Absolutely Free Software -
Best Windows Freeware

This page is updated regularly. Last update: October 17, 2005.

update 10/17 Portable AbiWord now includes a grammar checker. Mobility Email, a portable email application based on Thunderbird. KeePass, a great, open source password manager.

Best Free Portable Office Software for Windows

Free Portable Office Suite

Portable OpenOffice Portable OpenOffice

Hey, is that a full office suite of applications along with your private documents in your pocket or are you just happy to see me? John Haller is a heck of a guy. He's taken several of the best freeware applications and made portable versions. The outstanding OpenOffice works great from a USB drive (as long as the drive is over 127 meg).

http://johnhaller.com/jh/useful_stuff/portable_openoffice

Free Portable Word Processor

Portable AbiWord Portable AbiWord

updated October 17, 2005

If you don't want or need a full office suite, take a look at Portable AbiWord. It's much smaller than OpenOffice and faster, too. John Haller created this version of the excellent AbiWord word processor to perform even faster than the original.

For additional goodness, as of version 2.4, AbiWord includes a grammar checker.

http://johnhaller.com/jh/useful_stuff/portable_abiword/

Free Portable PDF Reader

Foxit Foxit PDFReader

Weighing in at a little over a meg, this PDF viewer is faster than Adobe Reader. Believe it or not, you might come across a machine that doesn't have Adobe Reader installed. You might even prefer Foxit. A lot of people do.

http://www.foxitsoftware.com/

Free Portable Calendar / Personal Information Manager (PIM)

EssentialPIM EssentialPIM

It performs all your basic PIM needs: calendar, contact manager, etc. Conveniently, you can import your Outlook information, and it supports built-in encryption. You don't want your whole life in someone's hands when you lose your keys, do you?

http://www.essentialpim.com/

Free Portable Note Taker / Information Manager

VectorNotes VectorNotes

A simple way of keeping simple text notes throughout the simple day, then take them with you when you go. Jot down that name, shopping list item, or perpetual motion machine idea. Find it later by doing a speedy search.

http://webpages.charter.net/bobad/vectornotes.htm

Free Portable Text Editor / Notepad Replacement

Notepad2

This is a lean, mean text-editing machine. Notepad2 is one of the lighter-weight of the notepad replacements, but it's still vastly superior to Windows Notepad.

Free Portable File Undelete Tool

Restoration Restoration

new! added September 14, 2005

If you are truly paranoid about leaving tracks on a visited computer, run Restoration to see what files may be undeleted after you leave.

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/restoration.html