Couldn't resist one more because the portablefreeware.com site has a link to a site which specializes in my fetish: standalone apps:
http://standalone.atspace.org/index.html

One more post. Just to try and be thorough, I did another group of searches for these mystery problems that have been insinuated with PortableApps. Used Google this time. Still couldn't find much of anything.

Again, I did, however, find more links with portable apps listed or recommended.
A list of 200 apps:
http://www.technobuzz.net/portable-apps-usb/
15 Best Portable Apps for on the go from Techie Souls
http://www.techiesouls.com/2008/10/30/15-most-useful-and-best-portable-apps/
18 Portable Apps That Every Tech Need from EmergingTechs.com
http://www.emergingtechs.com/posts/18-portable-apps-that-every-tech-needs/

Shoulda searched first. Didn't realize there were already a couple of threads about portable apps, so I'll just finish off by posting those:
Freewarefan had one running about a year ago with a bunch of links, including some of the ones above:
http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2133#post-13154
Here's another short one with some links:
http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1185#post-6747

2 corrections to my previous post. I misunderstood what ThinApp does. It's apparently not for running apps. but for packaging commercial apps into portables if they meet certain requirements. Still would probably be useful to some here. The trivial correction is that I listed one of the articles about using XP from a flash drive twice. Oops. Too late to edit.

Finally decided to try and find out what if there was any problem with the portableapps installer/launcher/menu as was insinuated here. Did 2 yahoo searches: "Problem with portableapps installer" "Problems with portableapps". The only thing I found were problems in getting particular apps to install with the installer. Many of those posts were on portableapps own forum. Theoretically, portableapps can run any open source portable. On the other hand, it apparently won't work with any commericial portable that they don't have an agreement with. Seems it recognizes trademarks.

The only other thing I found on that were pages recommending PortableApps. Maybe because I didn't Google. :)

It was hardly a total loss, though. Found a bunch more interesting links. Obviously, there'll be some duplication.

A pdf with 20 apps reviewed from Redmondmag.com, which calls itself the "Independent Voice of the Microsoft IT Community":
http://74.6.239.67/search/cache?ei=UTF-8&p=Problems+with+PortableApps&fr=hp-pvdt&u=download.101com.com/redmond/pdf/redmond_2006_portable_apps.pdf&w=problems+problem+portableapps+%22portable+apps%22&d=ObzyIg-YSB94&icp=1&.intl=us

2 from DOWNLOADSQUAD, 24 recommended apps and 11 apps recommended for bloggers:
http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/09/02/24-killer-portable-apps-for-your-usb-flash-drive/
http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/08/11-great-free-portable-apps-for-blogging-on-the-go/
Both of these contain comment sections with even more suggestions.

File Cluster has a review blog for portable apps, though it mainly focuses on iPhone and mobile apps.:
http://www.filecluster.com/reviews/category/portable-apps/

This review compares the U3 launcher with PortableApps:
http://www.gearfire.net/u3-versus-portable-apps/

10 portable repair apps:
http://blog.highspeedweb.net/2008/08/12/portable-apps-to-help-you-fix-your-computer/

17 portable troubleshooting apps:
http://www.simplehelp.net/2008/07/21/15-portable-apps-to-help-troubleshoot-pcs/

An educator recommends 7 apps for educators on the go:
http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/369/656

Older article on Smart Drives with a number of links, including software, some of which are probably still useful:
http://www.libes.com/sol/u3/

U3's site which includes a lot of software that'll work with their launcher:
http://software.u3.com/softwarecentral.aspx?skip=1

A 2005 blog entry containing a directory of portable apps:
http://loosewire.typepad.com/blog/2005/03/a_directory_of_.html

Wikipedia's generl article on portable apps:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_Application
which includes links to it's list of portable games:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_portable_computer_games
and VMWare ThinApp, which allows you to run commercial apps portably in a virtual environment:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware_ThinApp

2 2005-2006 articles on running XP completely form a portable. The first is designed to strip down XP to run on a 256Meg, but you can ignore a lot of that unless you want it on one that small:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/windows-pocket,1113-2.html
http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=177102101&pgno=4&queryText=&isPrev=

http://www.informationweek.com/windows/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=177102101

Moka5, another free solution which allows you to create a virtual PC environment from your USB drive. I assume this is similar to ThinApp's approach. Also in German, and also English Mac OS X. At least the virtual software seems to be free. Moka5 is selling something, but I haven't figured it out:
http://www.mokafive.com/index.php

And for those who hate the Evil Empire:
Pendrivelinux allows you to configure your flash to run a wide variety of Linux flavors:
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/
This is probably how I'll eventually try Linux.

And for those young people that are too cool to be called a PC:
http://www.freesmug.org/portableapps/ has apps for Mac OS X.

Found some more stuff. Gizmo's sight has an ongoing Wiki list for portable's. Appears to be the editor's initial categories can be added to by the user's with their recommended software, so unclear who's recommending what. (?) As with all their other lists, includes a comment section.

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-portable-programs.htm

They also have a general article on portable apps. including links. I'll go ahead and post the ones that aren't already posted above:

http://www.techsupportalert.com/guide-to-portable-applications.htm
Apps to go: http://appstogo.mcfadzean.org.uk/
Wikipedia's portable list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_portable_software

Local, I apologize if you were trying to recommend portablefreeware.com instead of posting it for the first time. Couldn't tell.

Local, I've gotta say this again, I wish you'd spell out your objections to things in a little more detail. For example, what's wrong with the portableApps installers? I imagine you've got a good reason for saying that, but it would really help if we knew what it was. Some of us have had good success with the suggestions of Lifehacker. Believe it or not, we don't believe everything Lifehacker (or you for that matter) has to say. But the Lifehacker site does tend to explain why it recommends what it does, so that gives us something to base an intelligent decision on.

It seems like you have a lot of good knowledge, but without making your case, your comments come off as, "Don't trust them, trust me". Since you don't give us any reason to trust you one way or another, it makes it a little difficult to take your advice. I can't speak for anyone else here, but I will say this much: I've practically never messed up my computer, which is why I'm inclined to trust my own judgement, and I imagine I'm not the only one. If we're constantly courting disaster, we must've been pretty lucky to avoid it, since you think we're not careful enough.

By the way, the link you posted was already mentioned by Hotdoge in his post.

I wouldn't worry about PortableApps.com either.
I'd avoid them like the plague.
If you would like to use real portable software from a community that knows what portable should be and has real developers on board go no farther than http://portablefreeware.com.

Don't follow blindly what Lifehacker and such sites say, look into things properly and you'll find out that you could do a better job yourself than the "installers" on portableApps.

Thanks, HD! That list should keep me busy for awhile.

Hi aRenegade, You needn't worry about portableapps.com. They have been recommended by several well respected sites such as Lifehacker.com and gHacks.com. I believe nLite also recommends portableapps.com as a source of software when creating an install disc using their software.

http://www.quate.net/newsnet/read/31 * Portable Scribus *

http://www.pegtop.net/start/

PStart is a simple tray tool to start user defined applications. Designed to run portable applications (like portable Firefox & Thunderbird)

http://socialistsushi.com/2005/11/17/portaputty

http://www.theinfobox.com/index.php?title=Portable_USB_Apps

Other sources about portable USB applications:

http://portableapps.com/

http://portablefreeware.com/

http://www.opera-usb.com/operausben.htm

Hello Lakjin and yes you understood me correctly. A user has the option of keeping all or some, and one falls into the some category :) At first I was suspicious that this might be a 'spammers' type site, but have yet to see any indication of that being true.

And Watcher thanks for the snapfiles info, I didn't know that. Good Stuff

Thanks, Renegade. I'll be bookmarking that one. Standalone apps. used to be practically a fetish with me back when I had limited space. Although that seems to be counterintuitive to some who feel a self-contained app. should be larger than normal. I think it just goes to show that a lot of program coding is just adding bells and whistles to dazzle the newbies. I'm getting back into it because I still believe programs should be as "lean and mean" as possible. Besides, it's the easiest solution to, "What will the program do to my system?". Nothing. Nowadays, with the desire for portable apps., the standalone app. is making a comeback. Though I realize it doesn't have to be self-contained to be portable, but that's the easiest way.

So here's 3 more webpages you folks might be interested in. Practically all the stuff is freeware.

One of the editors at Snapfiles has dedicated a page to portable apps.:
http://www.snapfiles.com/features/ed_usb_software.html

Here's another one:
http://www.alexnolan.net/software/

And this one, TinyApps.org, has as it's motto "smaller is beautiful". All the apps. must fit an a floppy and be as self-contained as possible. Of course, a lot are for older OSes, but it's still being updated, so I imagine a some, maybe a lot, are still useful. I'm testing as the need arises. Even a little Mac, Linux, Palm, and even OSX and Unix here:
http://www.tinyapps.org/

If I understand what you saying correctly, I can get a standalone version of, for example, OO Draw? That is pretty handy.

I came across a site that may be old history to some, but I thought it might be of interest to others at this forum. The name of the site is PortableApps.com, and as the name implies it's dedicated to portable software. They have a rather extensive collection of open source software as well as compatible freeware and commercial software. These programs work on any portable storage device such as, USB flash drives, iPod, memory cards, portable hard drives, etc. I found favor with the PortableApps Suite that includes.

* Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition
* Mozilla Thunderbird, Portable Edition
* Mozilla Sunbird, Portable Edition (calendar/tasks)
* ClamWin Portable (antivirus)
* Pidgin Portable (instant messaging)
* Sumatra PDF Portable (PDF Reader)
* KeePass Password Safe Portable (password manager)
* Sudoku Portable (game)
* Mines-Perfect Portable (game)
* CoolPlayer+ Portable (audio player)
* OpenOffice.org Portable Office Suite
- Writer (word processor)
- Calc (spreadsheet)
- Impress (presentations)
- Base (database utility)
- Draw (drawing)

The suite also includes what's termed as an integrated 'PortableApps.com Menu' (sort of resembles the Windows Start Menu but looks better), a Backup & Restore Utility, a set of Custom Icons, an Autoplay configuration, Folders and a Quick Start shortcut. I installed the full suite on a 1GB Flash Drive, which took up 547MB leaving 955MB free. To date there have been 4,323,000 downloads, so I would say that's not too shabby :)

http://portableapps.com/