I don't know if this is possible since I am not a programmer, but I have thought for a long time that it would be great if someone would develop an OS that runs from a flash drive. What I would like to see is a platform that would possibly autorun when the drive is plugged in and list the portable apps located on the drive in a virtual "Desktop". I know the U3 launchpad drives have been released, but I don't own one, and I think it would be great to have an alternative. Besides, from what I understand, you are required to purchase much of the portable software, and many free applications are not compatible with it yet. Any thoughts?
New: Kanri (Oct 9, '24), Platform 29.5.3 (Jun 27, '24)
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Damn Small Linux (damnsmalllinux.org) can boot from a USB drive, and can even run inside Windows.
What I meant was I wanted something similar to the U3 platform which lists programs installed to the flash drive and is capable of launching them from a graphical interface. Thanks for the info on portable linux though. I personally prefer SLAX Killbill edition.
I just purchased a Memorex U3 flash drive - 256MB. It came with Thunderbird installed. On the U3 site was a portable firefox which I downloaded and installed. It was developed by another company. Seems to work fine. Their offering of programs for the drive is limited. This website has more portable stuff available, especially the Open Office. I don't know what kind of drive system the U3 uses. Anyone know?
Jerry
Someone may correct me on this, but from what I understand, U3 combines a hardware specification that makes it bahave like a non-removable drive, and a user interface that runs as soon as you plug it in. You can read about it at:
http://u3.com/platform/default.aspx
The thing I am not impressed with, is that it requires special configuration by the developers so their programs will work with the platform. I recently installed Pstart on my non-u3 drive and it works great. I only wish I could get it to autorun.
The current Firefox offered by U3 (not John's) changes the profile name on the host PC. If there is a reboot or hub failure, it does not change it back, leaving the host without a profile unless they know how to go into the documents and setting/user and rename it. It will also leave behind its entire profile if the stick is removed without closing down the program.
Yes, but inside windows it'S perfomance are weaks.
hundred of portable applications:
http://standalone.atspace.org/index.html
Add PStart to your drive as a graphical launcher. You can even configure it to auto-launch when you plug it in with an autorun.inf.
https://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/application_menus/pstart
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
How would the autorun.inf look for auto-launching PStart? I've tried making one before, but the .inf only loaded a specified icon and label for the drive. I've also searched microsoft and other websites but they say that USB devices could not autorun apps.
More info:
http://www.paperinik.com/cgi-bin/eng/YaBB.pl?board=CDF;action=display;nu...
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There are only 10 types of people in the world: Those who understand binary, and those who don't. - Anonymous
Autorun of USB devices is WinXP SP2 only... and it may require a setting, unfortunately. You can add it to the right-click menu on the drive, though. Check out an example here:
http://johnhaller.com/jh/mozilla/portable_sunbird/autorun.inf
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
PStart is exactly what I was looking for. I have searched for hours and have not been able to find anything like it. Thanks a lot.
What do you mean add it to the right click menu of the drive? I tried creating an autorun.inf and got the same result as the person above. I can right click and Autorun is on the menu, but it doesn't do anything. I would like Pstart to run as soon as the drive is detected without installing software on the client computer. Is there any way to configure the removable drive to act as a non-removable drive, such as a cd-rom?
And run Portable Sunbird. Not the autorun option.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
If you add the following to the autorun.inf, you'll get a nice icon and the drive will change its name:
[autorun]
icon = someicon.ico,0
label = SomeNameHere
open = SomeApplicationHere.exe