你有没有试过在你的手机或平板电脑上做真正的工作？你的日常，支付账单，什么样的工作？可以做到，但是只有触摸屏，这真的很痛苦，不是(pain isn)吗？
有些事情你只需要一个真正的键盘和鼠标(keyboard and mouse)。但是，如果您必须开始随身携带键盘和鼠标(keyboard and mouse)，那么您还不如随身携带笔记本电脑。你真的想在任何地方都这样做吗？
然而，几乎无论您走到哪里，您都可以轻松找到可以使用的台式计算机(desktop computer)。大多数酒店、每个图书馆和学校(library and school)，甚至是大卖场，如果你真的很紧张的话，都有可以免费使用的电脑。这就是便携式应用程序的用武之地。
是什么让便携式(Portable) 应用程序(App)变得
便携(Portable)？
便携式应用程序的美妙之处在于它不需要安装在主机上(host computer)即可工作。它是一个可执行文件，只需要运行USB上的内容，以及计算机的(USB)CPU 电源和 RAM(CPU power and RAM)。
便携式应用程序不会自动将任何内容作为文件或注册表项写入(registry entry)主机 PC(host PC)以运行。应用程序所需的任何设置都将写回到您的USB 设备(USB device)上应用程序所在的同一文件夹中。
我们不能说所有便携式应用程序都不会在主机上留下任何足迹，但如果有的话，剩下的就是尽可能少的了。
哪些应用程序是便携式的？
您可以使用数百甚至数千个便携式应用程序。它们中的大多数也是免费的。在撰写本文时，至少有 10 个合法网站可供下载便携式应用程序，其中许多网站列出了数百个应用程序。
当然，站点之间会有一些重叠，但是，您仍然很难找到适合您想做的应用程序。您可能认识的一些应用程序包括：
- 火狐
- 铬合金
- 谷歌云端硬盘
- 投递箱
- 搅拌机
- 墨景
- 大胆
- 口径
- 自由办公室
- 记事通
- 7-zip
- 团队查看器
- uTorrent
- 清洁工
有用于办公(office work)、会计、音频制作、桌面出版(desktop publishing)、平面设计、3D 设计、网页设计、应用程序开发(app development)、加密、系统管理、电子书管理、种子下载(torrent downloading)、音乐播放器、文件管理(file management)以及游戏、游戏和更多游戏。
阅读我们之前的文章，12 个可保存在USB 记忆棒上的(Your USB Stick)便捷工具，了解便携式应用(Handy Tools)USB 驱动器(USB drive)如何为您服务。
除此之外，还有一些方法可以将许多常规桌面应用程序制作成便携式应用程序。这并不总是可能的或容易的，但可以做到。如何做到这一点的范围远远大于本文。我们在文章中介绍了一种方法，在 Windows 中创建任何应用程序的可移植版本(Create a Portable Version of Any Application in Windows)。
我在哪里可以获得便携式应用程序？
首先，您应该知道拥有一个便携式应用程序启动器(app launcher)是个好主意。将其想象为Windows 开始菜单，但仅适用于(Windows Start Menu)USB 驱动器(USB drive)上的便携式应用程序。启动器还可以管理便携式应用程序的
更新和安装(updating and installation)。
可以说，最受欢迎的启动器来自PortableApps.com。另一个不错的启动器是LiberKey。如果您想启动IT 技术(IT tech)工具包，您还应该考虑将NirSoft Launcher添加到您的USB中。还可以在PenDriveApps.com找到一个很好的便携式应用程序库。
便携式应用程序等于便携式安全性
当今世界上(world today)有这么多公开可用的计算机不是很好吗？有些甚至可以在户外，全天，全年访问！
但是，这样做有两个问题：计算机可能没有您需要的软件，而且它们可能不是很安全。
我们已经介绍了便携式应用程序如何解决没有您需要的软件的公用计算机问题。现在让我们谈谈
安全问题(security issue)。
每个网络浏览器(web browser)都需要知道您正在查看的内容、您最近查看的内容，并且需要缓存信息和存储 cookie(information and store cookies)以使您正在使用的网站运行得更快更好。
因此，他们中的许多人并未设置为在关闭时删除该信息。是什么阻止下一个人登录到那台计算机并看到您看到的内容，或者更糟糕的是，看到您输入的内容。这可以是任何类型的个人信息，从用户名和密码到银行或健康信息(health information)。
但是使用便携式应用程序网络浏览器(app web browser)，不需要将任何历史记录、cookie 或缓存写入计算机。这一切都写在您USB 驱动(USB drive)器上的浏览器文件夹中。此外，您可以随身携带书签。
当您使用公共计算机时，更可靠的步骤是使用虚拟专用网络(Private Network)( VPN )。您可以使用便携式VPN客户端。(VPN)
现在，您所有的网络流量(web traffic)都在一个安全通道(secure channel)内运行，这使得任何坏人都更难嗅出您的秘密。如果您没有订阅 VPN(VPN subscription)，请查看我们推荐的VPN服务。
但是仍然存在信息在您的USB 驱动器上(USB drive)以及丢失它的可能性的问题。有什么办法可以防止有人捡起它，把它插到他们的电脑上，然后随意支配上面的一切？便携式加密应用程序(encryption apps)，就是这样。使用像VeraCrypt这样的便携式加密应用程序(encryption app)，您可以使除您之外的任何人都无法访问和使用该数据(data inaccessible)。
用于救援的便携式应用程序
也许便携式应用程序背后的驱动力是(driving force)计算机技术人员(computer technician)，他们想要一个漂亮的小工具箱，里面装满了他们最喜欢的故障排除应用程序(troubleshooting apps)。不要(Don)让这些应用程序的微小尺寸欺骗了您！有些功能非常强大，可以帮助您保存计算机或成为朋友和家人的英雄。
有几种防病毒和恶意软件检测应用程序，您可以使用它们，而无需对可能恢复(detection apps)故障系统(ailing system)的计算机了解太多。
还有文件恢复应用程序(recovery apps)，例如Recuva，可以帮助您将意外删除的文件起死回生。甚至还有密码和软件许可证(software license)密钥恢复应用程序(recovery apps)，您可以使用这些应用程序重新访问您需要的程序和网站。
不要害怕下载并试用这些不同的技术维护类型应用程序(maintenance type apps)。这是了解更多关于您的计算机或您图书馆的计算机以及如何保持运行顺畅和快速的好方法。
那么，你为什么要再次关心？
尽管你的手机比第一台在国际象棋中击败人类的超级计算机更强大，但在实际工作中使用它仍然很尴尬。能够在5 倍于手机大小的屏幕上(screen 5)查看所有内容、全尺寸键盘和鼠标(keyboard and mouse)，并将所有文件和程序保存在一个整洁的USB 闪存(USB flash) 驱动器大小的包(drive size package)中，真是太好了，不容错过。
另外，您可以放心，因为您使用了便携式浏览器和 VPN(browser and VPN) ，您没有在您正在使用的公共计算机上留下任何个人信息。该USB(USB)上的任何信息也受到保护，因为您使用了便携式加密应用程序(encryption app)。
然后会有计算机运行不佳的时候，您将成为现场的人，拥有所有工具来帮助恢复它。可以把(Think)它想象成一个可以放在小口袋里的电脑急救箱。
也不要忘记价格。自由。谁不爱自由？所有免费软件、高枕无忧以及在任何地方使用它的能力都应该足以让任何人拥有一个装满便携式应用程序的USB 驱动器。(USB drive)
What are Portable Apps and Why Should You Care?
Have you ever tried to do real work on your phone or tablet? Yоur everyday, pay thе bills, kind of work? It can be done, but with just a touchscreen, it’s a real pain isn’t it?
There are some things for which you just need a real keyboard and mouse. But if you must start lugging around a keyboard and mouse, you might as well be carrying around a laptop. Do you really want to do that everywhere you go?
Yet, almost everywhere you go, you’ll be able to easily find a desktop computer that you can use. Most hotels, every library and school, even big box stores if you’re really in a pinch, have computers that you can use for free. That’s where portable apps come in.
What Makes a Portable App,
Portable?
The beauty of the portable app is that it does not need to be installed on the host computer to work. It’s an executable file that requires only what’s on the USB to run, plus the CPU power and RAM of the computer.
The portable app does not automatically write anything to the host PC as a file, or as a registry entry in order to run. Any settings the app needs are written back to the same folder that the app is held in, on your USB device.
We can’t say that all portable apps leave no footprint on the host, but what is left, if anything, is about as minimal as it can get.
What Apps are Portable?
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of
portable apps available to you. Most of them are available for free, too. At
the time of writing this, there were at least 10 legitimate sites for
downloading portable apps from, many listing several hundred apps.
Of course, there will be some overlap between
the sites, but still, you would be hard pressed to not find an app for what
you’d like to do. Some of the apps whose names you’re likely to recognize
include:
- Firefox
- Chrome
- Google Drive
- Dropbox
- Blender
- Inkscape
- Audacity
- Calibre
- LibreOffice
- KeePass
- 7-zip
- TeamViewer
- uTorrent
- CCleaner
There are apps for office work, accounting, audio production, desktop publishing, graphic design, 3D design, web design, app development, encryption, systems administration, eBook management, torrent downloading, music players, file management, and games, games, and more games.
Take a read through our previous article, 12 Handy Tools to Keep on Your USB Stick to get a feel for how a portable app USB drive could serve you.
Beyond that, there are ways that you can make a lot of regular desktop applications into portable apps. That’s not always possible, or easy, but it can be done. The scope of how to do that is far greater than this article. We’ve covered a way to do this in the article, Create a Portable Version of Any Application in Windows.
Where Do I Get Portable Apps?
First, you should know that it’s a good idea
to have a portable app launcher. Think of it like a Windows Start Menu but just
for the portable apps on your USB drive. The launcher can also manage the
updating and installation of portable apps.
Arguably, the most popular launcher is from PortableApps.com. Another good launcher is LiberKey. If you’d like to start an IT tech toolkit, you should also look at adding the NirSoft Launcher to your USB. A good repository of portable apps can also be found at PenDriveApps.com.
Portable Apps Equal Portable
Security
Isn’t it great that there are so many publicly
available computers in the world today? There are some that are even
accessible, outside, all day, all year long!
There are two problems with that, however: the computers may not have the software you need and they are probably not very secure.
We’ve covered how portable apps solves the
public computer not having the software you need issue. Let’s talk about the
security issue, now.
Every web browser needs to know what you’re looking at, what you’ve most recently looked at, and will want to cache information and store cookies to make the websites you’re using run faster and better.
So, many of them are not set up to delete that information upon closing. What’s to stop the next person from logging on to that computer and seeing what you saw, or worse yet, seeing what you typed. This could be any sort of personal information from usernames and passwords to banking or health information.
But with a portable app web browser, none of the history, cookies, or cache needs to be written to the computer. It all gets written within the browser’s folder on your USB drive. Plus, you get to take your bookmarks with you everywhere.
An even more solid step would be using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) whenever you used a public computer. There are portable VPN clients out there that you could use.
Now, all your web traffic is running inside a secure channel, making it much harder for any bad guys to sniff out your secrets. If you don’t have a VPN subscription take a look out our recommended VPN services.
But there’s still the matter of the info being on your USB drive and the possibility of losing it. What’s to prevent someone from picking it up, plugging it into their computer and having free reign over everything on it? Portable encryption apps, that’s what. With a portable encryption app like VeraCrypt, you could make that data inaccessible and unusable to anyone but you.
Portable Apps to the Rescue
Perhaps the driving force behind portable apps
was the computer technician who wanted a nice little toolbox full of their
favourite troubleshooting apps. Don’t let the tiny size of these apps fool you!
Some are extremely powerful and could help you save your computer or be the
hero to friends and family.
There are several antivirus and malware detection apps that you could use without knowing much about computers that could revive an ailing system.
There’s also file recovery apps, like Recuva, that could help you bring an accidentally deleted file back from the dead. There are even password and software license key recovery apps that you can use to get back into the programs and websites that you need.
Don’t be afraid to download and try out a few
of these different technical maintenance type apps. It’s a great way to learn
more about your computer, or your library’s computer, and how to keep things
running smooth and fast.
So, Why Should You Care Again?
Even though your phone is more powerful than
the first supercomputer to beat a human at chess, it’s still awkward to use for
real work. Having the ability to see everything on a screen 5 times the size of
your phone, a full-size keyboard and mouse, and keep all your files and
programs in one tidy USB flash drive size package is just too good to pass up.
Plus, you’ll have the peace of mind that you didn’t leave behind any personal information on that public computer that you were working on, because you used a portable browser and VPN. Any information on that USB is also protected because you used a portable encryption app.
Then there will be the time when a computer is
working poorly, and you’ll be the person on the spot with all the tools to help
revive it. Think of it as a computer first-aid kit that can fit in a small
pocket.
Don’t forget the price, either. Free. Who
doesn’t love free? All the free software, peace of mind, and ability to use it anywhere
should be enough reason for anyone to have a USB drive full of portable apps.
