I need a anti-virus software for my u3 usb flash disk.
My U3 disk is toshiba 2GB U3 USB, Avast, McAfee, or XOftspy portable?
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Avast is available at the U3 site.
U3AntiVirus [McAfee] comes preinstalled on some U3 drives,
it is not available for retail purchase.
AVUSB [McAfee] is in beta testing, it will be offered for sale.
Xoftspy is available at the U3 site.
It is AntiSpy/Adware, not AntiVirus.
Tim
Things have got to get better, they can't get worse, or can they?
I want them all for my non u3 stick.
None of them are free.
None of them are open source.
None of them have Non-U3 versions.
Tim
Geek w/o Portfolio
Things have got to get better, they can't get worse, or can they?
Commercial software follows users. Portable apps have 10x the downloads of u3 apps. So, there's money to be made. Where there's money to be made, companies follow.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Yes John I understand that.
But the items mentioned are or are trying to be "true" U3 programs.
].
What do I mean by that?
People in these groups talk about U3 as if they know what they are talking about. The "truth" is, before All else, U3 is a Marketing/Licensing Platform. It was created so software Vendors could license their products to a particular drive. The true heart of U3 is not the autorun feature (though it is for the end User) it is the hard coded unique identifiers of the drive and the ability of "U3 Aware" programs to write to special areas of the drive that we don't normally "see" [I'm probably not explaining this correctly but I'm typing fast so give me a break
Try this.
Install Xoftspy on your U3 drive. Wait for the trial to end.
Uninstall it, backup your drive, reformat the drive, put your stuff back, install a fresh copy of Xsoftspy. It STILL knows that you have used up your trial, how? When installed it wrote to the "secret" heart of U3 (the licensing part).
People pick on U3 for being closed source and proprietary and not having a lot of free stuff.
Guess what, It Is Closed Source, It Is Proprietary, and it is Intended to Make Money buy Selling you Stuff.
Once you can put apps on a old style flash drive the ability to force people to buy a license and stop free sharing [which we do here all the time] is lost.
And this does not make U3 evil. It makes it a business venture. This way they have created an environment where they can let Commercial Software vendors "sell" portable versions of programs and make money. More power to them. Some people would be willing to pay for "True" version of MSOFFICE on a stick [I wouldn't mind you] and that's OK.
The hard part about U3 is Not making a program that will run from the Launchpad, it is making a program that WILL NOT run WITHOUT the Launchpad.
U3 is not your friend any more than more than a car dealer.
U3 is not your enemy any more than Adobe [use our free stuff, buy our commercial stuff].
FWIW
Tim
Geek w/o portfolio
Things have got to get better, they can't get worse, or can they?
U3 does have a special area for cookies (that's what they're called), I think. But, there are huge technical issues with it. The size varies by drive. And once it's full, it won't work. So hardly ANY vendors are using it because they can't guarantee it will be there for them to utilize. Last I heard, I think it was like 4 apps total. You can investigate it yourself by hacking together some DAPI code.
And the unique identifier isn't new. A good chunk of flash drives have serial numbers. As do most portable hard drives. You can get them through a simple OS query.
U3 isn't made so software vendors can make money. They aren't. It's designed to sell drives. Period.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I still doubt we will be seeing any non-hacked versions of the software mentioned that run on plain flash drives anytime soon. And of course we would never post Hacked versions in this forum.
The special "cookies" are not the only licensing options available, especially with software that needs frequent updating like Malware checkers [of course that would be a vote in favor of allowing them to run from regular drives]
As far as:
"You can investigate it yourself by hacking together some DAPI code", I can't :(, that's where the Geek WITHOUT Portfolio comes into play :). I "tweak" much better than I "hack".
Tim
Geek w/o portfolio
Things have got to get better, they can't get worse, or can they?
Like I've mentioned here and there. Expect some surprises here at PortableApps.com. Some much-requested commercial software is coming to the PortableApps.com Platform. I'm in talks with several folks behind the scenes but can't discuss it due to NDAs.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
John,
I know what NDA means.
Shame on you, it sounds so..., so..., so Proprietary !!!
[and I love to be surprised]
Tim
Geek w/o portfolio
Things have got to get better, they can't get worse, or can they?
Tim Clark, nice and imformative opinion about u3. I agree but this thread wasn`t the right place to state it. But it on a page, a blog and link it in your signature "why you free software and not not proprietary u3".
Tbh I would never ever buy a u3 device or u3 software for the reason I can not run it without the device and without the launcher. That`s kinda . I don`t see much reasons not to use my portable software not on my regular desktop aswell too.