The last of the installed software...

[Darkbee]

I have almost managed to entirely replace all installed apps from my PC with portable equivalents. However, there remain a few stragglers that I can't seem to do without:

• Backup / File Syncronization:
  SyncBack - I've tried AllWaySync but I'm not convinced that this is portable, or at the very least it seems to leave junk in the folders that were backed up. I wasn't too impressed with the user interface either, it seems a bit clumsy. FreeByte Backup is ok in backup emergencies but it would be nice if it had an option to zip the resulting backed up files. In general, I love SyncBack and would really like a portable version of it! I haven't tried RegRapper, that might be the only solution unless someone can suggest a program that has similar features, is freeware and portable!
• Security / Maintenance:
  Ad-Aware - One of the first programs I install on any computer I build, but it'd be nice if I could just run it from my portable drive. Not sure if Spybot is portable but that seems to be the most popular anti spyware tool alongside Ad-Aware.

Here is a list of some troubling apps that I have finally been able to replace:

• Internet Browsing
  GreenBrowser (for IE based browsing) - Using an IE based browser, I'm sad to say ensures maximum website compatibility when surfing the net (even though we all know that IE is probably the worst non-stadards compliant browser in existence). I was previously using Avant browser, but found its ad blocking abilities to be limited. Not wishing to be a conspiracist, I do have to wonder whether this has been done intentionally by the author who may receive certain benefits from companies that Avant browser doesn't effectively block. I have had no such issues with GreenBrowser and it works like a charm. As far as non IE based browsing goes I've found the heir apparent to the browsing throne; Firefox, to be slow and not really as great as everyone makes it out to be. For a mozilla based browser, I prefer K-Meleon, which still seems a nice lean and mean browser. If I'm really paranoid then I'll use OffByOne, which is a handy and extremely small browser.
• Image Editing
  PaintStar - Finally, a small and not overly complicated image editing program that supports layers! For at least the last 2 years I've been using the great Serif PhotoPlus, which has all the features I need without being painfully over bloated (which is my impression of Photoshop and most Adobe software). Now, PaintStar was recommended on this forum and I haven't looked back! I tried Pixia and PhotoFiltre in the past but found them to be unecessarily complicated and not very intuitive or user friendly.
• Just about every app converted to portable form by John Haller on portableapps.com... Having portable OpenOffice really saves a lot of messing around when the inevitable complete system failure leading to a complete Windows re-install occurs.

There are some other apps that I haven't mentioned, which aren't so crucial, but might be nice if they could be replaced with portable alternatives.

• Firewall - These days I tend to use the built-in XP firewall but sometimes I might use Win 9x, which means that I need a third-party firewall. I've been using ZoneAlarm for years and it has worked well but I suspect it is far from being portable. Furthermore, it seems as if the number of free firewall applications available has declined over the years or, at the very least, ceased further development.
• Media Management - In general, I am against these sort of media catalog/database type programs like iTunes. They seem to offer more bloat and less usefulness. However, I was recently converted to the church of Google's image managing package Picasa. I was actually looking for a Windows equivalent to the Mac's iPhoto (apparently only iTunes is available for Windows) for a friend who needed some software to manage her digitial photo collection. Having a digital camera myself, I have a lot of photos and am slowly beginning to see the benefits of having such a program.

[Yucca]

I'm particularly interested in knowing whether there are any portable software firewalls for Windows 2K/XP/2003 that can install on machines without admin privileges.

I don't know if it is even technically possible to have firewall that doesn't access the system area of Windows.

Yucca

[Easybeat]

I run Adaware and spybot from a USB stick, I've never checked to see if they are truly portable however I've used them on multiple machines with no problems.

[Darkbee]

I'm particularly interested in knowing whether there are any portable software firewalls for Windows 2K/XP/2003 that can install on machines without admin privileges.

I don't know if it is even technically possible to have firewall that doesn't access the system area of Windows.

Yucca

Yes, I was wondering if it would be possible to have applications that are Windows services (or act like services by always running silently in the background) be portable. It seems, at least on the surface, that you'd need some registry entries somewhere but maybe one just to start the program up is enough (which I could certainly live with as being portable). I suspect it makes a different what the program does.

As an addition to my rantings about SyncBack, I have since discovered via the SyncBack forums that there are plans for a portable version of SyncBack, sadly it is only for the shareware version and the freeware version will not be updated... more's the pity Oh well, I guess if I want portable SyncBack I'd better get the cash together and shell out!

Finally, I remember another installed program that I would like to replace:

• Download Manager
  LeechGet 2004 - I was drawn to this program some time ago because of its excellent browser integration. I had used others in the past (including the awful GetRight) that failed to catch certain download links. LeechGet catches 'em all (no, that wasn't meant to be a poor Pokemon reference). However, the latest free versions of the program allow only one download at a time and, of course, the program is not portable, which mean that it falls just short of being my portable monster (portamon?). I have had my eye on WackGet for some time, but at this moment, despite the claims on the website it is not truly portable yet. Although the authors assure me that they are working on the next version using an ini to store the configuration. FreeDownloadManager looks promising but I have personally tested its portability.

[BigD]

@Darkbee:

Have you tried the free version of X-Cleaner to combat ad/spy-ware? It's available from:
http://www.xblock.com/download-freeware.php
and comes as a single executable which only writes a handful of trivial entries to the registry at HKCU\Software\XCleaner. I've found its detection rate to be pretty good as well. Not utterly portable, but very small and convenient, and the registry entries could be easily removed using 'reg delete ...' from a batch file.

I agree 100% with your comments about SyncBack: great program, but frustrating that it keeps its backup definitions in the registry (even though you can export them to .sps files).

[BigD]

@Darkbee:

Have you tried ViceVersa Free 1.0.3 available from:
http://www.tgrmn.com/free/ ?

You can install / copy / uninstall or use Universal Extractor to extract the executable and help files from the setup.exe.
It puts some entries in the registry at HKCU\Software\TGRMN but these are pretty straightforward in nature and the program is therefore quite portable.

ViceVersa can cope with the 2sec FAT/NTFS time difference problem, and also 1hr Summer Time differences too. Compared to some of the other programs, this is a polished job and I've found it very reliable.

[ahoier]

I'm particularly interested in knowing whether there are any portable software firewalls for Windows 2K/XP/2003 that can install on machines without admin privileges.

I don't know if it is even technically possible to have firewall that doesn't access the system area of Windows.

Yucca

yea, I would imagine this would be the primary "barrier".

I mean, yea, pg2 and pglite (from phoenixlabs.org) are both very portable, only storing their settings in the install directory and a startup entry if you choose that option. But yea, both applications require administrator priviledges.

'method', the original creator of "PeerGuardian" had a version that he created in VisualBasic, that worked at the application level. Though, it was very taxing on system resources (RAM/cpu/etc...) and was discontinued and replaced with phrosty's peerguardian2.

If you could find the old source of method's peerguardian, that would probably be your best bet for portable ip filtering firewall without the need of admin privs.