Creative USB

10 things you can do with a flash drive BESIDES move data

1. Run portable applications
You can install word processors, spreadsheets, presentation tools, drawing packages, and databases in the form of portable apps. Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird are also available as portable applications. When you combine the office suite with the ability to surf the Web and check email, you’ll be able to take your most vital computing applications with you wherever you go. Audio players, games, antivirues, and menu systems too!

2. Boot an operating system
Windows or Linux!

3. Connect to a wireless system
Wireless network configuration information can be saved to a USB flash drive. You can then use your drive to quickly connect to another computer or a WCN-compatible device, such as a router or printer, to your wireless network.

4. Create a password reset disc
If you forget your password to your user account, you’re in big trouble. That’s why having the info on a USB flash drive is handy- you can use the password reset disk to reset your password and quickly get back into your user account.

5. Boost performance
ReadyBoost technology can use the storage space on a USB Flash drive as an additional memory cache to aid the memory cache on your hard disk. Because flash memory is more responsive than a hard disk, the memory cache provided by ReadyBoost can significantly improve your system’s responsiveness.

6. Management
If you really just want to move data, a flash drive will help you do so more efficiently. If you install Drive Manager you will be able to back up and restore the entire flash drive to and from your hard disk, change the drive label, and even create an autorun.inf file to launch Drive Manager automatically when you plug in the drive.

7. Your flash drive as an MP3 player
Just copy your MP3 files to your USB flash drive, plug it into your computer, and direct Windows Media Player to build a library of the songs on your drive. You can use all of Windows Media Player’s playback features, such as playlists and favorites to customize it!

8. Password Protection
If you carry private information on your flash drive, you should protect your information. If you happen to lose your flash drive you will be alright if it’s safeguarded! You can do this by making a separate portion on your drive and password-protect/encrypt that portion.

9. Run a website from your USB flash drive
Server2Go allows you to run a Web server that supports Apache, PHP, MySQL, and Perl right from a USB flash drive. If you are a web developer you know just how important this is.

10. Lock your PC
That’s right, you can lock and unlock your computer with just your USB flash drive. Just like a spy.