Linux Community Magazine

Small usb memory sticks can do more than you probably thought it could do. It can carry programs, encryption and even a full installation of Windows XP! Here's our tenlist for the coolest things you can do with an USB flash drive:Take your programs with youAs we all know how frustrating it can be when you take your files to another computer just to discover that the software required to read the files is not installed.Here is the simple solution - take your programs with you - on your USB memory stick. Here is how you can do it with Portable Apps:1. Go to the Portable Apps website and download the installer then choosing the software you want to carry along.2. Run the installer and install the software to the root of your USB memory stick.Then you're done! As soon as you connect your usb flash drive into a computer, Portable Apps will open automatically.Surf anonymouslyWith the Portable Apps and Firefox, you can surf all the web without leaving any trace on the computer y ou are using. If you wanted extra security, install a Firefox security plugin such as a software called FoxyProxy. To iput Firefox onto the drive, all you have to do is just copy-paste the Firefox folder from you computer, or just install Firefox into the usb flash drive. Program to run automatically (autorun)Using autorun, you can set an program to start up automatically when you connect the drive to any computer. You can then also use the same script for a data CD-ROM. Please note that some computers have autorun disabled for it's security purposes. [Here is how to disable autorun.]Open up notepad and paste the following script:[autorun]ShellExecute=filenameLabel=descriptionUseAutoPlay=1Make sure you replace filename with the full path to the file. (I.E), a file called program.exe in a folder called "programs" on the usb flash drive would be /programs/program.exeReplace description with a short description of the program, (I.E), My Jukebox or Mozilla Firefox.Save the file as autorun.inf, but making sure you have selected "All Programs" from the save menu, not "Text document"!Help! I'm lost!Have you ever lost an USB drive? Even if you have not, there is a pretty good chance you'll lose one during your life. And with all the important information on it, it could be a disaster to have it fall into someone else's hands.A good idea would be to encrypt all the information on the drive, but you would still want it back, wouldn't you? Luckily, the folks at the Daily Cup Of Tech have come up with a good solution.You can save a program called "Help! I'm Lost!" on the drive, that a finder just can't get around opening. The program then opens a message box with your personal "I'm lost" message. It's a really good idea to offer the finder a bigger reward than the drive itself, so that they'll be interested in contacting you.Hide the drive inside somethingWhy not surprise your friends,family and co-workers by sticking something that looks like a broken USB cable in the computer's USB drive?You'll be sure to get a few shocked faces when you start to play a movie from it.These guys from Technobuzz.net show us how to do it. (Your gonna need an unbelievably usb flash drive small for this.)Secure your PCJust like with an RFID badge, you can use an USB small usb memory stick to lock and unlock any PC. Insert it to begin working and pull it out when you have finished, locking the computer. There's several programs for this . Rohos, a commercial program and WiKID,which is a semi-open source one.If you really need to secure your computer with an USB flash drive, I suggest you give Rohos a try, as WiKID is complicated.Portable jukeboxDon't just carry the music with you, also carry the player! You can install audio programs such as WinAmp and CoolPlayer+ on your small memory sticks. Just unextract the ZIP folders to the USB drive.If you wanted the jukebox to start up automatically when you connect the memory stick to the computer,you ca n use the autorun feature shown tip 3 and point it to the exe of your audio player.Encrypt your dataIf you carry any sensitive information on your USB memory stick,it's a good idea is to encrypt it. Hardware-level encryption will help, but this will cost extra.You can also get a free program to encrypt your data just as security. For this I recommend TrueCrypt, but most others will also do.You will need admin access on the computer you want to use your encrypted usb drive on, so this it's usability a little.Run a standalone OS for dedicated tasksThe easiest OS to boot from is an USB drive probably Linux. There are many small capacity Linux versions out there that will fit on your flash drive. These are the best 3 Puppy Linux, Damn Small Linux and Webconverger.But make sure you select a version that needs less space than your USB drive's maximum, this is so you have room for files and software.work each day. A hard disk doesn't have this problem.)