40+ Desert Island Web Development Tools

What would you do if you were suddenly stranded on a desert island in the middle of nowhere, with only a USB drive, a dial-up internet connection, and a barebones computer with no software outside the operating system installed? Of course, you’d use the internet connection to call for help first, but what about after that? How would you keep your design business going?

Other Useful Apps

Sumatra PDF

Sumatra PDF is a lightweight, portable, free PDF viewer for Windows. It’s designed to be portable, so there’s no “portable version” per se. It works with a variety of keyboard shortcuts, and can be configured as your primary PDF viewer.

Sumatra PDF

Eraser Portable

Eraser Portable is a portable version of the Eraser security app. Eraser allows you to completely delete files from your harddrive by overwriting them multiple times with predefined patterns. It’s free and open source (under the GNU General Public License). This is a particularly useful app to have if you work with sensitive information on a regular basis, as it can be used to completely remove any traces of an original file.

Eraser Portable

OperaTor

OperaTor combines Opera and Tor to let you browse anonymously from any computer. No data is stored on the computer you’ve plugged your USB drive or other portable device into, making it particularly useful if you’re using a public computer. It also includes Polipo, a caching web proxy, adding an extra layer of anonymity and security.

Operator

Portable Windows Live Messenger 2009

If you need to keep in touch with your colleagues or clients, then Portable Windows Live Messenger2009 is a great way to do it. It’s a fully functional version of Windows Live Messenger 2009, just in a portable format you can use from any USB drive. It’s useful for a lot more than just instant messaging though: you can use it to share documents, and communicate via voice and video.

Foxit Reader v3.0

The Portable Freeware Collection offers Foxit Reader V3.0. Use Foxit to open and read PDF documents on the go. Just be aware that according to the comments on the download page, it can be difficult to install and configure.

Foxit Reader

KeePass

KeePass is a password management program for Windows. It’s free and open source and can help you keep track of all your passwords for FPT accounts, email, website passwords, and more. It saves everything in a single database file that you can open either with a key or key file.

KeePass

TrueCrypt

TrueCrupt is a portable encryption program that will create a virtual encrypted disk and mount it as a real disk. You can encrypt an entire partition or USB flash drive. It uses parallization and pipelining to let data be accessed as fast as if the drive wasn’t encrypted. Be aware that TrueCrypt does require administrator privileges in order to access files, which is a major drawback if you may need to use public computers.

Pidgin Portable 2.1.0

Pidgin Portable is the portable version of the Pidgin instant messaging client (formerly Gaim). It supports AOL, MSN, ICQ, Jabber, and Yahoo IM. You can add encryption plugins to it to enable secure messaging.

Pidgin Portable

WinPT Portable

WinPT Portable lets you encrypt files on your flash drive and then unlock them without having any special software installed. It’s still in development, so it’s not entirely bug-free, but according to most reports it’s a very polished build. The only thing it requires to run is GnuPGP, which is also available as a portable app.

Trillian Anywhere

Trillian Anywhere lets you use the Trillian IM client from a USB drive or disk. It lets you take your contact list and preferences with you wherever you go and use a full-featured but portable version of Trillian from any computer with an internet connection.

Further Resources

  • 100 Portable Apps for Your USB Stick (for Mac and Win)
    This is an excellent roundup of useful apps from makeuseof.com, though it’s not specific to development and design apps.
  • PortableApps.com Suite and PortableApps.com Platform
    Many of the apps in this post are built on the PortableApps.com Platform. PortableApps.com offers a huge variety of programs for use on a USB drive or other portable media. The suite includes a web browser, email client, office suite, calendar/scheduler, and other useful programs.M
  • FreeSMUG
    FreeSMUG offers free open source software for Mac users. Some of their apps include Adium, Cyberduck, Vienna, and Newspeak.
  • Linux for Travelers
    Linux for Travelers offers a ton of information on portable computing for Linux users.