How to Make Your Favorite Programs and Applications Portable

There are many reasons to want to make your computer programs and applications portable. For example, you may be away from your computer for a while and want to take certain programs with you like a word processor so you can save your work in the right file format. An important reason to create a thinstalled program is to get tough viruses off of your computer. Whatever your interest is for making your programs and applications portable this article will teach you what you need to know.

What is a thinstall? A thinstall is simply a way of turning a program or application into an executable program (.exe file). An executable program is a program that requires no installation to run so all you need to do to run the program is click it.

If you are not interested in the virus removal benefits of thinstalled programs then go on ahead and skip to the next paragraph. Computer viruses are very cunning and aggressive. They now have the ability to defend themselves from being removed by disabling system restore and not allowing you to run virus scans. This is where thinstall comes in. If your computer is already infected and you can't run or install a virus protection program on your computer you can thinstall a virus removal program and put it on a usb drive to run a scan on your computer. Of course you will need to do this from a computer that is not infected.

Before we get started you should check this site http://portableapps.com for the portable version of the application you want.

Also before starting I recommend doing a virus scan on the portable device you plan on installing the portable application on to make sure you don't have an USB virus.

Step 1: Download Portable App Creator 0• 97• 2 beta. Here's a link you can follow. http://rapidshare.com/files/180487708/Portable_App_Creator_0_97_2_beta.zip

Step 2: The file will be compressed so you will need an extractor capable of extracting ".rar" files like "Winrar", "Zipgiunes" or "7zip" (These programs can be found at http://download.com ). Extract and open the file.

Step 3: Locate PAC Compiler and double click it.

Step 4: From here the program will search for a program called "AutoIT" that you do not have. Once it does not find the files it's looking for it will ask you, "Do you wish to download Autoit-v3-sfx.exe from the AutoIt website now?" Select yes.

Step 5: Once the needed files are downloaded you will notice the PAC Compiler has been replaced with a similar icon named Portable app creator. Before you do anything else plug in the USB drive that you want to save your software to. Take a note of the drive letter the drive is in.

Step 6: Open Portable app creator and choose the drive where you have your USB installed and click next.

Step 7: On the next screen click "browse" to choose the software you want to be made portable. Before continuing you will notice a small box on the bottom that reads "Compress the software using UPX" If you check the box it will make the application even smaller. It's not a necessary step and will take a little more time if you choose to do it. Make your decision and click next.

Step 8: On the next screen there will be a row of six buttons. Of the six only the top one labeled "Take 1 shot" will be a clickable option. Click it.

Step 9: Next, the second option in the row labeled "install application" will become available so click it.

Step 10: A new window will pop up saying "Please install application to your portable device". Click ok.

Step 11: Click "next" on the next couple of windows that come up until it asks for the serial number of the application or program that you want to use. Fill in the needed fields and click "next".

Step 12: The next window will ask where you want to save the portable version of your program. Choose the drive that represents your usb device and click next.

Step 13: Next you will be asked to register online. This is optional, so for time's sake just click "next".

Step 14: When the program is finished installing click "finish".

Step 15: You will be taken back to the screen with the row of six options. This time the third option labeled "Get shortcut info" will be available so click it.

Step 16: The next window will read "Get the location of the application to run." Click browse and select your USB device. Inside of the device there will be a new file created from the installation named "Program files". Open it up and you will see the name of the program you want to make portable. Open the file and select the .exe file.

Step 17: The next box will read "Get the location for the launcher." Select the same file as in the above step.

Step 18: Under the box of the last step you will be given two options. "Use the icon of the application to run" or "Use alternative icon." I recommend using the icon of the application to run. Click next.

Step 19: Now you will be taken back to the screen with the row of six options. This time number four "Open/Close" will be available. Click it.

Step 20: A window will pop up asking you to make all of the modifications to the application and close it to continue. This means if you have any settings you want to change within the program itself you can make them now so that whenever you open the portable program your preferences will be saved. I personally don't change anything here. Simply click ok and close the program to continue.

Step 21: Here you are again at the screen with the row of six options. Number five is the only one available and is labeled "Take second shot". Click it.

Step 22: Let it do its thing and soon the sixth option labeled "Process shots" will be available. Click it and let it do what it needs to and then click next.

Step 23: You may get an error message, don't be alarmed though, just click ok and continue to the next screen where all you need to do is click "done".

Step 24: From here you will want to confirm that everything worked out so go into your usb drive you will see a file labeled "Program files" open it up and you will find a file with the name of your new portable program open it up and click the icon to start the program.

Now you have a program you can take with you to use on any computer without any installation needed.