Listary Portable

When we reviewed Bopsoft's Listary, we called it "unobtrusive but unusually useful, which is ideal in file management software." The same applies to Listary Portable, a totally portable version of this flexible freeware. Like the installed version, Listary Portable accesses your most important files, documents, favorites, and programs from numerous angles, including pop-up menus, hotkeys, mouse middle-clicks, and even the command line. Like the installed program, Listary Portable is free for private, noncommercial use. A registered version, Listary Pro, is available for commercial users.

Since the portable version of Listary runs without having to be installed, you can save the extracted program files to practically any location, including portable devices. Listary Portable's download includes two executables: one for 32-bit Windows systems, and another for 64-bit versions. Both folders contain all the drivers, logs, and configuration files to run Listary Portable when Windows starts, although this option isn't selected by default, but rather by accessing the General settings on Listary's Options. As with the installed version, Listary Portable's system tray icon and menu serve as the program's main point of access. Clicking this icon opens a compact menu that accesses the aforementioned Listary Options sheet and offers two Favorite submenus, Computer and Recent, as well as a command to add apps to the program. Right-clicking the icon also accesses the Options as well as Help, About, and Update features.

Too many file management programs are designed to make things easier for you but are a pain in the processor to set up. Not so Listary Portable. We started by clicking the menu heading Add Application to Support List, which opened a compact dialog that let us specify the Name, Class, Executable, and Address Bar data for any app we wanted to add to Listary's menu, including a checkbox to specify the app as a file manager to enable features that only work in a file manager. But it's much easier to drag the Finder tool's bull's-eye-in-window icon over any app's address bar to automatically add it to Listary Portable. If you like Listary but want or need a portable file manager, here it is.