For this week’s Freeware Frenzy, I will be taking a look at Portable Apps Suite 1.0. This suite of freeware programs comes bundled together with a handy menu interface designed to go wherever you do. Sure, USB drives are very popular and inexpensive, but they are just portable space. What we need is a way to keep our applications stored on the go, so no matter what PC we end up using at school, work or hotel, we have the apps we need and use everyday.

Portable Apps Suite (PAS) comes in three flavors depending on your needs and USB drive’s capacity. The Standard suite comes in at 260MB after installation and thus needs a large USB drive. I recommend this package for beginners to the portable scene, because it has all of the basic, essential apps. You can also use a Lite Suite which cuts the space required to only 105MB for anyone using a smaller capacity drive. I recommend that anyone who does not already have a 1GB or larger USB drive go out and treat yourself to an upgrade. Flash drives are incredibly inexpensive for the dollar per gigabyte ratio. Finally, for any power users out there, check out Portable Apps Suite Base. This includes only the basic menu program and you can add only the applications you want to use. For this review I’ll be looking at both Standard and Base, using a SanDisk Cruzer 1GB drive. 

Portable Apps Suite Standard

Installation was a snap. Pop in your USB drive first and run the installer. It will unzip the required files to any folder on the drive if you want to keep things organized. The installer warns that it could take over 15 minutes, and mine was finished in about that time. To use the suite, you’ll need to open up your drive in Windows Explorer and run the .exe file. You’ll then see a system tray icon and a popup menu of all of the installed applications. Of course the question is, what applications are included? You’ll find the portable versions of: Clamwin (anti-virus), Firefox (internet browser), Gaim (instant messenger), OpenOffice (office apps), Sodoku (game), Sunbird (calendar) and Thunderbird (email). Click on each applications names above for Freeware Frenzy reviews on each application. 

There are also a couple of links to folders for Documents, Music, Pictures and Video, similar to the default folders in Windows. There is also a button for backup and a button for adding/removing applications. Finally, you’ll see a help and search option. Along the bottom a graph displays the free space left on your drive. The first time you run each application, you’ll need some basic setup, such as screen names in Gaim, and a license agreement in OpenOffice and Firefox. Quick tip for IE users new to Firefox portable, go to Bookmarks > Organize, then click File and Import to add your favorites to Firefox. You’ll have all of your regular websites at your fingertips no matter where you go. Also note that running these programs from the USB drive means that no trace of your activity is stored on the computer, only the drive.

Portable Apps Suite Base
 
Because Base contains no programs, it will install in seconds, so you’re ready to customize your program suite immediately.  Running the Base.exe file from the USB drive will bring up the same menu as Standard, of course without any programs listed. A portable "apps" suite is rather useless without any apps, so let’s add some. Simply click on the Options button and choose "Install a New App." You’ll find each application that Portable Apps supports listed on the website, but the list is short. There are plenty of portable, run-from-USB programs out there, but only the apps listed will play nice with PAS. That being said, you’ll still find apps to cover all of your major bases; from web editors, the GIMP for photo editing, FTP programs, VLC media player and 7-Zip file compressor, in addition to the programs found in the Standard Suite. After downloading the VLC package, I just navigated to it and as the prompt tells you, "Portable Apps will do the rest". VLC popped up in my PAS menu in only a couple seconds.

So to sum up, PortableApps Suite is a quick and easy way to take your digital life with you, wherever your travels lead. Play media, browse the net, type documents or check email on the road, just like you would at home. Why work any other way?
http://portableapps.com/