Portable Software runs on your USB key drive, your iPod, a memory stick, or any type of external drive you plug into a USB port. You don’t have to install anything on the computer’s hard drive. It’s like carrying your office around with you. Or… carrying your home to the office.

These kind of apps are becoming more and more popular as USB flash drives get cheaper and cheaper. If you ever do any work at more than one computer, go get one now, then install this freeware. Then you can do something else. If you want. Or, you can just hold your key drive and feel good about what you’ve just done. This has been added to the tools section of Research Resources Subject Tracer™ Information Blog.

Q: Why don’t you have “xxxxxx” on your site?

A: There are a few possibilities.

1. It’s not freeware. I do not list shareware, nagware, or adware of any kind. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

2. There’s another product in that category that I prefer. I list what I think is the best of its kind.
3. The software is too esoteric for general use. To keep the listings easy to navigate and useful to everyone, I don’t list everything under the sun, just those products that I recommend.
4. I haven’t heard of it. Yeah, right.
5. I haven’t gotten to it yet. There are more categories that I want to add, including development tools. I will not add anything that I haven’t reviewed.
6. It’s server-focused. I haven’t listed Apache, MySQL, etc. because this site’s focus is on desktop / workstation software.