Over the past week or so, I have finally found a good use for my USB memory stick. It just so happens that portable software is seemingly making a come back. Portable software is software that can be installed on a device such as a memory stick and then run from more than one computer with out needing to be installed for each computer.

I have found it quite handy to have a couple of programs and, as I explore the available software, I’m sure I will find more useful stuff. The goal is to build a small library of essential tools. Since the drive is rather small, the binary packages must also remain on the small side.

So far, I have found a program called PStart which is be useful as a launch pad for other programs. It puts an icon in your task bar, you click on it and a menu pops up, much like clicking the start button in MS Windows. Since I work in different computing environments, I have found a simple mp3 player to be a handy tool to use to make a play list and play mp3s either from the drive or from a different disk. Currently, I’m using Zoom Player. I have found the program to do the job well, but a little lacking in the different codecs it supports. I’m looking for a program that can store the codecs on the drive. The idea is to not rely on the host computer having specific software outside the operating system. Finally, I’m using Wiz to pack and unpack .zip files. Just today I needed to unpack a .zip file and the host computer did not have an unzip utility.