Portable Apps

For those of us who sometimes can't be bothered to install applications one by one — say, after reinstalling Windows — or who want to carry our favorite apps on a USB stick without installing them on whatever computer we're using, there's PortableApps. One of the most popular providers is PortableApps.com.

The apps it offers are free and legal. Examples include Firefox, a registry cleaner, PicPick, GIMP, Thunderbird, and 300-plus others. You can keep them on a USB stick or in the cloud — Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive — which is handy when you switch between computers at the office and at home.

PortableApps is also free of adware, spyware, and malware, with more than 100 contributors. Give it a try.