Portable Apps are like SCUBA gear for Internauts

There are fewer reasons now than ever to gamble with certain kinds of freeware and risk accidentally agreeing to some kind of malware that may be bundled with the installer. Softpedia has a badging system where they guarantee that {product X version y} is 100% FREE, which means it is free for both personal & commercial use (otherwise some are only free for personal use) and that it doesn't contain any malware (e.g. spyware, viruses, trojans or backdoors). They test and retest periodically so that the award can be withdrawn if necessary.

One of my favourite sources of free software is PortableApps.com created by John Haller. His collection of open-source applications contains no spyware, ads, trial version limitations, or need to sacrifice of your e-mail address.

In the same way that SCUBA equipment is self-contained, portable applications keep their preferences, profiles and data together in folders under a "PortableApps" directory, making them ideal for use on USB thumb drives (unlike standard Windows applications which may scatter such data around your hard drive (e.g. some in the Windows registry, others under "Documents and Settings\{username}\Application Data", others under "{username}\Local Settings", etc.).

But you don't have to limit yourself to running PortableApps from a removable drive; it's just as convenient to install PortableApps at the top of your C: drive and know that you can always take a copy of that directory onto any backup media and easily restore it to another computer or USB thumb drive in case of emergency.

FYI, you can get a list of all of the Softpedia-approved programs written (or in this case packaged for portable use) by John T. Haller and try them for yourself! There is an FTP client (FileZilla), Mozilla's web browser (Firefox), the productivity suite (OpenOffice), a universal audio/video player (VLC), a telnet/SSH client (PuTTY) and more!

Virtual Vista, a quick how-to guide

Let's say that you want to try out Microsoft® Windows Vista™ on one of your current PCs but you don't want to use dual-boot method. The alternative is to use virtualization. Here are the 8 steps (notice I didn't say "8 simple steps" ;-) that I've come up with based on my recent experience. There is a lot to learn about Virtual PC 2007 and Windows Vista individually, so below is just a quick to-do list (not exhaustive instructions). You'll need to set aside a couple of hours to go through this (you've been warned).

1. Install the free Microsoft® Virtual PC 2007, "a solution that allows you to run multiple PC-based operating systems simultaneously on one workstation, providing a safety net to maintain compatibility with legacy applications while you migrate to a new operating system."
   
   NOTE: Don't gloss over the system requirements -- make sure that you well exceed the minimums! You'll want to use a powerful workstation (I tested using a 3 GHz CPU with 2GB RAM). No matter how loaded your computer is, it will barely be fast enough ;-).
   


2. If you're not ready to buy Windows Vista™ yet, you can download the free Microsoft Windows Vista 30-day Evaluation VHD (Virtual Hard Drive), "evaluate them for free in your own environment without the need for dedicated servers or complex installations".
   
   NOTE: You will need a Microsoft Windows Live ID (Passport, Hotmail, or MSN e-mail address) to log in and get the 1.5GB download (in 3 parts: Vista.part1.exe, Vista.part2.rar and Vista.part3.rar). Microsoft requires you to provide your contact and company information in order to register for the VHD Test Drive evaluation program.
   


3. Run "Vista.part1.exe" -- it will extract the necessary files: Vista.vmc, Vista.vhd, etc.
   
   
4. Double-click the "Vista.vmc" file. It will launch Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 and boot Vista for the first time. This will take a while. Then you'll create a user account and pick a country & time zone. Soon after that you'll be able to log in and it will prepare your desktop.
   
   
5. To improve security, turn off some features such as "Remote Assistance" and "Password protected sharing". I'm sure that there are many other things that can be done to improve security in Vista, but that's beyond the scope of this how-to guide. Now shut down Vista.
   


6. From the menu of the 'Virtual PC Console' pick "Settings" then click the 'Networking' line. For Adapter 1, choose an adapter from the pop-up list (e.g. Broadcom ... Gigabit).
   
   
7. Start Vista from the 'Virtual PC Console' window, and once you log in you should find that you have working Internet connection (e.g. the virtual networking adapter uses DHCP to get you connected). Pretty soon, Windows Update will figure out that you have Internet access and will start downloading lots of updates. This will take a while. The Vista.vhd file will start out at about 5GB but will grow as you install more software into your virtual Vista.
   
   NOTE: I had some trouble with Windows Update failing to install 2 updates (KB933566 and KB931213 published 6/11/07) even after I followed the Help instructions. Please add a comment to this blog entry if you found a way to solve that problem.
   
   
8. From the 'Virtual PC 2007' menu (use the right-Alt key to get your mouse pointer out of the Vista window and back to your PC's desktop) pick "Action > Install or Update Virtual Machine Additions". This will mount a virtual CD, so agree to autorun the setup.exe and follow the prompts, resulting in a reboot of course. Now you should have better drivers for sound and graphics the next time you start up.
   

If you have any questions, start at the Microsoft Virtual Hard Disk FAQ. Now that you're on the tip of the iceberg, enjoy the view!

Welcome to the Gastown Webspace blog!

This is the beginning of a technology blog edited by Kevin Hiebert, CA·IT. Topics will include things like backup advice, software reviews, and links to important security news.