The Best Portable Apps for Your Software Toolbox

Portable apps usually offer the same functionality and advantages as the regular versions of your favorite software, but without any installers involved. That means portable apps come in really handy as executables and any files associated with their operation are contained within a single folder, meaning you can run them directly from a USB drive or a cloud folder synced across PCs.

Portable apps don't modify the Windows registry or leave behind configuration files on the host computer. This is especially useful in situations where you may not have administrative rights to install software, on public computers at a library, university, or at work.

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While phones can certainly allow us to be productive on the go when needed, it's not always as glamorous as it sounds. It may be technically possible to do things like hammering out a document for your boss, touching up a photo, or editing some code thanks to the cornucopia of mobile apps on the market, but we're most efficient when we have the right tool for the job, and often times that tool is a bona fide computer.

A laptop is the logical solution that most users will arrive at in terms of flexibility, but did you know that you can effectively carry around a comprehensive suite of productivity software, handy tools, media players and even games complete with user preferences intact and use them on virtually any PC?

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In this article we'll highlight the best standalone apps across a variety of categories. We took an internal survey among TechSpot staff members, what we use to be productive, and then researched more available portable titles that could be useful to carry around with you.

Since we started this list, we've kept on adding more portable apps on TechSpot downloads which are kept up to date regularly, and as usual we're accepting your suggestions and recommendations to grow this list further.