One of the Christmas presents I got this year was a 1 GB USB memory stick. I find these devices quite handy for taking your stuff anywhere with you. They're becoming so popular that software programmers have now discovered a new gold mine in the development of applications for USB sticks, be it brand new programs or simply versions of popular tools that have been specifically adapted for USB sticks. These so-called portable applications are growing fast, giving you the chance of easily creating a customized, full-featured software kit and carrying it around with you. Just take a look at the list below and see the great applications you can now have in your pocket.

• Portable Firefox - A smaller version of the best web browser
• Thunderbird Portable - Special USB version of your favorite email client
• Portable VCL Media Player – Take the versatile media player anywhere
• CCleaner Portable – All the power of CCleaner on the move
• Portable NVU - The superb WYSIWYG editor in your pocket
• DeepBurner Portable - Just plug your USB key and burn discs
• Portable Puzzle Collection – Pocket-sized games for short breaks
• EssentialPIM Portable – Portable version of this great personal organizer
• Portable Gaim – MSN, ICQ, AOL, Jabber, Yahoo! and IRC on your USB
• Portable Cornice - A fast image viewer ready to work from your memory stick
• FileZilla Portable - Take your favorite FTP client with you

As USB sticks and other flash memory drives increase in storage capacity, so does their popularity as software repositories. Many applications have developed special versions for these devices, usually known as "portable". One of them is CCleaner Portable.

In a few words, CCleaner Portable is the pocket version of CCleaner, an excellent cleaning tool with which you can erase unused files, thus gaining back valuable free disk space and making Windows run faster and smoother. The main advantage of CCleaner Portable is that it allows you to do just the same without leaving any evidence of use on the computer. In fact, you don't even need to install it. Simply run it from your USB memory stick and you'll have immediate access to all of its features. CCleaner Portable does create some necessary keys in Windows Registry, but these are deleted when the program is closed, so there'll be no trace of it left on the system.

CCleaner has been one of my favorite tools to maintain PCs. It is simple to use and offers powerful tools. It has a small footprint and it can be installed on a USB drive to clean up PCs on the go. CCleaner can clean up files that are left behind from uninstalled apps, fix the registry, and uninstall apps but it is by no means the last word in PC maintenance. There's no defragmentation or optimization option within CCleaner. Enter Mz 7 Optimizer, an app specifically designed to tune up your Windows 7 PC. Can it replace CCleaner as our PC maintenance app of choice? Let's find out.

One annoying aspect of Windows is that it assigns drive letters to portable devices but then fails to locate them if the drive letter changes. This means that all your shortcuts to your portable devices suddenly stop working even if the device is attached.

One way round this is use PStart which uses relative paths instead of absolute ones. It conveniently allows you to create a start menu for all of your portable applications so you can sort them into groups such as Games, Multimedia, Telephony, Internet devices etc. You can add components manually or ask PStart to perform an automatic search for connected USB devices.

If you use external devices regularly, then this is an essential utility. I'm constantly connecting USB devices, especially to my laptop, and this has saved a lot of messing around with Windows updating device paths etc. However, if you only connect the odd device every so often, such as an external hard drive, then it's probably more hassle than it's worth. With more and more downloads such as Firefox, Thunderbird and CCleaner increasingly available as portable apps, this is certainly one utility that could become increasingly important in the software world.

One thing that I've always thought is woefully inadequate in Windows is the Add/Remove Programs console in the Control Panel.

Firstly, I often find that it doesn't even display everything that's installed on my computer. Secondly, it usually does a pretty poor job of removing programs because it leaves behind registry entries and temporary files.

More importantly however, if you encounter a program that can't be removed for some reason, it's absolutely useless.

I recently had a problem where a program I'd installed wouldn't uninstall. I simply kept receiving a meaningless Windows error message that gave no clue as to what the problem was. And I couldn't re-install it until it had been uninstalled from my computer. I usually resort to CCleaner's program removal tool in such instances but even that couldn't help on this particular occasion.

Then I tried the free version of Revo Uninstaller and was so impressed, I'm using it as my default removal tool. Within a minute, Revo Uninstaller had not only removed the program but had located and deleted all the registry entries and temporary files that would normally have been left behind.

Using Revo Uninstaller is very simple. As soon as you open it, the main interface displays which programs are installed. Simply select the one you want to remove and Revo proceeds to perform a very through removal process including making a backup point in case anything goes wrong or it removes something you don't want it to.

Today I reviewed Speccy, the lastest utility from the Piriform team (the guys responsible for CCleaner, Recuva and Defraggler, all of them great apps). Speccy is a system information tool, that is, a program that analyzes your system and generates a complete report with all its hardware and software features. But it's not the only one. In fact, taking a quick look at our System Analysis category, you can find a bunch of tools for that same purpose.

Oh, and don't get me wrong here: knowing the speed of your CPU, your graphics card brand or the size of your hard drive is not something only computer geeks may be interested in. All those details can help you optimize your system, find the right RAM modules when you want to upgrade the computer's memory and be better informed when trying to sell your PC - or when buying a new one! Here's a selection of tools to shine some light on your PC's insides.

• PC Wizard 2009 - Advanced system analyzer with thorough reports and lots of powerful benchmarking tools.
• HWiNFO32 - Obtain detailed information about the hardware installed on your system. Also available as portable app.
• SIW - This utility generates complete reports for hardware, software and network configuration in your system.
• Winaudit - Quick, exhaustive system analysis that includes virtually every detail of your computer configuration.
• Fresh Diagnose - Get a detailed report about your computer's hardware and software, and benchmark its performance.

I'm sure you'll find this situation familiar: last Saturday I met a group of friends to have dinner and watch the Eurovision contest together. But as soon as I walked through their flat's door, one of my friends grabbed me by the arm and begged me to fix his computer.

Yes, it happens: once your friends find out you work with computers, they presume you can fix whatever problem they have with it, from an unimportant spyware element to a serious Windows Registry issue. And as you can't really do anything about it without being rude, you'd better adapt to the situation. How? Easy: creating a First Aid kit for computers you can carry anywhere with you.

All you need is a large-sized USB memory device (you can buy a 4 or 8 GB memory key for a pretty decent price these days) and load it up with a collection of portable tools you can use to analyze, optimize and fix any computer your friends ask you to. Here are the tools I'd include in that First Aid USB:

• HWiNFO32 - Performs a highly detailed hardware configuration analysis
• Revo Uninstaller - Removes any unwanted applications from the computer
• ClamWin - A handy portable antivirus tool
• Recuva - Recovers accidentally deleted files
• CCleaner - Powerful system cleaner and optimizer
• Registry Defrag - Portable Windows Registry defragmenter
• Comodo System Cleaner -Complete suite with cleaning and repairing tools
• Glary Utilities - Pocket-sized toolkit for PC maintenance
• Defraggler - Portable defragmenter with support for single files and folders