Portable VLC media player

VLC Media Player is one of the most powerful media players for Windows, and the Portable VLC Media Player is a version that you can carry around in your pocket on a flash drive.

Portable VLC Media Player is a lot like the standard version of VLC: it supports most audio and video codecs out of the box, and it plays most multimedia files flawlessly and without a lot of fuss from the user. The player also has an excellent user interface, and there are options to manipulate subtitles, shift audio tracking, crop the image, and so forth.

The big difference between Portable VLC Media Player and the standard edition is that it doesn’t require installation. It comes in a compressed archive, and you can simply extract that archive to wherever you like. Want to move the folder? Not a problem. You can even put it on a USB flash drive or other portable storage media, and that’s where the real power of this version lies.

Portable VLC Media Player is perfect for the user who wants to maintain his or her settings over many different computing environments. It’s also perfect for the professional who often has to view or listen to multimedia in different work environments, including those that aren’t configured for the job.

Like standard VLC, the portable version isn’t limited to just the codecs it comes with. It can also access the codecs installed on the computer where it is currently running. It also has access to local files, so you could install a commonly used codec right onto the flash drive you carry Portable VLC around on.

The portable version is streamlined and thus does have some limitations. It doesn’t support plugins and extensions to the extent that the main version does. It also lacks some features that the main version has built in, such as support for HTTP and ActiveX.

Pros

• No installation required
• Broad codec support out of the box
• Able to expand codec support

Cons

• Lacks features that the core VLC version has