How-To Geek
Ask the Readers: What’s In Your Flash Drive Toolkit?
Flash drives loaded with diagnostic apps, portable tools, and other goodies have become a significant part of most geeks’ computer fixing tool kits. What’s in your kit?
Photo by Russell Jones; check out his great guide to DIY armored flash drives here.
This week we want to hear all about the contents of your flash drive. What tools do you have squirreled away in there? What do they do? Which ones have really saved you in a time of need?
Come Friday we’ll round the responses, compile a list, and share all your favorite tools with the greater How-To Geek audience. The more detailed your list and description the better chance we’ll share your tool kit goodies.
Got Feedback? Join the discussion at discuss.howtogeek.com
Comments (113)
Jason Fitzpatrick is warranty-voiding DIYer and all around geek. When he's not documenting mods and hacks he's doing his best to make sure a generation of college students graduate knowing they should put their pants on one leg at a time and go on to greatness, just like Bruce Dickinson. You can follow him on Google+ if you'd like.
- Published 04/13/11
Portable Apps.com Platform! (2.0 BETA: living on the edge)
UBUNTU !! :D
A complete set of Sardu.
1. Windows 7 Ultimate installer
2. BitDefender A/V Scanner
3. PartEdMagic partition editor
4. portable apps, Ninite
Ubuntu on one and on another i carry portable apps for security like an ssh client, antivirus, and portable browsers set to use the SSH tunnel. and a few other apps for travel.
Microsoft Security Essentials and Malware Bytes. Never leave home without it ;)
3D Analyze
7zip Portable
Active Password Changer
Asterisk Logger
cports
Driver Sweeper
Everest Ultimate Edition
Fast Copy
File Association Manager
hexedit
HijackThis
puTTY
SysInternals
Teamviewer
Total Commander
TreeSize Pro
UnknownDevices
UPX
uTorrent
WinDiff
Windows Grep
Wireless Mon
xchat2
XN Resource Editor
Windows7 along with
Autopatcher (includes windows updates and more)
http://www.autopatcher.com/
IOBit’s Advanced SystemCare
http://www.iobit.com/advancedsystemcareper.html
IOBit’s Toolbox (has a very useful set of tools included in it)
http://www.iobit.com/toolbox.html
Double Driver (backup drivers)
http://www.boozet.org/dd.htm
Portable Apps, Keyfinder, Ophcrack and Blackbuntu on 2nd flashdrive.
Trucrypt
On my Ocz it’s Ubuntu on the boot partition. On the second it’s many utilities, including Portableapps, Norsoft, Sysinternals and many others.
I absolutely love PStart and have been using it for years to manage my portable apps. Here is a list my list:
7-Zip
EjectUSB
Firefox
KeePass
Network Scanner
µTorrent
———-
CCleaner
Everything (great program for finding anything on the HD, via voidtools.com)
Listary (find as you type search utility)
NirLauncher (Portable suite with most of the NirSoft utilities)
Notepad++
Speccy
System Information for Windows (SIW)
TFC (Temp File Cleaner by Oldtimer)
Q-Dir
WinDirStat
———-
PuTTY
WinSCP
———-
CoolPlayer+
GIMP
IrfanView
VLC
———-
ImgBurn
Lightscreen
Recuva
Regpair
Revo Uninstaller
Wipefile
———-
AV Suite (ClamWin, Cureit, Kaspersky Virus Removal, SpyDLL, SuperAntiSpyware)
———-
Skype
Transmiti (Wonderful translator that uses Google translate)
All of this fits nicely on a 1GB with only about 3/4 of it being used.
I have an 8GB that rotates a series of Linux Distros (Crunchbang to Ubuntu, Puppy to BT3) depending on what I need to do.
1. Portable Google Chrome
2. A copy of MBAM for a quick install.
3. Portable 7zip.
4. All my personal stuff
5. Ubuntu. (But I still need to make a partition.)
GeekMenu
most used apps:
ccleaner
fileassassin
freeraser
lightscreen
MV RegClean
SIW
RevoUninstaller
Unlocker
Live Operative Systems:
WinPE 32-bit
WinPE 64-bit
Ubuntu 10.04 Netbook LiveUSB
———————————————–
Tools and Installers:
7-Zip
Anolis Resourcer
Bulk Rename Utility
Daemon Tools
Device Doctor Portable
Digsby Skin
EasyBCD
ESET
Handbrake
HP50g
IcoFX
IconWorkshop
ImgBurn
Kaspersky
KeePass Portable
SumatraPDF
MalwareBytes
Media Player Classic + FFDShow
Microsoft .NET Framework
Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool
Microsoft Office Mathematics Add-In
Microsoft SyncToy
MP3Tag
Opera + Plugins
Paint.Net
Partition Master
PDF Password Remover 3
Piriform
ResHack
Shortcut Manager
Spotify Ad Blocker (Programmed by myself, Google for it!)
Spybot Search & Destroy
SuperAntiSpyware
TeamViewer
TeraCopy Portable
TrendMicro
Visual Basic 2010 Express
VLC
Windows 7 ISO to USB Tool
Windows Tweaks (Regedits)
Windows XP Themes
WinToFlash
———————————————–
Games
Age of Empires II The Conquerors Portable
Magic The Gathering LAN (Programmed by myself, unreleased)
Rocks n’ Diamonds Portable
I generally have two; one with some Linux distro and the other with Sysinternals.
xboot
sardu
testdisk
super-anti-spyware portable
revo
PortableApps Suite
MBAM installer
RKill.scr
CCleaner
Defraggler
IE7 installer
WinXP SP3 installer
Bluescreenview
JavaRa/PureRa
Sysinternals Suite
HijackThis
SuperAntiSpyware Portable
Plus a few batch files, vbscripts, and registry key files…
Customised Hiren boot CD(with a load of other apps it Thinstalled) and win 7 installer and some free space to back up any data.
jobs a good’in
PortableApps Suite
MBAM installer
RKill.scr
CCleaner
Defraggler
IE7 installer
WinXP SP3 installer
Bluescreenview
JavaRa/PureRa
Sysinternals Suite
HijackThis
SuperAntiSpyware Portable
Plus a few batch files, vbscripts, and registry key files…
And the other one has Ubuntu :D
Ubuntu !! :D
Portable Adobe Photoshop CS5
Bootable with multibootiso and loaded with ubuntu, memtest, clonezilla, kaspersky recovery disk, and partition magic. Also when booted in Windows, Portable Apps, Malwarebytes, HiJackThis, CCleaner, Recuva, Regmon, and Filemon. Also I have it formatted with two partitions because on some PC’s when you run Ubuntu from the Thumb drive, it won’t let you save to the same thumb drive but it will let you save to the second partition on that thumb drive for data recovery.
I have a custom boot USB flashdrive. I use Xboot, on it is AVG, Blackbuntu, BackTrack, Clonezilla, Dariks Boot & Nuke, DiskCopy, ERD, F-Secure, Ghost, GnackTrack, GParted, HDClone, Knoppix, MemTest 86+ SpinRite, SystemrescueCD, UBCD 4 Win, Ubuntu, Hirens and XBMC Live CD. I know a little over kill.
TLDL
Five distros of Linux, in installed form (not the live environments)
Malwarebytes
AVG install
Norton removal tool
McAfee Removal tool
Avast Install
Superantispyware .com file
dial-a-fix
combofix
Firefox install
Thunderbird install
Bootable Nt crack
Hijack this
XP service pack 3
IE-8 install Vista, XP
Vista sp 1, 2
Win 7 sp 1
List of uncommon commands
I have a laptop, so I don’t need portable apps :)
a paperclip
Google Chrome Portable
GIMP Portable
CamStudio Portable
7zip Portable
and probably a few more I’m forgetting
Ccleaner
Super Anti Spyware (the best one) I think it’s the best freware program out there for saving computers
Winrar
Pacman
Virtualdub
Texas Hold’em
Gimp
Starburn
How do you guys get the portable version of Mbam?
I love portable apps! They are great since I don’t have a laptop and I can take my stuff on the go.
I also have a bunch of other stuff as well.
I’m supprised nobody has put down Re-enable V2
Of which I’m the programer http://www.tangosoft.co.uk. Take a peek
A bare minimum bootable Linux that read ntfs. Preconfigured putty/vnc/SSH setups . I need my USB space to save their corrupted .pst and pics of their cat.
I don’t really keep anything like the things everyone else is saying on a flash drive. i have a large amount of apps and programs and OSes on my 320GB WD Passport that i carry around with me for work. however, thanks to those listing things here i will now have some more programs to add to my list
Ubuntu 8gb
Sardu 2gb
Portableapps suite 2gb
Recuva
Defraggler
Opera/Chrome/Firefox portable
Sysinternals
HijackThis
SuperAntiSpyware Portable
MBAM installer and rescue disks
Hiren’s Boot CD
palemoon portable
ubuntu
hirens 10.6 (as it got “useless” after that version)
portable apps (including office 2007)
batch script that starts up palemoon, volumouse, autohotkey script for text replacement and other shortcuts
Portable Apps and Kaspersky Rescue Disk!
http://www.whatsmypass.com/techtools-3-0
except i have a newer version since i havent released the new db yet
also boots into hirens,backtrack,memtest,konboot
Ubuntu, BitTorrent, Chrome, Data Recovery Pro (how ironic…)
I have a category on my blog dedicated to geek tools: http://bit.ly/hzF4oG – It’s what’s on my 8GB Kingston DataTraveler Locker.
The full range of Portable Apps
AVG Rescue disc (wonderful app, this)
Malwarebytes
Recuva
MSE
SuperAntiSpyware
The last 4 I use less of late as AVG has proven itself remarkably successful at purging the last several infestations.
Portable apps
TOR Bundle
SSH keys to access home network (in a truecrypt drive).
I thought of carrying Ubuntu but usually if I’m using a temp computer I’m not going to waste 30 minutes mapping drives and getting tarballs to get the network adapters running just so I can knock out 10 minutes of work.
Knoppix live
Isn’t that all you really need?
hiren’s boot cd, 10.6
1st Partition:
A turbinned 40+ add-ons Firefox Thinapped by myself, password protected at startup!
Other Thinapped apps:
Ccleaner
7-zip
Everest
Office 2003
Registry Workshop
ResHack
Shutter by Denv4b (already portable, excellent..)
Autoruns (already portable, excellent..)
TuneUp 2007 (Less administrative requirements than recent versions)
WinHP
WinHex
UltraIso
Bios320…
And Thinapp 4.6 portable!
Some executables:
K-Lite Codec
7-zip
Active Captions
Norton IS 2011 (I use KIS, Norton is for my friends (easy c****))
Kaspersky Removal Tool
2nd Partition:
KdPup Linux
That’s it!!
The Essentials: all the installers you need for a new load. winsock fix, reg fixes
anyone know of one that would overlay your desktop settings on the host computer?
I have one USB with KATANA installed and another with a persistant Backtrack 4 install. As a Cyber Security Analyst These two have all the tools I’ll ever need.
KATANA includes:
Live distros:
- Backtrack
- the Ultimate Boot CD
- CAINE
- Ultimate Boot CD for Windows
- Ophcrack Live
- Puppy Linux
- Trinity Rescue Kit
- Clonezilla
- Derik’s Boot and Nuke
- Kon-Boot
Portable tools:
- Metasploit
- Wireshark
- NMAP
- John the Ripper
- Cain & Abel
- Firefox
- PuTTY
- the Unstoppable Copier
- OllyDBG
- Cygwin
- ClamAV
- IECookiesView
- MozillaCacheView
- FreeOTFE
- FindSSN
- The Sleuth Kit
- OpenOffice
and many more.
I personally added:
-AVG
-CCleaner
-7-Zip
-Spybot
Link:
http://www.hackfromacave.com/katana.html
~~~Disclaimer…LOL dream set…
~1.5 tb w.D. 4 portable apps/portable xampp server
~geek squad w/ geek squad 16 gb flash drive
~Ubuntu from canonical 2 help support Ubuntu/Ubuntu Netbook remix
~512 mb magic parted (persistant) windows reset password
~8gb U3 sandisk w/ paid avast a.V. portable…
~256 gb SSD w/ 1k$ full windows rainbow tables 4 OPHcrack
~256 gb SSD 4 word dictionaires
~Iron Key-8gb
~1.5 TB w.D. multi-Linux HDD:
~~BSD/fedora/Puppy/Mint/XFCE/knoppix/gentoo/cloneZilla–gpartedMagic/backtrack 3 & 4…++many more…
~8gb multi-windows 7/xp installer
~32 gb ultra fast usb 3.0 (pcmia &/or pcExpress)…Hackintosh…??? &/or callyway MAC just 4 curiosity sake…..
the turtle tech. from the mid-west && the LBC soCal…
Portableapps
I have a 64G thumb drive (Patriot XPorter Magnum 64 GB) so I pretty much carry EVERYTHING! However, it’s slow as heck when I launch Ubuntu and run a stripped down version of XP virtually (using VBox). Although it really depends on the machine just how painful this can get – I can do it. In fact, Ubuntu is only one OS that I can boot into. Running a simple virus scan with Kaspersky or cracking something with Backtrack are also within my arsenal of software weapons – and it’s all in my pocket! Seems once you get past the 8Gig capacity in a thumb drive you can really go nuts with this stuff.
Now if only Microsoft would allow Windows to be run as a host OS from a thumb drive and not require their silly/oppressive re-activation bologna every time you ran it on a different machine. Pie in the sky dreaming I suppose. So it looks like I’ll be using Windows in a virtual environment from now on other than the Windows pre-install goodness from people like Hiren Pankaj or BartPE. Guess that’s why Linus Torvalds came up with Linux too. Thanks Linus! THANKS! THANKS! THANKS! (Hey Bill! Guess what finger I’m holding up?)
Lastpass Sesame in several flavours (32bit Windows, 64bit Windows, Mac and Ubuntu)
Lastpass IE Anywhere
Notepad++ Portable
Tor Portable
Firefox Portable
Chrome Portable
and SuperAntiSpyware as of last week.
Oh and probably Ubuntu on a spare somewhere.
Avast installer
MBAM installer
Portable SpywareByte’s Antispyware
Speccy
firefox installer
fixwin
7zip
Glary Utilities
CCleaner
These are the tools I use to get my relatives out of hot water. But, its very interesting to see what other people have in their arsenal!!!!
boot loader (lilo)
->hiren’s boot CD (always the latest) ->installed on stick
->a basic version of slackware (you never know)
->a driver pack for linux
->a driver pack for win XP (i hate win 7 to the core)
I have:
-Portable Apps
-7-zip
-DTaskManager
-FileZilla
-Google Chrome
-InfraRecorder
-LightScreen
-Firefox 4
-Notepad++
-PDFTK Builder
-PNotes
-VirtuaWin (More than 1 desktop)
-WinPenguins (Random penguins walking on your desktop)
-WinScp
SonyaPE for Admin’s
A quick question about having MBAM and other A/V software in portable versions:
Do you have to constantly update your flash drive with new definitions, or does the portable app update its definitions on booting up?
Gentoo
Portable apps (personal)
Liberkey (tools and utilities)
Full set plus some addins
Multibootiso (os independent tools and persistent Ubuntu)
Chromium OS Flow on a 4GB flash drive for safe browsing and access to data, I use it when I’m not carrying my laptop with me when traveling. :)
Only Ubuntu at this point (which has been sufficient for the little that I use it), but after reading this list I have a whole list of apps to check out.
shell.reg
rkill.com
MBAM installer
That’s all I’ve needed so far to clear infections :)
I have several USB flash drives. The 2 i use most:
16GB flash with Linux Mint 10 with a 4GB persistence file. The drive has 2 partitions and the second partition is used to store files for transfer to another PC if there is no network available.
The second drive is a Multiboot I made from Pendrivelinux. It has Ubuntu 10.10 for x32 and x64, several ISO files with Symantec Ghost (network card specific) Partition Wizard 5, and AVG.
Whats in my kit? Well.. actually too numerous to list them. I don’t even remember myself because there are so many! When troubleshooting and/or fixing I usually have everthing I need, which is necessary, since a lot of people I help do not have a second computer to look up/download information and tools.
- Martik 32bit or 64bit
- Martik PC F!X
- Martik SIS Signer 3.1
- In Class Translator 1.1
- Martik Unit Converter 1.0
- CD/DVD/BlueRay Recovery 1.0
- How To Solve A Rubik’s Cube 2.0
Hirens 13.1
Porn.
Everest, malwarebytes, avast, trend, spinrite, renamer, my defrag, beyond compare,
odd drivers and a few handy scripts and of course all offline updates
just about everything other than a OS to reset up any pc at the office.
Music and space for anything I might want to claim from you PC.
TrueCrypt
- Portable Apps
- CloneZilla
- FileZilla
- Ubuntu
- Dell Diag Tool
- DriverMax
- 7-ZIP
- Malware bytes
- Trail Version of Kaspersky
- Hirens
- Windows Password Reset Tool (http://www.pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/)
- HijackThis
- Office 2007 / 2010 Installation files for office repairs
- A number of ‘home baked’ DOS scripts, and VBS scripts.
- ProcMon
- Some ‘how to’ word docs for users who are repeat offenders!!
I clean my USB stick often and replace my tools. But as a general rule I try to keep: Windows 7 Installer (boot from USB), Chrome standalone installer (I hate IE with a passion), Teamviewer (excellent remote support tool), large collection of various drivers (printer, video, peripherals), A/V tools (MSE, MBAM), most of Piriform’s tools (CCleaner, Defraggler, etc.), Keepass, MySQL GUI tools (portable), various apps from Portableapps.com, VirtualCloneDrive, ISO images of various software (MS Office, Adobe CS, etc.), Foobar2000 (and enough 40′s era music to annoy most folks at my office), and some other things I’n sure I’ll remember later on (amazing what you can cram onto USB sticks these days)
If I were to actually have one, I’d probably have stuff for disinfecting malware:
Autoruns, Process Explorer, Process Monitor, GMER and stuff like that. Also a live linux version would be nice for partitioning and rescuing files. I would rather have live linux on a CD though. If the computer would be a little older, it might not support booting from an USB stick.
HELLO!
Do you have to constantly update your flash drive with new definitions, or does the portable app update its definitions on booting up?
Hirens boot disk (has almost everything i need really), ms security essentials, malwarebytes, some msoffice iso, magiciso virtual drive install, snapshot, and some other programs that I cant remember right now.
Autoruns
Process Explorer
Ariskkey
CCleaner
Hijack This
MalwareBytes installer
Unstpcp.exe
Scanner.exe
TFC.exe
Virus Scanners: superantispyware, File Asassin, MRT.exe, Re-Enable, Spybot
Backup: DriverBackup, MozBackup, DoubleDriver, HDHacker, SpeedyFox.
Boot: Bootice, MBR Wizard, USB Drive Creator, WintoFlash, xBoot.
Cleaners: Glary Util’s, NotifiAreaCleaner, PrivacyMantra, RizonePowerTools, TempFileCleaner, XCleaner, PureRa.
FileMgrs: CubicExplorer, DuoExplr, Everything, Explor++, FindFatFolder, FolderSize, Free Comdr, Master Comdr, PeStudio, Treesize, UltraSearch, Xenon and a few others.
CheckDiskGUI, Keepass 1.19, Chromium (Firefox4 and Iron Portablwes on Seagate FreeAgent 500GB ExtusbHD, fast as hell,) JRE6.24, JavaRa, JKDefrag (great to shrink windows size on disk/ install Linux Dual Boot,)
MediaPlayers: KMPlayer, LightAlloy, VLC, Mplayer, MediaInfo.
IPTools: Angry IP Scanner, eToolz, Networx, ProcNetMonitor.
Notepads: AbiWord, CintaNotes, EditPadLite, Juarte, MetaPad, MiniPad2, NotePad++, NotePad2, NotepadLite.
Paint.Net, YIcon (png to icon or viceversa)
ProcessHacker, RocketDock (hangs on startup if installed,) System Explorer, SideSlide, Skype, SystemNucleus, Uni-Extractor, USBDesktopLock.txt, Virtua-Win, XSetup, Yodm3D, …
Countless others- Have a 4GB Sandisk Flash Card 30MB/sec and it’s only half full, I swear you can’t fill it up, (games?)
Those programs that I felt confident enough to graduate from the flash card to the hard drive were: Sysinternals, Nirsoft, Rainmeter, SendtoMD5, MiniBin, GodMode (system settings), WakeUponStandby, CloseAll.exe, IPLocator.exe, Restart Explorer (once a .bat script now a .exe via BattoExe.,) Sumatra, WindowsUtilitiesLauncher2.0.exe..
File Assassin
MBAM
CCleaner
Super Anti Spyware
Portable Apps:
7zip
SQLite
Chrome
Spybot
SpyDLL
EraserDrop
iportable
Revo
WinDirStat
Don’t call me a pack rat because I use every single one of these in my support role, helping friends and family with computer/network problems and in my System/Network admin role at work:
7-ZipPortable
AntRenamerPortable
AppCompactor
BrowserBackup
CClean
ClamWinPortable
CrystalDiskInfoPortable
DamnVidPortable
DatabaseBrowserPortable
Device Doctor Portable
DoubleKiller
Driver Backup
EjectUSB
EraserPortable
FastStone
FileZillaPortable
FirefoxPortable
GIMPPortable
HijackThis
IE History Viewer
ImgBurn
IrfanViewPortable
JkDefragPortable
KeePassPortable
Ketarin
KeyUpdateTool
LicenseCrawler
McAfee Removal
MozBackup-1.4.10-EN
Network Scanner
NetworkLights
NK2Edit
Norton Removal
Notepad++Portable
OpenOfficePortable
PC Wizard
PDFV_Portable
PortableApps.com
Process Explorer
ProduKey
PuTTYPortable
Q-Dir
Recuva
RegshotPortable
RevoUninstallerPortable
Risk II
SIWPortable
SpybotPortable
SpyDLLRemover
SuperAntiSpyware
TaskCoachPortable
TeamViewerPortable
TFTP
ThunderbirdPortable
Toucan
TweakUI
uTorrentPortable
Vista Tweaker
VLCPortable
WhoCrashed
WindowsErrorLookupToolPortable
WinMergePortable
WinSCPPortable
Wireless Key View
WiresharkPortable
Xinorbis
I use Ketarin to keep up to date installers for the following:
7zip
Cclean
Comodo Firewall
FileZilla
Flash Player (IE and FF)
ImgBurn
InfranView
MalwareBytes Anti-malware
Microsoft Security Essentials (all versions)
OpenOffice or LibreOffice
PDF-XChange Viewer
Spybot Search and Destroy
TeamViewer
TrueCrypt
ZoneAlarm
I have a 16gb USB thumbdrive with the following:
Yumi (formerly multiboot iso’s)
Yumi is loaded with apps like…
Ultimate Boot CD
Trinity Rescue Kit
System Rescue CD
Kaspersky Rescue Disk 10
Ubuntu 10.10
Partition Wizard 5
Memtest86+ (Memory Diagnostics)
Redo Backup and Recovery 0.9.5
Parted Magic
GParted
Clonezilla Maverick
AVG Rescue CD (Antivirus Scanner)
Avira Antivir Rescue CD (Antivirus Scanner)
EASUS Disk Copy
Hiren’s Boot CD
Windows 7 SP1 x86/x64 Install Disk
I also have folder loaded with portable apps that I can access and run from Hiren’s boot cd which I can load from the Yumi menu. The main portable app I use is SuperAntiSpyware. All of my portable apps are setup to run from a Pstart menu that runs from the system tray.
I also use apps like Absolute Uninstaller (batch uninstaller) to save time getting rid of all those toolbars and coupon printers and the like that most clients put on their computers. Saving me from babysitting all the uninstalling.
YUMI (see http://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multiboot-usb-creator/ ) with:
AVG Rescue CD (Anti-Virus + Anti-Spyware)
DBAN 1.0.7 (Drive Nuker)
Memtest86+
Clonezilla
Parted Magic 4.10 (Partition Tools)
Partition Wizard 5 (Partition Tools)
Balder DOS image (FreeDOS)
Linux Mint 9
Ubuntu
Kubuntu
Lubuntu
Xubuntu 9.10
DSL 4.4.10 (Damn Small Linux)
OphCrack XP 2.3.1 (XP Password Cracker)
OphCrack Vista 2.3.1 (Vista Password Cracker)
Offline NT Password & Registy Editor
Ultimate Boot CD 5.01
Ultimate Boot CD for Windows 4
SliTaz 3.0
Riplinux 9.3
YlmF (Windows Like OS)
xPUD 0.9.2 (NetBook Distro)
Puppy 4.3.1
Puppy Arcade
A .VHD file to mount on the operating system so it’s much faster than just on my flash drive, and WinMount Portable to mount it. Looking for a better one, though.
Applications:
7-Zip Portable
Abiword Portable
AniFX Portable
Anim8or
Audacity
BlueGriffon
CPU-Z
DM2
Easy Duplicate Finder
Eclipse Helios
eXpresso
Firefox Portable
FotoSketcher Portable
FontForge
Foxit Reader Portable
Frhed-1.6.0(hex editor)
IcoFX Portable
IrfanView
kPad
memPad
NetBeans
Pidgin Portable
PNotes
PortableApps.com App Compactor
Q-Dir
Rambooster
Rapid Environment Editor
Renamer
Revo uninstaller
RWPaint.com
SearchMyFiles
Shutter
SIW (System Information for Windows)
Spread32
System Explorer
TeamViewer
TedNotepad
TeraCopy Portable
UnderCoverXP
Unlocker Portable
uTorrent
VirtuaWin Portable
WhatinStartup
Yoyo cut
One simple tool, has it all an if its not there it will be there: Ubuntu (10.4.2, LTS).
While I’m thinking about the subject, does anyone know how to disable the Chromium 12 blue portable splash portugese thingy. The other/source .ini copy file trick doesn’t work.
Lubuntu, nuff said.
A StandaloneStack2 pointed at the direction of the flash folder in “my computer” and pinned to the win7 taskbar works better than any portable app launcher that I found. Hint- For each folder on the flash right click customize, change icon of the folder to the exe file in that folder and right click the rest of the files in that folder to hidden. You get a really clean display when the stack jumps off the taskbar.
Portable Ubuntu
Liberkey – far superior to Portableapps.com
I must need a lot of help. I have over 1,000 files on my flash drive to help me solve Windows computer problems.
7 Taskbar Tweaker
7Zip
99 and 109 Windows 7 Shortcuts
AboutTime
Air Mopuse Moble
AllChars
AntiCapsLock
Aquasnap
Autohotkey
Autoruns
Belarc Advisor
Blue Screen View from Nirsoft
Bullzip PDF Printer
CFont
Clipdiary
ColorPicker
CPU-Z
DeskPins
Eraser
Extended Character Map
File Analyzer
Firefox
FixWin
FontC
FontSelector
GEDCOM Add Note
GEDCOM Add Source
GEDCOM Browser
GEDCOM Split
Genealogy Estimator
GPU-Z
Hex Editor
Hijack This
iTunes Genre Arts Manager
Karen’s Directory Printer
Last Pass
Live.SysInternals.com toolset
Logon Screen Rotator
Macrium Reflect Free
Marxio-File Checksum Verifier
Monitor Switch
National Geographic Downloader
Nircmd
Notepad++
PDF2Word
Power Menu
PrintKey2000
RAR Extract Frog
Run Analyzer
RunAsDate-x64
SDelete
SendToToys
Simple Internet Meter Lite
SimplyIcon
SimplyIcon
SuperAntiSpyware
SyncbackSE
Sysinternals Suite
System Uptime
Syster Explorer
TaskInfo
Treesize Free
TweakMe!
Ultimate Windows Tweaker
UltimateDefrag
Unerversal BIOS Backup Toolkit
Unlocker Assistant
USBScales
WinBubble
Windows 7 Start Button Changer
WindowsGrep
WinGurgle
WinSpy
WordWeb
xxcopy
@Tangomouse: Re-Enable 2.0 looks great, it’s now in my USB stick.
Sardu on a 4gb stick with:
Ubuntu 10.10
Puppy Linux 5.25
UBCD4Win
UBCD 5.03
Trinity Rescue
Redo backup
Avira Rescue
NT Pwd Recovery
I don’t often reply to posts, kind of a newbie, but I like this one. Point to be made is that a portable flash drive/card is a great place to tryout portable versions of new software. Then after a period of time and if you really like the software go get the installers and put the .exe’s on your (C:) hard drive. For every program that I still have on my flash you could count 3 others that got deleted. Also convenient that they never made it to the recycle bin. I guess if had installed all of those programs my registry would screem bloody murder, and the regpolice would surely hunt me down.
Live Ubuntu 10.4 install on one, and just documents, media and one game on the other. (that one game is powder toy!)
Lot of it is work related but,
Sysinternals Suite
HiJackThis
RAdmin S/V
7zip
VLC Media Player
CutePDF
OpenOffice
Spybot S&D
malwarebytes
Microsoftdbg tool
Audacity
“Some” portabble apps:
7-zip, AssaultCube, Audacity, Blender, Canabalt, Damnvid, FoxitReader, FretsOnFire, GIMP,
GoogleChrome, Notepad++, OpenOffice.org, Pidgin, Spybot, SpyDLLRemover, Teamviewer, VLC and WinSCP
Of Course they are not all tools but they are tools for me when I come to a place without OpenOffice installed (like my school).
After that I’ve got a few non-portabble apps but these don’t need an installation (so they are portabble, but they don’t work with portabbleapps.com :P )
ProcessExplorer, Ext2Explorer, Game Maker 8 Pro (Homemade-cracked-portabble edition, But I have paid for the original program :) )
I’m planning to install ccleaner too and some installation files for some programs…
Does anyone have VirtualBox installed as a portabble app, or is this impossible?
Portable apps with
Firefox
Thunderbird
Eraser
Spybot
Clamwin (for those times you really need an antivirus but can;t get one to load :)
7Zip
Disk Cleaner
JK Defrag
etc, etc, etc.
And one drive w/Ubuntu Portable
-just to show off my geekness-
MalwareBytes
Avira Antivir (free)
Ccleaner
Super Antispyware
All used to clean junk off of friends P.C.s that think that their computers already have A.V. software. DOH!
Hiren Boot 13.0
I have a large variety for things.
I have a virus folder with several current installs for MSE, AVG, Avast, IO-Bit, BitDefender, and others.
I have an internet folder with the latest Firefox, Chrome, TCP View and Netgear utilities, and Bit Torrent.
I have a tuneup folder with things like IO-bit utilities and CC-Cleaner.
I have a disk folder with various format, boot, file recovery, and rescue utilities.
I have a password folder with some password crackers and reset utilities.
I have a folder with various Windows registry hacks for things like adding special options to right click, or turning off some annoying Windows defaults.
And then a folder for odds and ends utilities and drivers.
This flash drive is like my car keys; always in my pocket.
Everything you want………………………………………..
SuperAntispyware a must!
Malwarebytes a must!
Firefox portable
Avira Rescue Disk
Winzip
Ccleaner
Plus articles from How-To Geek about how to get rid of various viruses and using the Avira Rescue Disk.
mri bde 5.5.0 (from geek squad)
Hiren Boot CD. All utilities you need is in there.
Bootable DOS system with full set, office word and spread sheet, graphics,3d animation,2d cad, diagnostic tools.
Bootable Ubuntu 11.04 beta and 10.10
PortableApp
Forensic tools for networks and data recovery.
The odd favourite app, scribus, inkscape.
PendriveLinux
Clonezilla
SystemRescueCD
UBCD5
TrinityRescueKit
BT4 Live
Hey, Steve H., just a note to let you someone appreciates honesty.
I acquired several 249Mb stick drives, freeDOS on one, puppy on another, Zenwalk on a 4Gb SD card,
+ my 8Gb USB that has all the Windows recovery CD ISO’s for Vista, and Win7 32+64, so I can boot up and write a CD on the spot-Kaspersky, Rescues CD, Ophcrack, and others.
I am starting work on a USB drive that will boot up and let me run any ISO right from the stick. Then everything will fit one one drive I can “stick” in my pocket. I tried the “multiboot” software, but, as usual, it didn’t work. So I have downloaded PDF and text files telling me how to “command-line it”, and am trying to assemble a large bootable USB drive that will load ISO’s and run them.
Get back with you when I get this dog to hunt.
Win Penpack
Win Penpack
uTorrent
Free Download Manager
NetBalancer
FireFox
Google Chrome
Tera Copy
7-zip Portable
Auto Hotkey & Scripts
I think How To Geek needs a print button similar to Hotmail’s so that we can ‘select all’ and not get the sidebars to save a page with Word… easier.
Firstly I have made my drive bootable. This is imperative in my book.
I work with a lot of folks that have Tivo networked. So I have Tivo File Cleaner and Tivo Install package on my thumb drive. In addition I have:
CCleaner
Revo Uninstaller portable
MBAM
Avast
And after reading a lot of these responses I plan to start carrying a few more, one of which will be, Renable.
Steve, Thanks for hosting this site!
after reading all these posts and copying a lot down for later sorting.. here is what i think may have been missed that i use regularly. (some seen above need reiterating)
- PXE boot (rom-o-matic)
- GPXE
- BIOS flash tools
- bootable AV tools
– AVG
– AVIRA
– Bitdefender
– Panda safe
– Kasperky
- HDD tools
– dban 2.2.6
– dban 1.0.7
– partition wizard
– parted magic
– gparted
– ghost 11.5.1
– Western Digital Diagnostics 504f
– spinrite
– MHDD
– Image for linux / Image for dos
other bootable tools
– memtest 4.20
– freedos
– HDT
– redo
– trinity
– UBCD
– RIP linux
– Hirens
– Ubuntu-Rescue-Remix
– System Rescue CD
- linux
– BT4 RC2
– DSL
– tails
– Jolicloud
CC Cleaner Portable
CPP Product Key finder
Data Eraser
Defraggler
Malwarebytes
MS Security Essentials
Norton Removal Tool
Panda Recovery
Recuva
Speccysuper Antispyware Portable
7 Zip
Blackbuntu – 1
Back|Track 5 – 2
DBAN 2.2.6 – 3
Ported Apps for most Linux Distros, and a spare copy of SET.
Always keep a backup ;)
I live in a rural area with rural area internet so anything that might be needed or downloaded I try to have with me,many are still on GASP dialup.
The Guide (With all my notes and information)
Dreammail
WinRoll
Faststone Capture
Media
7Burn
imgburn
Lightscribe
VLC
Password
Magical jellybean keyfinder
Cain & Abel
Update
Ketarin to update apps
Portable Software Updater
Sysinternals Updater
Zeuapp
Browsers
Firefox
Internet Explorer
Opera
Registry
Regedit (Tweaks & Repair)
RT Registry Tweaker
Tweak Ui
Ultimate Windows Tweaker
Vista Tweaker
Driver
Device Doctor Portable
Doubledriver
Unknown Devices
File Tools
7zip
Free Commander
HjSplit
Recuva
Simplyzip (For.ace)
Sumatra PDF
Super Copier
Ultrasearch
Universal Extractor
Unlocker
Utility Suites
Nirsoft Launcher
Sysinternals
Iobit toolbox
ABR (Activation Backup and Restore)
AutoRun (Regedits)
Autoruns
BIOSAgent
Command Prompt
Default File Associations Fixes
Defraggler
IconCache Rebuilder
Iobit Uninstaller
Parted Magic
Process Monitor
Reenable
RegOwnit
Reprofiler
Reset TCPIP
Restarter
Revo uninstaller
Run
Safe MSI
SIW
Smart Utility
Speccy
Teamviewer
Token Restore
winsock repair
Antivirus Tools
Antivirus Uninstallers
Avast Antivirus
Avira Antivir
Clamwin
Emsisoft Emergency Kit
Gmer
HijackThis
JottiQ
Kaspersky Virus removal tool
Malwarebytes
Oldtimers OTL
Rkill
Sophos Antirootkit
Stinger
Superantispyyware
Turn Off Bonjour
Virus total uploader
Wild Tangent Remover
NetFramework
Ninite Various Installers
Office Compatibility Pack
Visual C++
WinXP SP3 installer
Live distros:
Kon-Boot
Puppy Linux
the Ultimate Boot CD
Trinity Rescue Kit
Ultimate Boot CD for Windows