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Posted: Wed, July 18, 2007
Making your own portable applicationsby Norman Harris
There are a number of restrictions to consider, in case you get carried away with the idea of running everything from the drive. For a start, the host computer ideally needs a Windows 2000 or XP operating system, and the applications themselves need to be designed to be portable. However, with Windows 2000/XP systems in abundance, and the choice of portable applications steadily growing, it shouldn't be too much of a hardship. Ah. I hear you say, what about Vista and other operating systems like Mac or Linux. Well as far as Vista goes it's a bit hit and miss at the moment, some things work while others don't. Other operating systems do have portable applications, but as far as I'm aware there are no utilities to launch them directly from a flash drive. There are two options available if you want to run portable applications. One is to get a USB memory stick which is U3 enabled, the other is to install a small utility which will allow the portable applications to be launched from any flash drive. U3 enabled drives are available from quite a few manufacturers now, such as SanDisk, Kingston and Verbatim. Like all USB devices, the first time a U3 enabled drive is inserted Windows will detect it and start its Add New Hardware wizard. Two drives are detected, one being a small read-only drive and the other showing as a normal USB drive. It's this read-only drive where the clever stuff goes on, as Windows thinks its a CD ROM and automatically opens it, placing a U3 Launchpad in the system tray.  I've been testing a 4GB SanDisk Cruzer which comes with a number of portable applications ready installed. Once inserted into the host computer, clicking on the Launchpad in the system tray opens up the drive's Start menu. As well as being able to run the software from here, there are a number of utilities to help you organise the drive. Thankfully there's an option to password protect the drive, with a hint option if you feel you might forget it. Once protected the flash drive loads as normal but doesn't give access to programs or data without the correct password. Forget the password and you'll have to format the drive before you can use it again, but at least you can prevent your data falling into the wrong hands. Systems unable to recognise the U3 platform have no way of verifying any password, and leave your data inaccessible.  The easiest way to install applications to the drive is to use its own install utility. This logs onto the U3 website where you can download a range of free, and paid for software, which installs directly onto the drive. Depending on your needs you might want to install a good web browser, such as Opera or Firefox, and OpenOffice which is compatible with Microsoft Office, all for free. You might not be able to run all your usual programs from the drive but there's a good chance you'll find comparable software here that can be used instead. When using the flash drive on a number of systems it's a good idea to keep any viruses at bay. The SanDisk Cruzer came with Avast Antivirus which, like all U3 programs, can be configured to start as soon as the drive is inserted in the host computer.  Being security conscious, you should always ensure the drive is ejected correctly, using Launchpad's own eject button. Some software might place temporary data on the host computer, so it's important that Launchpad is given chance to delete this before the drive is ejected. Unlike the U3 system, Ceedo is a program which is designed to let you run applications from any flash drive. It looks a lot more like the Start menu you find with Windows, to such an extent that it even has Internet Explorer and Outlook Express ready installed. At least that's what it appeared to be but in fact Ceedo was using these programs from the host system. Inserting a flash drive containing Ceedo into the host system brings the Windows Autoplay window into view, asking you what you want it to do. While you can always start Ceedo this way, installing a small utility on a regularly used system prevents this happening.  Ceedo seems to be reliant on Internet Explorer as, while I could easily install and make Opera or Firefox the default browser, it refused to allow any programs to be downloaded from its site with either of these browsers. And while it boasts the ability to run almost any Windows program directly from a flash drive you actually have to buy another program, called Argo, to install anything not available via the website.  Security is weak and surprisingly there weren't any virus checkers available for download from their site. Presumably you would either have to chance that the host system is clean, or try and install your favourite one with Argo. Trying being the operable word, as several programs I tried either refused to install or installed some components to the host computer. This resulted in them not running on anything other than the original host machine.  Argo does have a list of compatible software on its website but it contains few of the popular software titles. I had hopes of using it to save carrying a laptop around, and just popping a flash drive with my favourite programs into the nearest PC, but alas that wasn't to be. Widows users will be right at home with Ceedo as its appearance and file structure are so similar. Compared to the U3 system though, it was much slower in use on similar speed drives. This was surprising as U3 stores its programs in a compressed format, unlike Ceedo where they're uncompressed. Thankfully both Ceedo and Argo are available on free trial so you can experiment with them before deciding to buy. And at a lowly $29.95 each they are reasonably priced, that's assuming they work for you. Another option is to use completely stand-alone applications. As these need no installation they can be run from whatever folder you place them in. Most of these programs are free and while not your mainstream software, some are highly capable. PortableApps.com is a site which has bundled a number of these programs together, and has created an interface from which they can be run. As with Ceedo, Windows Autoplay will ask what you want to do when you insert a PortableApps drive. Start it up and it will sit in the system tray and provide a convenient menu from which to run any of the programs. This system should run under any version of Windows that supports USB, so anything from Windows 98 SE onwards. One major problem is the fact that there isn't an easy way to fully password protect any files you might have on the flash drive. Adding programs to the drive is easy. As they're self contained its just a matter of copying the program folder into the PortableApps folder on the flash drive. The system detects the new program and automatically adds it to the menu. However you do need to restart PortableApps before it detects the new program. The idea of being able to carry all of your data, and the programs to access it, at all times is appealing. No more having to wait till you get back to the office to do something, it can be done there and then, providing a Windows PC is handy. That day isn't quite here yet but we're getting there. Useful Links: About the Author Send a comment about this article to editor@itwales.com |
Carrying data around on a USB flash drives is commonplace, but are you aware that this
can be taken one step further by having some of your favourite applications to hand as well?|
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