List of portable software
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
- WebLaminarTools
- WinPenPack
Launchers
- Appetizer
- ASuite
- Launchy
- OpenDisc
- RocketDock
Development
Scripting languages
- Portable Python
- Portable NSIS Version
- Portable AutoIt
- Portable AutoHotkey
- Portable Perl
Compilers
- MinGW
- Tiny C Compiler
IDEs">Integrated development environment">IDEs
- Alice IDE
- Portable Eclipse
- Portable
- Portable Dev-C++
- Hackety Hack, which is an educational version of Ruby, can be installed on pendrive
- SharpDevelop Portable
Setup creators
- Nullsoft Scriptable Install System Portable
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
- * 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
- AkelPad
- EmEditor Professional
- Geany
- Metapad
- Notepad++
- Notepad2
- NoteTab Light
- PSPad
- Q10
- SciTE
- 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
Emulators
- DOSBox – MS-DOS emulator
- FCE Ultra – Nintendo Entertainment System 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 browser]s
- Avant
- Chromium
- Falkon
- Firefox Portable
- Google Chrome Portable
- Links
- Maxthon Browser
- Opera
- Pale Moon
- Pocket K-Meleon
- Lynx
- QtWeb
- SeaMonkey
- SRWare Iron Portable
- Sleipnir
- Waterfox
- XeroBank Browser
[Email client]s
- Mail – for Mac OS X
- Mozilla Thunderbird Portable
- Modest
- Pegasus Mail
- Pine
- Opera
- SeaMonkey
- sylpheed
- The Bat! Voyager
[Instant messaging]
- Adium – for Mac OS X
- aMSN
- Google Talk
- Portable iChat – for Mac OS X
- Miranda IM
- Monal
- Pidgin Portable
- Psi Portable
- Skype
- Trillian Anywhere
- Yahoo! Messenger
[FTP client]s
- WinSCP
- FileZilla
- Portable Cyberduck
- SmartFTP
- FlashFXP
[Download manager]s
- Wget
- HTTrack
- Free Download Manager
- Opera
P2P">Peer-to-peer">P2P [file sharing]
- BitComet
- Emule
- Opera
- μTorrent
- Halite
- FrostWire
- Limewire Portable
- qBittorrent Portable
- Vuze Portable
[IRC]
- ChatZilla Note: Requires a Mozilla based browser, e.g. SeaMonkey, or Firefox.
- Miranda IM
- 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. 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
- Opera
- XChat
- Portable X-Chat Aqua – for Mac OS X
RSS">RSS (file format)">RSS, Atom">Atom (standard)">Atom readers
- RSSOwl
- Opera
[Telnet], SSH">Secure Shell">SSH clients
- portaPuTTY
- WinSCP Portable Edition – SFTP/SCP/FTP client, remote file manager, GUI
[Podcast] managers
- Juice
Anonymity/Anti-censorship
- Tor Browser Bundle
Local [wiki]s
- EverNote
- TiddlyWiki
- DokuWiki
Miscellaneous
- Ahnenblatt multilingual Genealogy software
- Moka5 LivePC Engine. 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
- MediaCoder
- TMPGEnc
- XMedia Recode
[CD/DVD burning]
- 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
- Songbird
- K-Multimedia Player
- The Core Pocket Media Player
- VLC Media Player
- Winamp
Recorders
- Streamripper
Video capture
- VirtualDub
Video repair
- Stellar Phoenix Video Repair
Networking
[HTTP server]s
- HFS
- Node.js
- XAMPP
Miscellaneous
- Netcat
- Proxomitron – Filtering Web Proxy
- Xming
- Wireshark
- RealVNC
[Remote desktop]
- 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 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
- CWShredder
- HijackThis
- 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
- 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.