That said, the advantages of portable apps usually outweigh the disadvantages-particularly if you move around to different PCs a lot. It’s less of a problem on modern PCs than it was in the past, but there are still PCs today that don’t handle sleep well. You can even run into this problem on PCs that don’t handle USB drives well when they enter sleep or hibernation. Otherwise, you can corrupt the apps or cause settings not to be saved properly. Lastly, if you’re running portable apps from a USB drive, you’ll want to take extra care to eject the drive properly instead of just pulling it out. RELATED: Do You Really Need to Safely Remove USB Flash Drives? But if multiple users do need to use an app, they’ll either all have to use the same settings, or you’ll have to have several copies of the app folder on your portable drive. This is likely not a big deal since you’re probably creating a portable drive that you can carry around just for yourself. The downside is that the IT department and any security protocols they’ve instituted might be less effective.Īnother downside of portable apps is that they’re not typically built with multiple users in mind. The upside is that if you need a portable app, you can likely run it even if you’re on a network-say, at work-where you can’t install a normal app. You could consider this one both an upside and a downside. Windows’ User Account Controls (UAC) don’t work for portable apps the way they do for installed apps, meaning that they are more subject to non-administrative processes. Of course, there are some downsides to using portable apps. RELATED: Understanding User Account Control in Windows 7 But many apps come in both flavors, which means you can choose between an installer and a ZIP when you download it. Either they’re just too big-or sophisticated-to run as a portable app, or they need to take advantage of Windows’ multi-user or security capabilities. Sure, there will always be apps that you need to install. Everything, including any settings you’ve saved, is saved right in the portable app’s folder on the USB drive. It’s very similar to the way things worked back in the days of MS-DOS and Windows 3.1. They won’t leave any footprint on the PCs you run them on. Stick them on a USB drive, for example, and you can carry them around from computer to computer. The most significant benefit of using portable apps is self-evident-they’re portable. If the app allows you to save settings, those settings are saved in files right inside the same folder. Instead of installing a portable app, you typically download it as a ZIP file, extract that ZIP to a folder, and run the executable file for the app. If you move the folder, the app will still work the same. All the files required to run the app reside in a single folder, which you can put anywhere on the system. So, What’s a Portable App and Why Would I Use One?Ī portable app is simply one that doesn’t use an installer. And, having all program settings saved to designated areas makes backing up your system more reliable. Features like file and share permissions are built on this structure. For starters, each user can rely on their own settings being loaded when they start the app just because they are signed in with their own Windows account. Storing user-specific settings in one place and system-wide settings in another means that apps can take better advantage of lots of different Windows features designed for a multi-user system. Multiple apps can share information contained in Registry entries or shared code libraries, preventing unnecessary duplication. There are distinct advantages to this separation of functions. NET Framework, and Why Is It Installed on My PC? NET framework and Visual C++ Redistributables. And many apps take advantage of shared code libraries that get installed with things like the. Most apps create entries in the Windows Registry that may also hold various configuration settings. Settings that are particular to different user accounts on the PC are stored in files created in the hidden “AppData” folder inside each accounts user folder. Files that contain settings applying to all users of the app may get created in the ProgramData folder. The bulk of the app’s files are usually copied to a single folder somewhere in the C:\Program Files folder. When you install an app in Windows, the installation files go to several different locations. To understand what makes an app portable, it might be helpful first to take a quick look at how traditional apps get installed in Windows. RELATED: What Is the ProgramData Folder in Windows?
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