The Ultimate USB Key

The USB key is used mainly as a kind of digital briefcase—a place to store various files while you carry them from one location to another. And that's fine; it's what a USB key was made for. The thing is, there are also plenty of applications that you can load onto a USB drive, and they could make your life much easier. With some advance planning and setup, your USB drive can be more than a briefcase; it can be a powerful tool that keeps you fully connected and functional when you're on the road without your laptop.

Most of these applications require very little space; you can run them all from the same 2GB USB key. But given the low cost of 8GB drives like the Kingston DataTraveler 100 ($111 list, www.kingston.com), we recommend a little extra room. And when we say running these apps, we mean it; they can all—absolutely all—live at the same time on the same USB key, since everything uses a FAT file system (even the Linux install). Set aside 30 minutes and you'll discover that, yes, you can take it with you.

Securing Your Information

Various applications allow you to create a secure area on the USB key where you can safely store data in encrypted formats. The secure storage area gets a drive letter of its own in Windows Explorer and can be accessed only by entering a password. We went with NTI Ninja ($29.99, www.ntininja.com, ), which easily installed itself to a USB key. There is, however, a disadvantage to programs like this: They require you to reformat your USB key to create the secure area, destroying any data that's already on the drive. So if you choose Ninja, make sure it is the first program you install. An alternative program that password-protects only selected folders is Folder Lock, which combines a silly-looking interface with clear, simple operations, like the ability to copy itself to your USB key so it's available wherever you go. ($35, www.newsoftwares.net, )

Run Linux

QemuPDL combines a compact version of Linux called Pendrive Linux and the open-source QEMU virtual-machine emulator software to create a virtual Linux PC that runs in a window on virtually any current Windows system. Your USB drive can include any other portable Windows software. The software takes 2 or 3 minutes to load and provides a full-featured Linux setup that connects to the Internet through the host PC's connection. The Epiphany Web browser is included, but you can install Firefox and any other Linux software you choose.
The same Pendrivelinux.com Web site offers another version of the same distro that lets you boot the host PC into Linux if the machine is set up to boot from a USB key. (Search the Web for "boot windows USB" to find tutorials for setting up Windows to boot from a USB key, but be prepared to spend a day or two trying to follow them.) Plenty of other Web sites offer tutorials for installing Linux on a bootable USB key, but this is the only one I've found that makes it effortless. Simply download the 400MB installer, extract the files to the USB key, and then click on an icon to make the drive bootable. The drive doesn't need to be reformatted, so you can still use it to store Windows programs. The Web site provides step-by-step instructions for partitioning the USB key so that part of it is used for a Linux-only partition that can save settings between Linux sessions. We found the whole process surprisingly easy. (Free, www.pendrivelinux.com).