jman
06-03-2009, 03:50 AM
First of all - I AM NOT SOLICITING. Just sharing information about Portable applications and how to make your digital life simplier and in-turn make you a smarter technology user.
So, there is a lot of us on the go with business, school, and/or travel and when we use someone else's computer we wish we had the software that we do on our computers. There has been a way for quite a while of achieving this and probably a lot of you are already doing this, but for those who didn't know I want to share this information with ya.
So on my 8 GB portable flashdrive (that cost me $25 at Walmart), I now have all my important software, documents, files, even bookmarks on the go.
Now, I'm not going into the ethical side of this, as it is completely legal - except the unauthorized use of copying protected software. That is a NO!
But there are a lot of software programmers who have created free, open source software to use - anywhere.
Here is a list of programs that I have on my USB drive that I can take ANYWHERE with me on ANY computer - regardless of privileges that are given to me. And best of all, portable software (created correctly) will leave no footprints on the host computer. So, for example, there is Portable Firefox (alternative to Internet Explorer) and when you use it - it leaves no evidence of your surfing on the host computer - because it uses a method called sandboxing. So, theoretically, a person could search for porn at any computer and not get caught whatsoever, although pornography is very frowned upon in my book - but you get the idea.
1. Portable Firefox (better alternative to Internet Explorer)
2. Portable Google Earth (we all know what this is)
3. Portable CCleaner (a registry cleaner - makes computers run more effeciently because it removes invalid entries)
4. Portable Limewire (search for music via P2P)
5. Portable OpenOffice (alternative that works interchangeably with MS Office). Although, people have been known to have MS Office 2007 portable edition instead.
6. Portable Photoshop (great application to edit photos)
7. Portable VLC Media Player (THE best media player capable of playing 99% of all media out-of-the-box. Meaning no codecs to download to make certain videos work like .avi, .mov, .mkv, etc.)
8. Portable Complex Evolution - a great CD-burning program that allows me to burn data/music CD/DVDs on any computer, regardless of permissions. IE most colleges, schools won't allow you to use their computers to burn anything to CDs even though the computers are more than able to (Weber State University can burn DVD-DL (dual layer) but has it disabled by the admin). This software will bypass that and allow you burn! yay!
9. Portable Starcraft - a great computer game that I made portable and can even play on Battle.net on ANY computer. I once tried this at a cashiers computer at Mckay Dee Hospital just to prove to the employee that is very possible - and it worked flawlessly!
10. Portable Diablo II - another great computer game that I made portable and can play on ANY computer, even LAN play.
11. Portable Half-Life - another great computer game that I made portable and more importantly can play on the LAN with just my USB drive. Cool stuff. I once played my brother over the LAN using just our USB drives at Weber State University's computers and it was awesome! Everyone was "what the heck?! how did you do that?!)
12. Portable SumatraPDF - a small application that will let you open PDF files on the run. Very important to have - especially if you don't have Firefox as your internet browser.
Also, with the PDFs - I have created PDFs and documents of every hike from Shane's website and Tanya's and Bo's website and others, and have all combined them into my outdoor folder so I can pull up any beta on my USB drive on any computer. I once did it at a hotel lobby in Hanksville when I needed the beta to a slot canyon. Very HANDY!
Well I hope you are starting to get the idea of portable applications. Very efficient and helpful. And once its on your keychain - hey, its always with you.
Take a look at this site for more information (and its all free and legal btw):
www.portableapps.com
and www.portableapps.com/apps for free portable software for your USB stick.
And if you advanced enough with portable apps, then try this website where you can create your apps with your own software (its actually a step-by-step how-to video):
http://www.5min.com/Video/How-To-Make-Portable-Applications-For-Free-91449806
And if you are already using this awesome method of Portable Apps - please share your ideas or other apps that u like using too!
If you have any questions be sure to throw them out and I'll do my best to answer it. I just won't answer questions about legality or how to get copyrighted software (you must own it, silly) etc.
So, there is a lot of us on the go with business, school, and/or travel and when we use someone else's computer we wish we had the software that we do on our computers. There has been a way for quite a while of achieving this and probably a lot of you are already doing this, but for those who didn't know I want to share this information with ya.
So on my 8 GB portable flashdrive (that cost me $25 at Walmart), I now have all my important software, documents, files, even bookmarks on the go.
Now, I'm not going into the ethical side of this, as it is completely legal - except the unauthorized use of copying protected software. That is a NO!
But there are a lot of software programmers who have created free, open source software to use - anywhere.
Here is a list of programs that I have on my USB drive that I can take ANYWHERE with me on ANY computer - regardless of privileges that are given to me. And best of all, portable software (created correctly) will leave no footprints on the host computer. So, for example, there is Portable Firefox (alternative to Internet Explorer) and when you use it - it leaves no evidence of your surfing on the host computer - because it uses a method called sandboxing. So, theoretically, a person could search for porn at any computer and not get caught whatsoever, although pornography is very frowned upon in my book - but you get the idea.
1. Portable Firefox (better alternative to Internet Explorer)
2. Portable Google Earth (we all know what this is)
3. Portable CCleaner (a registry cleaner - makes computers run more effeciently because it removes invalid entries)
4. Portable Limewire (search for music via P2P)
5. Portable OpenOffice (alternative that works interchangeably with MS Office). Although, people have been known to have MS Office 2007 portable edition instead.
6. Portable Photoshop (great application to edit photos)
7. Portable VLC Media Player (THE best media player capable of playing 99% of all media out-of-the-box. Meaning no codecs to download to make certain videos work like .avi, .mov, .mkv, etc.)
8. Portable Complex Evolution - a great CD-burning program that allows me to burn data/music CD/DVDs on any computer, regardless of permissions. IE most colleges, schools won't allow you to use their computers to burn anything to CDs even though the computers are more than able to (Weber State University can burn DVD-DL (dual layer) but has it disabled by the admin). This software will bypass that and allow you burn! yay!
9. Portable Starcraft - a great computer game that I made portable and can even play on Battle.net on ANY computer. I once tried this at a cashiers computer at Mckay Dee Hospital just to prove to the employee that is very possible - and it worked flawlessly!
10. Portable Diablo II - another great computer game that I made portable and can play on ANY computer, even LAN play.
11. Portable Half-Life - another great computer game that I made portable and more importantly can play on the LAN with just my USB drive. Cool stuff. I once played my brother over the LAN using just our USB drives at Weber State University's computers and it was awesome! Everyone was "what the heck?! how did you do that?!)
12. Portable SumatraPDF - a small application that will let you open PDF files on the run. Very important to have - especially if you don't have Firefox as your internet browser.
Also, with the PDFs - I have created PDFs and documents of every hike from Shane's website and Tanya's and Bo's website and others, and have all combined them into my outdoor folder so I can pull up any beta on my USB drive on any computer. I once did it at a hotel lobby in Hanksville when I needed the beta to a slot canyon. Very HANDY!
Well I hope you are starting to get the idea of portable applications. Very efficient and helpful. And once its on your keychain - hey, its always with you.
Take a look at this site for more information (and its all free and legal btw):
www.portableapps.com
and www.portableapps.com/apps for free portable software for your USB stick.
And if you advanced enough with portable apps, then try this website where you can create your apps with your own software (its actually a step-by-step how-to video):
http://www.5min.com/Video/How-To-Make-Portable-Applications-For-Free-91449806
And if you are already using this awesome method of Portable Apps - please share your ideas or other apps that u like using too!
If you have any questions be sure to throw them out and I'll do my best to answer it. I just won't answer questions about legality or how to get copyrighted software (you must own it, silly) etc.