What does portable version mean? Portable - what does it mean? Programs marked Portable

Among all computer programs, portable programs occupy a special place. This is due to the ease of use of such programs. You can run them from any media. Such applications are also easy to transport - they can be written to a regular flash drive or disk.

Let's look at the main question of this review - what is Portable software? Understanding this issue will always be helpful. Using Portable programs can significantly save disk space and reduce the consumption of system resources. Also, such programs are quite convenient for restoring system functionality after damage caused by the activity of malware and viruses.

What does Portable mean?

First of all, you need to define the meaning of the term Portable. We will proceed from the translation of this word from English. We use the interpretation of the concept in relation to computers. Portable, in general terms, means portable, self-contained, portable. A portable program can be stored on any removable media. To launch and operate it, you do not need to install it on the hard drive of your laptop or computer. It’s probably not worth talking further about the benefits of such applications.

Distinctive features of portable programs from applications that require installation on a PC

In order to consider this issue in detail, we will create certain initial conditions. Let's assume we have a Portable version of some program. The advantages of this version from the point of view of using the application can be easily seen using a simple example. When using a standard version of a software product, an installation file with an EXE extension is usually used to install it.

Running this file starts the installation process, which involves unpacking and copying the main modules of the installed program, databases, dynamic libraries and other information necessary when working with the installed application. Additionally, you may need to install drivers for the virtual devices that the application uses as controllers. An example of such a controller is the virtual sound amplifier driver used when working with the Guitar Rig program.

So what are portable programs? Unlike standard software and applications, portable software packages do not require installation on your hard drive. They are launched by using a single executable file, which is located directly in the program folder. You only need to download the portable version of the application you need, for example, through a torrent tracker and unpack the zipped files, and then go to the desired folder and run the executable file to start working with the program.

What's included in the portable package?

Let's try to figure out how the portable version differs from the point of view of its component composition. Do such applications have everything they need to launch and work correctly? Serious programs cannot consist of only one executable file. Additional elements such as databases and dynamic libraries are required. Versions of the same software packages can differ greatly in their component composition. Therefore, it is important to make sure that your version of the program indicates that it is a Portable version.

How do such programs differ in terms of component composition? Note that such software products are significantly smaller in volume than installation distributions. However, Portable programs are no less effective than standard programs. Very often you can find quite interesting programs that are presented in just one file. Moreover, it does not have to be a file with the EXE extension.

Today there are many different options based on the use of Java applications and self-extracting archives. Such files are launched provided that the necessary platforms and programs have already been installed on the system. For example, the loader with DepositeFiles is presented as a single file with the jar extension. This makes it possible to use it even when working with computer systems and mobile devices. All that is required is support for the Java platform.

How portable programs work

How do such portable programs work? Their operating principle is fundamentally different from stationary software, which is installed directly on a personal computer. During the software installation process, not only the main components of the program are copied to the hard drive. Certain entries are also made in the system registry, otherwise the operating system simply will not accept the application you installed. How are things going with the Portable versions?

How does the principle of their operation differ from the point of view of using the system registry? It is clear that such programs do not require installation. This means that when launched, the program will not create keys in the registry, and if it does, it will be temporary, which will be automatically deleted after finishing working with the application. The advantages of using such applications are obvious: the system will not load, and the launch of other programs and applications will be carried out quite quickly. In the same RAM, portable programs take up minimal memory. In most cases, the operation of such programs does not even affect the CPU load.

Where are portable programs used?

The areas of application of portable versions of programs can be listed endlessly. Of course, the most popular programs are programs for downloading files, as well as anti-virus scanners, boot managers and optimizers. You can also sometimes find portable versions of graphics and music packages.

Operating system emulators

Almost the most popular programs today are those that allow you to fully emulate the operation of an operating system with all its functionality. Boot managers play a primary role when failures occur in such systems. They allow you not only to install the system from scratch, but also to create a semblance of an operating system with support for all drivers and devices used.

Let's assume you have a disk with a Windows XP emulator and a boot manager. This means that you will be able to load a full-fledged operating system onto your computer and use most of its functions. Such applications typically run from a flash drive or optical disk. When booting, pay special attention to the BIOS. The download priority should be specified here. Depending on the manufacturer, the names of commands and sections may differ, but this does not change the entire essence of the process.

Diagnostic tools and antiviruses

Another popular area for using portable programs is anti-virus protection. When a PC is infected with malware and viruses, installed programs are not always able to perform a full scan. This also applies to startup items. There may be threats at the start of the operating system, but the installed antivirus program cannot remove them. In this case, the situation can be corrected using a portable version of an antivirus program, which starts before the operating system starts.

For example, the portable version of the Kaspersky Rescue Disc antivirus starts from a flash drive or disk even before the operating system starts. In addition, the program is capable of independently identifying and eliminating emerging threats that may be located in boot sectors, RAM, email or application cache. After loading the operating system, it is sometimes not possible to perform such actions. In most cases, the utility allows you to easily and quickly restore system functionality.

How to create a portable version of the program yourself

Do not delude yourself when it comes to creating a portable version of any type of program yourself. It is unlikely that you will be able to create a portable version from professional applications. But for simpler programs this technique is quite applicable.

To create portable applications, you can use specialized utilities such as Thinstall Virtualization. You can do it even simpler and use regular WinRAR. The procedure for creating a portable application will be reduced to creating a continuous SFX archive. In the archive parameters you must specify the path “In the current folder”.

After this, go to the “Modes” tab and use the “Extract to temporary folder” command. Opposite the information output line, you must check the box next to the “Hide all” item. On the “Text and Graphics” tab, you need to select an icon or logo. Now all that remains is to confirm the selected actions. After completing all the described procedures, you will receive a portable version of the program, available for copying to removable media.

Please remember that not all programs and applications are subject to these procedures. If a software package contains a large number of links to third-party databases or library files, it is best not to try to make a portable version of it. Firstly, you will spend an incredible amount of time on this process, and secondly, the quality of the result will not justify the effort.

CPU-Z - one of the most popular programs among overclockers, users who overclock their computer. This application will serve as an excellent assistant in increasing the performance of your system, allowing you to monitor some important parameters after optimizing the parameters and BIOS values ​​of your motherboard. The tool will provide information about the processor, motherboard, video adapter and RAM. The tool will provide information about the processor, motherboard, video adapter and RAM.

Chromium is a fast and convenient browser for working with web pages and applications, an open source browser project that aims to create a safer, faster and more stable Internet experience for all users. Chromium can run on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux and implements approximately the same set of capabilities as Google Chrome (their interfaces are also identical).

MediaMonkey - free version of an excellent tool for organizing music and editing tags in your music library with a powerful, intuitive, multilingual interface. The program supports automatic search, Album Art tags and other metadata. It is possible to manage more than fifty thousand files in your music collection with ease. It is also possible to manage various genres and directions of audio, and support for podcasts.

Mozilla Firefox – the most popular browser for navigation on the Internet. Among the large list of similar free programs for Windows, this web browser is, if not the best, then one of the favorites. It has a whole list of advantages that modern browsers should have. The main ones can be highlighted as follows: speed of operation, ease of operation, user interface that can be customized to your liking. It has a number of additional settings, thanks to which...

VideoCacheView - a small free utility that does not require installation on the system, designed so that after watching a video on a website, you can save the video file on your local drive for offline viewing. If the video file is stored in the browser cache, this program can help you extract the video file from the cache and save it in the folder you need. It will automatically scan the entire cache of Internet Explorer or Mozilla based web browsers (including Firefox) and find all the video files that are currently in it. If you have a movie player that can play FLV files, it also allows you to play videos directly from your browser cache.

Pale Moon - A free browser that loads pages 25% faster than Mozilla, Mozilla provides a non-optimized browser for Windows. The Pale Moon project is built and optimized for Firefox browsers on Windows operating systems. Make sure to get maximum speed from your browser! The authors of the program carefully selected the best functions and removed not very popular ones. Several carefully selected features have been disabled that are not in high demand, that interfere with the loading of web pages, and therefore have maximized the speed and efficiency of the browser.

WinSCP - is an open source FTP and SFTP client for Windows systems that also supports the old SCP protocol. It provides secure transfer of data and files between different computers and allows the use of a secure “tunnel” of sorts. The program has built-in additional tools and supports all basic operations with files.

– a new build of the program, an easy and safe free program for working with email. Thunderbird provides great potential for convenient processing of electronic messages, allows you to manage a large list of contacts and perform many other operations. At Mozilla Thunderbird There is a powerful spam filter that can be trained while working with the application. Currently, there are many add-ons that significantly expand the capabilities of the program.

What is Portable soft?
What does "portable programs" mean? Portable soft - what is it?
How are portable programs different from other programs?

From this article you will learn about the existence of different types (types) of portable programs, the features of portable software and their advantages.

Portable programs, portable, portable soft, portable software is a whole formed class of programs created mainly for launching and working from portable devices (USB flash / flash drives, CD, DVD, etc.) without installation.

Advantages of portable (portable) software:

After reinstalling the system, the portable application does not need to be installed or configured - everything is ready for use when the Desktop appears on the monitor.
You can take portable software with you to work, on a visit or to an Internet cafe. You can work with portable programs immediately after connecting the portable media to your computer.
Portable applications save their settings in their native folder, thereby not loading the system registry.
The portable version of the program is not new software, but a special edition of a previously familiar application.

To understand how a portable program works, you need to have at least a rough idea of ​​how to install the software on a computer system. Without going into details, when installing the program, information is entered into the registry, files are copied to folders specified by the user, and, if necessary, to system and profile folders. Thus, the program informs the operating system (usually through the registry) of its presence and as a result, shortcuts, file associations, context menu items, etc. are created. Other applications usually also find out about the presence of a new program or its module through the registry.

The system knows nothing about the portable program, except that it is a simple folder with files, one of which has the exe extension.

Portable software are programs that launch and work without installation into the system, and meet the following conditions:

1. In any case, portable (portable) software must work on the same OS with the same settings and components on which the OS the portable program was created.
2. Upon completion of the portable program, those files and registry keys that are responsible for the operation of the OS as a whole and installed programs in particular should remain unchanged in the OS. Simply put, whatever the system was before the software worked, it should be the same after.
3. Portable software does not leave behind files and registry entries that do not affect the operation of the OS and installed programs, i.e., so-called “garbage”.

The first condition means that if you somehow transferred the OS (operating system) to another computer, then the portable program created on one computer with this OS should work on another similar OS. And this, at a minimum, and at a maximum, does not depend on the OS or the installed components and programs in the system.

If the second condition is not met, then, at best, the same or a different version of the installed program may not start (or “glitch”) on the computer on which you previously worked with its portable version. Or “fail” the registration of the program. Errors may occur in the system or in other programs when a portable program replaces some “important” files and registry keys that are responsible for the operation of the system and installed software.

Well, if you neglect the third condition, then nothing terrible will happen. True, the file system and registry will become clogged, which will only worsen the operating speed of the OS over time. And this is an indicator of the build quality of a portable program. Let me note that “garbage” does not include those changes that Windows records when you launch any program, including a portable one.

The general algorithm for creating any portable software is as follows:

1. A snapshot of the system is taken before installing the program.
2. The program is installed on the computer with the components necessary for its operation; it is configured.
3. A snapshot of the system is taken after installing this program.
4. Comparison of 2 pictures.
5. Creating a project that will reflect the result of comparing two images and editing it (can be created manually or automatically).
6. Compiling the resulting project into a portable program.

There are three types of portable programs:

●, which are created as portable by the software developers themselves.
● which, when starting and closing a portable program, only simulate the process of installing and uninstalling the program into a real system.
● which implement a mechanism for virtualizing part of the registry and file system - necessary for the launch and operation of the program.

The feasibility of using portable software

Despite all the advantages of portable (portable) software, there may be situations when installing the program would be more justified and necessary. As stated earlier, the system is not aware of the existence of a portable program or its components in its depths, and, therefore, third-party software (non-portable) does not know about it either. For example, some text file converters will not work properly if you use portable MS Office instead of the installed one. There is another point when you have to use software frequently. After all, the startup time of some portable programs may be significantly longer than installed ones, especially for “fat” (powerful) applications.

And one last thing. High-quality assembled and tested portable software does not provide a 100% guarantee that it will work on any stated systems. And therefore, it is advisable to keep both the portable and installation versions of the program.

Among computer software, portable programs occupy, if not a leading position, then at least one of the first places. This is due not only to the ease of use and launch from anywhere, but also to the ease of transportation in terms of the fact that the program can be recorded on a disk or a regular flash drive. So, let's try to understand the main topic “Portable soft - what is it?” Understanding this will always be useful, especially for saving disk space, reducing the consumption of system resources, and even when restoring system functionality after virus attacks.

Portable: what does it mean?

To begin with, let’s define the term itself, logically based on the translation of the word from English. In this case, we use the translation and interpretation of the concept of what a portable version of a program is in relation to computer systems.

In general terms, portable means a portable (portable, portable, standalone) program that can be stored on any removable storage medium and does not require installation on the hard drive of a computer or laptop to run or function. The advantages of such applications are obvious.

The difference between portable versions and installed applications

To consider this issue, we will set some initial conditions. So, we have a portable version of the program. What this means in terms of standard methods for installing and using an application is easy to understand with a simple example.

There is probably no need to explain that in the standard version, for installing a software product on a computer system, as a rule, a special file is provided, usually called Setup.exe, the launch of which triggers the installation process, which involves unpacking and copying the main modules of the program to the computer’s hard drive, the executable file for launching the main application, additional dynamic libraries, databases used in work, and even virtual device drivers that can be used as controllers. A striking example of such a controller is the Guitar Rig virtual “gadget” driver for guitarists.

Now let's look at the main question: what is portable soft. Unlike installable programs and applications, portable software packages do not require installation on your hard drive. They are launched using a single executable file with the .exe extension, which is located in the program folder. For example, if the appropriate conditions are set, the same data downloaders from torrent trackers can immediately unpack archived files to disk in the form of a new directory with the same name of the downloaded torrent. All that remains is to enter the desired folder and run the corresponding file to get started.

Contents of the portable package

What does a portable version mean in relation to what the composition of the components required for the launch and correct operation of any portable application may be, we will now try to figure it out.

The whole procedure boils down to using the button to create an SFX archive, after which you need to select the “Create continuous archive” command.

Then, in the archive parameters, specify the path “In the current folder”, and then go to the “Modes” tab using the “Extract to temporary folder” command, where a check mark is placed opposite the “Hide all” information output line. Now on the “Text and Graphics” tab you can select a logo (icon), if, of course, this is needed. All that remains is to confirm your actions. Upon completion of the procedure, you will get a portable version that can be copied to removable media.

Warning!

Not all programs are subject to such procedures. If the package itself contains a fairly large number of accompanying library files or links to third-party databases, it is better not to do this (it will take a long time, and the purpose of the final package will not justify itself).