what are portable apps?
Portable Apps (applications) are software programs that can be run from a USB Flash Drive (aka USB stick, Thumb Drive, or Keychain drive). Some programs are very small anc can be run equally well from a USB drive or a hard drive. Other programs need to be “made portable” in one way or another before they will work from a USB drive. Advantages: • You will always have basic software with you, regardless of whether you are working in a library, in an Internet cafe, at a friend’s house, etc. (Note that online apps like Google Docs, online photo editing tools, etc. also provide these same advantages.) • By using Portable Firefox, you can have all your favorite bookmarks readily available. • Portable OpenOffice and portable AbiWord allow you to save files in Microsoft Office formats that most people can read. (You can also open Word, Excel and PowerPoint files in OpenOffice just to look at or to edit.) Disadvantages: • Software runs more slowly from a USB drive than it does from the hard dri
