How To Make Create Portable Applications Softwares : Tutorial
You might have seen a lot of Portable versions of different applications like : Portable Yahoo Messenger, Portable Adobe Photoshop and alot more….
Today I am going to tell you how to create your own portable applications. Before starting this tutorial I would like to tell you what are portable applications.
According to Wikipedia definition “A portable application, or portable app for short, is a computer software program that does not need to be installed or copied onto a computer’s mass storage device to be executed, running instead from a removable storage device such as a CD-ROM drive, USB flash drive, flash card, or floppy disk”
Lets start :
Requirements :
1) Winrar : You can download it from here.
2) Universal Extractor : Download it from here.
Step1) First take the set up file of the software that you want to make portable. Here I am taking Mozilla Firefox set up file.
Step2) Now install both Winrar and Universal Extractor.
Step3) Now put the set up file in a folder say Gagan. Now right click on the set up file and select UniExtract to Subdir.
Have a look :
Step4) This will extract all the dll files and some folders along with the executable (exe) file. In my case the name of the exe file is setup.exe but it depends upon the software so in your case it will be different. Just copy the whole name along with the extension i.e setup.exe
Step5) Now press Ctrl+A and select all the extracted files and folders and right click on it and select Add to archive.
Have a look :
Step6) Now when you will click on Add to archive a new window will open, its Winrar application. In the right side in General tab put a tick on Create SFX Archive
Step7) Now go to Advance tab at the top and click on SFX Options.
In the Set Up Program in Run After Extraction enter the name of the file along with the extension that your copied in Step4 i.e setup.exe
Step8) Do not press OK yet, there is a job left. In the top bar click on Modes and put a tick on Unpack to temporary folder and also check on Hide All and now press OK to close SFX Options window and press OK again to close Winrar window.
Step9) When you will click OK second time, Winrar will create a file and this is your portable application.
The portable software will look something like this :
Congrats !! You have successfully created a portable application within no time. 
I have tried other methods also to create portable softwares but I like this one as its simple and fast.
wow gr8 info! thanks man! Now i’ll go make myself a portable Ashampoo burner
Wow, Just Awesome
tech blogs not exactly my cup of tea, but this looks very handy! good for ya!
hey thanks for this info…seems simple enough for me to try…will try it firefox or avira…lemme see if am up to it
hmmm thats cool !
U r really a genius
I’m becomin fan of ur blog
Cheers
damn good tricks
Isse se To setup start hota hai
Mujeh to to application start karni hai jaise portable Coraldraw jisse install nahi karna padta
Thanks Gagan pretty good but there is an easier way…use thinstall
this doesn’t account for all the left over crap, such as stuff in AppData or the registry. you would have a better portable app that remembers your settings if you checked out PortableApps.com .
Thanks for your comments but what I wrote makes some sense, its not all crap
!! What say ?
Well, This isnt a true portable app. There is better guide on PortableApps.com
heh, ive seen this before – +rep if there was one
This is… er… sort of a start kinda?
You included unnecessary files, such as the .dll’s that would go into WINDOWS with some apps, this doesn’t account for the Appdata or the Registry, not all apps can be run portably like this and are dependent on the registry, not all apps can be uniextracted, etc., etc., etc….
Same my tips . On my page teach this too. This way is cool and always good for any software today
Hi, this looks simple. But how about for the files where there is no single .exe file. Eg. many 3D CAD software comes with many many folder. Under some path /bin they keep the installation file (.exe). How to create portable version for this…? Could you pls help me…
i can’t download universal extractor
please check this link…!!!
@ JAY PATEL
I have updated the link. You can download Universal Extractor now… Thanks for the remind
You’re guide doesn’t make anything portable…
This method leaves many traces and settings behind.
If you want a portable app done correctly do it in NSIS, AutoIT, or AutoHotKey.
Run the porgram on another computer, the settings won’t be saved back onto the drive.
Lol dude that doesn’t make them portable… it won’t save your settings… plus it will leave your settings on the computer you run it on :S It might not even run :S
thanks buddy…its really a nice sharing
This is not portable, it runs the program without install it. A good start anyway
lol. someone that thinks this is portable isnt worth arguing with to try to prove that it isnt.
lol. if one doesnt already realize that this isnt portable, it isnt worth your time trying to argue with them.
The portable app. make with this method are TRIAL not full!
The serials are not incorporated.