Awesome Portable

Curated list of awesome portable apps.

More to come! It will take a while!

Contents | Create a Pull Request to add programs | Start an Issue for corrections or discussions

Portability:

tpfc, paf, wiki, brackets

No installation required / can be unzipped, extracted, or files copied from an installation
Runs self-contained / makes no changes to host computer outside of program folder
Saves main settings & extensions to program directory / not home directory, AppData, or the registry
No third-party dependencies / with some exceptions, like .NET, Visual C++, or admin rights where necessary
Stealth / no registry or filesystem items left on the host PC after program exit / optional but ideal

Testing for portability:

methods, mindmap, v2, processes, zsoft, pe-explorers

7-Zip / tpfc, paf / can open installer archives / can act as rudimentary dual-pane file manager
Dependency Walker / tpfc, thumb, sf, wiki / also known as depends.exe
LessMSI / tpfc / extracts MSI installers
[pestudio]
Process Monitor / tpfc, paf / previously RegMon and FileMon / see all registry & filesystem writes in real-time
Registry Viewer / tpfc / view RegHives, eg, from Sandboxie
RegShot | Primo / tpfc, unicode, primo, paf / creates before and after snapshots of the registry & filesystem for comparison
Sandboxie / tpfc / isolate a running program to show files & registry entries created / install programs requiring installation inside a sandbox / my main testing tool / requires admin rights
Universal Extractor | Bioruebe / tpfc / extracts most program installers
VirtualBox / vbox / run programs in a clean Windows installation to check for dependencies / requires admin rights
Windows Registry Recovery / tpfc / alternative RegHive viewer

Tools:

Adobe Flash | Portable | Alt / latest Flash DLLs for portable browsers
Ghostscript | Portable / Postscript interpreter required by some PDF programs
[JauntePE] [TPFC section] [Not Awesome?]
Java | JPortable | Launcher / run JAR executables portably
SmallestDotNET / to get .NET installed quickly
yaP | crypt / tpfc, list, examples
WinPCap / required via installation or wpcap.dll, Packet.dll by some network programs

Important Sites:

raymond

LiberKey / tpfc
LupoPenSuite / tpfc
PenDriveApps
PortableApps | Platform / tpfc, paf, sf, ftp
ThumbApps / sf / uses PortableApps format
TPFC / subs, res
winPenPack | Net Menu / tpfc

Other Sites:

control-panels

DonationCoder / Mouser, Skwire, one-hour software, NANY, etc
Horst Schaeffer
joeware
MiTeC / tpfc
NirSoft | NirLauncher | Panel / tpfc, paf
NTCore
SoftwareOK / Nenad Hrg
SysInternals | Suite | Live

top

Development

Databases | Differencing | GameDev | IDEs | Markdown Editors | PE Explorers | Resource Editors | Specialised Editors | Text Editors | Version Control | Web Servers

Education

Astronomy | Chemistry | Genealogy | Geography | Medicine | Numerical Computation | Programming | Religion | Statistics

Graphics

3D Modelling | 3D Printing | Animation | Art | ASCII | CAD | Colour Pickers | Colour Utilities | Diagrams | GIF | Icons | Image Editors | Image Optimisation | Image Viewers | Lego | RAW | Screen Capture | Vector Editors

Internet

Browsers | Download Managers | Email | FTP | Instant Messenging | Network Scanners | Remote Access | RSS | Torrents | VoIP

Multimedia

Audio Conversion | Audio Editors | Audio Players | Disk Burners | Disk Cataloguing | Disk Rippers | Media Cataloguing | Podcasts | Radio | Scoring | Screen Recording | Tagging | Video Conversion | Video Editors | Video Players

Office

Calendar | Diary | Desktop Publishing | Document Scanning | Document Viewers | EBooks | Finance | Mindmapping | Notetaking | Office Suites | Outliners | PDF Tools | PIMs | Reminders | Sticky Notes | Task Management | TeX | Wiki | Writing

Security

Antivirus | Cleaners | Malware Scanners | Passwords

Utilities

Archivers | Automation | Backup | Benchmarking | Bootable USB Creators | Calculators | Characters | Checksums | Clipboard | Control Panels | Defragmentation | Disk Space | Duplicate Checkers | File Cataloguing | File Copiers | File Deletion | File Managers | File Synchronisation | File Tagging | Fonts | Launchers | Processes | Registry | Renamers | Search | System Information | System Scheduling | Time | Uninstallers | Window Managers

Development

contents, top

Databases

[DBeaver]

Differencing

[Diffinity]
[WinMerge]

GameDev

[Godot]

IDEs

Eclipse / paf, wpp, sf
Geany / tpfc, paf, yap, sf / actually a text editor with basic IDE features
Lazarus | Alt / paf, sf, site, forum, wpp

Markdown Editors

PE Explorers

[ExeInfo PE]
MiTeC EXE Explorer / tpfc
[pestudio] [last completely freeware version]
PPEE / tpfc

Resource Editors

Specialised Editors

Text Editors

ascii

AkelPad / tpfc, paf, wpp, plugins / extremely lightweight
Atom / tpfc, paf / by GitHub :)
Brackets / tpfc, yap / geared toward web development
CudaText / tpfc
EditBone / tpfc
Komodo Edit / paf, yap, thumb, site
Notepad++ / tpfc, paf
Notepad2 | mod / tpfc, tpfc-mod, paf, paf-mod, sf, kliu
Notepad3 / tpfc
Programmer's Notepad / tpfc
RJ TextEd / tpfc
SciTE / tpfc, wpp / Sc1 is a version with all the DLLs included in one EXE
Sublime Text / tpfc / not free, but unlimited evaluation
SynWrite / tpfc
TextAdept / tpfc, yap
Visual Studio Code / tpfc, paf

Version Control

Git | For Windows / tpfc, paf, stack, choc
SmartGit / tpfc, avi

Web Servers

EasyPHP / tpfc, pen / available as Devserver and Webserver variants
Laragon / tpfc, sf, forum, laravel / focuses on Laravel PHP framework for webdev / available as stripped-down Lite version
MicroApache / sf / DokuWiki On A Stick version has up-to-date Apache and PHP
Neard / tpfc / very large in size / requires admin rights
Uniform Server / tpfc, sf
XAMPP / tpfc, paf, pen, sf / place at the root of the drive

Education

contents, top

Astronomy

[Celestia]
[Stellarium]

Chemistry

[Avogadro] [https://sourceforge.net/p/avogadro/feature-requests/252/]
[Jmol]

Genealogy

Ahnenblatt / tpfc / PAF version distributed by developer
Gramps / paf, site
ScionPC / tpfc

Geography

Marble / tpfc, paf
Panoply / sp / made by NASA / portable by running Panoply.jar through JPortable
QGIS / archgeek, docs, stack, ground, git / very large

Medicine

irfanview, techadvice, tpfc

[Gingo CADx]
[Mango]

Numerical Computation

[FreeMat]
[GNU Octave]
[Scilab]

Programming

[Alice]
[Arduino] / to Circuits, CAD?
[BlueJ] / to IDEs?
[Greenfoot]

Religion

Bible Analyzer / tpfc
Bible Lightning | Console / tpfc, ff, pen / fast KJV lookup / homepage offline
BPBible / tpfc, paf
Davar4 / tpfc
Ready Bible Study and Reference / sp, ff / settings saved to INIs within program directory
The Word / tpfc

Statistics

Graphics

contents, top

3D Modelling

Blender / tpfc, paf, blend, wpp
[Goxel]
MagicaVoxel | Viewer / tpfc / separate voxel category?

3D Printing

[Slic3r]

Animation

OpenToonz / paf, git / GTS, a scanning program, and a set of Dwango effect plugins are available from the main site

Art

Krita / tpfc, paf, yap, thumb / yaP launcher, as well as KDEHOME method, works with Krita versions up to 2.9.11 / best to use the PAF for 3.0 onwards
MyPaint / tpfc, paf
Pixia / tpfc

ASCII

text-editors

Ascgen 2 / tpfc / Ascii Generator 2
DAMN NFO Viewer / tpfc
iNFekt / tpfc / dev distributes PortableApps version as well
jane / tpfc
NFOPad / tpfc
REXPaint | Alt / settings saved to REXPaint.cfg within program directory / haven't checked for stealth / submit to TPFC

CAD

cadquery

[Archimedes]
[BRL-CAD]
[DraftSight]
[FreeCAD]
KiCad / paf, sf, d2k / EDA PCB design suite
[LibreCAD]
OpenSCAD | OpenJSCAD | CoffeeSCad / tpfc, yap
[QCAD Community Edition]
SolveSpace / tpfc, yap
Sweet Home 3D / tpfc

[Dia]
[Diagram Designer]

GIF

Icons

Iconus / tpfc
MiTeC Icon Explorer / tpfc
[QIconChanger] [PeIconChanger] [https://www.portablefreeware.com/index.php?id=2307] [https://www.portablefreeware.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=21358]
Quick Any2Ico / tpfc
ToYcon / tpfc

Image Editors

freevimager

GIMP / tpfc, paf, wpp, partha
PhotoScape / tpfc, thumb, yap

Image Optimisation

Caesium | Online / tpfc, paf, sf, fosshub / CaesiumPH needs to be tested for portability
Color quantizer / yap
FileOptimizer / tpfc / does much more than images, eg PDFs
PngOptimizer / tpfc, paf, pen
RIOT / tpfc, thumb
[Romeolight tools]

Image Viewers

gizmo, raymond, universal-viewer

Faststone Viewer / tpfc
FreeVimager / tpfc / also basic image editing and batch operations
HoneyView / tpfc
Imagine / tpfc
Irfanview / tpfc, paf
JPEGView / tpfc, paf
NexusImage / tpfc
nomacs / tpfc
WildBit Viewer / tpfc
XnView | MP / tpfc, mp, paf

Lego

[LDCad]

RAW

Photivo / tpfc, site
RawTherapee / tpfc, paf, rawpedia

Screen Capture

Greenshot / tpfc, site, pen / dev distributes PAF version as well / not on PortableApps site due to .NET 2 requirement
Lightscreen / tpfc, paf
PicPick / tpfc, paf / pixel ruler, magnifier, whiteboard, etc
Screenshot Captor / tpfc
ShareX / tpfc, gh, steam / formerly known as ZScreen / multiple image capture and sharing methods
Snipaste / tpfc

Vector Editors

Inkscape / tpfc, paf, wpp

Internet

contents, top

Browsers

Chromium / tpfc, paf, sf, wpp
Google Chrome / tpfc, paf, thumb
K-Meleon / tpfc, paf / lightweight & fast
Mozilla Firefox / tpfc, paf, thumb
Pale Moon / tpfc, site / fork of Firefox focusing on efficiency and ease of use
SeaMonkey / tpfc, paf / all-in-one browser from Mozilla including email, RSS, newsgroups, IRC & HTML editing
SlimJet / tpfc
Vivaldi / tpfc, thumb, sf / from the folks behind the original Opera

Download Managers

Advanced Wget GUI | Alt / tpfc, sp, vh
EagleGet / tpfc
WinWGet / tpfc, paf, astatix, sf / see TPFC thread for Wget-related resources

Email

seamonkey

MiTeC Mail Viewer / tpfc
Sylpheed / tpfc, paf, wpp
Mozilla Thunderbird | Lightning / tpfc, paf, wpp / Lightning extension adds calendar and to-do list functionality
Pegasus Mail / tpfc

FTP

Bitvise SSH Client / tpfc / formerly Tunnelier
FileZilla | Secure / tpfc, paf, wpp, secure / test: can FileZilla Server can be used portably via portable servers like XAMPP or Neard? / FileZilla Secure is a fork of FileZilla with password encryption, however its portability status is murky
WinSCP / tpfc, paf, wpp / PortableApps version integrates with PuTTY Portable

Instant Messaging

teamviewer

BeeBEEP / tpfc / p2p, no server required / secure file sharing / includes tetris :)
IsoToxin / tpfc
Pidgin / tpfc, paf
qTox / tpfc
RetroShare / tpfc / includes secure p2p file sharing
Ricochet / tpfc
Telegram / tpfc, paf

Network Scanners

[MiTeC Network Scanner]
[SoftPerfect Network Scanner]

Remote Access

TeamViewer / tpfc, paf / file transfers, instant messaging and VoIP too

RSS

thunderbird, seamonkey, ghacks

QuiteRSS / tpfc, paf
RSSOwl / tpfc, purkdell, wpp, paf, discuss, git / requires Java or JPortable

Torrents

Bit Che / tpfc, yap
PicoTorrent / tpfc
qBittorrent / tpfc, paf, wpp
Tixati / tpfc, site
Transmission-Qt | Bt / tpfc, paf, thumb
µTorrent / tpfc, paf

VoIP

teamviewer

Mumble / tpfc, paf
Skype / tpfc, paf, yap / video calling and conferencing as well
Zello / site / mobile apps too / submit to TPFC

Multimedia

contents, top

Audio Conversion

fre:ac / tpfc, paf, hydrogen, sf / also an audio CD ripper
LameXP / tpfc
TAudioConverter / tpfc, paf

Audio Editors

Audio Players

1by1 / tpfc
AIMP / tpfc, paf
Audacious / tpfc, yap
fmedia / tpfc / also a recorder and converter
Foobar2000 / tpfc
MusicBee / tpfc, thumb, forum, ccm, reddit
Nemp / tpfc
Winyl / tpfc
Xion / tpfc / has cool PSD skinning feature
XMPlay / tpfc, paf, wiki / based on the BASS library by the same dev

Disk Burners

Disk Cataloguing

alternativeto

[Cathy]
[DiscLib]
[VisualCD]

Disk Rippers

fre:ac

[CDex]
[CUETools/CUERipper]

Media Cataloguing

media organisers/managers?

Ant Movie Catalog / tpfc
Data Crow / tpfc, wpp, paf, fosshub, sf
EMDB / tpfc
Music Collection / tpfc
[Stuff Organizer]

Podcasts

gPodder / tpfc, paf

Radio

Pocket Radio Player / tpfc

Scoring

[jedit syntax]

[LilyPond]
[MuseScore]

Screen Recording

[Easy Screencast Recorder] / can integrate with Screenshot Captor / apparently very good
OBS / tpfc, paf, thumb, obs
oCam / yap

Tagging

Video Conversion

[TEncoder] [link to Audio Conversion]
[Video2Video]

Video Editors

[Avidemux]
Shotcut / tpfc, paf, site
Vidiot / tpfc, vh
[VirtualDub] [http://rolandtoth.hu/yaP/#examples/VirtualDub.ini]

Video Players

HamMultiPlayer / tpfc / view multiple videos in split views
Light Alloy / tpfc
MPC-HC | BE / tpfc, be, paf / MPC-BE is a fork of MPC-HC with additional functionality and the obvious dark UI
PotPlayer / tpfc, paf
SMPlayer | SMTube / tpfc, paf, wpp, 7z / use SMTube to browse and play YouTube videos
VLC Media Player / tpfc, paf

Office

contents, top

Calendar

pim, thunderbird

Calendar / submit to TPFC
Rainlendar Lite / tpfc / Pro version available
UK's Kalender / tpfc

Diary

mempad, zim

Hazama / tpfc
RedNotebook / tpfc, paf

Desktop Publishing

Scribus / tpfc, paf, wpp, sf / requires Ghostscript Portable for PDF functionality

Document Scanning

viewers

NAPS2 / tpfc, thumb, sf / includes OCR
WinScan2PDF / tpfc, paf, pen

Document Viewers

Evince / tpfc, paf
Foxit Reader / tpfc, paf, yap
PDF-XChange Editor / tpfc / Pro version available with more features
PDF-XChange Viewer / tpfc, paf / superceded by Editor / last version was v2.5.319.0 / OCR plugin & PDF help files available / Pro version available with more features
STDU Viewer / tpfc
SumatraPDF / tpfc, paf
Universal Viewer / tpfc / also a graphics viewer, including Photoshop format
WinDJView / tpfc, paf, yap

EBooks

readers

[calibre]
[Sigil]

Finance

GnuCash / tpfc, paf / personal and small-business accounting
HomeBank / site, thumb, paf, wpp / installer includes portable option / submit to TPFC
Money Manager Ex / tpfc, paf

Mindmapping

Notetaking

tagspaces, outliners

CintaNotes / tpfc, paf / Pro version available / free SimpleNote syncing since v3.5
Flashnote / tpfc
Laverna / tpfc
QOwnNotes / tpfc
ResophNotes / tpfc / includes SimpleNote syncing

Office Suites

LibreOffice / tpfc, paf
OpenOffice / tpfc, paf, wpp
SoftMaker FreeOffice / tpfc, site

Outliners

Cherrytree / tpfc, paf
KeyNote | NF / tpfc, sf / KeyNote NF is an active fork of the dead KeyNote with extended features
MemPad / tpfc / can function as diary with auto-added dates
The Guide / tpfc, paf, pen / last updated 2008
TreeLine / tpfc
TreePad / tpfc, site / Pro version available

PDF Tools

FaxTool / tpfc, ahk / written in AHK
PDFTK Builder | PDFTK / tpfc, paf
SepPDF / tpfc
UnityPDF / tpfc

PIMs

Reminders

calendar

Date Reminder / tpfc, pen

Sticky Notes

[7 Sticky Notes]
Stickies / tpfc, paf

Task Management

DevProject Manager / tpfc
sChecklist / tpfc / simple checklist app
Task Coach / tpfc, paf
ToDoList | Alt / tpfc, paf / was removed from PortableApps at the dev's request
Todomoo / tpfc

TeX

biglist

Wiki

mediawiki

DokuWiki | On A Stick / tpfc / self-hosted wiki software run on a portable MicroApache server
OutWiker / tpfc
TiddlyWiki | Classic / tpfc, git / single HTML opened with a browser / not a program, per se, but certainly portable
WikidPad / tpfc, site
Zim / tpfc, paf, site / PAF available from dev / can use as a diary as well

Writing

FocusWriter / tpfc, paf
Q10 / tpfc / last updated 2011
WriteMonkey / tpfc, forum, thumb

Security

contents, top

Antivirus

ClamWin | Sentinel / tpfc, paf, wpp, site / not as good as closed-source AV solutions / ClamSentinel adds real-time scanning capability

Cleaners

Malware Scanners

Passwords

KeePass | Edition Comparison / tpfc, classic, paf / KeePass v.2 ("Professional") is a rewrite of v.1 ("Classic") with more features and a .NET 2 requirement / both versions are free, open source and actively maintained
Password Gorilla / tpfc, paf
Password Safe / tpfc, paf
Sisma / tpfc

Utilities

contents, top

Archivers

7-Zip / put links like this to programs in header section?
Bandizip / tpfc
Peazip / tpfc, paf, thumb

Automation

AutoHotkey | SciTE4AutoHotkey / tpfc, awesome
AutoIt | SciTE4AutoIt / tpfc, awesome
Pulover's Macro Creator / tpfc, paf
TinyTask / tpfc, paf

Backup

multipar

Benchmarking

[placeholder]

Bootable USB Creators

[Rufus]
[YUMI] [successor to MultibootISOs]

Calculators

RedCrab / tpfc / shareware version available with extra functionality
SpeedCrunch / tpfc, paf

Characters

Checksums

file-managers

MultiPar | Alt | QuickPar / tpfc / produces PAR archives to check transferred data against for integrity
[RapidCRC Unicode]

Clipboard

ArsClip / tpfc
[Clibor] [apparently very good]
[Clipdiary]
Clipjump / tpfc, git, ahk / available as AHK script
[Clip Plus]
CopyQ / tpfc
Ditto / tpfc, paf

Control Panels

symenu

neuPanel / tpfc / frontend for Control Panel and various Windows built-in utilities
WSCC / tpfc / interface for Control Panel, NirSoft and SysInternals suites / PAF available from the developer