Know How...

Aug 23rd 2012

Know How... 8

Portable Apps

Portable apps let you bring your favorite programs with you where ever you go. Find out how to use portable apps on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux!

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Category: Help & How To

Portable apps let you bring your favorite programs with you where ever you go. Find out how to use portable apps on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.

Materials List

  • PC or Mac
  • USB Key
  • Internet connection
  • Time & patience

Portable Apps for Windows
PortableApps.com is a very user friendly way to put portable apps on a USB key. Installation of applications does take some time, so while it might look like your computer has locked up, it may still be installing. Be patient.

Chrome with Flash in your portable version
Instructions:

  • Download NPSWF32.DLL
  • Open your Portable Apps drive in Windows Explorer
  • Go to GoogleChromePortable\App\Chrome-bin\
  • Create a new subdirectory with the name "plugins" (without the quotation marks)
  • Copy the DLL to GoogleChromePortable\App\Chrome-bin\plugins

Portable Apps for Mac OS X
Freesmug.org/download is great resource for picking up portable apps.

  • After downloading the DMG, open it and copy the app to your USB Key.
  • If you are using OS X Lion or higher, you'll have to download PAppsLionPatch.

Portable Apps for Linux
Your best source for portable apps for Linux is Sourceforge.com/projects/portable

  • Download your file, put it on a drive

Viewer Challenge!
If you can figure out how to create a portable version of Chrome with Adobe Flash, let us know. Make a video, upload it to YouTube or your favorite video sharing site and send us the link!

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