General Discussion

What would defragmentation do to a portable drive? I want PFF to be faster, but I don't want to risk hurting the USB drive.

Check this portable file manager out. I haven't tried yet. Just let you know.
http://www.xyplorer.com/

Below is what posted on the download page.

The installation of XYplorer totals to about 1.7 MB. No further files are added anywhere to your system, and nothing will be put into the registry but uninstall information. Also, running the program does not change your system or registry. XYplorer can be completely removed by running the included uninstaller, or by simply deleting the install directory.

On the latest GeekBrief TV episode (#27), PortableApps is quickly mentioned. They talk about an external harddrive and "heading over to PortableApps" and putting Thunderbird and Firefox on it. They bring it up about three quarters of the way through.

I thought it was pretty interesting. You can download the episode here.

hi all im new to the group
i love portableapps i using windows xp sp2
i have one question I after you use the winds thing to stop the dirve
is there a command you can use so windows rscan an picks up the dive so you dont have to pulll it in an outpto get it picked up again thanks beau

Just released Mars Notebook 1.3 - very useful tree-styled notebook.
Full featured text editor with tables, formatting, hyperlinks, pictures... Any amount of sections can be created at any tree level, supports data encryption. Import/export from/to MS Word, HTML and a lot of more features...
More info on

[URL REMOVED BY MODERATOR]

It's not free but uses registration file which must be placed with the same folder with the program.
Without registration it works fine too (but with some function limits)

To make it work portable just select "Save options to file" in program preferences and that's all.

1. AveDesk. I guess this one is not.
2. Rainmeter, Rainlendar.
3. Does desktopx gadget write entry? I just know it'll store some files in folder Application Data.
4. filzip. I changed the setting into the ini file and deleted the entry under current user. However, when I run it from my flash drive, it writes entry again.
5. xmplay and foxit need no installation, but do write entries, right?
6. Are things in portablefreeware.com really all portable?
7. everest home edition portable? What's the last version of home edition without installion? I downloaded ver2.20.405, but it needs to be in

Hi All,

I've found that whenever XP is restored from hibernation it does not reload my USD HDD... I can't remember if this is the case for flash drives, but USB HDD's does not get assigned a drive letter after restoring from hibernation.

Before I started using portable apps this was not a problem as I could merely eject the HDD and plug it in again to restor "My Documents" which is mapped to my USB HDD.

The problem with running portable apps from the same drive is that any open applications simply gets "killed" as they no longer exist according to XP.

Any thoughts on how to get around this problem?

Hi All,

The problem I have now is that I have the same applications on my host machine as on my USB HDD.

This means that when I double-click a file/document the application on my host machine is executed not the portable app.

Initially I thought of uninstalling all the apps off the host machine but this is probably not a "murphy" compliant solution.

This also brings me to another point. Is it possible to make a small change in the "Help, About..." screen to show that it is a portable app?

Once the programs are running it I find it hard to tell whether it is the desktop application of the portable application that I/was started.

Hallo John,

I was wondering, if I have an application that's already installed on a U3 drive, why can it not be copied/used from my USB HDD?

I purchased a 1GB Memorex U3 drive, but soon realized it is too small for my email.

I like the concept and novice skill levels needed, but I need much more space. The other problem was that memorex has not yet released an upgrade for Thunderbird which made me nervous.

Now that I took the time to install some of the portable apps, I'm surprised at how easy it really is. (Thanks for all your hard work John)

Now if I could only 'migrate' my other apps like Trillian and Skype it would be perfect. I'm not yet comfortable with the involved processes available to make them portable...

I would like to know if I can get my mp3 to act as RAM?