How to setup a portable applications USB drive
If you read any of my past posts about having everything you need on a portable USB drive (Computing life in portable mode, To P or not to P, My Rig), you know that I am a big fan of portability, I like to have everything I need with me all the time. Over the last few weeks I've been asked a few times how to setup a portable USB drive...so here it is.
This post is a step by step instructions on setting your own USB portable application drive.
USB drive preparation
Skip this step if you are using your USB drive for other things, not only for portable applications. If you have a USB drive that is going to be dedicated for this, format it with FAT32 file system format.
- Connect to USB to one of the USB ports on your computer.
- Open a Windows Explorer, click on "My Computer".
- Locate your USB drive letter and right click on it, scroll down to "Format..." and click on it.
- Under "file system" pick FAT32.
- Make sure that "Quick format" is un-checked, and click the "Start" button.
This may take any where from a few seconds to many minutes, depends on the USB size and/or the data you have on it.
Portable applications must-haves
You need to get some basic programs that will get you started with your portable application USB. The following is a list of what I found to be the best for running off of a USB drive (for a full list of all the programs that I have on my USB drive see My Rig).
Download these applications into a folder on your computer desktop.
Must Have
Portable program launcher - A program launcher will let you launch programs in a way that is very similar to using the windows "Start" button. The one I am using is called LaunchBar Commander, it is extremely easy and very convenient to use, it is highly configurable and eliminate the need to use the windows "Start" button for programs that are already installed on your computer and event for things like accessing the windows "Control Panel"...LaunchBar Commander download link.
Portable USB ejector - When you shutdown your PC, windows will gracefully close any running program and shutdown your computer. But when you run programs off of a USB drive, taking the USB stick out of the computer without closing all the applications first is not a good idea (you may loose data, applications may stay open on the host computer, etc). The solution is a USB ejector program called EjectUSB, it will close any programs that are running on the USB stick and eject it...EjectUSB download link.
Portable program maker - Many program and applications offer a portable version, but if they don't, we need a way to convert a none-portable program to a portable one. I use a tool called Universal Extractor, it will take almost any program and turn it into a portable application that you can put on your USB drive...Universal Extractor download link (make sure you download the portable version).
Good to have
Portable web browser - A web browser constantly read/write information to/from your computer hard drive. A browser on a USB is very slow and due to the same reason, and it also cause the USB to die faster. This version of the Opera portable browser lives in RAM which means no reads or writes to the USB drive, it is a very fast browser and does not deteriorate the USB drive... Opera Portable download link.
Portable office suit - Most people are familiar with Microsoft Office which has tools like Microsoft Word, and Microsoft Excel. But for a USB drive this application are too "heavy" and consume many resources. A good alternative is LibreOffice Portable which is as capable as the Microsoft Office suit, but it is free and portable, it includes: word processor, spreadsheet, presentation tool, drawing package, and a database...LibreOffice Portable download link.
Portable music and video player - To play your music and watch your videos everywhere, you'll need a player. A USB portable media player needs to be small and light, the best one I found so far is Media Player Classic, it has a very small footprint, it is fast, and can play any format of audio and video. It is based on the early Windows Media Player and it is very easy to use...Portable Media Player Classic download link.
Portable virus scan - You never know if the computer that you stick your USB thumb drive into is protected. I use a ClamWin Portable to scan any files that I'm going to interact with. It is not the fastest virus scan and it is not "on the fly protection", you have to explicitly scan a file or a drive...ClamWin Portable download link.
As I mentioned before, you can find the full list of all the portable programs I use on My Rig.
Instalation & Configuration
Since these are portable applications, you don't realy need to install anyting. Once you downloaded all (or the ones you want) portable programs, unpack/unzip them into your USB stick and you pretty much done. You now have a portable USB with portable applications.
You should now configure LaunchBar Commander, I have it configure in a way that when I press Win+Enter, it pops-up the LaunchBar Commander start menu which is very similar to the windows start menu, from there you can open any of your portable programs (after you configure LaunchBar Commander to do so).
Summary
This is it, from now on every computer you plug your USB into becomes your computer, everything you need will be available from your USB stick.
This is the most "vanilla" configuration for a portable USB, you can do other things like partitioning, and implementing encryption for security in case you loose your stick.
If you have any questions, observation, or anything at all you'd like to say, please feel free to add a comment.
To P or not to P?
Before you get your panties in a bunch, the "P" stands for portable.
So if you didn't already figured it out, all of my "computing world" is on a portable USB stick. If you read My Rig and Computing life in portable mode you know why I picked a portable USB thumb drive vs having everything on my computer's hard drive. But what about having my data and programs on the Internet?
Computer Hard-Drive vs. Online Data Storage & Internet Tools
Up until recent years when portable storage such as USB thumb drive and other portable drives became so affordable, most of us kept our data and programs on our computer's internal hard drive. It seem to be the most natural place to keep everything, besides, where else could you keep your "computer stuff" other than inside the computer it self?
Well that was then, today we do have other options:
- Computer internal hard drive.
- Online storage and applications.
- Portable storage.
Lets briefly talk about the advantages, disadvantages, and the concerns that one may have with respect to each one of these.
Computer internal hard drive
The advantages of having all my stuff right on my computer internal hard drive are:
- Everything is right on my computer, so as long as I am on my computer I have everything I need.
- Things are (arguably) working faster when it's all on the computer it self.
- Even if I loose my Internet connection, I still can access all my data and run any of my programs.
- In theory, a computer is harder to loose or misplace in oppose to a portable drive.
And one of the main disadvantages in the context of this article is availability, you can only access your data and program when you have physical access to your computer (yes you can remotely connect to your PC but that's a different topic). So if you are at a friends house and you want to show him/her your photos from last night's party, you can't because you left your laptop at home.
Online storage and applications
In opposed to having everything on your computer hard-drive, having all your data and application online has the following advantages:
- You have access to all your stuff from anywhere, even if you don't have your computer with you.
- Others can access your programs and data from anywhere if you allow them.
- Installed software on your PC is kept to a minimum.
As far as disadvantages, one of the biggest one in my opinion is that with this approche, you become dependent on a 3rd party to run your programs or access your data. Just imagine this scenario, you store all your documents on Google Docs, tomorrow they go out of business and shut the servers down...now what?
This scenario is not very likely to happen but it is definitely possible, and if you are heavily dependent on a website to hold all your documents what would you do when one day you type the URL, click Enter, and nothing happens.
So wait a minute, why the hell do I have a blog called eToolsOnline that is pretty much dedicated to online tools and application? well...I am fascinated by online tools and how far they got, think about it, an online tool like Pixlr Photo Editor that for the average person is as good as the very expensive Adobe Photoshop that must be installed on a computer hard-drive. Or another online tool like Gliffy Diagram tool, just a few years ago you could not even think about creating a somewhat decent diagram without using an installed program like Microsoft Visio, but now, all you need is an Internet browser and an Internet connection.
Portable Storage
This is where - in my opinion - you get to eat the cake and keep it too, almost anyone can easily set up a portable USB stick with anything and everything they need (see instructions at Computing life in portable mode and My Rig), you can take it anywhere, and you can use it on any computer. This method has most of the advantages of PC hard-drive installations and online tools, and almost none of the disadvantages. I do this for the last 3 or 4 years, everything I have is on a 16gb Super Talent Pico-C USB flash drive. I can go trough computers like a street hooker goes trough condoms without blinking an eye, all I need to do is unplug my USB stick from one computer, and plug it into another.
So to answer the question that the title of this post asks...P, definitely P.
What about you? do you use any online tools? are you walking around with a laptop or a USB stick? please add a comment and share your thoughts.
Computing life in portable mode
When most people think about portable computing, they think about being able to take their laptop everywhere they go and do their work on their own machine, with their own application, and their own data. While it's true that having a 
laptop computer is a form of portable computing, what if you didn't have to haul your notebook computer with you? what if you could achieve the same thing on something that weighs as little as 5 pennies? what if you can have all you need on something that is small enough not only to fit in your pants pocket, but on your key-chain?
While it is still true that you need a computer, it does not have to be your computer, it can be a computer at work, a computer at a hotel, a friend's computer, etc. Basically, any computer can become your computer in seconds, how you are asking? ... keep reading.
The short answer is, all your data and programs can live and run from a USB stick, if you had a chance to read My Rig you know that my whole world is on a 16gb USB stick.
Portable USB Basics
There are few things that are needed in order to setup a portable USB. The most obvious one is ... a USB stick (I hope
you were able to guess this one, if not, you have bigger problems than portability). For most people a USB with 4gb of storage space will be more than enough. Since I have many applications, plus a full code base and databases for about 5 websites, I have a 16gb USB memory stick that I got on amazon.com for less than $30.
Next you need some programs that will help you build your software/program base on your USB drive. Plus a program launcher that behaves like the windows "Start" button so you don't have to open a file explorer everytime you need to run a program.
Portable Program Launcher
A program launcher is a free application that mimic the behavior of the "Start" button on your computer. A program launcher generally lives in your sys-tray and is evoked by a mouse click or a short-cut key, in an optimal USB setup, a launcher is the only time you'd need to open a file browser to run an application. (using autorun.inf will eliminate the use of a file browser to run your program launcher)
In the last 3-4 years I tried many program launchers and found the best one to be LaunchBar Commander. I like LaunchBar Commander for many reasons but the main ones are:
- Functionality and ease of use - in addition to launching programs from a USB stick, LaunchBar Commander can also launch any windows application, and/or open any directory r file.
- Highly customaizable - you can create program trees with directory and sub-directories.
- Help increase productivity - you can set sort-cut keys for everything, any program launch, any directory or file open.
Portable Program Creator
Many times you can find a portable version of a program or software you like, but what if not? in that case you need to be able to take a regular program installation file (normally an *.exe file) and convert it to a portable version. The best program that I found that can do this is a free program called Universal Extractor.
Universal Extractor will take any form of compressed file (zip, rar, exe, or any installation package) and extract the content. In most cases it will create a 4-5 directories, you may need to brows trough these directory to see which one contain the actual portable version of your program. Keep in mind that this does not work in %100 of the times, but it does work in most cases and with most software. (I'll cover some other resources for portable programs at the end of the post)
Portable USB Security
On a USB drive security is optional and your set-up will work just fine without it...but that does not mean that you should ignore potential risks. On my rig I have 3 type of security concerns:
- What happens if I lose my USB thumb drive or if it get stolen?
- How do I keep all my passwords and sensitive information in a safe manner?
- How do I protect my USB drive against malware?
I am generally more concern about items #1 and #2, item #3 is better controlled by user behavior and can be complimented by anti-malware software of sort.
USB Drive Goes Bye Bye
For case #1, To protect my self and my data in case my USB mini thumb drive falls into the wrong hands, I use a free encryption program called TrueCrypt. With TrueCrypt you can encrypt any part of your data including programs, the way it works is, you create an encrypted container and than mount it as a drive every time you plug in your USB, and dismount the drive when you are done (all this is managed by the TrueCrypt software). Since it is password protected, the data is inaccessible for someone that does not have it. You can see a full description of my encrypted USB setup in My Rig.
Passwords & Login Info
For #2, protecting my passwords and login info I use KeePass. This application is a superb password manager, I have everything on it, from website passwords, to bank account numbers, to my daughter social security. But KeePass is much more than just a simple password manager, it allows you to create macros (no code needed, all drag and drop style) to automate some tasks. For example: I use it to prep my session every time I start a browser, it opens my bookmarks site and logs in, it opens new tabs for my gmail account, my websites dashboard, etc. This is one if these tools that I would say: "never leave home with out it".
Portable Application Resources
- The Portable Freeware Collection - One of the best sources for free portable software on the Internet, most of the portable application that I have on my USB drive are from this site.
- Portable Apps - A very good place to find free mainstream portable application, offers complete portable packages for your portable USB drive.
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