Hi community,
my IT department mandated to remove all non sponsored application / software from my work PC. So, as a real newbie as I am, I started to investigate how I could continue to use my favourite browser and apps.
After a search on search engine I found PortableApps website and easily installed the softwares I need. Unfortunately I did on an old USB and I quickly found that it was performing poorly. So I got myself a USB 3.0 mini dongle and re-installed everything, improving a lot the performance.
But then concerns about security of my data came and after some trials I decided to encrypt the volume using Windows 10 native encryption Bitlocker and re-installed everything again.
Now the experience is very smooth. I just have to unlock the volume everytime I restart the PC. If someone steal my dongle i will not risk them having access to my private data.
Now I have to find a reliable way to backup the entire dongle in case of loss or breakage, any suggestion?
Anyhow I am very happy with the Portable Apps suite and wanted to share it with the community. So if you are a Windows 10 user and want to have your personal apps and data just follow these steps:
1) Buy a mini USB 3.0 dongle that can be permanently attached to your PC - less than 10 euro / dollar.
2) Encrypt it with Bitlocker, use a robust password to secure it and print the recovery keys on paper. Store the paper in multiple different places for increased security.
3) Install the Portable Apps suite with all the apps you use more frequently.
4) Enjoy!
Hope this can be of any help to newbies out there.
PS. I will donate to the Ethereum address (using Tornado Cash to anonimyze my coins) of the project to show my gratitude.
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I have been using a Samsung T5 500 GB SSD for the last two years. Samsung has a hard drive utility that locks the drive and has proven to be very useful. I instantly have access to certain resources that I need for work, some are backups to other systems that I routinely use.
Hi bloxster2, Regarding your backup question - have you heard of the 3:2:1 rule?
It is considered that your stuff isn't backed up until you have
3 copies of your data, on 2 different media, with 1 copy in a different location.
Secondly sadly Bitlocker isn't available on Windows 10 Home Edition.
My solution for both of these points is to have a VeraCrypt Portable volume on my flash drive, and on multiple other drives for backup. The only caveat is that you need admin rights to use it (unless an admin has installed VeraCrypt on the system)