The easiest way to create a portable version of any program and reduce its size
In case you haven’t heard of this term before, portable programs are other versions of programs that run directly without the need for installation, so that once you click the run icon, the program opens immediately. We have previously discussed the difference between portable and installable programs . In general, portable programs are useful in some scenarios, especially for users who move between multiple computers and do not want to install the programs they need every time, as it is enough to save the portable version on a flash drive and take it wherever you go to run on any device without going through the tedious installation steps.
Despite its obvious importance, unfortunately many popular programs do not offer a portable version ready for users. In this case, you can create a portable version yourself. We have previously discussed different ways to do this, whether using external tools or through the tools built into Windows . But in this topic, we will share with you another, easier and more effective way to get a smaller portable version of almost any program.
In this method, we rely on using two free and open source tools to create a portable version of most and perhaps all of the programs that you need to use on more than one device without installation, so that the first tool is used to extract the program installation files from the EXE file that you download from the official website to install the program on your device, while the second tool re-integrates these files again, allowing the program to run through only one file, in which case you have a portable version of the program. The matter may seem complicated at first glance, but the reality is otherwise, as we explain through the following steps.
All you need to do first is download the installation file of the program you want to extract a portable version of, which is usually in EXE or MSI format. After that, we will use a tool called Universal Extractor to extract the contents of the installation file we just downloaded. So download the tool and run it to show the welcome window, then click Next and then you can click the "Preferences" button if you want to make any changes to the file extraction mechanism, or click Next directly to go to a page where you specify whether you want the tool to put a new option in the right-click menu so that it is easy to access, you can bypass that by clicking Finish and the tool's main window will appear.
In the tool window, make sure that the “Extract” option is selected, then click the Browse button ( ⋯ ) in front of the “Archive/Installer to” field and select the program installation file that you want to convert to Portable. Then click the button ( ⋯ ) in front of the “Destination directory” field to specify the location to save the folder where the tool will extract the program installation files. Then click OK and wait for the file extraction process to finish, which may take some time depending on the size of the program.
Now we move to the second step, which is to collect the program’s executable files – which we extracted in the first step – into one file, with the help of the 7z SFX Constructor tool . After downloading it and running it on your device for the first time, agree to the terms of use, then select whether you want to install the tool on your device (Install into system) or use the portable version of it (Run portable version). Choose what you want according to your preference, then click “Run” to display the tool’s main interface.
The first thing we do is to select the folder that contains the program's executable files, after clicking the Browse button in front of the "Source Folder" field, then in the "Run File" field, make sure to select the EXE file responsible for running the program, in case the tool does not automatically select it from the folder. Optionally, you can change the icon of the portable version of the program to be distinct from the original version, by clicking on the program icon in front of the "Run file" field and selecting the new icon. Finally, click the Browse button in front of the "Save into folder" field and select the location to save the portable version's executable file. After you have finished setting everything up, click the "Create 7z SFX" button.
The program takes some time to reassemble the program's operating files, and after completion a new file will appear in the folder you chose in the "Save into folder" field. This is the portable version's operating file! You can transfer it to a flash drive or external hard drive or keep it on your device to use the program without installation. Note that this version is noticeably smaller in size compared to the program's size after installation.