Best place to put .exe files of non-installed software ?

Some of my software apps are not installed and simply consist of a folder containing an .exe file and a bunch of .dlls. One runs the software simply by clicking on the .exe file. To get rid of the software one simply has to delete the folder containing it. No de-installation procedure is needed to remove it from the system. I don't know the technical term for this kind of software ("portable" ?). Is there a preferred place to "park" this kind of software ? I guess it would be inappropriate to put it under "Program files" since these are installed apps. Basically, of course, it doesn't matter. I could leave them on a USB key if I wanted or leave them in the "My Downloads" folder but I just wondered if there is some common convention.

Yes, they're called portables.

There is no fixed convention or best practice where to put them, basically they can be anywhere you like and they'll work the same. If you use file explorers a lot, you may find convenient to order them in a folder you use a lot for easy access, but if you prefer to create a shortcut for running it really doesn't matters at all where they are.

I don't think there is anything bad with putting them in program files, there isn't any rule that only "installed" programs go there. While portable software is often made for being put in pendrives to be moved fro PC to PC, nothing impedes putting them to the more permanent program files. Just take caution if the program writes settings to its own folder, it may have trouble with UAC.

Alejandro85 said:

Yes, they're called portables.

There is no fixed convention or best practice where to put them, basically they can be anywhere you like and they'll work the same. If you use file explorers a lot, you may find convenient to order them in a folder you use a lot for easy access, but if you prefer to create a shortcut for running it really doesn't matters at all where they are.

I don't think there is anything bad with putting them in program files, there isn't any rule that only "installed" programs go there. While portable software is often made for being put in pendrives to be moved fro PC to PC, nothing impedes putting them to the more permanent program files. Just take caution if the program writes settings to its own folder, it may have trouble with UAC.

Thaks for this and particularly the "....Just take caution if the program writes settings to its own folder, it may have trouble with UAC..." which I'll check out.

LuzTeTT said:

It is entirely at your personal discretion.
I often leave temporary or novelty/gimmick software and applications in my Download directory, as I know that I downloaded them for the sake of the gimmick.
Very rarely do I clear this folder, but it does end up becoming a cluster of miscellaneous files.

In the event that I have downloaded something I may have a permanent need for, like installation programs and homebrew software, I often put it up in my D:/SOFTWARE/Applications directory, which is shared across a network. I made this particular decision under the pretense that my D:/ drive is huge and I could be careless about what I put in there, as well as having noticed a lot of people would like to have access to this kind of portable software when ever they hear or see of it. I can also access this software readily on all of my portable devices and computers without having to copy it around.

Then again... all of my games, multimedia, documents and photos are shared across my network!
It's up to you in the end.

Thanks for this. Recently I've discovered that new versions of downloaded software have disadvantages, e.g. they now try to get me to co-install spyware or survey-ware or some other scumware as recompense for using the software without charge (whereas, in fact, I'd much prefer to be able to purchase the software scum-free; I can't stand freeloading and will happily support a programmer who provides me with something useful). So now I keep these "old" scumware-free versions in a special folder which is regularly backed up with the rest of my stuff. Problems arise, of course, if I'm told to use the new scumware-laden version because "....it closes a security loophole....", a reason which I am left to more or less arbitrarily believe or not.