Help with virtualization software

[wonkotheinsane]

So what I want to do actually is run my daily applications off my USB drive or iPod.
And I know that PortableApps suite can solve the problem, but partly. Because applications like MS
Office and Adobe seems not portably available. So I want to know if there are some virtulization
software available or any other way that I can run daily applications off a USB drive or iPod, like MS office, Firefox, Photoshop, Camfrog etc. I know it may sound a little uncommon but I just need it. Can you help me?

[bicostp]

Unfortunately the only app virtualization tools I know of are very expensive but there are other options:

You could run a virtual machine off a thumbdrive, but that would require running an entire guest OS (Windows XP or 2000) and virtualization programs like Virtual PC and VirtualBox need installation to run properly. I'm not sure if there's a portable version of BOCHS that works without installing drivers on the host OS. This would basically give you a laptop on a thumbdrive, and you wouldn't have to worry about drivers or rebooting, but you'll lose some thumbdrive space to the guest OS. (If you do go this route, disable virtual memory in the guest OS or it's going to write to your thumbdrive constantly, reducing its expected lifespan. Don't worry about that if you're using a device with a hard disk like an external hard drive or iPod Classic.)

If you're normally using computers that can boot off a USB device and you have an external hard drive (not a flash device), then you could install XP to that and boot the other PC from it when you want. Photoshop and Office probably won't run off of it when you're in the computer's normal OS, but when you're running off the USB hard drive it will be just like a regular install. Just make sure the portable copy has all the proper drivers for the PCs you want to run it on.

Another option that would definitely work anywhere is TeamViewer. It's basically remote desktop that works over the Internet without reconfiguring ports, which you can use to get into your home desktop wherever you want. You would be able to access your home desktop from any PC you can download the client to. However there is a little lag so this isn't an ideal solution for programs like Photoshop, and you need a relatively fast computer on both ends and good upload bandwidth on your home Internet connection to get the best performance out of it. For general web browsing and Office, it's more than enough. (Actually I recommend getting set up with TeamViewer anyway, if only so you can copy files to and from your home PC wherever you need to.)

There's already a portable version of Firefox so you're all set there. Just throw it on your thumbdrive and you're good to go!
http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

PS Don't listen to anybody who tells you to run a portable Linux distribution or portable open source "equivalents". Open source clones of Office and Adobe products are rubbish, and Wine (a Windows compatibility layer) is dodgy at best. The only program on your list that will run native is Firefox.)

[gamax92]

You Can Try OpenOffice.
Its A Good Substitute to ms office.
You Do Need To be more specific when saying adobe
Adobe Reader Lite.
Camfrog (at your risk).
Portable Software