These days, most of us have multiple computers that we take with us, but what if you wanted to turn any computer into
your computer? That’s where the idea of “portable” apps come into the picture.
By loading up a flash drive or external hard drive with these apps,
you simply have to plug the device into a compatible computer and all
your software and data is right there.
What’s a Portable App?
When you install most applications on a computer, it makes changes to
the system and integrates itself. Windows applications, for example,
pick a folder on your local hard drive, make entries in your registry
and generally expects Windows to provide certain amenities so that it
can do its job.
If you simply copied the application folder to an external drive and
tried to run it on another computer, you’d either get a bunch of error
messages or a program that doesn’t work right.
To
make portable app,
you have to fool it into thinking all of its dependencies have been
satisfied. While it’s possible to do this manually, it’s far easier to
use one of several specialized apps that scan the dependencies of an
application and then replicate them in a virtualized way. That software
then creates custom dependencies that makes the app think it’s running
on the original computer. Sort of like The Matrix, but for apps.
It’s important to know that there are also apps that are portable by
design. The developers have created them specifically to run without
being dependent on anything.
First, Check If It Hasn’t Already Been Done
Before you go down the route of making a non-portable app portable
yourself, it’s a good idea to check if someone else hasn’t already done
the work for you. Of course, you are unlikely to find any paid software
this way! However, plenty of popular free applications have been
converted into portable versions, ready to download.
We recommend
PortableApps.com
which comes with its own launcher and app management interface. Simply
download the installer, install it to an external drive and pick all the
app from the list you want.
Virtual Machines As a Portable App Alternative
Using a platform like PortableApps is great, but there may be a much
simpler way to make any Windows application portable – make Windows
itself portable! How? Simply get the portable version of VirtualBox from
vbox.me and install a licensed copy of Windows on it. Then you can install all the Windows apps you like within that
virtual machine, without any further work.
The main catch here is that you need a separate license for the copy
of Windows in your virtual machine. If you have an old license or extra
license key laying around, this might be a great alternative. It might
even be worth buying another copy of Windows, depending on your use
case. Especially if it turns out that a critical Windows app doesn’t
work after being converted to portable.
The same thing goes for cloud-connected subscription apps. Using a
portable virtual machine may be the only way to get these to work this
way. The virtual machine will use whatever internet connection the host
offers, but from the app’s point of view it’s still on the same
“computer” it was installed on.
Popular Portable App Makers
There used to be quite a few portable app makers that would quickly
convert your Windows apps into portable versions. Unfortunately you’ll
find that most have not been updated in almost a decade.
Others, such as
Cameyo, are now only available as a paid service. The same goes for VMware
ThinApp,
which only offers a free trial. If you’re up for paying the hefty
amounts those commercial solutions require, no one is stopping you. That
extra Windows license probably doesn’t seem quite so expensive now,
does it?
We tried out several of the older free portable app makers and found one that still seems quite serviceable.
Creating a Portable App With Enigma Virtual Box
The app in question is
Enigma Virtual Box.
It’s one of the few freeware portable app makers that still gets
developer attention. It’s essentially the free version of the Enigma
Protector commercial applications, but for regular users it’s great.
Yes, the application doesn’t look all that intuitive, but it’s actually very easy to use. So don’t be intimidated.
- The way Enigma works, you need to have the software already
installed on your system before turning it into a portable application.
So if you haven’t already, install the app you want to make portable and then come back to Enigma.
- Now, you’ll see drive path boxes for both Input and Output file names.
- Click the Browse button to the right of Enter Input File Name.
- In our example, we’re going to make a portable version of the free Audacity
audio workstation software. With the file browser that pops up,
navigate to where the “.exe” file of the app in question is installed.
- Select it and click Open.
- Enigma also needs to know where the dependent files are. So next, click on Add then Add Folder Recursive, since we want all the subfolders includes as well.
- Now we use the file browser that pops up to locate the
installation folder containing our “.exe” file. Select the folder and
click “OK” and the “OK” again.
- If you’d like to, you can also change the output destination for
the final portable application. By default it will save it alongside
the original “.exe” file, but you probably want to save it elsewhere.
The process is the same as selecting the input file. You can also rename
the file to whatever you like.
- Now we are ready to create the portable app itself. Click Process and watch the magic happen.
- Wait until the processing is done and then you can close this window.
Running The App
What you should now have is a single “.exe” file that you can run
from anywhere. Locate the file at the location you saved it to and then
move it to your portable storage. Be sure to test it on another computer
to make sure that it works properly. You wouldn’t want your first try
to be when you actually need the app the most.
There’s no reason you can’t use your own custom portable apps made
with Enigma right alongside a manager such as Portable Apps. Build your
own folder of custom apps and launch them as you please. Armed with
portable power, the sky’s the limit. Also, check out our post on the
best portable apps to have with you all the time.
