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U3+Portable Apps

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mjheagle8
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U3+Portable Apps

Can I run U3 and portable apps OS simultaneously or will they interfere with each other? Thank you!

Tim Clark
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Work fine together

They work perfectly fine together.

I use U3, PortableApps, and PStart all on the same drive and have had no problems. It's the best of all possible worlds, until one world it perfect.

Tim

Things have got to get better, they can't get worse, or can they?

crontheroad
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did you install the PortableApps Suite?

and will the suite install itself to a U3 drive properly on its own? I just bought a SanDisk Cruzer 2G and then started reading these forums. So I'm new to U3 and PortableApps. How do the two antivirus programs get along? Thanks for any & all input.

rjreid
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I suggest a little searching

I suggest a little searching would be prudent on your part. I’ve installed many PortableApps apps on my U3 drives without problems.

Look here:
https://portableapps.com/node/2054

and then use SmithTech’s Shortcut Creator 4U3
http://usb.smithtech.us/projects/shortcut_creator.php

to add a shortcut to the U3 launch pad menu. All these tips can be found with a little searching.

As far as anti-virus programs; you probably wouldn’t want two anti-virus programs on the same USB device, if even one. If you have an anti-virus on the host computer you probably don’t need one on the USB device. If you feel comfortable with one, fine. There are multiple threads on this topic as well.
https://portableapps.com/node/702

Regards,

David Dixon II
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I Removed My U3

I Removed My U3 Support
Wouldnt Allow Me To Plug In Any More Removable Drives
=====================================
- U3 1GB Flash Drive (U3 Removed :P)
- 512 MB Lexar Jump Drive

Na na na, come on!

rjreid
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I'm thinking you meant your

I'm thinking you meant your system would not assign any more drive letters since U3 requires two drive letters due to it's autorun method. I'm sure there were other solutions to your issue, but if you wanted to remove U3 from your device that's your call.

Here's one thread for example:
https://portableapps.com/node/5329

Regards,

Technilube
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Getting both to run together

I'm looking into getting both U3 and PAM to work together better again and this topic is close. I few months ago I was in Europe and tried to use my U3 drive in a few Internet Cafes but because it was U3 it was blocked. Seems these computers wouldn't allow a CD to show up and run, which U3 pretends to be. Since I couldn't enter my password, I couldn't get the USB portion open with all my data/software and was dead in the water. I like some of the features of U3, although I will say I have had issues with it when shutting down. I shut down all software running (PAM, Avast U3, PStart, etc) but it often will tell me that something is still running. Finally I just pull the stick out and when I reboot my machine here at home I can go into the U3 temp directory and delete anything leftover and it will run properly again when inserted. Not practical in the real world though.

Since discovering PAM and the other Portable Apps, I've been installing them on the USB partition and I use them the most, only a few apps kick off of that are U3, mainly Pstart and Avast (have had no probs with Avast and Firefox). Since Avast won't come out with a Portable version and I like it since it is always on rather than manually needing to run an antivirus scan like ClamWin, I'd like to keep this and any other U3 programs that might not be "Portable." But these programs are more for convenience. I was hoping that there was some sort of emulator out there that my SanDisk could be deleted of U3 and can run that for what few U3 programs I might still want active. This would get rid of the blocked CD ROM issue I had in Europe since standard USB sticks worked (or so I was told).

Today another thought came to mind, and maybe someone has tried this. I disabled the security feature of U3 so it loads automatically. Plugging it into my system here it loaded both the U3 CD and USB portion at the same time. Does anyone know if this will run on the blocked machines like at the Cafes? If it won't run the U3 CD part, that's no big deal, as long as the USB partition is open. Or does everything still run through the U3 part first? And if it is working like two setups, then I'm assuming I can modify the U3 autorun file to not run when inserted and can create some sort of short cut that can maybe integrate with PAM or PStart to kick of the U3 Launchpad from there. My friends have gotten annoyed when I hand them my stick to get data from them and it runs through all the U3 actions, including putting that one program on their computer that allows U3 to run at all. It would now work like a regular USB with U3 an option if I choose, correct? It seems to simple of a solution, so I wondered if anyone else has tried this. After reading U3 security isn't real anyway, why should I even go through that step, which blocked me from using my stick completely when I was away from home?

Thanks to everyone here and all the portable gurus, I love everyone's work at this, especially John's.

Mike

Aciago
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I think

that 1) you should check SmithTech's web here... http://usb.smithtech.us/projects/index.php

and 2) you should ask SanDisk about more detailed U3 info... I have a PDrive with PApps.com and another one with U3, but your questions are quite deep into U3 world... lol

If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port,
and the bus is interrupted as a very last resort,
and the address of the memory makes your floppy disk abort,
then the socket packet pocket has an error to report Biggrin

rab040ma
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U3 autorun

I think I heard somewhere that the only reason for having a pretend CD image on U3 was that it was possible to get a CD to autorun something, and almost impossible to get a regular USB to do it.

So my question is: did those Internet Cafes block both the "CD" partition and the regular USB partition?

You can start the U3 launcher from the USB partition by clicking on the LaunchU3.exe program there ... Or is it the case that the USB partition is encrypted so you can't do that?

I guess I need to learn more about how the "U3 security works...

MC

Technilube
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Second part. Because I had

Second part. Because I had the drive password protected, it needed to go through the U3 portion password first. The cafes blocked this from running or seeing it, so there was no way I could enter a password or see the USB portion. I'm wondering now that I shut off the password feature and it automatically executes and opens the USB whether it would still be blocked.

Mike

Infiniti
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this i know for sure...

your USB portion will not work without entering your password, if you try to open it without it will say "Please insert disk" or something.
However, U3 flash drives will not work with some computers. For example, my U3 Sandisk Cruzer WILL not work with my cousin's computer. It won't even recognize it. This is why i hat U3 sometimes...

EDIT: could you even see your USB portion there?

sergentsiler
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...

you can see the usb right along side the u3 "cd" drive. and there is no way you can acsess it without the password, if you try, it will say "Please Insert Disk into Drive X"

and the reason that it usualy doesent work is becase your computer is either slower than windows vista ultimate on a 512Mb system, I.e. xp on a 128Mb, or you have autorun disabled. from what you say infinity, your cousin's comp is really slow.

Zoop

qwertymodo
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Ok, so the whole

Ok, so the whole CD-Thumbdrive thing works so that, if you have security turned off, the USB portion will load normally REGARDLESS of whether the CD partition loads. However, with security turned on, you cannot access the USB partition from a computer that blocks the CD drive, or ANY COMPUTER NOT RUNNING WINDOWS, since the U3 Launchpad is a Windows-only app. So if you plan to use it on a non-Windows comp, you'll have that problem of not loading the main partition, but if you disable it, it's just another flash drive, and PAM, PStart, etc will all run fine (as long as the comp doesn't specifically block those too :P)

Quamquam omniam nescio, nec nihil scio.

Bruce Pascoe
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...

The really funny thing about U3 these days is that the fake CD partition has become superfluous. On Vista, even CDs with an autorun.inf bring up a prompt from AutoPlay if you want to run it or not. This means plugging in a U3 drive under Vista not only results in TWO autoplay windows (ARRGGHH!), but renders the CD partition useless for its intended purpose (to autorun the launchpad without a prompt).

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