These days, whether you’re in business or a student, many of us move different offices, buildings and want quick access to our email. However, it’s not always easy to use someone else’s computer. For instance, if they’re logged on then you’ll need to use their browser and you’ll leave a browsing trail, personal information and you never know what they have installed on their machine. Would you check your account balance from another computer, for example?

There are a number of applications (mainly open-source) that can be installed on to an external USB drive and then run from this drive, without requiring installation on the host computer. All you need to do is move your USB device/key from computer to computer and keep everything stored on this device. You can customise the apps as required, too.

Many of your favourite open-source applications are available in portable versions: Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird, OpenOffice and many others.

The PortableApps Suite is a collection of these portable apps, including a web browser, email client, office suite, calendar/scheduler, instant messaging client, anti-virus and backup utility. They are all included with an integrated menu, all preconfigured to work ‘out of the box’. You simply need to drag and drop the suite on to your USB device/key and they’re ready to be used.

This new 1.5 is a major release and contains a new central interface and much more.