Difference between portable and installed?

Apart from the fact that one is portable and the other is not is there a difference between the 2? My main question is, is portable lighter on resources than installed? Also, is there ever a reason to use an installed version if a portable version is available? I would think a portable version would take up less space on the drive when its not actually running.

 

In the strictest terms, a portable application should NOT write anything outside its program folder, whether to the registry or temp folders. It is a clean install and deleting the program folder makes a clean uninstall. In this way, your Windows system stays lean and unbloated.

 

A portable version of a program will use the same resources whilst running,but I always choose it if available since,as a rule it leaves no traces anywhere else as mentioned.

 

Thats what I thought but was wondering if there ever is a reason to choose installed over portable. If not why would anyone offer installed programs if they could produce portable ones? Why tie up the disk space?

 

An installed version of a program can have features that a portable version cannot have (due to limitation of being portable as described above.) One example of such a feature might be shell integration.

 

Understood, thanks.

 

You really have to just play around with portable applications to see if they offer the same functionality as their installed counterparts,often they do.If a program needs to be installed to function completely then sometimes using something like Symantec SVS will give you an installed yet isolated application.

 

I use and like portable apps but I don't use them exclusively. For example, when cleaning up virus ridden PCs, I try to make use of as many protable apps as I can. After all, it's not my PC. Why should I install things I intend to use only one time? Plus, it's nice to run things like portable password programs or portable encryption for temporary use. But that said, I normally go for installed versions. Many times they are just "easier".

 

A big advantage for portable apps is being able to work on another system w/o installing.

I carry a "Toolbox" of apps on a USB stick for that purpose.

 

Thats makes sense, thanks.

 

I believe that commingling executables and data within the same folder, as is done in true portable programs, would make LUA+SRP security configurations difficult.

 

True, but that may be the goal? (Similar to when cleaning malware that won't allow certain things to run?)