U3? Not me!

The U3 group has opened a beta version of their software store. I thought I would be disappointed, and I was. The collection is pretty limited and the prices are high. There are some many free sources such as PortableFreeware.com and my own collection at TheInfoBox.com . Once again, it seems that the marketing guys are taking an easy idea and making into a "feature." It seems like they want this to be just another way to charge your more for what you already have access to.

Portable USB Apps

Lately, I have been working on a collection of portable apps. I have a 512mb USB Flash drive that I always carry with me. At first, I just used it to shuttle files back and forth to work. Then, I decided to find an application to store my many passwords. After that, I still had a ton of space left on the flash drive.

Even though I am a systems administrator at work, I still need to keep my system free of unauthorized software. This led me to my next step of looking for a way to have some of my favorite apps available without having to install them. It didn't take me long to find portable versions of Firefox, PSPad, NVU, etc.

Although I was able to find info on individual programs, there wasn't a easy way to put them all on my flash drive. In the end, I did a lot of downloading and configuration to come up with what I call the Ultimate Portable Software Collection. For more info, visit TheInfoBox.com. I have posted a BitTorrent link to download all the free apps in one package. I also have a howto on how to set them up on your flash drive.