This web site has opened my eyes to some fantastic software that's made my life a lot easier. Here's the best so far:

1. Firefox - I wanted to skip this one because its just too easy. There are faster browsers but none have the plug-in system nor the ease of use. Portable means I can create customized versions for privacy/security, blogging, image viewing, etc.

2. Rainlendar - use it every day all the time and love it.

3. Truecrypt - I do a lot of my work using a remote, insecure WebDAV-type connection. I mount a Truecrypt file remotely and get my privacy back and the safety of local AND remote storage.

4. Photofiltre - I find it doing most of my basic graphics stuff.

5. SMPlayer - seems to play basically everything. VLC is cleaner and smarter but SMPlayer just has more features and plays more files.

6. Dsynchronize - my backup program of choice. Instead of saving my files to a big archive, I just clone my files (and functionality) to external devices, other computers, and more. Has been immensely useful for more than 2 years now.

7. Kompozer - this program has made me a lot of money doing basic development work.

8. StartupLite and Startup Control Panel - have been the cornerstone of almost all the tech support I do. Autostarting programs seems like the #1 problem with Windows machines, even above viruses.

9. 7-zip - I use it constantly. For me, no other archiving system comes close. Hope it gets a little more cross-platform this year -- Mac and Linux tools for the 7Z format are a little unfinished, making resulting files less viable to send to non-Windows folks.

10. Renamer - when you start developing collections of files, especially photography, its hard to keep track. File names are so often PICT2304.JPG when they could be much clearer. Very intelligent and clean interface also puts it on this list.

What's your top 10?

_________________
Supporting the Electronic Frontier Foundation | DuckDuckGo user | My GPG key | Projects donated to: VLC, CubicExplorer, Ditto, Greenshot, TrueCrypt, WinSplit

1. TrueCrypt - 'nuff said.

2. Total Commander - I know it's not free, I'll may replace it with FreeCommander. Or may not.

3. Opera USB - Firefox just way too fat & slow for me.

4. KeePass - for storing passwords.

5. KeyNote - a fantastic tabbed note taker.

6. foobar2000 - forget winamp once & forever.

7. MPlayer/VLC - I like MPlayer because it's fast, VLC because handling better the subtitle files.

8. Code::Blocks/wxDevC++ - coding C++ on the go.

9. Notepad2 - fast, simple & small with a bunch of features like vertical block handling.

10. MAME32 - I know it's not really portable, I just don't care.

My 'Top 10' in no particular order:

1. FastStone Capture - Screenshot utility. Still using the free version

2. hottnotes - post-it note program. love this one because it has a checklist post it that i use over and over again.

3. KeePass - password storage. use this over the others because of the Auto-Type feature.

4. Ditto - clipboard utility that stores multiples clips and uses a hot key to allow you to select what to paste.

5. Audacity - audio program that I first used to make ringtones. now use it to censor some of the music my 8 year old listens to as he plays bass.

6. FileZilla - great ftp program. not sure why anyone would ever pay money for this type of program.

7. MP3Tag - great tag editor for music files.

8. SharePod - iPod utility to add and remove music between my pc and my iPod.

9. VLC Media Player - love the fact that I don't have to download codecs everytime I turn around.

10. WinRAR - I know it's not freeware, but every since they've made the portable version, it's been indespensible.

Dagenham, how are Code::Blocks/wxDevC++ made portable? Can portable versions be downloaded somewhere?


My 'Top 10' :

1. Cathy - File indexer

2. AutoIt - Script language

3. QtOctave - Portable MATLAB clone

4. PDF XChange Viewer - PDF reader and editor

5. OpenOffice - Office suite

6. QClip - Clipboard manager

7. DC Firewall - Portable firewall

8. C.A.F.E. - File associations 4 Executables

9. PStart - Portable start menu

10. FastStone Image Viewer - Image viewer

In no particular order:

1. Mempad (simple and fabulous plain text outliner)
2. KiTTY (Simon Tatham's PuTTY with portability support and other goodies)
3. PStart (app launcher)
4. bbClean (new fork of bbLean alternate Windows shell)
5. GvimPortable (I get twitchy if I don't have the King of Text Editors with me)
6. Q-Dir (quad-pane file manager)
7. OperaPortable (cool browser -- and I can take my bookmarks with me)
8. EDXOR (a quick and tiny text editor)
9. Convey Portable (portable Send To menu)
10. CCleaner (because every time I sit down at someone else's computer, they say "Oh, by the way, why the heck is my computer so slow??")

1. MemPad (still simple, portable, small, and Intuitive!)

2. TrayURL (Portable URL and document tray menu)

3. PStart (It's still the one)

4. pdftkBuilder (manipulate your PDF files)

5. TED Notepad (one of the smallest, but chock full of tools)

6. EVE (Exceptional Vector Editor) - Very fast, single .exe and only 76k to do so much

7. Faststone Capture (not portable, but works off my USB--none others compare to the free version, so it stays)

8. SyncExp (portable, small, very fast, and intuitive)

9. STP (mp3 player, use 2007 version for simplicity)

10. various DOS command line tools (which will remain nameless unless asked)

I put them in brain dump order (random), but my top ones that I don't see going to a competitor's app are EVE, MemPad, and TED.

Code::Blocks is simple, just copy the installation folder to your portable device + the settings from "Application Data", worked for me.

For wxDevC++, use the -c [path to your config] command line switch.

Hey all,


Here's my list. I know, I was only supposed to submit 10 - Sorry; there's just too many honorable mentions

Collectively, all my portable apps are under 200 meg of thumb-drive storage. I use all of my portable software on all my notebook and desktop PCs.

1. Free Commander - In my humble opinion, it's simply the best free File Manager
2. Firefox - Using PortableApps.com version, but I have it tweaked to the max. Still waiting for K-Meleon to catch up
3. 7-Zip - Compress/Decompress everything I use
4. NotePad2 - Very small and fast. This is a great text editor.
5. CCleaner - Still my favorite cache cleaner
6. Photo Filtre - Small, fast, easy to edit graphics files
7. RegScanner - Easily search the registry. No more F3 in RegEdit
8. DeFraggler - My pick to defragment any hard drive
9. MPlayer - plays all of my video files, small & compact
10. 1by1 - Can't beat the size - plays all my music from my folders while I work

Also, Toolbox is my portable app launcher. Its easily customized to my taste with all of my app icons in one place.

Didn't make the Top 10, but noted as frequently used tools...

SoftMaker Office 2006 - TextMaker & PlanMaker. NO MS Office here!
TextMaker Viewer 2008 - I use this every day. Thanks to JauntePE and joby_toss
Free Windows Registry Repair - Great registry cleaning
System Explorer - No Task Manager here - I can see everything running, easy to customize and use
File and Folder Unlocker - Unlock locked files using drag and drop
SysProt AntiRootKit - Free and portable, great tool for quick cleanup. Easily kill those rootkit hooks.
Simple Machine Protect - Portable, thanks to JauntePE
Neutron - Easy way to sync time without using another bloated Windows Service
ADRC Data Recovery - Single executable. Free and portable file recovery

Cheers,

Nick

OK, here I come. Really, I have 1000 cool tools, but I'll try to list only a few.

1. Total Commander
2. I leave this empty to emphasize how far behind is the next program
3. PowerPro
4. Miranda
5. XMPlay
6. SoftMaker Office
7. Firefox (would be 4th, but I don't like how big and slow it is)
8. MPlayer
9. FSCapture
10. ProcessMonitor
11. PSPad (actually my secondary text editor (after notepad2) - because it's slow. But powerful.)

_________________

It's nearly impossible to pick just 10!

1. GreatNews
2. PStart
3. foobar2000
4. Launchy
5. FreeCommander
6. ImgBurn
7. Universal Extractor
8. VLC
9. Screamer Radio
10. Faststone Image Viewer

And my two favorites that don't qualify for the database:

Digsby
Freemind (requires Java)

There always seems to be one of these threads, but anyway... in no particular order...

1. XMPlay
2. Opera
3. Executor
4. Akelpad
5. Filezilla
6. VLC
7. Locate32
8. Taskix
9. ImgBurn
10. Disk Cleaner / CCleaner

-Pstart
-Notepad2
-FoxitPDFReader
-FastStoneImageViewer
-CSVFileEditor
-ICEMirror
-TablePro
-Treesize
-TrueCrypt
-VCDControlTool

*JT.

_________________
"Lo que tengas que hacer, hazlo pronto" (Juan 13, 27) / "What you do, do quickly" (John 13, 27)
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teobromina / http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theobromine

01. 7-Zip
02. OpenOffice
03. MediaCoder
04. VLC
05. RegShot
06. DeepBurner
07. VirtualDub
08. AviDemux
09. Slower
10. PDF-X-Change-Viewer
11. XAMPP

No particular order:

Defraggler
CCleaner
Skype 3.8.0.188
Firefox
Keynot NF
PicPick
TTCalc
Winamp
TabbyFile
KeePass 1.15

_________________
http://www.myPortables.net