The Tiny, Floppy Office

If you’re a Windows user (or, even if you’re a Mac user, too) and you feel naked without your suite of MS Office business software , but you don’t (can’t) always have your computer with you, then you can immediately grasp the merits of Floppy Office. This free s self-contained suite of installation-free office-like tools weighs in at less than two megabyes, allowing it to fit perfectly on a USB thumb drivef or portable PC productivity. (NOTE: each program must be expanded and installed on the USB drive for proper operation).

Floppy Office includes: PDF Producer, Kpad, Spread32, Ted, 100K Zipper, NPopUK, IFTP, MemPad, EVE, RenameFiles, HTTP Web server (TinyWeb), file encryption, and password software. Alas, the suite isn’t necessarily sweet (Spread32 crashed while opening an Excel spreadsheet, for instance), but it might help you in a pinch—especially if you're a Mac or Linux user attempting to work in a PC world. Above all else, test before using. —Dave Prochnow