Or, you can just use an app once without having to worry about it leaving files on your computer.īecause portable apps dont install, they dont integrate into the system so Windows doesn't know which app to use for perticular files. You can sync them (along with their settings) to your other PCs using a cloud service. They tend to be lighter weight than most installable apps just by virtue of not having to be installed. For one thing, they leave a smaller footprint on your PC. Portable apps can be nice even if you aren’t moving between computers, though.

Everything, including any settings you’ve saved, is saved right in the portable app’s folder on the USB drive. They won’t leave any footprint on the PCs you run them on. Stick them on a USB drive, for example, and you can carry them around from computer to computer.

The biggest benefit of using portable apps is self-evident, they are portable. Because files and data are self-contained, portable apps run independently of the host operating system. Portable apps are usually stored on a USB stick, but they could be stored anywhere, a flash card, or on cloud storage, or even on a computers main drive.Ī portable app is not installed and as a rule, does not put associated files and configuration information on the host computer but stores all application files and data together. For example if the app was on a USB stick, the app would run on the computer the USB stick was plugged into without the need to first install it. A portable app is designed to be easily able to move from one computer environmant to another.

Portable apps database