What is a portable application? A portable application is a piece of software that you can install on a USB memory stick and the stick can be used on any computer. When an application is launched from the memory stick no data, cookies, or other evidence will be kept on the computer; all data is fed back to the memory stick. When you take out the memory stick from a computer no data or programs are left on the machine.

Using a memory stick to house all your programs enables you to travel lightly and then use any computer that is at a hotel, Internet cafe, business or any other computer. You do not even need to be connected to the Internet as all your data and programs are kept on your USB memory stick.

However, you cannot use the programs currently running on your computer; you need to download a version of your favorite programs that are USB memory stick ready. There are currently more than 100 applications that are ready for your memory stick. Perhaps the best list of Portable Apps can be found at makeuseof.com.

You can find most of the apps you would normally use, such as Firefox, but instead of Microsoft Word, Excel and the like you can use OpenOffice.org. There are address books, calendar applications, mail and chat programs. In addition, there is the Skype softphone and some great multimedia applications.

If you are seriously going to pack all the programs you use on a single stick, it is a good idea if you build two sticks with exactly the same programs. I have known myself to lose a stick or two, so a second backup stick is a good idea.

What I would also suggest is that you should install the PortableApps Suite which includes:

ClamWin Portable (antivirus), mozilla firefox - Portable Edition (web browser), Gaim Portable (instant messaging), OpenOffice.org Portable (office suite), Sudoku Portable (puzzle game), Mozilla Sunbird - Portable Edition (calendar/task manager) and Mozilla Thunderbird - Portable Edition (email client) and runs comfortably from a 512MB drive.

Or maybe you would like the lite edition which uses AbiWordPortable instead of the full OpenOffice.org, or even you could use the Base Edition which is even smaller to install.

The idea of portable apps is great because when you leave a computer not a single piece of data or even program material will all be safely on your stick and not on the computer.