This is a shameless cut and paste column. I wanted to tell you about this useful suite of programs, and I see no way to do it better than they have. I’ve used it, and it performs as advertised. The applications don’t have all the bells and whistles (especially add-ons) that the full suites do, but they’ll do the job if you have to use someone else’s machine and don’t want to mess with their settings to get comfortable. Remember, too, that portable apps with their small footprints are a good way to get access to modern software on older, slower machines: a 65 MB full office suite, 6 MB word processor, 6 MB email client, etc. These can be accessed from the links below.

From the Web page:

PortableApps Suite is a combination of several popular software programs, all made portable and packaged with an integrated menu to tie things together. The PortableApps Menu has a familiar layout and works on any PC (from Windows 95 through Vista and even Wine under UNIX). You can even add other apps to it with ease. The included PortableApps Backup utility allows you to easily backup your documents, app data or entire drive with just a few clicks. The Suite also includes a set of folders to store your documents, music and pictures in, all accessible right from the menu. It will even automatically offer to start up when you plug it into most modern Windows computers.

The PortableApps Suite is available in multiple Editions for drives of every size. The Standard Edition includes the menu, backup and icons mentioned above as well as ClamWin Portable (antivirus), Firefox Portable (Web browser), Gaim Portable (instant messaging), OpenOffice.org Portable (office suite), Sudoku Portable (puzzle game), Sunbird Portable (calendar/task manager) and Thunderbird Portable (email client) and runs comfortably from a 512MB drive. The Lite Edition uses AbiWord Portable (word processor) instead of OpenOffice.org Portable and runs comfortably from a 256MB drive. The Base Edition allows you to pick and choose what apps you’d like to include.

[tags]PortableApps Suite, bill Webb, bill’s Web, flash drives, older computers, portable applications[/tags]