photostick is identified for carry information, be it music, images, documents, videos, and so forth. But there is a whole other side to these handy small gadgets. Take a appear at these ten ways that a USB drive can be employed for extra than just storing data.
1. Run transportable applications (just like your smart phone)
Transportable apps are becoming additional and far more preferred daily and firms are beginning to see the positive aspects of making use of them internally and externally to marketplace their products. USB drives are perfect devices for these applications. For instance, OpenOffice, which is a total office suite that includes a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation tool, drawing application and database, is offered as a transportable app. Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird supply transportable web navigation as transportable applications. If you take these tools, namely the capability to check your e-mail, surf the web and be in a position to use a complete office suite, in combination with the mobility of a USB drive, you have provided oneself the capacity to redefine your office atmosphere!
If you need additional, you can opt for a range of other applications for use on a USB drive from Portableapps.com. You can even download an complete package of applications that include some cool tools like an audio player, games, antivirus utilities and a customizable menu system that is devoted to your USB drive.
two. Boot an operating technique
Some of us older geeks remember generating thirty copies of a “boot disk” on old three.five floppy disks.
If you crash your really hard drive and you can’t get into windows to repair anything or (worst case situation) save any files to a safe place, you will will need what is called a boot disk. Because it is a pretty uncommon thing for a personal computer to have a floppy disk in it, you are going to need to have a USB drive. Each Windows XP and Linux help developing USB drive boot disks sorry Mac users, you happen to be gonna have to come across a diverse selection (more than likely costing you hundreds to thousands of dollars).
3. Install an operating program
Some of us newer geeks know that netbooks never have DVD-Rom drives, so there’s no way to install application that is on an optical disc (optical disc, HA!).
Now if you bought a new netbook or any computer system program that does not have a DVD-Rom drive, the only way you will be able to reload the computer with your operating system is set up the OS from a USB drive. This is going to be a important thorn in optical disc suppliers side for years to come (and could put them out of business enterprise) but is a sign of things to come for the USB drive.
4. Connect to a wireless network
As extra of us are moving to wireless networks for our devices a USB drive is a should. Take, for example, my house. My wife and I have two laptops, a desktop, a netbook, a wireless printer, two wise phones, an Xbox 360, a wireless home theater technique, and a PlayStation 3. All of these devices connect to our wireless network. I applied a USB drive with our network settings to setup each of these devices to connect to the network. This saved me from writing down the network address, the safety essential and the network settings and then inputting these settings into every device. Quite slick. To understand additional about employing the Wireless Network Setup Wizard, see the Support And Assistance Center, which is accessible from Windows XP’s Start off menu. To learn additional about utilizing the Windows Connect Now feature, see Windows Aid And Support, which is accessible from Windows Vista’s Start off menu.
five. Produce a password reset disk
I’ve noticed that much more and additional password protection systems are acquiring seriously difficult for you to build passwords that are quick to remember. Most of us have 1 word that is our standard password. But some systems demand 7 characters, some require 8. Some have to have 1 quantity anywhere, some will need 1 quantity at the starting and at the finish. Some really get out of handle with 1 capitalized character, 2 numbers, no reapeating characters and on and on. It is getting truly difficult to bear in mind passwords. Effectively a USB drive can develop into a password reset disk for a important one, your Windows User Account. Just plug in the drive to reset your password and your back into your system.
6. Increase Computer efficiency
If you happen to be operating Windows 7 or Vista, you can use a USB drive to speed up your system with the ReadyBoost feature. This utility will use the space on a USB drive as a memory cache to compliment the memory cache on your really hard drive. This performs in particular nicely due to the fact a flash drive is a lot more responsive than a difficult drive that has physical moving components.
Employing ReadyBoost is seriously quite simple. Just plug in your USB drive (preferably from Bizdriveusb.com) into your program and click ReadyBoost at the prompt and then adhere to the guidelines.
7. Use it as an MP3 Player at work, house, and in the car or truck
As we grow much more and additional MP3 friendly, there are quite a few locations that are becoming extra MP3 friendly. If you happen to be at perform, plug your USB drive into your technique and Windows Media Player will play your MP3s direct from the drive. Lots of property theater receivers now come with a front panel USB port for playing MP3 files. And most new aftermarket car or truck stereos and fairly a couple of OEM vehicle stereos have a MP3 compatible USB port that will play MP3s. Best of all, there is no iTunes involved. To see details about aftermarket car or truck stereos and home theater systems that are USB ready, take a look at Crutchfield.com.
eight. Password-protection
If you are carrying a USB drive that has some sensitive information that, in the event that you drop the drive, you want to keep from prying eyes you can password defend the drive. A plan referred to as Rohos Mini Drive can safeguard that data. This tool enables you to make a partition on the drive and then password guard that partition. Just copy files into that partition and they are secure.
9. Run a Website from it
If you are a internet developer, you’ll be interested to know that you can run a internet server that supports Apache, PHP, MySQL, and Perl from a USB drive with Server2Go. Server2Go runs ideal out of the box with no installation and will run on all versions of Windows, supports the most common browsers, and is totally free of charge. Possessing a transportable web page is a fairly cool thought, specifically if you are giving a sales presentation and need to have to give a live web-site demo.
ten. Lock your Pc
You know the scene in the film, when the secret agent inserts his passcard into a security program or Computer to login and logout? Nicely it’s pretty easy to do the very same with a USB drive. Predator is a software system that can turn your USB drive into a key for your Computer. You can lock and unlock your computer system just by inserting your USB drive. While the drive is connected to your laptop, almost everything works as it must. After your eliminate the drive, your laptop or computer is locked totally, even your keyboard, mouse, and screen are disabled. Plug the USB drive back in and almost everything comes correct back up.