Aluísio A. S. G.'s blog

There are many communities out there dedicated to software portablization. By joining one of them, you can:

• get assistance on portablizing applications;
• help other developers and users of portable applications;
• offer your application for testing before publishing it in the wild.

Each community usually has its own standard and guidelines for portable applications, as well as specific ways to achieve portability. This guide will focus on PortableApps.com, the site I am member of. You are free to choose any other, but you will need to adapt or ignore many parts of the rest of the guide.

Introduction

Have you ever wanted to take your favorite applications, as well as their settings, and be able to use them on any computer? Have you ever wanted to be able to reinstall Windows without having to reinstall and reconfigure all your programs? Have you ever wanted to demonstrate a new app to a friend without installing it first?

If you have answered "yes" to any of the previous questions, then you are looking for portable applications. They do not depend on the computer they are running on, and can be easily shared with anyone. They are your computer on any computer.

Do you have an application you want to make portable? We'll see how to do it. But first, there are a few things we have to learn, like the full definition of portable application.

I am currently working on a series of posts about the development cycle of a portable app. This guide will cover all major aspects of portable apps: since the definition of "portable app" (and a bit of history), licensing issues, trace detection and analysis, until the official release.
I hope to be able to post within a 1 week/month interval. Meanwhile, drafts can be found at my website.