Also we were not able to map the media keys on our keyboards for mail and internet to the software running on the thumb drive. The only benefit is instant backup of our preferences, bookmarks, and web history to a device that will survive a hard drive reformatting. It does feel a bit cumbersome to launch the platform and software on our own machines.

Google apps and other online services worked perfectly and with the added bonus of leaving no trace of sensitive information on the machine we were using. The speed of Firefox and Chrome were great and all programs operated without lag or delays. Once we had the apps installed we took our thumb drive everywhere we went and used it’s built in browser whenever we used a laptop or desktop to browse the internet. Pros: Simple Setup, Application Menu, Automatic UpdatesĬons: No itunes or other brand software available in portable formats. Unfortunately proprietary brands such as Apple do not offer mobile versions of their software such as itunes.

You can install an entire suite of the most commonly used apps, such as Firefox, Google Chrome, and Skype, and they will all fit nicely on your thumb drive using about 1GB of space. You do not have to go looking for free software to try out, the platform lists all available titles for you to check off as you wish. How easy is it to get all of this setup? How about if we told you the whole process lasted less than ten minutes? That is how long it took to find a reputable portable app website and download its software platform. The results both pleased and surprised us. We conducted a two week experiment in which we tried to use portable applications in every situation possible. In this article we’ll relay some of the best features about portable computing using just your existing thumb drive and free open source software. Those little USB powered wonders can do much more than people give them credit for. We’re referring to those thumb drives you’ve been carrying around since the last century. How about a method that can combine all of this and still fit in your pocket? No, we are not talking about a cell phone.

What users want most out of their computing experience are ease of use, security, and convenience.

Portable apps flash drive