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.

1. Connect to USB to one of the USB ports on your computer.
2. Open a Windows Explorer, click on "My Computer".
3. Locate your USB drive letter and right click on it, scroll down to "Format..." and click on it.
4. Under "file system" pick FAT32.
5. 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.

Related Posts:

• Computing life in portable mode
• To P or not to P?