Put an Office in Your Pocket
Just about everyone these days knows how useful a USB thumb drive can be for moving files from place to place. For people on the go, who may find themselves sing a variety of different computers, a thumb drive offers more than just portable storage. With very little work and no money aside from the original expense of the drive itself, you can easily turn a thumb drive into your primary workspace — complete with the software and settings, reference material, and documents you uses the most.
Here’s what you need to do:
- Buy a thumb drive. Or “pen drive” or “USB stick” or whatever you call it. You can also use one of those portable USB or firewire drives, though they’re more expensive and not quite as pocketable. Look for drives that are certified USB 2.0 (or “high speed”) with at least 2 GB of memory (they’re so cheap these days there’s no reason to buy smaller unless your budget is very tight). Stick to brands you know — the flash memory in “no-name” drives tends to be less quality-controlled, which could mean fewer read-write cycles. In short, they may not last as long.
- Download and install the Portable Apps Suite. The Portable Apps Suite consists of several open source programs you already know and love, specially configured to run from a thumb drive without being installed on the host computer. The applications include: the entire OpenOffice.org suite (word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation software), GAIM/Pidgin (IM software), Firefox (web browser), Thunderbird (email), Sunbird (calendar), ClamWin (anti-virus), and Sudoku (game). If you don’t need the entire OpenOffice.org suite, you can download the “Lite” version which replaces OOo with AbiWord, a simple word processor. It also includes a launcher program that offers access to all the programs and files on the thumb drive from the system tray when the drive is inserted.
Insert your thumb drive and run the installer program, which will copy the files onto the thumb drive and create folders for documents, music, and apps. Once installed, you can easily delete programs you don’t use by opening the thumb drive program using Explorer and deleting them from the apps folder. There are also dozens of other programs available at the Portable Apps site that you can install if you need them; I added FileZilla (FTP client), GIMP (graphics editor), VLC (media player), and NVU (webpage editor) when I set mine up.
(Note: alas, the Portable Apps Suite is PC-only, though I’m sure Mac-friendly equivalents are out there somewhere. If anyone has any pointers, feel free to leave a comment!)
- Configure the applications. If you use any of these programs on a regular basis, you’ve probably got them set up just how you like them; the good news is, you can usually easily transfer your settings to the thumb drive version. For example, you can copy your Firefox profile from the “Documents and Settings” folder on your PC to the FirefoxPortable\Data\profile directory on the thumb drive; all your extensions, themes, and even saved passwords will be transferred. You can do the same thing with Thunderbird, which will also copy your accounts over. There are clear instructions under each application’s page on the Portable Apps site to tell you how to transfer your settings, where applicable.
There are a few things to keep in mind, though. Since you likely keep your email on your own PC or on the web, make sure you check the option under each email account in Thunderbird to leave a copy on the server when you download email. In Firefox, you’ll want to turn off the disk cache to avoid excessive wear and tear on the thumb drive (instructions are on the site). You can install extensions on the thumb drive-based browser normally once you’re up and running. Once you have everything set up just the way you like it, you can use the software the same way you normally would — they are all feature-complete.
- Add reference materials. You can install the free Sage Dictionary and Thesaurus by installing it on your PC and just copying the installed directory to your apps folder. Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations is available from Project Gutenberg. You can download a 2500-article extract from Wikipedia via BitTorrent and copy the files over (it’s around 700 MB, so only do this if you have a large thumb drive!).
Don’t forget your own references: syllabi for classes, PDFs of research articles from J-Stor or elsewhere, lists of addresses, notes, your resume, whatever else you might need to access somewhat regularly.
- Load your documents, music, and photos. Add whatever you’re currently working on, as well as some MP3s and photos you might like to look at from time to time. Since text documents are fairly small, a student should be able to keep an entire semester’s worth of work on their drive along with everything else. A business person should find room for months’ worth of work. The nice thing about keeping work on a thumb drive is it’s always available if you want to share your work with someone else — just plug it into their PC and launch the document (or copy it over).
- Backup regularly! Use a program like SyncToy to backup the whole drive to a folder on your PC (or just drag and drop the files over). The downside of thumb drives is that they’re very small and get lost. Plus, they eventually wear out. Keep a recent backup on your main PC — backup daily if possible — and when you need a new drive, just copy the entire backup folder back onto the new thumb drive (no need to reinstall Portable Apps Suite).
I’ve said before that I’m a big fan of LogMeIn’s free remote access service, and that is in fact what I use most of the time. However, using LogMeIn or Windows Remote Desktop or VNC requires leaving the server PC on all the time, and an always-on Internet connection, so these options won’t work for everyone. If you share a PC with other people, use dial-up Internet service, or are otherwise unable to use a remote access solution, a thumb drive-based virtual “office” makes a lot of sense. With the price of flash memory dropping almost constantly, it’s possible to keep almost everything important to you in your pocket at all times, ready to use at just about any PC you find yourself in front of.
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Comments
John F. Hughes says on October 8th, 2007 at 11:16 am
I’ve been using this on the road for about a year and I love it. If you have access to a computer at your destination, there’s no reason to carry a laptop, just plug in Portable Apps Suite.
Another big advantage is that using the Portable Apps Suite leaves nothing on the computer that it’s plugged in to. No browsing history, no temp files, no recent document tracks.
On the downside, it is a bit slower than using the programs resident on the computer, as everything is based on interaction between the USB drive and the computer’s memory.
css says on October 8th, 2007 at 11:17 am
Portable Apps for the Mac can be found here: .
The Windows version reviewed above also works in Linux using Wine.
css says on October 8th, 2007 at 11:20 am
Oops, messed up that link.
Portable Apps for the Mac can be found here.
The Windows version reviewed above also works in Linux using Wine.
Joe says on October 8th, 2007 at 11:27 am
Hooray for the portable office! I’ve been using a thumb drive for about a year now. One thing I do to extend the life of the drive is to synchronize the entire drive to folders on my PC and laptop hard drives (as you recommend) and work on the local copy when I’m at one of those machines.
There are thousands more portable applications out there. Wikipedia has a decent list:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.....e_software
The portable freeware collection aims to be comprehensive:
http://www.portablefreeware.com/
Thanks for the link to TheSage’s Dictionary.
I’d like to point out that the Bartlett’s on Project Gutenberg is a pre-1927 (out of copyright) version with just 168 authors, and I’ve never heard of many of them. It’s certainly useful for some of the more famous quotes (especially since it’s just 318k as a text file) and also as a snapshot of the valued sentiments at that time, but if you want 20th or 21st century quotations stick with online sources or get a more recent edition.
Geoffrey says on October 8th, 2007 at 5:39 pm
Am a Mac user, so thanks CSS for the mac links.
Though I do have one question. As a mac user I do not typically find mac machines in my travels. So has anyone created a dual Mac/Windows USB drive.
I see this working along the following lines:
folder 1 = mac applications
folder 2 = windows applications
folder 3 = documents.
When mounted, you would simply go to the right applications folder for that machine then process you documents etc.
Would be interested in thought etc.
Steve says on October 8th, 2007 at 6:34 pm
I used a similar set up over the last six months but less successfully. It works fine when you use home computers or most office PC but rarely worked in a cybercafe (in Europe and Australia) where USB ports either did not work or were disabled.
Adrian says on October 8th, 2007 at 10:48 pm
Another way to carry your office around is to utilise the programs on your mobile phone. Some of them have applications such as QuickOffice Excel and even powerpoint - allowing you to transfer via bluetooth or cable to another computer when you arrive at your destination.. or just run the slideshow from your phone!
Check out http://mye65.blogspot.com/2007.....excel.html for more details.
John says on October 8th, 2007 at 11:09 pm
I got a 4 GB thumb drive back in June and haven’t looked back. When IT pushed out an MS Office patch it crashed my Outlook. I stuck my PST files on the thumb drive and ran off that for several days using a second computer.
I have found many of the Portable Apps to be horrifically slow. I can’t begin to use Firefox. Other applications work better.
Thanks for the SyncToy hint. I’m on MacOSX at home, but I’ll fire it up at work.
Wayne MacKirdy says on October 9th, 2007 at 12:31 am
For the few of you who use Lotus Notes, beginning with R7.0.2, the entire application can be loaded on to a thumb drive for use anywhere.
syahid ali says on October 9th, 2007 at 5:49 am
nice, practical howto. PortableApps is really useful, imho.
Josh D says on October 9th, 2007 at 4:23 pm
OR just use Google Docs, Gmail, and Gcal. That way you don’t have to carry anything around with you!
Mark says on October 9th, 2007 at 8:28 pm
Why not take it further?
Put Puppy linux on a usb with a windows file system. Add your Portable Apps.
Now you can either run them from windows or boot the computer into your own linux system and never touch the hard drive.
Lucanos says on October 9th, 2007 at 11:50 pm
I just about live out of my Sandisk Cruser 2Gb USB stick. It has U3, which I know can be replaced by the Portable Office Suite, but it suits my needs quite well.
Between Firefox (with a pile of keyworded links, and bookmarklets), FileZilla, KeePass and Putty I just plug it into any PC I can find and I am able to work without having to work around any of the hurdles which you always encounter when finding differences in configurations between computers.
I would be lost without my USB stick - I almost wish my employer would just give us all USB drives, and basic Windows terminals, and let us configure our own portable workstations to our personal needs.
Jay Sihart says on October 9th, 2007 at 11:54 pm
I dont need usb
jay ghart says on October 9th, 2007 at 11:56 pm
Apples
Pears
Grapes
hgay ghay says on October 9th, 2007 at 11:58 pm
I dont know much about USB. I dont know much about USB. I dont know much about USB. I dont know much about USB. I dont know much about USB. I dont know much about USB. I dont know much about USB. I dont know much about USB. .
asdd sds says on October 10th, 2007 at 12:00 am
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Dustin Wax says on October 10th, 2007 at 10:16 am
Thanks to everyone for their great tips. A couple comments:
1) Setting up a Linux thumb drive is a great idea, if you know a) the PCs you have access to can be freely rebooted, b) will boot from USB, and 3) have standard hardware that won’t need proprietary or otherwise unavailable drivers.
2) For the Mac users, if you’re using software like OpenOffice on your Mac, you might find some cosmetic differences with running it from a thumb drive on Windows butyour documents will move from Mac to Win just fine in the OOo format or .doc or RTF. I wonder if the Firefox settings are the same — you could probably still copy the settings folder and run in Windows with the same settings on your Mac.
3) Yes, Firefox Portable starts unbearably slow. But after that ir runs reasonably quickly. Here’s what I do - I pop in the thumb drive, start Firefox, and go to the bathroom, check my departmental mail, chat with the dept. secretary, futz around, and otherwise kill some time. Inefficient, yes, but better than nothing, at least for me.
JaBbA says on October 10th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
I also include 2 other things on my USB drive. Both are a little more intrusive than Portable Apps, but invaluable.
- TrueCrypt, since about 25% of my USB drive is configured as an encrypted file system. I keep anything that might be even a little sensitive on the encrypted file. TrueCrypt Traveller mode needs Administrator privileges, and a Forensics expert will be able to examine the registry and tell that TrueCrypt was run. So it’s low-impact, not no-impact.
- OpenVPN. This one requires Administrative access to the computer to install the TUN adapter, but even kiosks that wipe out all changes on logout work fine. A batch file installs the adapter, then fire up the OpenVPN GUI and connect. Another batch file will delete the adapter when you are done. Since my OpenVPN server is configured to use 443/tcp instead of the standard 1194/udp, most firewalls let me connect without a problem. Now I have access to my entire home network…and every network on my personal VPN.