How would you like to be able to take your office applications, email, web browser, and more with you to be able to work from any Windows PC? That is where portable applications come into play.

For an application to be considered portable, it must not require any installation on the host computer, store all settings on the portable device and not in the host computer, and not leave any trace behind after being used. Any portable device (USB thumbdrive, PDA, or iPod) can be used.

There are portable applications for Windows, Mac, and Linux. We’ve seen a couple of low-cost application launchers (Ceedo, MojoPac) and a free launcher (PortableApps.com) that are available. We prefer the open source PortableApps suite. It’s been in use here over a year and we highly recommend it.

We installed the PortableApps suite to a SanDisk Cruzer USB thumbdrive. Installation did take some time, so go grab an iced coffee. When finished, the base set of applications included:

• ClamWin Antivirus
• Mozilla Firefox Portable
• Gaim Portable Instant Messenger
• PortableApps Backup
• Sudoku Portable
• OpenOffice.Org Portable
• Mozilla Thunderbird Portable (email)
• Sunbird Portable (calendar)

We added the following applications (downloaded from the PortableApps.com site) to our thumbdrive. We now have the capability to edit code and FTP changes to servers.

• 7-Zip Portable (compression utility)
• Eraser Portable
• Filezilla Portable (FTP client)
• Notepad++ Portable
• yWriter4 (great novel/screenwriting tool)
• GreatNews (excellent RSS reader)

How We Rate It - 5/5

• Convenience - 5/5
• Ease of installation - 4/5 (does take some time)
• Base application selection - 5/5
• Ease of adding applications - 5/5

On April 8, 2008, I shared my opinion with you that Zoho was the Number One online office productivity suite. This rating was a result of ease of use and the inclusion of base productivity applications.

If you and/or your organization needs installed office productivity software, the costs range from $0 (OpenOffice) to $499 (Microsoft Office.) There isn’t much, if any, functionality differences for the higher price. We’ve spent the past week installing and using the packages listed below and are making a recommendation for OpenOffice and WordPerfect Mail. Your total cost per install is $59. If you don’t need a desktop email client, then your out of pocket cost is $0.

One of the reasons we chose OpenOffice is for its inclusion in the Portable Apps suite which we will discuss in greater detail later this week. The OpenOffice.org project is primarily sponsored by Sun Microsystems, who also sells Star Office.

OpenOffice includes a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation tool, graphics editor, and database. It runs not only on Windows platforms, but also on Mac OSX, and Linux.

If you need a desktop email client, we’re recommending WordPerfect Mail. It has great features for organizing your inbox, has outstanding spam protection, and easily accommodates mailing lists, distribution lists, and RSS (Really Simple Syndication) news feeds. The only drawback is that it runs only on Windows-based computers. If you need an email client for other platforms, we suggest Evolution.

Let us know what you think of these recommendations. We’d also like to know what office productivity suites you use and why.