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General discussions of portable apps and news.

Site Slowdown Issues (December 2025) - Chinese AI bot DDoS

John T. Haller's picture
Submitted by John T. Haller on December 15, 2025 - 12:38pm

There have been some site slowdown issues in the last week. They often appear as the browser negotiating a TLC connection longer than usual, especially on a first connection to the site. This will either take far longer than necessary or timeout. This is unrelated to previous server downtime issues. It may be related to an increase in traffic due to AI bot scraping or similar. I'm working with Rackspace on log analysis as the issue has persisted even while we increase the workers available to processing connection.

Windows XP/Vista/7/8/32-bit Compatible Apps Available and Requested

John T. Haller's picture
Submitted by John T. Haller on October 31, 2022 - 8:19pm

I'm working on adding legacy builds of our officially-released apps that have dropped support for Windows XP, Vista, or 7 to the base app homepages. The goal is to make them easier to find for folks on legacy systems. I'm listing out completed packages and packages that are being researched and built below. The packages are designed to install alongside your main app installs and won't be updated to the latest version - breaking compatibility with your legacy OS - by the PA.c Platform. We don't need copies of any of the apps listed, thanks.

Outdated Official Portable Applications

John T. Haller's picture
Submitted by John T. Haller on July 11, 2012 - 12:00am

Welcome to the PortableApps.com outdated apps tracker. Please post a comment for any outdated official apps that aren't already listed with AppName Version as the title (no dashes, Vs or other text). Before posting a request, please make sure that their stable Windows build is available and they have been announced by their publisher (just being available on a download/ftp server, github, or 3rd party site doesn't count as the app may not yet be official). Comments will be deleted as they are added.

App installer not working on my device

KaijuNo8's picture
Submitted by KaijuNo8 on January 29, 2026 - 2:44pm

I use a Dell Inspiron 11-3168 Signature Edition from 2017. It has 2gbs of RAM and a 32GB Sandisk EMMc Storage Chip and runs Windows 10 version 1703, build 15063.994, with an additional 32GB Sandisk Micro SD card. Some app installers don't work and gives errors, it varies between apps. But I most commonly found it to do with a .dll file. One of the examples of apps that don't work I can think of OpenOffice and LibreOffice. I know OpenOffice works on my device because I used the normal installer.

Scanning App

Submitted by Archamedes on January 28, 2026 - 6:43pm

Courtesy of an ill informed Supervisor, I am now stuck with a Dell all in one piece of junk running Win11.
Even in God mode it won't let me install the software and drivers for my ancient Lexmark printer/scanner.
Does anyone know of a portable Scanning app?
Hate to toss working hardware just because some Hipster twit thinks I should only use "Shiney, Shiney, New" hardware.

Built-in ad & tracker blocking in browsers

MD Abdul Kader's picture
Submitted by MD Abdul Kader on January 28, 2026 - 4:18am

I have a general question about browsers that include built-in ad and tracker blocking. Brave Browser is often mentioned because it has native ad blocking and tracker protection without requiring extensions. I was wondering how PortableApps.com generally views browsers with built-in privacy features like this.

Recently I also came across Kahf Browser, which focuses on privacy and includes built-in ad and tracker blocking as well. From a user perspective, both seem similar in concept, though implemented differently.

Is SmartDefrag converted to OpenSource or are there two apps?

Submitted by UpdateInformer on January 27, 2026 - 6:07pm

i'm not sure whats about iobit smart defrag and smart defrag (opensource).
i just need to know, to clear if the continents biggest tech site/magazine should add or replace the other.
the first one is 3-4y old on their site and i try to put the portable opensource there...
but i need to come clear to them, now its confusing.
i recommend nice apps from here, my fav.
thx

PA Taskbar Icon

Submitted by GiGo on January 13, 2026 - 6:14am

I've never been found of the Portable App taskbar icon so made a couple to match Windows 11 and Windows 10

PAicons.png

They can be downloaded from here: https://postimg.cc/gallery/hVY7qZJ

(feel free to delete if not allowed)

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