Best portable apps to keep on a thumbdrive for developers

Question

Like many developers, I keep a thumbdrive with me wherever I go. Generally a 2gb drive. What portable apps should I keep on it?

Answer 1

My "general purpose" 1GB flash drive that I keep on my keychain has most of the tools that I need for basic utility and simple diagnostics. I've collected these apps and they seem to cover all my various needs:

• 7-Zip
• Akelpad
• Audacity Portable
• CCleaner
• ClamWin
• CPU-Z
• DeepBurner
• Drive Manager
• eToolz (German site but program has English localization)
• FileZilla
• Firefox
• Foxit
• GIMP Portable
• IrfanView
• KompoZer Portable
• MediaCoder
• OpenOffice
• Pidgin
• PuTTY Portable
• RegScanner
• Server2Go
• SIW
• SmartSniff
• TrueCrypt
• VLC
• RealVNC Viewer
• winMd5Sum
• KeePass

I have a documents folder that contains:

• HTML/CSS "skeleton" pages
• Company logo images
• Contacts/reference spreadsheet
• KeePass database

I also have an installers folder that contains:

• Spybot and semi-recent definitions file
• A few crucial Windows updates
• Company email client
• CutePDF writer
• Recent Firefox installation
• Microsoft Office compatibility pack (for opening new filetypes on old versions)
• Tunnelier installation
• VNC server

Answer 2

I'm actually in the process of rebuilding my portable apps flash drive. I use this device between my two Windows systems. I can access the Linux/Unix apps I need via ssh to my home network :-).

Here's the stack I'm installing. I'm a system administrator/system engineer doing development of infrastructure automation in Ruby.

• Git
• Ruby & RubyGems (local install)
• GVim, with my vim config

Other applications I consider essential.

• puTTY (as puTTYTray) and friends
• FileZilla
• KeePass
• Pidgin
• Wireshark
• UltraVNC
• Xming (X11 server, so I can run remote X11 apps from my Linux system)

Answer 3

Portable Notepad++ combined with Portable Filezilla. Check out Development on PortableApps.com for more

I spent two months in Japan on a student exchange and I did all my programming from those.

Answer 4

Your editor, above all, with all your correct settings already on it. A few e-books for reference is also nice, not to mention compression tools like Winrar for when you want to send compressed files to people.

Answer 5

I would second most of T Pops list and add a stand alone OPC client.

You could trim down this list heaps depending on what you are developing, high level programmers who only work with one language wouldn't really need anything like this, an automation developer would need pretty much the whole list and a laptop with proprietary software installed and licensed.

Answer 6

Best set of utilities I've come across is on Hiren's Boot CD; of course you could put those on a USB drive as well, but if you're supporting any older machines that might not boot off a USB stick, that CD really comes in handy.

Personally, if there's space left over, I'd add Eclipse with all my settings and customisations, an Opera installation, and one of my favourite tools, StrokeIt.