9/28/2007 at 1:57 PDT
The more I think about portable applications, the more I like the idea. I'm not so thrilled about the portability aspect as the ease with one can backup and restore.
When I do think about portability, I think about security. I've used the U3 system (http://www.u3.com/) for about 6 months now and really do not see any difference between it and PortableApps other than security and hardware dependency. U3 has it and PortableApps does not seem to. With this in mind I did a quick search of this forum to see what was being said about U3 and to my surprise the search came up empty.
One person in a local store told me that U3 was dead and yet an Internet search told me that it had been picked up by Microsoft and they were keeping quiet about it for the time being. Who knows where they will take it or if they will attempt kill it? See: http://tinyurl.com/32r3s2 or http://tinyurl.com/37ttdg. For other references see: http://tinyurl.com/2qaetg
I'd be very interested to hear any informed responses to these issues.
The opinion of 10,000 men is of no value if none of them know anything about the subject. Marcus Aurelius
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Correct, the PortableApps.com Platform does not have any hardware dependency or built in security features.
As for U3, there are plenty of topics in these forums, I'm not sure how a search came up empty. U3 itself is being end-of-lifed, and a new, similar platform is being developed by Microsoft along with SanDisk. The new platform is supposed to be an improvement, but with the way Microsoft "improves" things, I know I plan to stay away from it and just purchase standard flash drives or portable hard drives without this technology on it.
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The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
I concur on your remarks re: Microsoft.
So all we have to do is work out some kind of security for PortableApps or are you aware of any. I have many clients using U3 who would not do so without security.
I again searched for "U3" and found none. This was obviously bogus due to it being mentioned in my own posting. I tried an advanced searched and discovered why (I think). The search requires a 3 character minimum string.
Dave Ussell
For those who like portable apps to "leave no trace" U3 leaves a U3 directory in the documents and settings user directories, I don't remember which one for sure but I always had to delete it if I wanted to leave no trace.
As for "Built in Security" - Shookmon wrote a very nice batch file and tutorial for using ClamWin Portable to scan memory, just like U3 does with it's scaled back to the point of uselessness trial antivirus that comes pre-installed.
Read it here:
https://portableapps.com/node/5449#comment-35151
And for password management Keepass does a fine job.
There have been some posts about needing a password to gain access to the USB, none of them look very promising to me but you may find some options for that in the forums if you're looking for that kind of function.
Joble
Have an Awesome Day!
A lot of "normal" flash-drives DO support password-protection and/or
"public/private" partitions via the controller .
check the manufacturers website for the needed software or try
"LockItEasy" from cososys, it's free but not open-source.
only "problem" is that it requires admin-rights..
on my U3 drive, since apparently I paid a "premium" for U3.
But Papps can have security, thats better than U3, its called TrueCrypt, only disadvantage is that TC needs admin privs.
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As all of ya should know Micro$oft is the Evil Empire, and Windows (a.k.a. Winblows or Windoze) is their greatest general, so please make a difference and install Linux or FreeBSD on yer Windows comp.
Not with TCExplorer!
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But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
Joshua 24:15
-Please search before posting
"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning." - Rick Cook
you would hafta copy ALL of the apps you need to the hard drive and copy ALL of the data folders back to the TC container.
--
As all of ya should know Micro$oft is the Evil Empire, and Windows (a.k.a. Winblows or Windoze) is their greatest general, so please make a difference and install Linux or FreeBSD on yer Windows comp.
You sure? I don't remember having to do that when I tried it.
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But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
Joshua 24:15
-Please search before posting
"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning." - Rick Cook
that you can use TCExplorer to execute the .exe s directly? lemme try.
From the SF page:
"Portable software to import, export, delete, and rename files in TrueCrypt containers"
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As all of ya should know Micro$oft is the Evil Empire, and Windows (a.k.a. Winblows or Windoze) is their greatest general, so please make a difference and install Linux or FreeBSD on yer Windows comp.
I'm not sure, but I can't test it. Dang library computers :wink:.
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But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
Joshua 24:15
-Please search before posting
"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning." - Rick Cook
I think they changed the admin password. Before they changed it, it was pretty insecure.
--
As all of ya should know Micro$oft is the Evil Empire, and Windows (a.k.a. Winblows or Windoze) is their greatest general, so please make a difference and install Linux or FreeBSD on yer Windows comp.
The security provided by U3 is not actually secure. It only provides "security by obscurity" (search for that and you might find a few posts). In other words, to the average user, it would be impossible, but to anyone who has any knowledge of computer security, it would be easy to break.
That said, John is currently working on some tools to provide security by obscurity for the PortableApps Platform.
U3 is officially being end of lifed at the end of 2008 and will be replaced by a Microsoft and Sandisk partnership. Wikipedia has some references to it, including U3-Info.com on the partnership and Information Week.
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Ryan McCue.
Blog.
So all that Airbus-delay trouble over here in Europe is because of YOU!
Simeon.
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
I'll scrub my U3 drive and sell it to someone who still sucks up to U3 (the current U3).
But yeah, John reformatted a "secured" U3 drive and used a file recovery tool and the files were recovered and unencrypted. So U3 security is just an oxymoron.
BTW is there any USB drive scrubbing software?
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As all of ya should know Micro$oft is the Evil Empire, and Windows (a.k.a. Winblows or Windoze) is their greatest general, so please make a difference and install Linux or FreeBSD on yer Windows comp.
You should also have found a number of references to TrueCrypt on these forums.
There are even two mods of the PAMenu program that can be found in the Beta area that integrate TrueCrypt into a portable environment. Like the others, I recommend avoiding the whole U3 world as a dead end.
The titanium U3-stick is a rather nice UFD if you ask me .
you could just remove the U3-crap (or replace it with something else).
There are some advantages to having that CD-ROM device.
you could place the truecrypt-program files on it or ....
and I bet that the price will drop very soon .
eventhough titanium looks nice, the gold looks nicer, it is made of 14K gold and has diamonds and the drive and cap are kept together via a golden chain (no more cap losing!)
But it has the U3 crap on it too.
--
As all of ya should know Micro$oft is the Evil Empire, and Windows (a.k.a. Winblows or Windoze) is their greatest general, so please make a difference and install Linux or FreeBSD on yer Windows comp.