winPenPack (often shortened to wPP) is an

open-source software Open-source software (OSS) is Software, computer software that is released under a Open-source license, license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and Software distribution, distribute the software an ...

application suite for Windows. It is a collection of open source

applications Application may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Application software, computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks ** Application layer, an abstraction layer that specifies protocols and interface methods used in a ...

that have been modified to be executed directly from a

USB flash drive A flash drive (also thumb drive, memory stick, and pen drive/pendrive) is a data storage device that includes flash memory with an integrated USB interface. A typical USB drive is removable, rewritable, and smaller than an optical disc, and u ...

(or any other removable storage device) without prior installation. WinPenPack programs are distributed as

free software Free software, libre software, libreware sometimes known as freedom-respecting software is computer software distributed open-source license, under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, distribut ...

, and can be downloaded individually or grouped into suites.

History

The creator, Danilo Leggieri, put the site winPenPack.com online on 23 November 2005. The project and the associated community then grew quickly. Since that date, 15 new versions and hundreds of

open-source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

portable Portable may refer to: General * Portable building, a manufactured structure that is built off site and moved in upon completion of site and utility work * Portable classroom, a temporary building installed on the grounds of a school to provide a ...

were released. The project is well known in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

and abroad. It is hosted on

SourceForge SourceForge is a web service founded by Geoffrey B. Jeffery, Tim Perdue, and Drew Streib in November 1999. SourceForge provides a centralized software discovery platform, including an online platform for managing and hosting open-source soft ...

. The collections are regularly distributed bundled with popular PC magazines in Italy and worldwide. A thriving community of users is actively contributing to the growth of the project. The site currently hosts various projects created and suggested by forum members, and is also used for bug reporting and suggestions.

Press coverage

Since May 2006, winPenPack has been covered by most major Italian PC publications including: ''PC Professionale'', ''Win Magazine'', ''Computer Magazine'', ''Total Computer'', ''Internet Genius'', ''Quale Computer'', ''Computer Week'', and many others.

Features

Portable software

All the applications available in the winPenPack suites are portable applications. Portable applications: *do not require installation *can be executed from any USB flash drive, and from any PC hard disk drive (internal or external) *leave no traces of their use in the Windows applications registry or any other user folder in the host PC hard drive *do not conflict with the programs installed in the host PC hard drive (for example, X-Firefox executed from a USB flash drive does not modify (or conflict with) the counterpart Firefox program installed on the host PC)

X-Software

X-Software is software that has been modified with X-Launcher to be executed as if it were a portable application. X-Launcher is a specific application which executes other applications in "portable mode" by means of recreating their original operating environment. A few examples of X-Software include X-Firefox (counterpart to

Mozilla Mozilla is a free software community founded in 1998 by members of Netscape. The Mozilla community uses, develops, publishes and supports Mozilla products, thereby promoting free software and open standards. The community is supported institution ...

Firefox Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements curr ...

), X-Thunderbird (

Mozilla Thunderbird Mozilla Thunderbird is a free and open-source email client that also functions as a personal information manager with a Digital calendar, calendar and contactbook, as well as an RSS feed reader, chat client (IRC/XMPP/Matrix (protocol), Matrix), ...

), X-Gimp (

GIMP Gimp or GIMP may refer to: Clothing * Bondage suit, also called a gimp suit, a type of suit used in BDSM * Bondage mask, also called a gimp mask, often worn in conjunction with a gimp suit Embroidery and crafts * Gimp (thread), an ornamental tr ...

), and others.

Main menu functions

The winPenPack main menu can be executed from any removable storage device (including, and especially, from

USB flash drives A flash drive (also thumb drive, memory stick, and pen drive/pendrive) is a data storage device that includes flash memory with an integrated USB interface. A typical USB drive is removable, rewritable, and smaller than an optical disc, and ...

). In each different winPenPack suite, the main menu is pre-configured to list all programs available (including programs belonging to other suites), and can be edited at any time. New programs can be added to the menu either manually (by means of the "Add" options or by drag-and-dropping them onto the menu) or automatically (please note that automatic installation is only available for X-Software, as opposed to portable applications).

Notes

External links

* *{{SourceForge, winpenpack Application launchers Computing websites Free software distributions Portable software suites Portable software