Portable Application Launchers: Launch Apps with Convenience

For those of us that are called upon time and time again to repair computers, after a while, it gets to a point where you will have all the necessary tools on you at all times. And what better way of doing this then to use a USB drive? I know for a fact that I nearly always carry a small 4 gig USB drive on me in case of emergency repairs are needed at sometime or another: a different way to remain prepared for sure. But rather then dig though my mess of computer files, I’ve learned to use, abuse, and adapt my tools to work with application launchers.

For those that don’t use them already, an application launcher can be a god send. It is a central launching tool to know where all your applications are, to help organize yourself so you’re not looking all over for HijackThis Portable or Re-Enable Portable on your external flash drive. I’ve personally used several, and I’m only going to provide a basic overview, because it is a case of ‘using what you think is best’, from what I see it being anyway. The only launcher I do not cover here is U3, only because I have never had any flash drives that support it.

PortableApps.com Launcher

The PortableApps.com launcher is the first launcher I personally used, thanks to Lifehacker. To me, it’s a complete application and works in all forms of Windows, including Windows 7. It has also been been the one I’ve also used a fork of: Geek.Menu. The fork has not been updated to work in Windows 7, however, it offers additional security and features not yet implimented in PortableApps.com. PortableApps.com’s launcher until recently also offered Open Source only applications on their site, but have now expanded to offer some closed source applications as well.

App.etizer

Much like PortableApps.com’s launcher, it is a completely portable launcher too. I haven’t used it too much, however, it comes across as the same general idea as PortableApps.com. It is a different style then the Start Menu style, in that it comes across a bit like Gnome-DO under Linux.

ASuite

ASuite, like PortableApps.com’s launcher, is a Start Menu styled launcher… there’s not much to say about it. It has no skins, unlike the PortableApps.com beta, and is lighter, even when comparing to them fully loaded and not. However, when we are only speaking of a difference of a few kbs, there’s not much one could really complain about. It is also smaller in terms of file size on your USB hard drive as well.

I’m aware there’s also an application out there called ‘LiberKey‘, however, as they were a GPL violator, I’ve never used it before. I’ve heard good things, however, about how they provide a lot of special to them only applications, but you can use them no matter which launcher you’re using.

Despite how it seems to be one more tool in the toolkit, Portable Application Launchers can be pretty useful, allowing for making your life, and the cleanups you have to do after people that much easier. I post this, ironically today, due to the fact that I had to run a full Windows re-install because of one of my family members deleting some key files for Windows XP and 7… while using Puppy Linux. Believe me… I was stumped too.