how to make every app portable?

[kalos]

hello

my goal is to have each of my favorite software portable, ie. in a folder with all the settings gathered there, without altering the PC or OS when I run them from their folder

I want to save time installing and configuring from the begining my apps, when I get new PC or new OS

which solution do you recommend?

thanks

[Ath]

http://portableapps.com/

[timns]

Isn't that just a collection of apps that happen to be portable?

I think the only true way to take your setup with you would be as a complete virtual PC running in virtualbox or similar.

[timns]

By the way, this has no right being a word:

Portablization

[Ath]

Isn't that just a collection of apps that happen to be portable?

Yep, but there's a quite huge collection already. Most likely all the OP needs is there

I think the only true way to take your setup with you would be as a complete virtual PC running in virtualbox or similar.

That would have 2 disadvantages:

• You'd need a quite big USB drive
• You still have to install the virtualization platform before you can do anything

[Deozaan]

Get VirtualBox on PortableApps.com (somehow), then buy a 64GB USB drive and use it for a portable VM with everything you want installed on it!

[timns]

Exactly, yes, is 64gb "big" nowadays?

I'd be doomed without a hell of a lot of very specific software that I suspect would never be made portable - and in fact DCers saved my bacon a while back by helping me create a virtual PC that held some protected software from a company that went out of business without the decency to lodge their code in escrow.

So unless one's needs are quite basic, a simple suit of portable software is always too much of a compormise to be useful. But then again, I'm old and inflexible  

[Deozaan]

Exactly, yes, is 64gb "big" nowadays?

Well I was thinking of a thumb drive. I guess you could put it on an external HDD or SDD and get up to a couple TB of storage for your little Portable PC.

Another alternative is to get some sort of Linux distro installed on an external HDD and then wherever you are just boot from the USB drive rather than the internal HDD.

[KynloStephen66515]

By the way, this has no right being a word:

Portablization

Ty...that actually made me laugh...while saying it out loud 

+1

[kalos]

okay but option for portable version should be present to all apps

[fenixproductions]

Isn't that just a collection of apps that happen to be portable?

Yes it is but there is also JauntePE application forum board:
http://www.portablefreeware.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=16

This software can make any application portable (similar to TinyApps or Sandboxie).

[4wd]

Threads here which may be of interest:
Cameyo
JauntePE and others

I'd give Cameyo a try since JauntePE is no longer developed.  EDIT: My mistake, I really should keep up with these things.

Note, these are application virtualisation - if you want a completely portable application they have to be coded that way from the start AFAIK.

By the way, this has no right being a word:

Portablization

Damn straight!  It's Portablification.

[barney]

You could take a look here, http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/create-portable-app-flash-drive/.

I haven't tried it, but Make Use Of generally is on the mark.  Be certain to read all the comments on the how-to article.

This process is on my to-do list, but it'll be a week or three (3) before I have time to mess with it.  One caveat is that not all apps will fit this process ... you'll just have to try it with the apps you cannot live without, see what happens.

[kalos]

FYI here are some interesting links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_application#See_also

but are there any data regarding the performance differences between a portable version of an app and its regular version? if there are not any, then it seems that every program should be portable, there are no real advantages of being installed

[Hyphen]

Get VirtualBox on PortableApps.com (somehow), then buy a 64GB USB drive and use it for a portable VM with everything you want installed on it!

Is this a legit idea? That sounds pretty awesome, does VBox portable run smoothly?

[Ath]

Both Novell ZEN Application Virtualization and VMWare's ThinApp ^Wikipedia offer application 'portabilization', by packaging an entire application and it's required environment into a single exe. At a tradeshow (2009) I got an USB key holding a ZEN packaged OpenOffice installation (it sure was not the Portable OpenOffice!) to try, and it works just fine. Nothing to install, nothing to clear if you need to get rid of it, just run it.

That's a whole lot lighter then running a portable VBox instance.

[kalos]

nothing to clear if you need to get rid of it, just run it.

umm, you mean "just delete it" ??

[Ath]

umm, you mean "just delete it" ??

Nope,

Nothing to install, nothing to clear if you need to get rid of it, just run it.

Re-phrase: Nothing to install, and nothing to clear if you need to get rid of it, you can just run it whenever you need it.