I think its safe to say that when browsing the net away from home, we always want to use the software that we’ve grown used to. Say Firefox for browsing, Thunderbird for emails, Pidgin for IMs, because we’ve had our programs at home tweaked just the way we like. More often that not, what’s available to us offers the default configuration and little of the customization that we’d prefer (as is the case when one visits an internet cafe).

Instead of lugging bundles of installers, why not bring along portable versions on your flash disk? This is where PortableApps enter the scene. They provide convenient and lightweight versions of the popular open source programs. And they provide them totally free.

All you need to do is drop them to your flash drive/ipod/portable hard drive, configure and you’re good to go. They’ll work on any windows computer

Here’s a list of what PortableApps Suite has in store:

Accessibility

• Firefox Accessibility Extension – Make Firefox more accessible
• On-Screen Keyboard Portable – Easily access an on-screen keyboard
• Virtual Magnifying Glass Portable – A full-featured screen magnifier

Development

• Notepad++ Portable – A full-featured text editor with syntax highlighting
• Nvu Portable & KompoZer Portable – The easy-to-use Nvu web editor
• XAMPP – Apache, mySQL, PHP, phpMyAdmin, etc in one package

Games

• Mines-Perfect Portable – a classic hunt-for-mines game with advanced features
• PokerTH Portable – classic Texas Hold Em style poker at its best
• Sudoku Portable – the wildly popular and addictive puzzle game

Graphics & Pictures

• GIMP Portable – Photo and Image Editor

Internet

• FileZilla Portable – the full-featured FTP client
• FireFTP Extension (for Firefox) – a lightweight extension
• Miranda IM Portable – chat with AOL, MSN and Yahoo users in a customizable interface
• Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition – the award-winning web browser that’s safe and secure
• Mozilla Thunderbird, Portable Edition – the handy email client
• Nvu Portable & KompoZer Portable – the easy-to-use webpage editor
• Pidgin Portable – chat with AOL, MSN and Yahoo users in an easy-to-use interface
• PuTTY Portable – lightweight telnet and SSH client
• Sage Extension (for Firefox) – A full-featured RSS extension
• WinSCP Portable – SFTP, FTP and SCP client

Music & Video

• Audacity Portable – A simple audio editor and recorder
• MPlayer Portable – Full-featured movie player with support for most video formats
• VirtualDub Portable – video processing and capture utility
• VLC Media Player Portable – An easy to use media player that plays most audio and video formats

Office

• AbiWord Portable – a lightweight word processor compatible with Microsoft Word files
• Lightning Extension (for Thunderbird) – A lightweight extension for your calendar and tasks
• Mozilla Sunbird, Portable Edition – Calendar and task management with a familiar interface
• Mozilla Thunderbird, Portable Edition (Address Book) – Email client’s built-in address book with import/export functions
• OpenOffice.org Portable – word processor, spreadsheet, presentations with Microsoft compatibility
• Sumatra PDF Portable – a lightweight PDF viewer

Operating Systems

• Mac-on-Stick – Run Mac OS Classic 7 portably

Utilities

• 7-Zip Portable – File archiver and compressor
• ClamWin Portable – Antivirus on the go
• Command Prompt Portable – Simple link to a customizable command prompt
• Eraser Portable – securely delete files and data
• KeePass Password Safe Portable – Secure, easy-to-use password manager
• PortableApps.com Backup – integrated backup utility bundled with the platform
• PortableApps.com Menu – integrated start menu bundled with the platform
• Toucan – backup, sync and encrypt for advanced users
• winMd5Sum Portable – check md5 sums to verify files on the go

The Application Compatibility page gives a quick rundown of what applications work on what operating systems.