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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Outdated Official Portable Applications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Welcome to the PortableApps.com outdated apps tracker. Please post a comment for any outdated official apps that aren't already listed with AppName Version as the title (no dashes, Vs or other text).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.

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)

Password protected usb

Submitted by Slamdunk58 on December 26, 2025 - 4:24pm

I'm trying to find someway to run portable apps off a password protected USB. Of course I could go buy a usb with keyboard on it that password protects the usb but these are quite expensive.
I have portable apps loaded on a password protected USB right now that works perfect (and I've had this usb for nearly 10 years) but it's a usb 2.0 and I want to do this on a new USB 3.0 so I can take advantage of the faster speeds.

Link to previous versions of Google Chrome Portable?

kingmustard's picture
Submitted by kingmustard on December 16, 2025 - 4:46am

I recently updated to Chrome Portable 143.0.7499.110, a build released in December 2025.

However, I have since discovered Google have removed two flags that I required:

  • Partition the Visited Link Database
  • Partition the Visited Link Database, including 'self-links'

Is there a way to download a version of Chrome Portable from a month or two ago?

I could not seem to find a way on your website.

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