We’re all about portable apps here at Fans of Tech. Why? Well, the more crap that gets installed into different directories on your system (and in the registry), the slower your computer’s gonna be. That’s a fact. With portable apps, you just download the program and just, well, run it. That’s it. It’s a beautiful thing, really.

That said, we typically opt for installer-free apps that we can just drop in a single directory to be synced on all of our machines. (I personally currently use SugarSync now.)

A standalone app to burn CDs or DVDs is just one example of what I’m talking about. No clunky installs of Nero (which I think weighs in at about 400mb now) or Sonic or anything similar… just double-click the portable app’s EXE and start burnin’. There are more than a few portable burning suites that we’ve encountered in the past but the following titles are some of the more solid entries.

First up is daBurner. Sure, it’s the youngest of the bunch but you shouldn’t let that fool ya… as it does exactly what you need it to do: burn stuff. Here’s the official description: “No advanced burning options and complicated configuration. No integrated backup-mediacenter-slideshow-virtual drive stuff. It’s just a stupid burner. For smart people.” This one is aces in my book if not only for that beautiful description but also for the fact that the software is genuinely insanely-easy to use… unlike many burning apps.

Next up is Infrarecorder. It’s definitely more feature-packed than DaBurner and offers up dual-layer DVD recording, CD/DVD-RW erasing, ISO & BIN/CUE burning, disc copying, audio track burning and more. Infrarecorder’s been around for a while so there’s definitely something to be gained from its experience.

Finally, we come to DeepBurner. This one isn’t as feature-packed as Infrarecorder but it’s got a pretty polished interface and it provides you with the basic functionality you need: burn audio discs, data discs, ISOs and bootable discs. The premium version of DeepBurner adds a few more options but there’s no portable version available for it.

There are some more (potentially more powerful) standalone burning apps listed on PortableFreeware.com but some of these require a little bit of manipulation to make them “portable.”

If, however, you do prefer the old-school method of running apps like these, i.e., by installing them, you’ll want to check out CDBurnerXP: a great, lightweight burning suite from the makers of Ketarin. In addition, the latest release of IMGBurn added a plethora of new features (no, seriously, go look at the changelog for ImgBurn 2.5) and it could potentially take my title for best free burning app available… period. It is, without a doubt, definitely worth the measly $2 donation that the author is kindly asking for on the app’s homepage. Do it. Be a hero. Donate that $2.

Did we miss any? (I can guarantee we did.) Let us know what your favorite portable burning app is in the comments below.

Update Notifier
There are a number of apps out there that will scan your PC and then tell you which installed programs are in need of an update; Update Notifier is one such app. Sure, we covered File Hippo’s Update Checker before but this one ups the ante by not only covering software other than just what’s available for d/l on filehippo.com but also by offering the capability to act as a standalone application. From CleanSofts.org [via DotNetWizard.net]

NetWorx
Isolate bandwidth hogs, “track down suspicious network activity” or even just calculate your network speed using this standalone bandwidth monitoring tool. From SoftPerfect.com [via PenDriveApps]

JavaRa
In case I haven’t mentioned it before, I loathe Java. All the Java apps I deal with are horrendously bloated and, well, for lack of a better word, “crashy.” Forget the apps, the Java software itself is just as bad, in my opinion. That said, JavaRa aims to make the Java experience a slightly better one. This little gem will seek out and destroy old and redundant versions of the Java Runtime Environment… to make for a less-bloated JRE experience. From RaProducts.com [via PortableFreeware.com]

Plus, remember to read our article on how to sync these portable/standalone apps on all of your PCs using Syncplicity.

Know of a lightweight but powerful portable app we should cover? Let us (and our readers) know by dropping us a comment.