Trying to rehash the debate on portability here to gauge community interest, starting with a couple of links and a personal definition I posted elsewhere...
Portable applications offer some definite advantages over their traditional counterparts. They’re lightweight, and they allow you to move between computers while taking your apps and settings with you.
Portable application: Not to be confused with software portability, portable executable, or multiarchitecture binary.
The Wikipedia article above is flagged with a "
This article has multiple issues" banner that points to the
talk page, which lists some interesting issues, BTW.
TPFC own portable definition is at
https://www.portablefreeware.com/about.php (and in turn points to further relevant resources); a previous forum debate can also be found at
viewtopic.php?t=15744.
Finally, here's a personal attempt at an operational definition:
What is a portable program?
While different people interpret the term differently -- from simple no installation required to the ability to run on different operating systems -- for our practical purposes, a portable program is a program that by design or by user adaptation can be run directly without any prior requirement, such as the need to be installed; it will run independently of Windows versions, is not tightly coupled to underlying special resources (such as frameworks or extensions that may not be present), can be executed without special system privileges and be moved around filesystems and/or computers without impairment of its features (chiefly resulting from loss of settings or configurations, but also from misplacement of user data).
Thus, portable software is more than just a program that can be run from a removable drive. Ideally, it's a self-contained application where all working elements, like system registry entries, data folders and required files can be easily retrieved from a set filesystem location and replicated or archived elsewhere without any loss of functionality. As an additional desirable feature -- usually referred by "stealth" -- any other system traces left by the program execution should be completely erased after termination.
BTW, I reckon the present topic would be better placed either at "[
Site Matters]
Suggestions/
Discussions" or "
Portable Freeware Discussion".