About

From kitchensinkport

A bunch of great free software for Windows that you can take everywhere.

Contents 1 Story of Kitchen Sink 2 Major Features 2.1 Functional 2.2 Portable 3 Other advantages 4 System Requirements 4.1 Necessary 4.2 Recommended 5 Where to get help 6 Special thanks

Story of Kitchen Sink

Over time, 1,000s of developers have produced great software and then made it freeware either because it wasn't lucrative or out of a sense of social responsibility. No one person has the time or energy to download each of those programs, evaluate it, and then reinstall all of them on every machine they use. However, with a lot of help, I found a way to do just that.

Portable freeware allows people to take their computers with them and get tons of applications in one big file. This type of software can fit on a flash drive, sit on your hard drive until needed, and be given to friends.

Its a great tool that tries to bring all the work from everyone at portablefreeware.com to the masses.

Major Features

Functional

• Do more than ever with 200+ programs, pre-configured for users.
• Internet, Office, Graphics, Video, Audio, and more!
• Massive file viewer that open 700+ different file types -- just double-click!
• Better privacy by having all your information in one place (and includes tools for password-protection)
• Fix a broken computer with a wide variety of free troubleshooting software.

Portable

• Take it anywhere, give it to anyone.
• A consistent set of software from computer to computer so you take all your functionality with you
• Zero configuration to get started, but keep any changes you make
• A consistent set of software from computer to computer so you take all your functionality everywhere you go

More features.

Other advantages

Maybe you've heard the advantages of taking your favorite applications with you on a USB drive. But as these drives increase in size and the programs stay the same size, you can find functionality like never before. Now you can take a whole library of tools for a long list of tasks. Portable software is self-contained, doesn't do anything to change its host system, and can be copied and run exclusively from an external device (more on Portable Applications from Wikipedia).

• Open and run - Nothing to install - decompress and go!
• Up to date and ready - The latest and greatest versions of all programs are included
• Optimized for users - developers often create programs with themselves in mind -- I've reconfigured some programs to fit the average user
• Loss or theft - a $10 flash drive is always much easier to lose than a $500 laptop. Moreover, a tiny flash drive doesn't make you a target for theft in the first place.
• More secure

• You can encrypt all your files and if its lost or stolen, your information is still secure.
• You are difficult to compromise when software is on your person at all times.

• Open Source Software advocate? Many Open Source Software applications are easily edited and therefore available in portable versions. Many in this archive are fully OSS.
• No registry entries. Save for a few programs that do minor changes, portable programs don't take up any space on your registry, which can over time slow down a machine.

Questions/Comments? Join the discussion list or post to the PortableFreeware Forum.

System Requirements

Necessary

• 1.4 gigs of space on computer or flash drive
• Approximately 400 megahertz Pentium-class system
• Windows 2000, XP Windows XP-64 bit, Vista 32-bit, and 7*. Linux, OpenSolaris, Mac OS X, and Vista 64-bit**

* Have not tested but almost all programs should be compatible. ** Requires emulation/virtualization software such as WINE/Crossover, VMware, VirtualBox, or Parallels.

Recommended

• 2 gigs of space on computer or flash drive
• 1 ghz Pentium-class system or higher
• Windows XP 32 bit, SP 2 or higher

Where to get help

• Help menus and author websites. The authors know the most and many programs are still active and useful.
• Can't find help? Almost all software was compiled from www.portablefreeware.com the individual programs can be looked up on that web site for further information.
• You can try questions in the Kitchen Sink discussion list or on the PortableFreeware Forum.

Special thanks

Some terrific people over at portablefreeware including Andrew Lee, Ameri-CAIN, joby_toss and but especially m^(2). On the 1.0 release, Vishnu and Guinness have been intensely helpful. Also my friend Mark D. who kept this project going through its very early stages and Mr. Renne who brought it back from the dead. Redgum and Z for the encouragement.

What now? Download!