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How do you organize/access tiny portable utilities?

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40hz:
Mine all organized with the PortableApps.com Platform - works great!  :Thmbsup:
-CleverCat (September 25, 2011, 04:27 AM)
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+1 w/CleverCat.  :Thmbsup:

PA's platform is a gem. Especially nice is how it auto discovers new apps you've added.

All versions of the PortableApps.com Suite include the integrated PortableApps.com Menu (pictured at right) and the PortableApps.com Backup utility along with a set of custom icons, an autoplay configuration, folders and a quick start shortcut.
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More info and download here.

phillfri:
For this functionality I create a custom toolbar. I simply create a folder under my user name (though the folder could be anywhere really). Keep the name of the folder short, like "GoTo". I add shortcuts to the programs I want quick access to inside that folder. You can add tooltips to the shortcuts for a short description of the program. You can also create subfolders, e.g. a subfolder with internet shortcuts to sites you access a lot or a subfolder with VNC links. Organize the structure however you want. Then right click on the taskbar and select Toolbars > New Toolbar. When asked, browse to the folder you created and select it. You'll get a toolbar that displays your folder name to the left of the system tray with a little ">>" next to it. Click on that, and and it displays your folder and all its subfolders and the shortcuts.

Its a totally user controlled, simple and easy solution for quick access organized as you want it to be that has been in Windows for years. It even accommodates drag and drop, e.g. drop a Firefox address bar icon onto the ">>", and it will be placed in the GoTo folder. You can also open the custom toolbar and drag and drop icons into subfolders. Never could understand why people never made much use of this feature for organizing content :>)

superboyac:
A tool that often gets overlooked here is mouser's launchbar commander.  I use it every single day as my portable toolbar.  I even have Zentimo set up to launch it as soon as I stick my usb drive in.  Then, an LBC toolbar sits in the tray with all my programs in it.  I tried the portableapps thing also, and it's good.  But for me, LBC is much more flexible and can do a lot more cooler things.  I love my portable LBC menu.

superboyac:
PA's platform is a gem. Especially nice is how it auto discovers new apps you've added.
-40hz (September 26, 2011, 01:51 PM)
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That's definitely a cool feature (not available on LBC).  mouser...I'm getting a feature request, don't mind it unless you want to:

So, this would be bad ass...add a menu function, maybe in the database maintenance area, where when clicked, LBC will search a specified directory(ies) for new, additional programs that have been added.  I guess it would search for new exe files.  BUT, here's the catch: obviously, you don't want to add every single exe it finds, so another window pops up asking you to check the exe's you want to add.  Etc.  That's pretty cool.

sazzen:
I have a folder full of tiny utilities collected over time, single exes with maybe an associated .ini or a .hlp file. I suspect a lot of you have a similar collection. I could launch these using a launcher like FARR or Launchy but I rarely seem to remember their names. There are also occasions where I'm not sure I have the right tool for a job and need a quick look at what I have in a certain category... eg:networking

I figured the best way to do this would be to use tags and after trying some tagging software, none of which I cared much for, I've settled for a somewhat unconventional solution. I use Linkman to organize these files. The files can be dragged and dropped to the "Apps" folder in linkman, the Apps folder has ~apps in its comment keywords field. Each util gets a bookmark inside this folder with all applicable tags added to the comment field. So if I'm search for an app I type ~app (to get the url bookmarks out of the way) and follow it with whichever tags are appropriate. I haven't really committed to this system but I really like it. I'm curious what system others use to access these apps... (other than using your superior memories to remember their names, of course! :P )

Edit: Quicker/"dirtier" approach, just add the tags to the filename and use something like Everything to find them. The name length restrictions shouldn't pose much of a problem. Also takes care of portability. [Edit: Bad bad bad for command line utilities! :) ]
-nosh (September 01, 2011, 06:40 AM)
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I use a laucher - BUT - For the times I don't remember the name, I use the old Win 3.1 method. On my desktop are several folders named:  Arty,  Games,  Apps,  Pims,  Chores,  Write,  and Little Ones (for what you just said, those little ones).  Inside each one are shortcuts to related applications.   Click-click,  click-click.  Up jumps the program. :)

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