Ceedo & PA Observations

OK, I'm a newbie at this PA stuff, so please forgive me if I belabor the obvious.

My interests in programs on a stick is primarily for computer service. Instead of installing Powerdesktop, Aida32, an AV, etc etc, I want to run it from the stick. My secondary purpose is to have some photos and mpgs on the stick for sharing purposes ("Hey, I just happen to have movies of the grandkids in my pocket!")

I stumbled on U3 and was all excited until I discovered the premium in flash drive cost and alleged performance issues.

About simultaneously, I discovered this website and Ceedo. My "flash drive" of the moment is a 512mb CF card in an USB adapter. I've ordered a 2gig real one. My OS is 2K with SP4. I have downloaded Ceedo, some of the apps, and PA apps and Pstart. My observations:

1. The complaint that none of these projects won't work in Windows 98 has to do with the limited ability of 98 to see "Mass Storage Devices" natively. That's why I had to install drivers for so many of my external drives (cameras, portable CD, etc.) when I was on 98. If your stick has 98 drivers, it should work fine after installation of same. If 98 function is important, buy a stick with drivers for same and put them on a floppy or mini-CD.

2. It appears only U3 has a logon option. Am I correct? I'm not a paranoid type of guy, but the thought of losing my stick with all my personal stuff accessible is not comfortable.

3. Ceedo is pretty darned slick with very appealing graphics. Some on this forum have complained of cost; well, it's a proprietary product and they are entitled to a profit for their work. As to if it is worth $40, only you can decide. If it helps me in my service work, it sure is.

4. Sometimes Ceedo won't autorun when I plug it in, but that's my computer's issue. Once plugged in, I can use Powerdesk and click on autorun in the root folder and away it goes just fine.

5. Pstart lives just fine with Ceedo, put a Pstart link in the Ceedo start folder and it starts concurrently.

6. Any of the standalone exe's work just fine.

7. The Ceedo Spybot for some reason doesn't kick in Zone Alarm asking for permission to access the update server. After I exited ZA, it went right to it.

8. Drive letter assignment: As you probably know, in NT/2K/XP when a drive is first used, it gets a DL assignment that is permanent without actively changing it via Administration Tools or whatever that is. Since my drive might be used on any conceivable combination of drives, I changed it to "P." Why P? My initial and unlikely to ever have a conflict. Of course, on a 98 machine it will go to whatever OS assigns it. Sigh.

10. When I had Skype installed, it took over everything and would not allow a graceful exit (i.e., unplugging.) I had to leave the drive plugged in, attempt to shut down two or three times, and then just shut the puppy off. On reboot I was able to go into the P drive and just delete the Skype folders. I had the exact same experience trying to install Skype on my desktop, although I had no problems on my laptop. Skype forums have a lot of entries on this and similar issues.

11. After I got rid of Skype, and I used the standard Ceedo exit, it would reboot into Ceedo in about two seconds after closing. I have to watch the monitor for "It's safe to Unplug" or whatever, and immediately do so.

12. Ceedo installs naprun.exe into Documents & Settings as a startup item. I'm not happy with this. My customers or that cybercafe computer certainly don't need it. Why? And I think I recall that it puts an icon on the desktop by default, although this can be turned off.

13. OK, this is the biggie. I use Opera and Thunderbird for my desktop internet programs. It appears that these programs, and there are probably others, do NOT operate independently from the flash drive if the same program is installed on the local drive. Oh yes, Powerdesk, too. I even went into the Opera ini file and changed all drive letter references to P from C and it still went to my last local drive use. Does anyone know if U3 apps do this? I will have to find a computer without these on the local drive for testing, I guess. This situation seems inherent in the architecture of Windows and not the fault of any PA product. But how to get around this?

paradoxical