[Wanted] USB Flash Drive Applications

WhipSmartBanky

WhipSmartBanky

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I just wanted to start a discussion about building the "ultimate" self-contained USB portable drive, full of useful utilities and programs that don't have to be installed on the host computer.

The suite from http://www.portableapps.com looks promising. Any other recommendations?
 
My friend caries around his entire Steam directory on one.

Make sure to encrypt your drive; never trust drives that advertise themselves as "secure."
 
[quote name='Serik']My friend caries around his entire Steam directory on one.

Make sure to encrypt your drive; never trust drives that advertise themselves as "secure."[/QUOTE]
Any recommendations for good encryption software? What I've seen keeps leading back to TrueCrypt. The problem? You need admin rights on the computer you use it on, even in "traveler" mode.
 
[quote name='Serik']My friend caries around his entire Steam directory on one.

Make sure to encrypt your drive; never trust drives that advertise themselves as "secure."[/quote]I wanted to ask about that at their forums. Is this allowed? I'm going on vacation in a few months and I want to take a small Steam install with me so I don't get bored there. :p
 
My understanding is that my friend just copied the steam directory to whatever computer he was using and authenticated. Never tried it myself though.

And that bit of info about TrueCrypt requiring admin access is really surprising. Kinda defeats using TC when accessing public machines (aka the number one use for app-loaded USB drives).
 
I put portable Firefox (from portable apps) and some of my MP3s on a flash drive. FF3 beta > IE7 by a very large amount. (media player isn't necessary since Windows media player is installed on my school's computers)

Depends on where it will be used. School I don't think I could get away with games on there since the teachers watch the computers like hawks. At a work computer I think video games there would be a bit too conspicuous as well. But if you're going on vacation or something, emulation/tiny games would be THE way to go. NES emulators are really tiny as are NES games.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_portable_software
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_portable_computer_games
 
[quote name='crystalklear64']Zsnes for gaming on the go.[/QUOTE]

[quote name='Doomed']I put portable Firefox (from portable apps) and some of my MP3s on a flash drive. FF3 beta > IE7 by a very large amount. (media player isn't necessary since Windows media player is installed on my school's computers)

Depends on where it will be used. School I don't think I could get away with games on there since the teachers watch the computers like hawks. At a work computer I think video games there would be a bit too conspicuous as well. But if you're going on vacation or something, emulation/tiny games would be THE way to go. NES emulators are really tiny as are NES games.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_portable_software
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_portable_computer_games[/QUOTE]
Now that gaming seems to be covered, what about making the USB drive a useful tool to carry around on a keychain? Something akin to a "Swiss Army" drive. Portable anti-virus and anti-malware tools, PC diagnostics, internet browsers and applications, etc.
 
[quote name='WhipSmartBanky']Now that gaming seems to be covered, what about making the USB drive a useful tool to carry around on a keychain? Something akin to a "Swiss Army" drive. Portable anti-virus and anti-malware tools, PC diagnostics, internet browsers and applications, etc.[/quote]
Did you see the link in my post above?
wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_portable_software

Internet: Firefox 3 beta 5 portable. Don't let "beta" scare you. I haven't had any problems. Not a HUGE RAM hog like FF2. If "beta" does scare you, non-beta out in June.

Light word processing: AbiWord portable. Can open .doc and save in .doc as well. Don't expect perfect .doc handling since it's third party, but should be good enough for text+light formatting like tables, colors, fonts etc.

Instant messaging: Pidgin portable. IM with a shitload of formats.

---^all of the above are on the portableapps.com website^---

Damn Small Linux embedded: For shits and giggles mostly. Complete OS you can run within windows. Just plug in USB drive and run a file. Kinda useless but has a coolness factor.
^You can go with bigger OSs but DSL is Damn Small (50MB) and would fit on almost anything.

Security and encryption
^Never used any of these, can't say how good they are.

Also, by Googling around I found other people's suggestions. Don't remember any off of the top of my head, but some sounded cool.
 
[quote name='Doomed']Did you see the link in my post above?
wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_portable_software

Internet: Firefox 3 beta 5 portable. Don't let "beta" scare you. I haven't had any problems. Not a HUGE RAM hog like FF2. If "beta" does scare you, non-beta out in June.

Light word processing: AbiWord portable. Can open .doc and save in .doc as well. Don't expect perfect .doc handling since it's third party, but should be good enough for text+light formatting like tables, colors, fonts etc.

Instant messaging: Pidgin portable. IM with a shitload of formats.

---^all of the above are on the portableapps.com website^---

Damn Small Linux embedded: For shits and giggles mostly. Complete OS you can run within windows. Just plug in USB drive and run a file. Kinda useless but has a coolness factor.
^You can go with bigger OSs but DSL is Damn Small (50MB) and would fit on almost anything.

Security and encryption
^Never used any of these, can't say how good they are.

Also, by Googling around I found other people's suggestions. Don't remember any off of the top of my head, but some sounded cool.[/QUOTE]
Sorry, I didn't mean to gloss over that...I was trying to steer the conversation away from ROMs and emulation.

I did see your link, and I'm happily surprised that this is covered so thoroughly in Wikipedia! :) A lot of those apps are already supported in PortableApps, so that seems to be the overwhelming loader-of-choice.

That CPU-Z looks great too!

Thanks!
 
ClamWin is a free and open source virus scanner. While I'm hesitant to recommend it for day-to-day use on personal machinew (no real-time scanning yet), I think it's great for portable use: cleaning up a compromised PC, making sure a public PC is virus free, etc.

Also here's a great page describing how to use portable apps over unprotected networks thanks to SSH.

The page also recommends using FolderLock, but using closed-source encryption programs is questionable at best.
 
[quote name='Serik']ClamWin is a free and open source virus scanner. While I'm hesitant to recommend it for day-to-day use on personal machinew (no real-time scanning yet), I think it's great for portable use: cleaning up a compromised PC, making sure a public PC is virus free, etc.

Also here's a great page describing how to use portable apps over unprotected networks thanks to SSH.

The page also recommends using FolderLock, but using closed-source encryption programs is questionable at best.[/QUOTE]
Nice!

Folder Lock was recommended in PC Magazine, but the price was a little too hefty for something like that.
 
Having played some of the games listed on wikipedia now:

FPS: Cube, or maybe Doom (if your PC can handle it ;)) - Tiny FPSs that are pretty decent.

Racing: (not many to choose from) generally. It is a fun little racing game. Pleasantly surprised.
 
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