Audio
CoolPlayer A tiny, super-fast audio player. | Audacity An open-source, simple and powerful audio editor. | CDex Extract audio from CDs reliably. | |||
SharePod Manage an iPod with no iTunes from any Windows computer. Download |
Communication
Email Stripper A free application that cleans up long email threads. | Pidgin A multi-protocol IM client. Packaged by PortableApps.com. | Miranda IM Another multi-protocol IM client, with a ton of plugins. | |||
Skype Not an official installer, but from PortableApps.com. |
Image Editors and Viewers
Easy Image Modifier A tool for resizing, flipping, converting, watermarking and renaming images. | InkScape An open-source vector editor. Think “Illustrator” or “CorelDRAW” — not as powerful, but free. | GIMP Think “free Photoshop” with a cluttered interface. Powerful, but an acquired taste. Packaged by PortableApps.com. | |||
AndreaMosaic A free application for creating photomosaics (pictures made up of tiled pictures). | Fotografix A tiny image editr aimed at photograpers and designers. |
Productivity
WriteMonkey A fantastic full-screen text editor for distraction-free editing. I use it all the time. | Abiword A free, open-source word processor. Packaged by PortableApps.com. | Notepad2 A text editor with programmer-friendly features. | |||
FocusWriter Another full-screen editor for a Zen-like writing experience. Download | OpenOffice Not as slick as MS Office, but it will do in a pinch. Packaged by PortableApps.com. | Programmer’s Notepad 2.2 A powerful text editor for developers. | |||
XAMPP The Apache Web server, MySQL, PHP, and Perl, all bundled together in one portable ZIP. | TreePad Lite A personal information manager for notes and other information. | Stickies A fantastic sticky-note application, packaged by PortableApps.com. |
Security and Privacy
ClamWin A portable, powerful and free antivirus. Packaged by PortableApps.com. | LicenseCrawler Crawls a computer for software serial licenses. | TrueCrypt Create encrypted virtual hard drives. Link leads to portable mode documentation. | |||
KeePass The golden standard when it comes to securely managing passwords and logins. |
Suites
PortableApps.com Suite A launcher interface for all portable apps from PortableApps.com. | SysInternals Suite For administrators and technicians: All SysInternals troubleshooting utilities rolled into one ZIP file. | NirLauncher A collection of over 100 portable freeware Windows system tools, all by NirSoft. |
System Tools
7-Zip A file archiver supporting ZIP, as well as the powerful 7z format and more. Packaged by PortableApps.com. | Zscreen A screenshot application with numerous file handling options. No portable download, see link for instructions. | Zip2Fix A tool for extracting undamaged files from a corrupted ZIP file. | |||
Recuva A tool for undeleting files, from makes of Ccleaner. | SpaceSniffer A tool for visualizing disk usage. Find out what’s hogging all that space! | Everything An ultra-fast search utility — searches filenames only, does not index content. | |||
CCleaner Cleans up any system by getting rid of unneeded files and other junk. | TeamViewer The golden standard for remote control. | Portable Keyboard Layout Use an alternative keyboard layout (Colemak, Dvorak)? Take it with you! | |||
GetFolderSize Used for determining the size of folders and subfolders on a drive. | Process Explorer Windows Task Manager, on steroids. Made by Sysinternals, now a part of Microsoft. | Camstudio Screen-recording software, packaged by PortableApps.com. | |||
Snaptimer A keyboard-friendly countdown timer. | Clipcube A tiny clipboard history monitor. |
Video
VLC Player A “do-it-all” free, open-source video player. Can also play audio. | VirtualDub A tool for editing and encoding videos, with support for batch-processing. | Splayer A visually striking, multi-format video player, with subtitle auto-download. Tiny link for portable version. | |||
Avidemux A video editor designed for simple tasks such as cutting, filtering, and encoding. |
Web and FTP
Filezilla A powerful, open-source FTP client. | Opera portable An awesome browser that gets too little love. Official installer supports portable option. | Google Chrome Google’s Web browser, packaged by PortableApps.com. | |||
Firefox If you don’t use Chrome, you are probably using Firefox. Packaged by PortableApps.com. |