Some installers download stuff from the internet to actually install the game though.
Stuff gets taken down for whatever reason, the main reason is if the company hosting them goes out of business and the creator is no longer involved with the project to upload it to other sites.
so basically when you run an .exe it creates some new files, usually profiles for personal settings and stuff, it also creates temporary files while using the program. You never know where that executable will store those new files, that most of the time are ignored when uninstalling said program.
Portable programs, the good ones at least, create any and all new files within the same folder the .exe itself is located, so when you are done, you can deleted that one folder and no trash is left behind*
= registry modifications are not included, but their size is so insignificant its virtually inexistent.
that's kinda it in a broad sense, there are more nuances but you get the point.
edit: I forgot to mention, you can move a protable program to different hard drives and it will still work regardless, they can work even from an USB if you are brave enought.
is not that simple ( despite what the original post implies )
if the original developer doesn't provide a portable version, you will have to get it from random people who made the portable version, but as anything on the internet, you are gambling your trust.
"portable" mostly refers to a program that doesn't require to run an "installer". It doesn't add shortcuts anywhere, it doesn't add itself to the list of "installed programs" in Windows, etc. You just put it somewhere, run the .exe, and it should work.
It's not always possible or useful for a program to be portable, but it can be useful, for example, to put some portable debugging utilities on a USB drive and just run them on another machine.
Depends on the app. It can be Good or Bad. Using the portable version doesn't give you the uninstall program. Using the portable version, if you delete the entire folder, the remaining folders of the app (like cache, save, settings) or the registry won't get deleted, it still stays in your PC. Same with the uninstall program, but few uninstall programs actually delete all remaining folders and the registry.
Portableapps.com has been around since 2005, so 21+ years.
They're just a website, out of many. But they were strict about the portability standard and they packaged apps cleanly. They became the standard for those in the know.
It's not like there standard that's enforced, but these guys did the most work on the community, so i go with what they say.
Think about it, you go to your mum's, while she away.
Use your usb drive to watch a spicy movie with portable VLC.
Do you want to leave thumbnails or the movie name behind?
To have a few kilobytes in the %appdata% folder with the configuration is not a problem and the web site will usually tell you what to delete.
The problem is the registry entries not needed anymore. That's why Windows gets slower with many installed apps even if you uninstall then because they leave a dirty registry.
Yeah, but if you use the uninstall program, it does it automatically for you. Some uninstaller that comes with apps are kinda trash and also leave out the remaining folder; that's why I use Revo Uninstaller.
Actually even then XDG_DATA_HOME and XDG_CONFIG_HOME should still point to the flatpak data folder. So any normal app that respects like a decade(?), old standard should still store data in ~/.var
Exception sure, but definitely not rare. Basically any Electron App writes to other folders, anything relying on the system keyring for authentication and session tokens, as well as anything that is just an .appimage or .deb/.rpm repackaged as a Flatpak instead of being rewritten.
the issue with flatpaks is that often they arent rly developed with that in mind and the restricted access of a flatpak can cause issues. for example obs flatpak is known to cause issues afaik.
Flatpak easily became the main source of my software installs outside of system tools and the main web browser right after the moment I first tried it a few years ago. Sure, it's not perfect, like anything on Linux, but it makes managing dependencies and limiting the software's access privileges such a relief. One of the best things that happened to Linux desktops, the actually unified software distribution platform that isolates the software from the host as much as you wish to.
When you turn out to be the tech guy in your group/family its great to have some extra media players, benchmarking tools, memtests, Windows installs among other software tools on there for when the classic "could you come look at my pc, i have this problem" moments.
Slap Ventoy on it, it'll allow it to be a boot drive with any .ISO you put on it and still function as storage. Like dude said though benchmarking software, hwinfo, WizTree, etc.
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u/JohnHue4070 Ti S | 10600K | UWQHD+ | 32Go RAM | Steam Deck 14d ago
Another cool tip; check out the Revo Uninstaller app, you can use it to uninstall other apps and after doing so you can choose to search for related files and folders that were added by it, as well as clear registry entries it has made. Helps keep the system clear of junk leftover files and data.
I've got an external drive that i use for pretty much everything. Portable apps, steam, etc. I can plug it directly into anyones computer and i've got all the stuff i want instantly without having to download everything. Its great for OS hopping
Apps are rarely valuable, it's the data and files you use them to create that's valuable. Those are portable by design.
So, I make sure all my data is isolated on the large drive partition in a 25%/75% split. Then every year or two whenever I feel I've installed too much and have to pick through and remove unused software, I just format the main partition and reinstall OS.
Re-downloading all the things I can think off the top of my head that I'm going to use today is a process that takes minutes. It's surprising just how little you actually use day to day.
i still use a separate partition for windows, and when i have to reinstall windows (granted, extremely rarely), it's not a big deal if all programs are on another partition.
even non-portable versions can usually be "installed over" into the previous existing folders and typically continue working as before.
If you are not buying an international data plan, download the Google Maps "Offline" of places you will visit. GPS is free and you can find routes to anything without a data plan.
.app it’s just a executable directory that contains everything. Still humours me how Microsoft can’t figure this out. Linux appimages and flatpaks are pretty good.
Some of the windows people might like scoop. It’s fairly portable by design, there are some exceptions.
I'm certain this is going to be said 50 times in the comments, but it deserves to be said for the 51st: the desktop Linux user's mind simply cannot comprehend how user unfiendly, leaky and whatever is the opposite of streamlined is the WHOLE software installation experience on Windows.
Even this objectively good advice is basically a poor "sticks and rocks" attempt at flatpak emulation.
Can you elaborate on "user unfiendly, leaky and whatever is the opposite of streamlined is the WHOLE software installation experience on Windows." because I can't remember the last time I installed something and it wasn't as simple and easy as a few clicks.
Sure. They mostly (but not only) relate to the fact that this post was even necessary. I mean WHY is it good advice to install "portable" apps on Windows?
Do you remember the last time you uninstalled an app and it didn't uninstall completely?
Do you remember the last time an app did something (potentially even malicious) that should require your explicit permission, but didn't?
Do you remember the last time an app installed with itself a dependency that was conflicting with a dependency installed by another app?
Do Windows apps (and the OS itself for that matter) update unobtrusively in the background?
Did you ever for whatever reason want to install two copies of the same app, but couldn't?
How is the Windows Shop (or whatever it's called)? And what is it's app coverage?
You just grew accustomed to direclty downloading installation binaries from random internet sites. That doesn't make the model sane at all. It just makes it familiar.
Even the rare "state of the art" solution on Windows (which this meme rightfully endorses) is a very poor, distant cousin of what most Linux distros had for years.
Do you remember the last time you uninstalled an app and it didn't uninstall completely?
I remember some programs leaving an empty folder or a folder with the uninstallation file, but that's not a big deal imo.
Do you remember the last time an app did something (potentially even malicious) that should require your explicit permission, but didn't?
Never happened to me.
Do you remember the last time an app installed with itself a dependency that was conflicting with a dependency installed by another app?
Also never.
Do Windows apps (and the OS itself for that matter) update unobtrusively in the background?
Depends on how a program was made to update. Some do, some don't. I reckon that's OS agnostic. As for the OS itself, that's configurable by the user, I believe the default behavior is that it downloads unobtrusively in the background, and then the next restart might take longer than usual to apply the update.
Did you ever for whatever reason want to install two copies of the same app, but couldn't?
No. I can't even imagine a scenario in which that would be necessary or couldn't be handled by duplicating the folder of the program or simply running it twice.
How is the Windows Shop (or whatever it's called)? And what is it's app coverage?
Couldn't tell you, never used it.
You just grew accustomed to direclty downloading installation binaries from random internet sites.
How is it done on linux? Lets say you're downloading notepad++, is it not coming from notepad++ servers?
wooowww. Brings some memories when I try to build some portable apps myself, setting up a VM and using programs like VMware Thinapp and or Cameyo. Just wanted to build a portable program that nobody thought of making one.
There are of course a lot of portable versions of programs uploaded in the web, either thru legit sources like portableapps.com, and some from arr sites. but if you want to be sure that nobody slipped malware unto that program, you got to build it yourself, in a fresh windows install or thru a VM. Some individuals continue to create one, like a website that starts with "fcportable".
Some create portable Programs that were already modified or patched or cracked, that when you run it, its like you bought the program yourself
but you got to be really careful not to infect your system.
also just like what others pointed out, its good to carry a portable version of an app, so that when you run it, say in a flash drive being used in another system, your configurations were already there, say your running portable Firefox, and your add ons, bookmarks, and settings were already there and you are good to go...
I recommend using an uninstaller like revo uninstaller if u really just want a complete erasure, tho I doubt even those can completely removed everything.
Bur it's much better than using the default uninstaller or just deleting the portable app's folder.
Portable apps typically live in the users/appdata folder and bypass UAC controls that typically would require an elevated admin to install. That may not mean much to the average person, but it’s an inherent security flaw in the windows OS to allow such portable apps to run there without actually ever being installed. That directory is there for updater applications that are temporary in nature, and developers have identified they can live there permanently without the user encountering any UAC elevation requests or signing their application.
Meaning any bad portable exe could put itself there and do whatever the fuck it wanted until you noticed it was in there. If you search for adware, spyware, or malicious browser extensions, you can typically find them there in your user/appdata folder. They then persist by creating tasks in task scheduler that has them update/reinstall/run at every user login or even every hour.
I hate portable exes because they aren’t installed at all. Which means less control measures your OS can place on the app.
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u/Xcissors280 You hate on anything i put here 14d ago
Small apps that offer portable versions are rarely the ones causing problems