Portability
Portability may refer to any of the following:
1. An object that can be easily moved, such as a portable computer. For example, a laptop is a good example of a portable computer. Compared to a desktop computer, which is not portable.
2. With computer hardware, portability describes an external device that can be moved from one place to another without disrupting its operation. Examples of external, portable computer hardware include:
- External hard drive
- External DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) drive
- USB (Universal Serial Bus) flash drive
Because these examples are also storage devices, they could also be called portable storage devices.
3. With computer software, portability refers to how easily software can be moved between computer operating systems, ensuring cross-platform compatibility. For example, a program designed for both Windows and macOS without significant modification demonstrates portability.
4. A portable version of a program refers to software installed and run directly from a USB flash drive or another removable drive, rather than the computer's internal drive. Having portable versions of a program on a removable drive is helpful for situations when you cannot or prefer not to install new software on an internal drive. For example, when attempting to recover deleted files, installing a recovery program on the drive with deleted files may overwrite the deleted information and make recovery impossible.
Using a portable version of a data recovery program prevents overwriting deleted files, ensuring a higher chance of successful data recovery.
Companies that offer portable versions of their software have different files (versions) to download. For example, the VLC Media Player has a version for each platform and a portable version designed to run from the flash drive.
Accessory, Compatibility, Data transfer, External, Hardware terms, Mobile, Portable computer, Software terms