Difference between Installer and Portable winIDEA editions

winIDEA is offered in two editions. Contentwise both editions are the same.

Installer

A typical installation program, which places the program into a specific folder (e.g., Program Files), automatically creates a shortcut on your desktop, in the start menu and adds an uninstaller.

Portable

Portable winIDEA edition is a collection of files needed to run winIDEA executable. The files can be extracted on your computer and you can launch winIDEA from the extracted location. It usually does not leave any traces in the registry in case that particular folder gets deleted anytime later. The disadvantage of portable software is that there is no installer that automatically creates shortcuts on your desktop, in your start menu, and in the list of installed software.