LIberkey: 165 free programs.

I love the portable apps movement that's popular right now.  As an IT guy in charge of over 20 computers at work it's nice to have some good software that can be used where you need it.  Yeah, I know it's easier to just create a network drive and access it from each computer. I do that too but for those of you who don't have that kind of access this is a very good solution.

There three flavors of Liberkey.
Basic: 12programs using 120 MB
Standard: 90 programs using 442 MB
Ultimate: 168 programs using 587 MB

I've been using Liberkey Ultimate for a few months now.  It easily fits on a 1 GB flash drive which means I don't have to break the bank to get it portable.  I saw 1 GB drives at Target over the weekend for $5.  I've installed it on a 4 GB drive that I got at Best Buy for $13 so I have room to have additional documents and installations.

Liberkey allows for customized additional software and has it's own "My Documents" where you can store files accessible through Liberkey.  Here's what the default tree looks like. I've added an autorun.inf file which can be created within Liberkey.

 Here is what the Liberkey Tools section contains.

 

This what the main program window looks like.

Ninite.com is a huge time saver!

I recently received two new computers at work. Dell, Intel Core i7 920  @ 2.67GHz running Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit with 8 GB RAM.  Yeah.  Beasts and I've got one of them now.

So last night I stayed at work late to get my machine all set up and ready to use.  Well, if you've ever had to reinstall more than 30 programs you know what a huge time suck it is.  This is where Ninite.com comes in very handy.  All you have to do is select the software you want installed and click the "Get Installer" button.  Then all you do is sit back and either watch it work or do other things while it runs.

I had 21 programs downloaded and installed without ANY intervention by me.  I was able to install other programs like Office 2007, Adobe Pro 9, Visual Studio 2010 Express and a host of other things while Ninite did it's thing.  Easily saved me 30 minutes to an hour of my time.

Ninite is free and no registration is required.  There is a Pro version for $20 US which may come in really handy if you need to set up more than 2 new computers at once.

Here are some great features of Ninite.com

No Toolbars
Ninite says "No" to toolbars
and other junk.
No Clicking
Ninite automates installers offscreen.
32 and 64-bit
Ninite installs the best version of an app for your PC.
International
Ninite installs apps in your PC's language.
Fast
No manual labor means
installs finish quickly.
And More
Ninite Pro has even more features. Learn more