winPenPack Flash Essential for Windows

This collection of apps creates a very handy USB toolbox on a small pen drive. WinPenPack Flash Essential is an apply named set of more than 40 freeware programs and utilities designed to fit on a 512MB pen drive. One click installs the collection to your USB drive or hard-drive folder. Since the portable programs don't write to the system registry they easily open anywhere you can plug in the USB drive. Using the drive on any system is made easier with the auto-executable menu. Push in the drive, and the menu opens on the Start bar. If the tray isn't displayed, a small menu window is easily accessible.

The menu groups the apps into seven basic categories: Graphics, Internet, Multimedia, Security, System Utilities, Office, and Utilities. Each group features one or two of the best-known freeware and shareware apps in the genre. Firefox, uTorrent, GIMP, ClamWin, FoxitReader, and AbiWord are just a few of the included applications.

Each program sits ready to run from the drive. A PDF introduction sheet includes links to each program's Web page, but documentation varies widely according to the author. Even without documentation, intermediate to advanced users won't have any trouble learning to operate any of the applications.

There is room for additional applications you deem essential since WinPenPack Flash Essential needs only 290MB of your drive. We wish there was an easy method to delete or add applications to the menu, though. This may not be your essential 40 items, but there is a good chance you'll find many of the programs very useful.