Standalone or Portable Applications?

[akbagaria]

I have seen now a days that most of the forums on the net - contain link to Portable or Standalone applications. I personally do not like Portable and standalone applications. But I want to know - the advantage and dis-advantage of these applications?
Thanks in advance
akbagaria

 

[richc46]

One big advantage: Applicatiion that you like, put it on a thumb drive and you can use it anywhere.

 

[Francis93]

Portable applications are modified applications which are handy, lightweight and very easy to install or deploy to a PC (e.g. insert it on flash drive to install it on multiple PCs with ease). Those are the advantages. But since these portable apps are light, this means that most features that came with the original app, either important or not important, have been ripped or removed by "modders". So expect minimal features, a number of bugs or crashes or maybe compatibility issues when using portable apps. Those are the disadvantages.

Standalone applications are full applications. The features are complete and are untouched. Absolutely there's nothing to worry about because it came directly and legitimately from the software vendors/manufacturers.

Hope this helps.

 

[Lemur]

Those that don't write to the registry are nice.

 

[akbagaria]

Many many thanks for easy to understand answer. You have enlightened me and increased my knowledge.
Sevenforum is great indeed.
Akbagaria

 

[Francis93]

Many many thanks for easy to understand answer. You have enlightened me and increased my knowledge.
Sevenforum is great indeed.
Akbagaria

You're very much welcome akbagaria! Like you, I have learned a lot from this forum especially from the Seven Gurus et. al. Now, I'm trying to impart what I have learned so far to our fellow forumers.

 

[SledgeDG]

My main reason for preferring portable applications:It keeps down the clutter.
I can test that software and if I decide to get rid of it, I just delete the folder and it's gone. No Install, no uninstall, no worries about changed/left over registry keys etc.
If I keep something, because it convinced me of it's valueto me, it usually gets installed the regular way in the end.

-DG

 

[madtownidiot]

There aren't any applications that couldn't be portable if the developer wanted them to be, including an operating system like windows 7.

 

[Bill2]

Let me list a few problems with portable apps.

1) Portable apps are usually stripped down (lite) versions of the respective mainstream app. So expect only the "essentials", the bells and whistles are missing.

2) There is the file associations problem. You may find context menus missing so things like drag and drop or extract (for unzippers) may be tedious to carry out. You may have to add paths manually and do other tweaking.

3) While the no. of portable apps has steadily grown, not all apps can be ported. These are those that need OS files to run correctly.

4) Running applications off a USB flash drive is noticeably slower than running them off an internal spinning-platter hard drive. Of course you can run them off the hard drive as well.

5) Portable apps can be buggy probably because they have not been as thoroughly tested as the regular apps.

6) Somebody correct me if i am wrong but I've come across an astonishing no. of pira...ed apps that come in portable form. Dont know whether portability helps in that since no install is required. Will try to research this subject more.

 

[madtownidiot]

Stripped down portable apps are usually that way because there's a "full version" the vendor wants to sell you.

File associations are only a problem when the software vendor is using some unique source code

Again all applications, including an OS could be ported

I could make the next post from an operating system stored on a flash drive two minutes from now.. they're not that much slower ..http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/112585-portable-operating-system.html#post969227
check the clock on the 4th and 5th attached picture
just going to ignore the last two points

..sry.. just playing devil's advocate here, no offense intended

 

[akbagaria]

Mr Bill2 - good to have your analysis of portable applications. Thanks.
I agree with you on point number 6. The use of pirated softwares are rampant. But for that I think software developers are also to be blamed for that. They also need platform to test their softwares and getting these tested by means of piracy - is in deed a economical and prudent way.
Every now and then we see versions of software changing. Hundreds and thousands of softwares keep coming every other day - with job half done. Most of the softwares deal with applications which are already bundled with Operating Systems but users hardly notice it or take use of it. We download those softwares as pirated and get frustrated most of the time since either it is already there or is of no use to us.
Anyway there is no end to this topic .............these were my views. I may be wrong.
akbagaria

 

[madtownidiot]

The main difference between a portable application and one that requires installation to function is that a portable app doesn't save to protected files such as %appdata%, user folders, or the registry in order to be functional, meaning fewer or no elevated permissions, which in fact makes it run more efficiently.