregnancy,

[flowers]

flowers,1800 Flowers ,a collection of flowerWedding Flowers,wide selection of uniquePictures Of Flowers, the best online photo management Send Flowers,gifts for delivery all overPerennial Flowers,includes related articlesPro Flowers, the best place to compare productsSilk Flowers,in your office environmentHawaiian Flowers,your favorite photos to the worldFtd Flowers,florist gift selectionsWholesale Flowers,more detail on yahooTypes Of Flowers,more information ingoogleAnnual Flowers,contains a wealth of background informationPlanting Flowers,plantings plans Garden Flowers,gardening information and resourcesFlowers Online,more detail on msnOrigami Flowers,With detailed photographicFuneral Flowers,show you care with freshFlowers Picture,more on googleWholesale Fresh Cut Flowers,Conroys Flowers,Information Vacuum

[Women]

Women, American Woman, woman Bodybuilding, Black magic woman, Wonder Woman, Working Woman, Woman history, Famous woman, Sports woman, Indian Woman, Cat woman, Perfect woman, Women cloth,

[Steve]

I'd recommend Total Organizer (portable PIM)