Hi all,
Amazed by the usefulness of portable applications, I wonder why not to install them as my main applications in my normal desktop PC.
It sounds good to have clean installations that won't mess up the registry nor leave extra data around your disk.
But, on the other hand, I think that there must be some reason to have an application normally installed in you Windows computer.
So, what are the pros and cons of using portable applications instead of normal ones?
Best regards,
Pablo
Visit the Community page
Join our forums
Subscribe to our email newsletter
Subscribe with RSS
Follow us on Facebook
Follow us on LinkedIn
Follow us on Twitter
Follow us on Mastodon
Follow us on BlueSky
I can think of 1 con to using Portable Apps instead of a normal install.
file type associations, (i.e. double clicking on a .jpg or other file) windows won't know what to do with it.
"Because they stand on a wall and say, 'Nothing is going to hurt you tonight. Not on my watch.'" (A Few Good Men)
Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous.(Albert Einstein)
use cafe mod or 'right click "Open with..." and check "always use this program to open this file type" (or something like that)' to open files with a double click.
OliverK> you don't live on a cow
IRC: It brings out the best in all of us...Especially when tired.
are not good stationary applications.they have to be manualy placed everywhere. at best they are small replacements, better yet, temporary fixes or replacements untuill you can get the desktop versions. i use them on my pc hdd every once in a while untuill i can get the full versions.
Zoop
I started using them in my pendrive and at some moment the same crossed my mind. Why not on the hard disk too?
Up to now, I haven't found any real con. OOo starting slow because the launcher isn't in memory... not a big issue IMO.
And I've found some interesting advantages. Apart from the fact that you can install most of your everyday apps just by copying them, I found them really interesting in multiple boot systems (W2K-WXP). They work seamlessly from both systems.
I started using them in a 500 gig portable hard drive (USB2/Firewire).
You can get a 500 gig portable the size of a thick paperback for around $150.
I'm a designer, and I do a lot of work at home outside of office hours. It used to be a bitch keeping multiple copies of files in sync. I'd zip up updated files and copy them to my thumb drive to carry back and forth from work. I copied old files over newer files more than a few times...
I had a portable drive I was using for backup, and I got the idea to just put all my documents on it along with all my portable apps and cut out the syncing all together. (Now I just backup for redundancy)
Definitely not as portable as a thumb drive, but infinitely more roomy, and still much more portable than a laptop.
In my experience, the portable apps running on a portable hard drive are just as responsive as apps that are installed on the local hard drive.
I built a very basic machine I like to call my "Toaster" because it's not good for much more than surfing, watching divix videos, or running basic office apps.
To keep it's little 10GB HD uncluttered I have a copy of my flash drive on a 4GB Microdrive.
This works pretty well, although it's not a situation I live with daily.
I DO use my flash drive at work 5 days a week for surfing and some other basic stuff.
I consider my flash drive my machine away from home.
Almost all the software on my PC is portable and/or open-source (everything except Windows!!!).
Pros:
- Clean registry
- After a format, you don't have to spend hours/days reinstalling things
- Move them to and from other drives, internal, external etc with no issues
- Easier to keep updated *cough* since there is one site for all of the main ones
- Community support
- There is usually no difference between portable and not portable, function wise
- You know where EVERYTHING is
- More control over your software and data
- Open Source...FTW!
Cons:
None - (well more applications need to be converted, updated)
"We exist in a multidimensional polymorphic hyerspacial internode of neurotranslinguistic manifestations subjugated by hyperbolic quantum entanglement."
I'm using portable applications in a strange way, most of the time I'm using two computers, one at work, one at home. I have my PA collection on my home computer, on my work computer and my pendrive, with a daily sync process (Total Commander sync dir utility, or DSynchronize).
I don't care much about file associations, it does not affect portability, I'm using several not really portable apps as well, Foxit Reader for example.
Benefits? I have the same application suite everywhere, and most of the time (except when I'm in school, netcafe, whatever), they are running from hard disk instead of pendrive (faster, no wear off). It's really worth the daliy sync overhead.
Trust me, you'd be better off using a portable hard drive..
Well, above all, I would like to thank you all for your comments! It seems that everybody here is very enthusiastic regarding portable apps
Following my old DOS times, I've always felt that this idea of "installing" software was a little weird one, to say the less. Discovering this "portable apps" was a kind of return to those simple and easy to handle DOS programs ("hey, pal, copy it and run the exe").
Up to now, it seems that there are just two cons: the file association and the time used to start, due to the loading of the launcher. Not big issues, honestly.
But let's switch the approach of the question:
Why a developer would create a NON-portable application if he/she could create a portable one?
Best regards,
Pablo
I was recently thinking the same thing about DOS days. I only can think of a couple of cons.
Automatic updates on FFP and TBP have spoiled me, I don't want to always manually update.
Some extensions for some programs don't work.
The advantage of the easy changeover to a new computer outweigh any of those.
1. Connect new computer to network.
2. Copy portable apps dir.
3. Copy data dir.
4. Throw old computer in trash.
I am not my signature.
Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!! What? Are you crazy?!! It still works and you would throw it away?
Give it to me, I'll make it a FreeNAS server or something!
~Lurk~
i take any computer i can get. in fact most of my comuters were built for win98/NT, 10 years ago!! infact you may have herd that i had an 18 year old com that fried finnaly in May. (..) it was a 386SX-20(Pack-Mate x-20)
Zoop
Honestly, our school just upgraded our computers, and they wouldn't even let us give them away. Liability issues, or some such garbage. \
I followed the link to FreeNAS. How hard is it to set up one of these? (Warning, I'm not one of you winderkind, I'm a half-assed Windows user that used to be able to write a mean batch file, for DOS 3.2.)
I am not my signature.
want the p*rn to go to some unsuspecting person.
Don't be an uberPr∅. They are stinky.
Actually, we have this wonderful program called DeepFreeze that makes it impossible to save things to any directory that is frozen. Keeps p*rn out. (It might not be obvious, but I'm actually the teacher responsible for that.)
I am not my signature.
Technically, only if the desired Windows partition is booted.
Vintage!
It's not that bad really. Here is a relatively recent install guide to give you an idea. It looks harder than it is.
HOWTO: Install FreeNAS
Maybe you can give me some pointers on my batch files...
~Lurk~
I only have one cool one. It ran XCOPY recursively with the /u switch the second time. It could ensure that up to seven drives/directories (and all subdirectories) had the same files and the newest version of each, as long as all clocks were right. Great for equalizing files across floppies, flash drives, and multiple computers. Best if called by another batch, set for each particular purpose. I'm sure you could create it, but I'll find it if you want.
I am not my signature.
That does sound cool. I'll have to look into that. I need more practice w/batches. Working on one right now that does remote network shutdowns. (It has it's limits.)
~Lurk~
EDIT: Guess not, sorry.
Hmm?
...AKA "Win-win"
YOU win by having apps that you can re"install" (if need be; say, a system crash) with a "no fuss, no muss" bottom line (heck, you can even "re-install" them fom your bleedin' thumb drive, if it comes down to it!)
Your PC wins because it runs leaner and meaner; you have a host of apps that leave minimal memory and hard-drive footprints, and your Registry is none the bigger for running said apps.
No 'cons' at all, far as I can see...
"I don't hate cats...as long as they stay on the freeway, where they belong."
- Brad Stine
The reason for the Registry entries and temp files on the hd are speed and reduced memory. If those are not a concern then install the portables, but for full, optimized functionality install the full version of the apps you use. They don't cost any more.
Ed
I'm not so sure registry entries make things faster or reduce memory usage ...
It does provide a central place for programs to look for data. Certain things, like integration into Explorer (right-click context menu, for example) are stored there, so you might miss that. Some COM objects must have entries in the registry to work properly. But most of those aren't "faster", they either work or they don't without the registry.
Maybe "Optimized" means that all the functions are there and working, like explorer integration? That's certainly the case. But most of the portable apps here don't use those sorts of things much, or use them only when they are running -- which is the same thing, since when they aren't running, their registry entries are removed or reverted.
Portable apps can read things out of the registry, so that's not impaired.
The registry can be a huge bloated file, and the bigger it is the slower things get. So I doubt that using the registry is a guarantee that things will be faster. But that's just based on my experience; perhaps you have information to contradict that?
MC
No cons, but the advantage is you can have multiple OSes on one computer (XP and Vista for example,and even linux/mac if your daring) and share a single install of an app. For me, I have my Papps on a network drive, so I share them via an encrypted truecrypt drive. Means all I have to do is mount the drive on my LT (Vista) and I can use all my apps and docs... and when I'm finished, dismount, go to my PC (XP) and I have all my apps and docs right there (just have to make sure that I only have the truecrypt drive mounted on one PC at a time :P)
Hmm?