What does this buy you over using PortableOpenOffice and all the other 
portable-ized apps (portablethunderbird, portablemfirefox, etc) at 
portableapps.com? or portablefreeware.com?

I found the U3 part to be a pain, not to mention it is set as a CDdrive and 
therefore not erasable. The only option is to disable it in each machine I use 
it in.

For a long time I've used portable apps which are portable-ized from a lot of 
open source apps. May I suggest the following:

- Get truecrypt (open source encrypted container - truecrypt.org) <I'm not a 
fan of closed source encryption products>
- Make most of the drive a truecrypt container (use the hidden volume feature 
too if you need plausable deniability)
- Put the truecrypt exe and sys (dynamically loaded and never installed) in the 
root of the jump drive so you can always have it to run.
- Use the above sites to get run-anywhere portable apps.

The advantages are:

- you can run the portable app from any drive, including the home hard disk, 
for better performance. All settings are just as private too.

- If you lose the jump drive, no worries

- Moving to a new drive or backing up is just a matter of copying the truecrypt 
container, which is just a large file.

- You can even copy the truecrypt container to the hard drive and mount it from 
there for better performance or as a mirror.

- And there are no mods or dependencies on U3 or their spec, and a greater 
number of apps are available.


Finally, get "total uninstaller" (google for it) which will tell you what is 
done to the filesystem and the registry as you install something. I've found 
most smaller apps and utilities, etc (not Microsoft, Adobe, etc) do nothing 
more than register an uninstaller and only put files somewhere. Check your 
favorite apps this way and you will probably find most are really 'portable' 
and once uncompressed into a dir during its 'install' can be moved about fine.

99%+ of my new system is based on portable apps and installed-moved-uninstalled 
apps that become portable, and that's about 30GB worth...

-Skip



Bob Axtell wrote:
> I got a 4G SanDisk U3 Smart (USB flash) Drive from Santa Claus this year.
> Today, I've been trying it out.
> 
> This is truly wonderful. I am able to EXECUTE Windoze Programs directly
> from the drive itself. Here's what this gains for me:
> 
> 1. Eliminates the need for me to drag around a laptop. Instead, I drag 
> around
> a tiny U3 flash drive, and I can carefully dump unprivate files right 
> back into
> my U3 drive. Tidy. I have the flash drive on a cable, securely around my 
> neck.
> 
> 2. I am able to carry _MY_ programs when I am working in the field. I prefer
> Open Office to any of the infected WINDOZE OFFICE fare. My clients don't.
> use OO, so I can't give 'em an invoice from Open Office until after I 
> get home.
> This way, I use my U3 version of OO to whip that invoice right out.
> 
> 3. I can check MY email on THEIR system without betraying any of MY 
> passwords.
> Mozilla Thunderbird is already U3-ready, and its still free, too. All 
> the email messages
> stays right there on the 4G Flash Drive.
> 
> 
> Of course, MPLAB doesn't work on U3, YET. It doesn't appear to be rocket
> science to convert it over, though.
> 
> Flames appreciated.
> 
> --Bob A
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