Build the ultimate Emergency USB Backup Drive with these Portable Apps for Windows

Emergency USB Backup Drive

Friend’s hard drive went kaput, and you are stranded without an internet connection? No worries, just pull out your USB drive and start Recuva. You can either use Portableapps.com or Liberkey to get your collection of portable apps. Both are robust systems that have stood the test of time.

Portable Apps for Windows 8.1

You should always keep these portable apps with you.

• Google Chrome so you always have a modern browser to work with.
• OpenOffice/LibreOffice for those times when MS Office suite isn’t available.
• iObit Unistaller to clean programs efficiently.
• CCleaner and Glary Utilities to perform a quick cleanup.
• Notepad++ for your text editing needs.
• Foxit Reader to open up PDF files.
• FileZilla for when you need access to an FTP client.

There are many other portable apps available. Download the ones that fit your needs best from the installer.

Carry Windows OS on USB

Don’t trust that college PC? Why not boot up your own live copy of Windows from your USB drive. 

Create bootable media

Sometimes the computer is so far gone that there is only one way to go, format it. Instead of using a different computer to download the ISO file from Microsoft, why not keep one spare USB? Windows 8will fit cozily inside a 4 GB Pendrive. You can use Microsoft’s own Windows USB/DVD download tool to make a bootable USB drive. You can even use a Multiboot tool like Yumi to create a bootable drive with more than one images. You can also boot into Linux distributions from it.

Fighting Malware

If your PC is so infested with malware, it won’t let you run or update your antivirus, there is an alternative to formatting your system. You can use wiondows Defender offline Tool to clean your PC. Or you can use one of the third party solutions from the likes of Kaspersky, Norton etc. You can also read this post on Bootable Antivirus rescue CDs for Windows.