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I've been using Firefox 2.0 daily builds and Thunderbird 2.0 alpha along side the stable versions for quite some time using PortableApps.com. They are an entirely self-contained directory separate from your regular install.You can even run PortableFirefox from a CD so make sure to turn on the disk cache, otherwise performance is slow.

Firefox's auto incremental updates work great, plus it remembers your tabs so after the restart I'm right where I left off. I'm enjoying the built-in spell check--right now in fact. Firefox's reopen recently closed tabs feature on the renamed History menu is a life saver. I just accidentally closed this tab after checking that my links worked and Firefox brought it back complete will all form information. Google Suggest in the search box rocks.

The RSS feed summary page is cool and has support for Simple List Extensions. Check out a sample here: Jeff Bezos's Wish List. The ability to subscribe using your chosen feed reader is nice.

The tab bar is interesting. It changed to a grey gradient from a lighter, whiter washed out look a few builds ago. The grey doesn't match well with the Windows XP light tan gradient toolbars and the overflow arrow on the side of the tab bar are too faint to be noticeable. The list all tabs drop down on the right side is great though. I guess Mozilla has reached their goal of making the active tab better distinguished.

Generally, it seems to me that memory usage is lower than 1.5, even with 4 windows with 10+ tabs each. :-)

I'm lovin' it!

I've been using Firefox 2.0 daily builds and Thunderbird 2.0 alpha along side the stable versions for quite some time using PortableApps.com. They are an entirely self-contained directory separate from your regular install.You can even run PortableFirefox from a CD so make sure to turn on the disk cache, otherwise performance is slow.

Firefox's auto incremental updates work great, plus it remembers your tabs so after the restart I'm right where I left off. I'm enjoying the built-in spell check--right now in fact. Firefox's reopen recently closed tabs feature on the renamed History menu is a life saver. I just accidentally closed this tab after checking that my links worked and Firefox brought it back complete will all form information. Google Suggest in the search box rocks.

The RSS feed summary page is cool and has support for Simple List Extensions. Check out a sample here: Jeff Bezos's Wish List. The ability to subscribe using your chosen feed reader is nice.

The tab bar is interesting. It changed to a grey gradient from a lighter, whiter washed out look a few builds ago. The grey doesn't match well with the Windows XP light tan gradient toolbars and the overflow arrow on the side of the tab bar are too faint to be noticeable. The list all tabs drop down on the right side is great though. I guess Mozilla has reached their goal of making the active tab better distinguished.

Generally, it seems to me that memory usage is lower than 1.5, even with 4 windows with 10+ tabs each. :-)

I'm lovin' it!

Personally, if I'm wanting that kind of thing, I use Portable Firefox on a USB stick.

Seems to work fine in the general areas I work in.

Some other things it can do that firefox can't

-doesn't need installing ie
-can run off a USB stick
-can be installed without admin permissions

You might want to look at this.

And possibly this.

I already have a browser that leaves no footprints - Firefox Portable. Loaded on my 1GB Swiss Army knife the only thing it leaves on the host machine is a pluginreg.dat - which contains nothing about my internet use.

People should take a look at Torpark. It's a copy of Portable Firefox that automatically doesn't cache or save your history and uses the Tor network to create a true untraceable browser. It's preconfigured and works right out of the box and includes some other popular plugins such as NoScript. It can also be installed onto a USB key and carried with you so you always have it at your disposal.

When I'm at home, OpenOffice does everything I need. When I'm anywhere else, I always use Portable OpenOffice from my flash drive.

For me, the key is to load "portable" versions of apps instead of "installable" versions. The point is not only to eliminate the need to install, but more importantly, not to leave traces of your apps behind. It's security and a courtesy. Two excellent sources are:

PortableApps.com
PortableFreeware.com

-Jim Barr
http://jimstips.com/

You might try Portable Firefox. This doesn't require installation & is set to keep all needed files in a subdirectory. You could keep it on a USB stick, your roaming profile, some other network drive, or individual workstations.

Installed is better, but there is a work-around for some users (though certain workstations may be configured such to not allow unknown apps to be executed or allowed network access).

My university is part of the 32%. Sucks. It means that I have to keep PortableFirefox on USB stick.

Portable Firefox is now Mozilla Firefox - Portable Edition (or, Firefox Portable among friends) and a new version has been released. This new version sports some handy new features, including: CD support (aka Firefox Portable Live), partial update support, in-place upgrade support, full compatibility with Wine running on your favorite *nix distro, and more. It's available in three different versions: 1.5.0.5 for everyday use, 2.0 Beta 1 for testing the latest Firefox beta and 1.0.8 for web developers to test pages against. Full details are on the Firefox Portable Release Page.

Try using PortableGaim. I believe it has its own GTK DLLs, so it can use a different GTK version to the rest of the software on your system.
In my case, I was using GTK 2.8.something so I could use recent GIMP builds, and running Gaim Beta 2 (portable) quite happily.

Failing that, or if you are in the mood for some pain, install the latest gaim beta normally, install GTK 2.6, copy the GTK 2.6 DLLs into the same directory as gaim, copy the locale and other subfolders into that directory also.
Run gaim and voila! either it will work (which it did for me) or go down in flames (in which case you might need to jiggle DLLs around a bit more to check all are in the correct directories etc).

Basically, this works because (to my knowledge) Windows will use DLLs from an executed program's own directory before using the registered ones. It is worth remembering for when you hit those various DLL incompatibilities (MFC anyone?).

If you're in that situation, use Portable Firefox. Just check the cookie/history settings, as they suck.

Here you go:
http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/browsers/por table_firefox

BTW, when I need Linux, I run Puppy Linux from a CDROM at work - friggen clueless IT folks in some places...

we aren't allowed to install any additional programs

Like this?: http://portableapps.com/apps/office/suites/portabl e_openoffice

Personally, I just use Portable Firefox and copy my profile over to that every once in a while. Sure, the one on my USB stick might not have the very latest bookmarks added or the absolute newest extensions installed, but I can live with it until I sync it up again.

Or Filezilla. Or maybe even better in this situation, Portable Filezilla so they don't even have to install it.

They will need to go to the administrors...Aha! No more firefox and opera from M$ campus.

Sure, that must be the reason

http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/browsers/por table_firefox

It comes with me everywhere I go (well, almost :-) )

As someone who runs as a non-admin, I'll share a few tips I've learned on how best to make everything work...

1) Download CPAU, which works somewhat like RunAs but will let you create "job" files so you don't need to type a password each time.

2) Make three accounts, a "guest" (don't use the built-in guest account for this) user, a "poweruser", and an "admin" (don't use the built-in admin account for this). For the rest of this post, I'll call your real account "fred", the lower-permissioned account "barney", and the higher-permissioned account "gazoo".

3) Set the root of all drives to explicitly "deny" all permissions to "gazoo". This wouldn't even slow down an interactive attacker, but few hostile programs expect to need to take ownership and change permissions from an account already having admin privs.

4) Give "fred" write permission on "Documents and Settings\barney". Give "barney" read permission on "Documents and Settings\fred". Give "fred" read permission on "Documents and Settings\gazoo". That alone will solve 99% of permission problems you'll have.

5) Use CPAU to set up job files to run all your networking programs (browser, email, IM, etc) as "barney". Do the same for all programs that legitimately need admin access (many CD/DVD rippers, for example) to run as "gazoo".

6) To install most software (even well-behaved software that doesn't require admin to run), log in as admin (the real one, not "gazoo") and create its directory under Program Files, giving "fred" (or "barney" if it will run with reduced permissions) write permission to that dir. Then, install it while logged in as "fred" (or, again, as "barney" if applicable). Also, some pesky software will work best if you install it first as the user it will run as, and then as "fred". Firefox and Thunderbird fall into this category, because of the way they handle user profiles (Using the highly-recommended "Portable" versions of both will completely avoid this problem, btw).


The above will take care of most common problems you might have. Other problems will still pop up, however.

For example, good luck printing from your web browser - you can use Microsoft's TweakUI to edit the relevant ACLs, but that seems like about a 50/50 shot of working. I curently have two machines at home set up more-or-less as described above, and basically identical. One of them can print from "barney" and one can't. Wierd.

Also, get used to using UNC names. Mapped drives, even if mapped under all three accounts, will not show up for programs running as anyone but the currently logged-in user.



And some "experts" wonder why so many Windows users still run as admin.

• Split Apps/Data directories for easy backups
• Local homepages (for users of TiddlyWiki, etc)
• Self-extracting packages (easy install, only 4.8MB download)
• Few bug fixes

Try tossing some portable apps on it. Lots of great stuff available if you ever have to use someone else's computer and are missing some seemingly minor yet critical app and are short on time.

I found a 1gig flash drive for $20, snapped it up right away. It's saved my ass several times when I've got 30 minutes until class, left my laptop in my car clear across campus and I need to make a few quick changes & print a Word doc and the damn library PCs only have Word viewer installed (thank you portable AbiWord!) . . . and gee, that printer isn't working/out of paper & we're too lazy/stupid to refill it, you'll have to go to the other lab . . . etc.

I've got a bootable DSL partition on it too . . . it can be useful, but "No time! Need nearest PC!" doesn't always boot from USB.

Really, they're like sneaker-net swiss army knives.

That's what Portable OpenOffice is for.

I use Portable FireFox (and addons.mozilla.org)

I find it preferable to have a no-install zip file than a windows installer and the mozilla site lags waaay behind in providing a no-install version.

"...and reading this from a windows/IE only work PC."

nope. see http://portableapps.com/

So, your IT department blocks printer installs but let you boot a separate OS from flashdrive? Interesting approach.

klik might be the Linux alternative for this? Maybe one day...

Mac already works like this as far as I know.

Get yourself a copy of Portable OpenOffice.org and a thumbdrive, and you're much better off than relying on Ajax and an internet connection.

I love TrueCrypt. I have been using it daily to mount an encrypted volume from a USB Flash Drive drive with portable apps like Portable Thunderbird, Portable Firefox, Portable GAIM, and Portable FileZilla on it. Very easy to use, and keeps my personal information under wraps.

JOhn

This is already possible -- you can try it. There are even 1GB and 2GB sticks available now that can hold a full-featured Linux distribution with OOo.

I have a 1gb Sandisk Cruzer I use to run firefox, abiword, thunderbird, etc...http://portableapps.com/. I dont think this "exploit" is limited to an iPod. Probably better driver support for USB Thumbdrives anyway.

Also, doesn't this depend on user priveleges? Dont ban iPods, lower priveleges :P

Add other portable apps and what else do you need? More storage space? How about a 20GB media player? Iriver works for me.

Try the portable version.

Drupal really is what you make of it. True, installation isn't for the non-geek. Nor is adding modules (at the moment... though that will change). But the PHP theming engine lets you do pretty much anything you want to, which is great. That's why I chose it for PortableApps.com. (Granted, my theme isn't a huge departure, but I like it.) Well, that and the fact that friendly URLs are built right in and work really well without modifying the core code at all.

Make 'em USB drives. Like Portable Firefox who, I see, is now part of a whole Portable Apps movement, very similar to your concept.

Make 'em USB drives. Like Portable Firefox who, I see, is now part of a whole Portable Apps movement, very similar to your concept.

What exactly would prevent these low margin, high volume USB key manufacturers selling their memory sticks unformatted?

Nothing actually prevents that true - however, you miss the real point.

Why should they pay a MS tax after MS's bait'n'switch tactics with this filesystem?

Why can't they value add by pre-formatting (or even providing free content like portable openoffice or redistibutable music?

It's not like hard drive manufacturers have to pay a FAT tax -- it's just the device manufacturers whose stuff actually uses FAT, like digital camera makers.

If a HDD manufacturer is distributing a FAT filesystem, they're almost certainly distributing a MS O/S & paying the MS tax.

A lot of U.S. Soldiers use Firefox exclusively. Thanks to websites like portableapps I can get Thunderbird and Firefox installed on my flash so I don't have to go through the bother of dealing with out backwards and semi-retarted IA department to get it installed on the machine I use. After showing it off to most of the people I work with and letting them see all of the great plug-ins and extensions that you can add on, plus custom skinning the browser, these guys were sold.

As to the Army as a whole accpting it, your guess is as good as mine. I only showed the more tech-savvy guys Firefox, some of the dudes around here didn't exactly sign their contract as much as put a bite mark on the dotted line, if you catch my drift. I really don't think that they're the ones that are targeted by Firefox - and that very well could be part of the problem. Most IT/IA soldiers that are outside the Linux / Open Source world see things like Firefox as a waltzing bear. Right or wrong, that's a perception that is going to have to be overcome before this is accepted as a standard, or even as a useable piece of software by those outside "the know".

How to install Flash/etc plugins:

http://portableapps.com/support/portable_firefox#p lugins

here you go

It was 206MB before I started. Between 7zipping the JARs and UPXing the EXEs and DLLs I got it to 144MB. Someone is working on recompressing the PNGs which may buy another 5MB.

If you're on a smaller drive, use Portable AbiWord as your word processor (only 14MB installed) and something like Spread32 for your spreadsheet. I'm working on a portable version of gnumeric, but it's a bit flakey at the moment.

Use something like TrueCrypt to encrypt it. The next version of the Portable Apps Suite will include an option to encyrpt your personal data.

There are a lot more applications that work from a USB key that don't advertise that fact. I will share with you what I currently use on my 1gb USB key and the locations you can download them. Most of these are freeware or relatively cheap shareware. Please help the authors continue their work if you use any of these and make a small donation at their sites if available.

Audacity - http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
This one will run from your key, but it does write to the registry which portable apps should not do. Then again, they don't advertise this as a portable app. Once you use it on a machine and configure it, it will remember your settings on that machine of course. Handy if you are locked down at work from installing software but you need it occasionally.

Bulk Rename Utility - http://www.jimwillsher.co.uk/Site/Software/Softwar e_Intro.php
a utility which allows the rapid renaming of files and folders, based upon flexible selection criteria. Download the zip version for portability.

FeedReader - http://www.feedreader.com/
This project is currently dead, but it works from USB wonderfully.

FoxitReader - http://www.foxitsoftware.com/bbs/index.php
A PDF reader that works very quickly (kind of like Adobe used to about 6 years ago).

Miranda - http://www.miranda-im.org/
A powerful and flexible multiprotocol IM client with loads of plugins. Download the zip version for portability.

mIRC - http://www.mirc.com/
Everyones favorite IRC app. Has always been portable.

PortableFileZilla - http://portableapps.com/
Portable FileZilla is the popular FileZilla FTP client packaged as a portable app, so you can take your server list and settings with you.

PortableFirefox - http://portableapps.com/
Portable Firefox is the popular Mozilla Firefox web browser packaged as a portable app, so you can take your bookmarks, extensions and saved passwords with you.

PortableNVU - http://portableapps.com/
Portable NVU is the easy-to-use NVU web editor packaged as a portable app, so you can edit your website on the go.

PortableOpenOffice - http://portableapps.com/
Portable OpenOffice.org is the popular OpenOffice.org office suite -- including a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation tool, drawing package and database -- packaged as a portable app

PortableSunbird - http://portableapps.com/
Portable Sunbird is the handy Mozilla Sunbird calendar and task manager packaged as a portable app, so you can take your calendar and to do list with you.

PortableThunderbird - http://portableapps.com/
Portable Thunderbird is the popular Mozilla Thunderbird email client packaged as a portable app, so you can take your email, address book and account settings with you.

Snippy - http://www.bhelpuri.net/Snippy/
Snippy is a small utility that captures an area of your screen to your clipboard to paste into other applications.

AleJenJes Countdown Timer - http://www.gonebowlin.com/freeware.html
It is a simple countdown timer where you enter the starting time in hours, minutes & seconds and it counts down to zero. Not needed often, but handy as can be for those few instances you do need one.

Unit Conversion Utility - http://www.jimwillsher.co.uk/Site/Software/UCU_Int ro.html
Unit Conversion U

There are a lot more applications that work from a USB key that don't advertise that fact. I will share with you what I currently use on my 1gb USB key and the locations you can download them. Most of these are freeware or relatively cheap shareware. Please help the authors continue their work if you use any of these and make a small donation at their sites if available.

Audacity - http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
This one will run from your key, but it does write to the registry which portable apps should not do. Then again, they don't advertise this as a portable app. Once you use it on a machine and configure it, it will remember your settings on that machine of course. Handy if you are locked down at work from installing software but you need it occasionally.

Bulk Rename Utility - http://www.jimwillsher.co.uk/Site/Software/Softwar e_Intro.php
a utility which allows the rapid renaming of files and folders, based upon flexible selection criteria. Download the zip version for portability.

FeedReader - http://www.feedreader.com/
This project is currently dead, but it works from USB wonderfully.

FoxitReader - http://www.foxitsoftware.com/bbs/index.php
A PDF reader that works very quickly (kind of like Adobe used to about 6 years ago).

Miranda - http://www.miranda-im.org/
A powerful and flexible multiprotocol IM client with loads of plugins. Download the zip version for portability.

mIRC - http://www.mirc.com/
Everyones favorite IRC app. Has always been portable.

PortableFileZilla - http://portableapps.com/
Portable FileZilla is the popular FileZilla FTP client packaged as a portable app, so you can take your server list and settings with you.

PortableFirefox - http://portableapps.com/
Portable Firefox is the popular Mozilla Firefox web browser packaged as a portable app, so you can take your bookmarks, extensions and saved passwords with you.

PortableNVU - http://portableapps.com/
Portable NVU is the easy-to-use NVU web editor packaged as a portable app, so you can edit your website on the go.

PortableOpenOffice - http://portableapps.com/
Portable OpenOffice.org is the popular OpenOffice.org office suite -- including a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation tool, drawing package and database -- packaged as a portable app

PortableSunbird - http://portableapps.com/
Portable Sunbird is the handy Mozilla Sunbird calendar and task manager packaged as a portable app, so you can take your calendar and to do list with you.

PortableThunderbird - http://portableapps.com/
Portable Thunderbird is the popular Mozilla Thunderbird email client packaged as a portable app, so you can take your email, address book and account settings with you.

Snippy - http://www.bhelpuri.net/Snippy/
Snippy is a small utility that captures an area of your screen to your clipboard to paste into other applications.

AleJenJes Countdown Timer - http://www.gonebowlin.com/freeware.html
It is a simple countdown timer where you enter the starting time in hours, minutes & seconds and it counts down to zero. Not needed often, but handy as can be for those few instances you do need one.

Unit Conversion Utility - http://www.jimwillsher.co.uk/Site/Software/UCU_Int ro.html
Unit Conversion U

There are a lot more applications that work from a USB key that don't advertise that fact. I will share with you what I currently use on my 1gb USB key and the locations you can download them. Most of these are freeware or relatively cheap shareware. Please help the authors continue their work if you use any of these and make a small donation at their sites if available.

Audacity - http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
This one will run from your key, but it does write to the registry which portable apps should not do. Then again, they don't advertise this as a portable app. Once you use it on a machine and configure it, it will remember your settings on that machine of course. Handy if you are locked down at work from installing software but you need it occasionally.

Bulk Rename Utility - http://www.jimwillsher.co.uk/Site/Software/Softwar e_Intro.php
a utility which allows the rapid renaming of files and folders, based upon flexible selection criteria. Download the zip version for portability.

FeedReader - http://www.feedreader.com/
This project is currently dead, but it works from USB wonderfully.

FoxitReader - http://www.foxitsoftware.com/bbs/index.php
A PDF reader that works very quickly (kind of like Adobe used to about 6 years ago).

Miranda - http://www.miranda-im.org/
A powerful and flexible multiprotocol IM client with loads of plugins. Download the zip version for portability.

mIRC - http://www.mirc.com/
Everyones favorite IRC app. Has always been portable.

PortableFileZilla - http://portableapps.com/
Portable FileZilla is the popular FileZilla FTP client packaged as a portable app, so you can take your server list and settings with you.

PortableFirefox - http://portableapps.com/
Portable Firefox is the popular Mozilla Firefox web browser packaged as a portable app, so you can take your bookmarks, extensions and saved passwords with you.

PortableNVU - http://portableapps.com/
Portable NVU is the easy-to-use NVU web editor packaged as a portable app, so you can edit your website on the go.

PortableOpenOffice - http://portableapps.com/
Portable OpenOffice.org is the popular OpenOffice.org office suite -- including a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation tool, drawing package and database -- packaged as a portable app

PortableSunbird - http://portableapps.com/
Portable Sunbird is the handy Mozilla Sunbird calendar and task manager packaged as a portable app, so you can take your calendar and to do list with you.

PortableThunderbird - http://portableapps.com/
Portable Thunderbird is the popular Mozilla Thunderbird email client packaged as a portable app, so you can take your email, address book and account settings with you.

Snippy - http://www.bhelpuri.net/Snippy/
Snippy is a small utility that captures an area of your screen to your clipboard to paste into other applications.

AleJenJes Countdown Timer - http://www.gonebowlin.com/freeware.html
It is a simple countdown timer where you enter the starting time in hours, minutes & seconds and it counts down to zero. Not needed often, but handy as can be for those few instances you do need one.

Unit Conversion Utility - http://www.jimwillsher.co.uk/Site/Software/UCU_Int ro.html
Unit Conversion U

There are a lot more applications that work from a USB key that don't advertise that fact. I will share with you what I currently use on my 1gb USB key and the locations you can download them. Most of these are freeware or relatively cheap shareware. Please help the authors continue their work if you use any of these and make a small donation at their sites if available.

Audacity - http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
This one will run from your key, but it does write to the registry which portable apps should not do. Then again, they don't advertise this as a portable app. Once you use it on a machine and configure it, it will remember your settings on that machine of course. Handy if you are locked down at work from installing software but you need it occasionally.

Bulk Rename Utility - http://www.jimwillsher.co.uk/Site/Software/Softwar e_Intro.php
a utility which allows the rapid renaming of files and folders, based upon flexible selection criteria. Download the zip version for portability.

FeedReader - http://www.feedreader.com/
This project is currently dead, but it works from USB wonderfully.

FoxitReader - http://www.foxitsoftware.com/bbs/index.php
A PDF reader that works very quickly (kind of like Adobe used to about 6 years ago).

Miranda - http://www.miranda-im.org/
A powerful and flexible multiprotocol IM client with loads of plugins. Download the zip version for portability.

mIRC - http://www.mirc.com/
Everyones favorite IRC app. Has always been portable.

PortableFileZilla - http://portableapps.com/
Portable FileZilla is the popular FileZilla FTP client packaged as a portable app, so you can take your server list and settings with you.

PortableFirefox - http://portableapps.com/
Portable Firefox is the popular Mozilla Firefox web browser packaged as a portable app, so you can take your bookmarks, extensions and saved passwords with you.

PortableNVU - http://portableapps.com/
Portable NVU is the easy-to-use NVU web editor packaged as a portable app, so you can edit your website on the go.

PortableOpenOffice - http://portableapps.com/
Portable OpenOffice.org is the popular OpenOffice.org office suite -- including a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation tool, drawing package and database -- packaged as a portable app

PortableSunbird - http://portableapps.com/
Portable Sunbird is the handy Mozilla Sunbird calendar and task manager packaged as a portable app, so you can take your calendar and to do list with you.

PortableThunderbird - http://portableapps.com/
Portable Thunderbird is the popular Mozilla Thunderbird email client packaged as a portable app, so you can take your email, address book and account settings with you.

Snippy - http://www.bhelpuri.net/Snippy/
Snippy is a small utility that captures an area of your screen to your clipboard to paste into other applications.

AleJenJes Countdown Timer - http://www.gonebowlin.com/freeware.html
It is a simple countdown timer where you enter the starting time in hours, minutes & seconds and it counts down to zero. Not needed often, but handy as can be for those few instances you do need one.

Unit Conversion Utility - http://www.jimwillsher.co.uk/Site/Software/UCU_Int ro.html
Unit Conversion U

There are a lot more applications that work from a USB key that don't advertise that fact. I will share with you what I currently use on my 1gb USB key and the locations you can download them. Most of these are freeware or relatively cheap shareware. Please help the authors continue their work if you use any of these and make a small donation at their sites if available.

Audacity - http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
This one will run from your key, but it does write to the registry which portable apps should not do. Then again, they don't advertise this as a portable app. Once you use it on a machine and configure it, it will remember your settings on that machine of course. Handy if you are locked down at work from installing software but you need it occasionally.

Bulk Rename Utility - http://www.jimwillsher.co.uk/Site/Software/Softwar e_Intro.php
a utility which allows the rapid renaming of files and folders, based upon flexible selection criteria. Download the zip version for portability.

FeedReader - http://www.feedreader.com/
This project is currently dead, but it works from USB wonderfully.

FoxitReader - http://www.foxitsoftware.com/bbs/index.php
A PDF reader that works very quickly (kind of like Adobe used to about 6 years ago).

Miranda - http://www.miranda-im.org/
A powerful and flexible multiprotocol IM client with loads of plugins. Download the zip version for portability.

mIRC - http://www.mirc.com/
Everyones favorite IRC app. Has always been portable.

PortableFileZilla - http://portableapps.com/
Portable FileZilla is the popular FileZilla FTP client packaged as a portable app, so you can take your server list and settings with you.

PortableFirefox - http://portableapps.com/
Portable Firefox is the popular Mozilla Firefox web browser packaged as a portable app, so you can take your bookmarks, extensions and saved passwords with you.

PortableNVU - http://portableapps.com/
Portable NVU is the easy-to-use NVU web editor packaged as a portable app, so you can edit your website on the go.

PortableOpenOffice - http://portableapps.com/
Portable OpenOffice.org is the popular OpenOffice.org office suite -- including a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation tool, drawing package and database -- packaged as a portable app

PortableSunbird - http://portableapps.com/
Portable Sunbird is the handy Mozilla Sunbird calendar and task manager packaged as a portable app, so you can take your calendar and to do list with you.

PortableThunderbird - http://portableapps.com/
Portable Thunderbird is the popular Mozilla Thunderbird email client packaged as a portable app, so you can take your email, address book and account settings with you.

Snippy - http://www.bhelpuri.net/Snippy/
Snippy is a small utility that captures an area of your screen to your clipboard to paste into other applications.

AleJenJes Countdown Timer - http://www.gonebowlin.com/freeware.html
It is a simple countdown timer where you enter the starting time in hours, minutes & seconds and it counts down to zero. Not needed often, but handy as can be for those few instances you do need one.

Unit Conversion Utility - http://www.jimwillsher.co.uk/Site/Software/UCU_Int ro.html
Unit Conversion U

There are a lot more applications that work from a USB key that don't advertise that fact. I will share with you what I currently use on my 1gb USB key and the locations you can download them. Most of these are freeware or relatively cheap shareware. Please help the authors continue their work if you use any of these and make a small donation at their sites if available.

Audacity - http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
This one will run from your key, but it does write to the registry which portable apps should not do. Then again, they don't advertise this as a portable app. Once you use it on a machine and configure it, it will remember your settings on that machine of course. Handy if you are locked down at work from installing software but you need it occasionally.

Bulk Rename Utility - http://www.jimwillsher.co.uk/Site/Software/Softwar e_Intro.php
a utility which allows the rapid renaming of files and folders, based upon flexible selection criteria. Download the zip version for portability.

FeedReader - http://www.feedreader.com/
This project is currently dead, but it works from USB wonderfully.

FoxitReader - http://www.foxitsoftware.com/bbs/index.php
A PDF reader that works very quickly (kind of like Adobe used to about 6 years ago).

Miranda - http://www.miranda-im.org/
A powerful and flexible multiprotocol IM client with loads of plugins. Download the zip version for portability.

mIRC - http://www.mirc.com/
Everyones favorite IRC app. Has always been portable.

PortableFileZilla - http://portableapps.com/
Portable FileZilla is the popular FileZilla FTP client packaged as a portable app, so you can take your server list and settings with you.

PortableFirefox - http://portableapps.com/
Portable Firefox is the popular Mozilla Firefox web browser packaged as a portable app, so you can take your bookmarks, extensions and saved passwords with you.

PortableNVU - http://portableapps.com/
Portable NVU is the easy-to-use NVU web editor packaged as a portable app, so you can edit your website on the go.

PortableOpenOffice - http://portableapps.com/
Portable OpenOffice.org is the popular OpenOffice.org office suite -- including a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation tool, drawing package and database -- packaged as a portable app

PortableSunbird - http://portableapps.com/
Portable Sunbird is the handy Mozilla Sunbird calendar and task manager packaged as a portable app, so you can take your calendar and to do list with you.

PortableThunderbird - http://portableapps.com/
Portable Thunderbird is the popular Mozilla Thunderbird email client packaged as a portable app, so you can take your email, address book and account settings with you.

Snippy - http://www.bhelpuri.net/Snippy/
Snippy is a small utility that captures an area of your screen to your clipboard to paste into other applications.

AleJenJes Countdown Timer - http://www.gonebowlin.com/freeware.html
It is a simple countdown timer where you enter the starting time in hours, minutes & seconds and it counts down to zero. Not needed often, but handy as can be for those few instances you do need one.

Unit Conversion Utility - http://www.jimwillsher.co.uk/Site/Software/UCU_Int ro.html
Unit Conversion U

In fact there's a full Portable Suite here : http://portableapps.com/suite

The perfect partner to Portable OpenOffice might just be Portable Firefox.

This is very useful for me as I'm otherwise forced to use IE on the university computers. Neat.