At MakeUseOf, we have provided you with countless articles on perfecting your USB flash drive with portable applications. If you’ve yet to see our Best Portable Apps page, you need to give it a look. Portable software can really change the way you work and enjoy your personal Internet experience. I don’t go anywhere without 16GB of portable goodness on me. It’s as essential as my keys or wallet.With thousands of portable applications out there ready to creep onto your flash drive, some can get lost in the mix. I’d like to share a few of my lesser-known solutions with you, and maybe you’ll end up finding a little piece of software that can complete your collection.
TinyApps.org
TinyApps.org stays true to its name; hundreds of very small, portable applications that are less than a megabyte in size.
Today, a 4GB flash drive will cost you, what, five bucks? To some, the concept of TinyApps.org may seem a little obsolete, but it’s a website to be appreciated. If you’re trying to squeeze the last few megabytes of juice out of your flash drive, you can find some fantastic applications on this website.
They’ve got software of every kind for you, too – web browsing, text editors, graphics, system and maintanence, file handlers, and then software for the Palm and OS X platforms.
Lupo PenSuite
Lupo is a portable application suite of over 180 of some of the web’s most popular and essential programs.
Amongst the suite crowd, Lupo isn’t very popular for some reason. I’ve got Lupo on one of my USB sticks and I think it’s great.
The full version comes packed with software like (as stated on their website) 7-Zip, Audacity, CCleaner, eMule, FileZilla, Firefox, Foxit Reader, GIMP, IrfanView, Notepad++, Opera, Pidgin, Thunderbird, µTorrent, VLC , and more. You’re also able to add standalone portable applications to the suite to expand and customize it on your own. It comes in Full (450 MB), Light (165 MB) and Zero (5 MB) versions.
If you’re uninterested in the entire software package, Lupo offers a page of software collections where you can download what you want individually. Lupo is completely free and has been translated to more than 28 different languages, making it very accessible. It deserves the same consideration as other popular suites (like the PortableApps.com Suite) take pride in.
With Lupo, as I would with any portable software suite, I’d recommend an installation on a clean flash drive. Don’t be too shy to dedicate an entire spare drive to a portable suite, as it usually ends up as a cleaner experience.
Pendriveapps.com
Pendriveapps.com is one of the largest directories of portable applications that you’re going to find online.
This website specializes in reviewing free portable applications (mostly for Windows). The website is very extensive and has a lot of categories, such as the following:
- Antivirus/Firewall
- Application Suites
- Apps for Mac OS X
- Audio Video Software
- CD DVD Burning Software
- Computer Programming
- Dictionaries
- Disk Defragmenters
- Email Software
- Encryption Utilites
- File Managers
- FTP Tools
- Graphics and Design
- Instant Messengers
- Internet Browsers
- Internet Security
- Internet Tools
- iPod Managers
- IRC Clients
- Media Players
- Money Management
- Network Tools
- P2P Filesharing Utilities
- Password Managers
- Password Recovery
- Picture Editors
- Product Key Tools
- Registry Tools
- RSS Readers
- Start Menus
- System Tools
- Translators
- VNC
- VoIP Tools
LiberKey
We’ve done a whole article on LiberKey before, but I feel as if people need to be reminded of how awesome this suite is.
This bundle is really like having an entire desktop of PC software on one flash drive. You could survive without installing a single piece of software on your computer if you decided to use LiberKey so intensively. It comes packed with just a little under 300 applications that can do anything and everything. The three suites they provide (Ultimate, Standard, and Basic) all size in at under 1GB of decompressed storage, so this should fit on anyone’s drive.
LiberKey lends heavily from other suites to put together a complete package that is more than impressive. If you haven’t got the time or patience to pick through individual packages, throw LiberKey on a flash drive and you won’t forget it. Give your drive some breathing room through, as many of these applications will bloat and consume storage as they are used more frequently.
Here are a couple more articles that you should read concerning expanding your collection on your USB drive :
- 4 Little-Known And Portable Browsers That Should Be On Your USB Drive
- Live USB Install Puts Linux On Your Thumb Drive With Ease
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