I have read a few posts about securing portable Apps stored on USB drives, like these links:
Cryptable Apps TrueCrypt/PortableApps Solution adds Encryption and AutoRun to PortableApps https://portableapps.com/node/7358
Automatically start Portable Apps on a TrueCrypt drive https://portableapps.com/node/10300
Pretty inspiring.
I wrote a blog a few months ago about secured portable PIM at http://webandlife.blogspot.com/2007/11/build-secured-and-portable-pim.html
The article gives step-by-step instructions on building something similar to what U3 can offer.
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Truecrypt requires admin rights, leading to no access at all on public computers. I can hardly wait for the ultimate solution to come!
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If you want something similar to what U3 can offer, there's not yet ultimate solution. U3 do need admin rights as well, and is less flexible than Truecrypt. Within current infrastructure of Windows, to run program from a secured storage like what U3 and truecrypt offer, a drive need to be mounted, there is NO WAY around.
Actually U3 and Microsoft are working together to improve the OS in order to providing secured portable solutions that can even be used in public computers without admin rights.
I believe this is something to do with introducing new low level APIs. As usual, MS may introduce these APIs in Vista and upper versions only, as part of the campaigns of promoting these new OS products.
Andy Wong
The USB drives with hardware encryption are able to use the normal USB storage drivers, I think (the encryption is done in firmware, nothing unusual in the drivers, so the same thing works in Linux or Windows or Mac). Even Truecrypt can be used by non-Admins, once the driver has been installed (with some minor restrictions).
It wouldn't take much for Microsoft to add a driver as a standard feature, though it might take a couple of years before a large enough number of existing computers bother to update their system to include it that you can have half a chance of finding a public computer with the driver pre-installed.
That's going to be the issue; the Admin privilege is mostly a one-time thing until the drivers are installed. If it comes with the system (or gets installed via Windows Update) that hurdle will fade away.
Wouldn't it be great if Microsoft included TrueCrypt drivers in Windows Update starting tomorrow?
Of course there are still issues with locked-down computers. It doesn't help you mount your Truecrypt volume if the USB drive is blocked from mounting, or the computer is restricted to a limited number of specific executables, none of which are on your USB drive.
MC