Best Free Portable System Cleaning & Maintenance
- PrivaZer – Superior cleanup and privacy tool
- Wise Disk Cleaner – Safe and very effective disk cleaning tool – Wise Disk Cleaner Review
- Patch My PC – Excellent automatic software updater supports 300+ applications (Patch My PC Review)
- Geek Uninstaller – Excellent uninstaller. Removes leftovers. “Force Removal” for stubborn or broken programs
- Revo Uninstaller – Superior uninstaller now supports the removal of 64-bit as well as 32-bit programs
- Hibit Uninstaller – Terrific uninstaller that comes packaged with lots of useful tools (read the full review)
- Uninstalr – Feature-rich uninstaller that does a great job of cleaning up leftovers (read the full review)
- Emsisoft Emergency Kit – Excellent malware scanner/remover. Updates definitions from within the program
Best Free Portable Productivity
- PDF-XChange Viewer – Terrific lightweight PDF reader with a few additional features thrown in
- Betterbird – Excellent email client (read John Durso’s full review)
- Sumatra PDF – Super small PDF reader which also supports the popular ebook formats ePub and Mobi
- Jarte Free Word Processor – Simple, lightweight, and fast word processor
- CintaNotes – Lightweight note-taking app. Auto backup, time-stamping, tagging, clip text from webpages, export notes to TXT and XML formats
- ClipDiary – Powerful clipboard manager– requires registration (ClipDiary Review)
Best Free Portable Multimedia & Image
- CDBurnerXP – User-friendly CD/DVD burning software. Simple, intuitive interface (for portable: click More download options)
- Audacity – Brilliant audio editor/recorder
- SMPlayer– Quality media player that supports almost every format. Light, stable, and highly customizable
- Light Alloy Media Player – Very good media player with excellent codec support (Light Alloy Review)
- VLC Media Player – Extremely versatile media player (Zip and 7-Zip packages)
- 4K YouTube to MP3 – Extract and download MP3 tracks from YouTube music videos (for portable: expand the Windows download section)
- 4K Slideshow Maker – Create slideshows with background music, transitions, Ken Burns Effect (for portable: expand the Windows download section)
- PicPick Screen Capture – Superior screenshot capture tool with an extensive editor built in
- Screenshot Captor – Excellent screen capture tool. Multi-monitor support. Built-in editor/annotator
- FastStone Image Viewer – Excellent image viewer with a good range of editing features
- IrfanView 64-bit – Very good highly versatile image viewer
- XnView – Very good image viewer. Fast, and good feature set
- FotoSketcher – Transform photos into works of art (FotoSketcher Review)
- PhotoFiltre – Simple image editor with lots of features packed into a tiny program
Best Free Portable System Utilities
- PeaZip – Excellent file archiver which includes support for many file types. Separate 64-bit version
- Free PC Audit – Lightweight system information viewer
- SIV (System Information Viewer) – Comprehensive system information viewer
- HWiNFO – System [hardware] information and basic monitoring tool
- MooO System Monitor – Highly configurable system monitoring tool, more than 70 fields to choose from
- Everything – Super fast and lightweight search tool (Everything review)
- Unlocker – Delete locked files – access denied, file is in use, etc. (downloads from Major Geeks)
Best Free Portable Miscellaneous Tools
- KeePass: Open source, lightweight password manager
- Rufus: Create bootable USB flash drives from ISOs
- Ventoy: Excellent and very easy-to-use multiboot USB creator (Ventoy Review)
- YUMI: Multiboot USB creator
- NirSoft: Huge collection of free portable tools and utilities from a highly regarded developer
NOTE: There are many more free portable applications available from dedicated platforms such as PortableApps. However, all portable applications listed here are native applications directly from the developers.
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Jim, technically, Betterbird is not a native portable application. Betterbird is a soft fork of Thunderbird. Neither Thunderbird nor Betterbird is designed for portable use. The profile contains absolute path names. Thunderbird does not offer an official portable version.
However, Betterbird has a portable version, but, since it uses the Thunderbird profile, Betterbird uses a special launcher program.
John
Hey John,
All I know is that the Betterbird portable download is available direct from the developer’s website, as opposed to coming from PortableApps or some other external platform.
Hi Jim – thanks for the list and feel this is very useful to keep as an ongoing item. The only comment I’d have is that there is no “Best Free Image Backup Utility” list of free and reliable imaging backup software and feel it is important to have one as anyone with a PC should image at least weekly.
May I suggest Hasleo which has been reviewed on DCT previously but from memory there were a couple of others in that list that I personally don’t use that have been suggested on DCT as well. Macrium Free was once my favourite tool of choice in days past but is no longer supported. However the old free version is still available from MajorGeeks and does still work fine with Windows 11 because (secretly) I still use it on a couple of PCs as well as the paid version on my day to day machine.
Cheers
Reg
Hey Reg,
To the best of my knowledge there is no “portable” imaging software available.
That said, I agree it is an important consideration. I haven’t tested Hasleo but John Durso’s review is very positive and that’s good enough for me. Aomei Backupper Standard is also a good choice, it’s free and full-featured.
Cheers mate… Jim
Hello Jim,
Not that another portable uninstaller need be added to an already comprehensive list, some may find Bulk Crap Uninstaller worth a look, as well:
https://www.bcuninstaller.com/
https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/bcuninstaller.html
https://www.softpedia.com/get/PORTABLE-SOFTWARE/Security/Secure-cleaning/Bulk-Crap-Uninstaller-Portable.shtml
Cheers,
AJN
Hey AJ,
Yes, there are certainly plenty of excellent free and portable uninstallers to choose from. That said, BCUninstaller is certainly worthy of a mention.
Thanks for the suggestion.
Much appreciated. Thank you Jim
You are most welcome Lucio.
How about a similiar list for Desk top and Laptop computers.????
Not sure what you mean Thomas. All of the software listed in this article works fine with both desktop and laptop PCs.
If you could please clarify, I’ll do my very best to oblige.
This is a great list. Thank you!
You are most welcome Chris.