PortableApps.com
Website offering Windows apps packaged for portability
title: "PortableApps.com" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["computing-websites", "free-software-distributions", "portable-software", "application-launchers", "portable-software-suites"] description: "Website offering Windows apps packaged for portability" topic_path: "technology/computing" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PortableApps.com" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Website offering Windows apps packaged for portability ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox software"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | PortableApps.com |
| logo | PortableApps.com logo.svg |
| screenshot | PortableAppsMenu0-5 Screenshot.png |
| screenshot size | 213px |
| caption | PortableApps.com Platform menu |
| author | John T. Haller |
| developer | Rare Ideas, LLC |
| released | |
| latest release version | 26.3 |
| latest release date | November 03, 2023 |
| operating system | Microsoft Windows |
| size | 17 MB |
| license | GPLv2, LGPLv2, MIT License, MPL 1.1, wxWindows Library Licence |
| website | |
| :: |
| name = PortableApps.com | logo = PortableApps.com logo.svg | logo caption = | screenshot = PortableAppsMenu0-5 Screenshot.png | screenshot size = 213px | caption = PortableApps.com Platform menu | collapsible = | author = John T. Haller | developer = Rare Ideas, LLC | released = | discontinued = | latest release version = 26.3 | latest release date = November 03, 2023 | programming language = | operating system = Microsoft Windows | platform = | size = 17 MB | language = | genre = | license = GPLv2, LGPLv2, MIT License, MPL 1.1, wxWindows Library Licence | alexa = | website =
PortableApps.com is a website that distributes free applications for Windows that have been packaged for portability. These portable applications are intended to be used from removable storage devices such as USB flash drives.
The site was founded by John T. Haller and includes contributions from over 100 people, including developers, designers, and translators.
History
PortableApps.com started out as a Haller's personal website hosting a portable version of Mozilla Firefox in March 2004. He then expanded the project to include Mozilla Thunderbird and OpenOffice.org. The open-source group of portable programs outgrew his personal website and he moved it to a community site, PortableApps.com. The site currently hosts various projects created by forum members, and is also used for bug reporting and suggestions. Some PortableApps distributions are hosted on SourceForge.
Format
Application installers designed for use with the PortableApps.com menu follow the convention of using filenames ending in a extension, include HTML documentation, and store data in the Data directory. Installers intended for use with the PortableApps.com menu can be either NSIS installers that are generated with the PortableApps.com Installer, compressed archives with self extractors, or a custom Windows executable.
The majority of applications can run on most computers with or later. Many apps will also run under Wine on Unix-like operating systems. Older versions of many apps support Windows 95/98/Me, but no new releases support these systems.
PortableApps.com Launcher
The PortableApps.com Launcher (also known as PAL) is used to make applications portable by handling path redirection, environment variable changes, file and directory movement, configuration file path updates. and similar changes, as configured. The PortableApps.com Launcher allows software to be made portable without any modification. All modern apps use PAL and the installers are made using the Nullsoft Scriptable Install System. In 2024, the ability to target apps by license type was added to the PortableApps.com Launcher.
References
References
- "Our Team". PortableApps.com.
- "PortableApps.com Release News".
- "USB-Stick-Helfer: Die 10 besten Boot-Sticks und Toolkits".
- Hamilton, Ginny. "When people freely share, it makes things better for everyone {{!}} Opensource.com".
- "About PortableApps.com".
- Peers, Nick. (2013-05-30). "Browse the web more safely in Firefox Portable Edition with Private Browsing add-on". PC & Tech Authority.
- "PortableApps.com - Portable software for USB, portable, and cloud drives".
- Haller, John T.. (February 22, 2008). "PortableApps.com Update (Week of Feb 18, 2007)". PortableApps.com - General Forums » General Discussion.
- "PortableApps.com: Portable Software/USB". portableapps project on [[SourceForge]].
- (2012-07-10). "Application Compatibility". PortableApps.com.
- Haller, John T.. (2010-04-27). "Ending Windows 95/98/Me Support". PortableApps.com.
- (2012-07-10). "PortableApps.com Launcher". PortableApps.com.
- Peers, Nick. (2024-01-19). "PortableApps Platform 29.0 adds new license filter for app store".
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::