So most people have USB drives.....and many of them use them on multiple computers. Also, installing simple programs that you need on computers on which you don't have administrator privelages is a huge drag. However, I was surfing around and came across this website: http://www.portableapps.com This website has a whole host of programs which run right off a usb disc. This means you don't need administrator privelages! It includes office programs, games, utilities for your computer, accessiblity software, programming clients, graphics and sound editing programs, video/sound players, internet programs like browsers, email clients, and ftp clients, but the coolest of all: an OS - Mac OS Classic 7. It also has a suite of programs which can be downloaded all at once and include the most commonly used programs.

Pretty sweet eh?

i love that portable apps suite thing.

ive had it for ages, its really good!

although i cant use it at school lol, running exes except for what they have installed is banned.

OMG its got mac on a stick!!!! how cool is that!

This post has been edited by Sten: Aug 18 2007, 09:54 PM

Yep.. I've been using it for a good while now.. in fact ever since PortableApps came out. They keep launching frequent updates too and keep abreast with the mainstream releases. In fact, I'd written a pretty lengthy review of it sometime back - both here and in my blog.

For those who haven't tried it, it's one of those must-see things.

mIRC 6.3 has this/U3 stuff, but proper key checks. I've dl'ed about five of the bases, got a while to pick them.

Yeah, I've used PortableApps before. The version of Firefox they have comes in handy because my school computer blocks just about everything; I use it for getting around that without using proxies (well, it's not my fault they've blocked deviantART). The only problem is, running programs off USBs (or maybe it's just mine, since it's only 512 MB) is really, really slow. That downside was enough to make me uninstall it. Time is of the essence when you're working on three projects at once on school computers.

Or maybe I should just get a larger USB. *shrugs*

Serena

I'm not sure if this is entirely possible....but I'm pretty sure that you can just copy the portable app directory that you need to use off your usb right onto the computer.....since there is no installation needed and no registry keys to be added/changed you can run the program right on your computer....

True. Very much possible. You could just copy off the entire suite to some temp folder on the hard drive and run off it. Thing is, if the USB port you plug in your thumb drive is USB 2.0 compliant then you should get decent enough speed. Moreover, Firefox will only take a bit of time while starting-up. After that it's all smooth sailing I've got the whole of PortableApps (possibly every app they've got listed on their site) crammed onto my 4GB USB drive. Plus loads of other PC Repair Utils.. even then I got close to 3GB to fill up. Actively seeking more such apps

Take a look at:

http://www.tinyapps.org/

"Small is beautiful" is their motto.

I've been using the portableapps suite for a while and it's great, it's very useful when you need to use a program but need that extra functionality, for example a photo editing suite. Just say the pc has paint installed on it and you need something like photoshop, just load in your usb drive and fire up gimp. Same thing for the internet explorer/firefox deal.

I've been looking out for U3 drives too, can't wait to get my hands on one of them. You can do so much more with them and run a lot more programs right off them with full compatibility

-HellFire

i would love to be able to use it at school.

all exes except for what they have installed are blocked, in other words, you cant run your own exes.
they are a bit dumb really, they have these programs for development and u cant even test wot youve done. half the programs they have at school are pointless. theyve got flash, swfs are blocked from opening :l

they also have this "smart filter" thing, lol, it blocks every site except educational ones...