More info on U3 Flash Drives
January 29, 2008
For those that don’t have a U3, but do have a different flash drive with 30MB free, you might direct them to Portable Apps’ version of Firefox (http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable). Any of the applications on the site can be installed to any flash drive and then run from their folder on the flash drive. I tested an installation to a generic Kingston drive, and installed Zotero, and everything worked fine. If people have room on their drive and would like a U3-style menu, they can install a full suite of software from the site also (see below for lists of the applications):
PortableApps Suite (Standard Edition): ClamWin Portable (antivirus), Mozilla Firefox – Portable Edition (web browser), Gaim Portable (instant messaging), OpenOffice.org Portable (office suite), Sudoku Portable (puzzle game), Mozilla Sunbird – Portable Edition (calendar/task manager) and Mozilla Thunderbird – Portable Edition (email client) and runs comfortably from a 512MB drive.
PortableApps Suite (Lite Edition): Uses AbiWord Portable (word processor) instead of OpenOffice.org Portable and runs comfortably from a 256MB drive.
PortableApps Suite (Base Edition): If you’d like to pick and choose exactly which apps to include, you can try Portable Apps Suite (Base Edition). This is a stripped down package with just the PortableApps Menu, PortableApps Backup utility and custom folders, icons and autorun. It’s less than 1MB installed, so it’s a great option for smaller drives.
The suite menu should launch in Windows when the drive is plugged in.
One thing I failed to mention. The address to download the Portable Apps suite:
http://portableapps.com/suite