Discussion on:

Five must-have apps for your USB stick

I currently have the these portable apps installed on my key: FirefoxPortable (it's amazing that this app can be updated like if it were installed on the PC), Notepad++Portable (my favorite text editor with multiple plugins and syntax highlight for almost every programming language), TeraCopy (for large file copy,move), Open Office (useful when I have to open a Word file in a computer that has not MS office at all) and PidginPortable (useful when need to chat in computers that are not mine XD).

1. Clean40 2. Defraggler 3. Malware Bytes 4. Open Office 5. IE 8

I have used both of these myriads of times. I'd never leave without them!

My favorite application for USB is YUMI, it is a tool to build multi-iso boot USB.

I have installed Hiren's boot CD, Knoppix and built 1G read/write storage area for Knoppix. on same USB

KEEPASS

All very interesting, I have a USB dongle to hand how do I get these "apps" onto it ?

Smitfraudfix is an amazing piece of kit, as with Avast! BartPE, Chrome portable + addons and the UBCD (Ultimate boot CD)

I have been using USB apps for years. Even back in the sandisk "U3" days. (small tear of loss when that went away)
PortableApps.com is my tool of choice and not just for recovery options another is pendriveapps.com While the majority of the apps I use are free there are a coupe that are not. Roboform, FlashFXP, Directory Opus, Tag & Rename, QuickPhrase are some of them.

What I would really like to see is a windows 7 based USB boot disk. (Barts is awesome but crashes on many windows7 based systems and especially netbooks and windows devices not designed with a cd-rom)

I have made up a USB drive using the Windows7-USB-DVD-tool. But it is far from an elegant solution.

If anyone has a better option please drop me a note.

Total Commander. Best file manager ever. It's a real Swiss knife.

Although not portable, essential tools to carry for copying to the ailing PC are: CCleaner, Malwarebytes, MS. Security Essentials, and TDSSKiller (Kaspersky).

Stick my flash drive in a virus/malware infected machine, I don't think so!

I have already found viruses that can turn of the write protection software on a flash drive. I don't see flash drives with the switch on the side any more. The best option for me would to use an external optical drive, if there is none installed, to copy whatever anti virus sofware to the machine. some sofware amy even run off a cd.

I always try to have a least 2 flash drives one for using on the client machine with the relevant apps (mostly portable / standalone apps) and the other for my personal use. this way I minimise the risk of infecting my own machine at work or home.

Of course I also use Linux to clean and reformat my stick after it has been in a questionable system. I carry several sticks with different setups and keep copies of each setup so they can be easily and quickly reconfigured. Using your thumbdrive is not a problem if you take proper precautions.

This could work if you have a linux box available which is no always possible. Then you need to be 100% sure that your drive is clean. I don't trust any anti virus that much.

I would boot linux on a live CD on a diskless system using a portable DVD drive if I need to clean a USB stick that I suspect might be infected with nasties.

Once it has been cleaned and reformatted, I can then plug the stick into a machine that contains all the images I use on various USB sticks. A couple of minutes to reload an image... off I go again.

If you have trouble trusting anti-virus, make sure that your image machine doesnt have network access.

I have a dedicated USB (small 2GB) that I use for dealing with infected PCs. In essence it's "disposable". If I need to completely wipe it and rebuild it there is no great loss there. I have another drive I use for my own utility tools that NEVER goes into an infected PC.

I used to be constantly wiping the USB drive I used in virus-infected machines. Until I discovered that Imation has a drive with the hardware write-protect switch:
http://www.amazon.com/Imation-Clip-Flash-Drive-66000105602/dp/B000OEV1O6

I have two of these that I have set up with tools for various situations, always making sure that it's properly switched to read-only before I use it in any machine (regardless if a virus is suspected up front or not).

I've always wondered why USB sticks didn't have mechanical write-protect switches.
It seems like a no-brainer to me.
You don't want your repair kit getting infected and spreading that infection around.

some brands at least

Kanguru also makes them with the hardware protect switch.

As stated above. I will look for this brand, although I think this will have to be ordered, since I haven't see this brand in South Africa

I remember the old flash drives would just stop working, not sure if this was due to the write protect swith or the drive itself.

I will look for Imation, although I think this will have to be ordered, since I have'nt see this brand in South Africa

years ago... dont know where it has gone to now and I suspect that it is too small to be utilised as a recovery tool these days.

... via a USB adapter. Easier to carry around than a portable CD player, and all SD cards still have the lock switch.

.... although I use dropbox for this, so that it's available via my phone and tablet as well. I also store the installation exe on dropbox, so I can get to the passwords from ANY windows machine where I can access the internet and install KeepPass Portable. I also have Revo Uinstaller Portable, Unlocker Portable and 7-zip portable.

Considering the state of some of the machines I've seen, if you have a big enough drive, you may also consider the SP updates for XP and Windows 7...

FWIW, I also have a copy of Putty Portable installed on my c:\ drive, as this version stores the session details in a disk file, making sharing them easier (Standard Putty stores these in the registry).

In addittion to combofix, firefox portable and explorer++, i like the following:


1. Super Antispyware tech edition. This is a portable app version of the anti-spyware tool.
http://www.superantispyware.com/portablescanner.html

2. HDD-scan. This is a portable tool that reads the S.M.A.R.T. data from hard drives.
http://hddscan.com

3. 7-Zip Portable ( for times I need to un rar a file on the fly).
http://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/7-zip_portable

4. OpenOffice portable. This is useful when I need to convert a document in the ODF format to a Word format.
http://portableapps.com/apps/office/openoffice_portable

5. Notepad++ Portable. This is great when I need a better text editor than notepad.
http;//portableapps.com/apps/development/notepadpp_portable


I also carry the installers for Malwarebytes and SpyBotSD. As for worring about putting my USB stick in an infected machine, I don't, because I have my stick backed up. It's only a 4GB stick, so after i am done cleaning a machine, I update all the apps and reformat the stick.

I carry these around along with some of the others already mentioned:
DirLot - utility that shows bar graph graphical representation of drive usage as a percentage. Extremely helpful for locating space wasters. Free and no install required. It doesn't allow you to change anything, just shows the amounts.

Autoruns - also free and requires no install, but local Admin rights required. Identifies running processes loaded at startup. I usually run this before ccleaner.

For my toolkit to work on infected and broken machines, I use SARDU. It's a multi boot configuration tool to put multple tools, ISO's, and distributions onto one stick. It can configure multiple LIVE anti-virus scanners, diagnostics, drive copiers, Linux distros, Windows boot discs, Hiren's Boot CD, Ultimate Boot CD, password recovery tools, etc. I use a 16GB stick to hold all of the goodies, but I don't need anything else.

As for Portable Apps, I use them in various other sticks/drives. I have a USB terabyte hard drive the has portable music apps, so I can play my tunes on machines that don't have the right codecs for FLAC, OGG, Theora, etc. I have a portable drive for video, as well. And just in general, I use Portable apps on all my flash drives so I don't need to worry if this program is loaded or not. It's on the stick.

I just don't get it. When one of these articles comes out in Tech Republic I simple find the "Note:" and click on the link and read it in a blog. On the opening page there is this note:

Note: If you'd prefer to view this information as a blog post, check out this entry in our Five Apps blog.

I simply click on that and continue on. What's the issue, one extra click???

The portable version of Total Commander is a veritable swiss army knife of useful tools for navigating and transferring files. Check it out on: http://www.ghisler.com/
It couldbe used to replace explorer++ portable and filezilla

I don't really keep track of any one "must-have" app. The only must-have that I keep on my flash drives is LiberKey Ultimate, with over 200 portable apps, including most of the one's you mentioned.
I used to have Portable Apps installed on my flash drive, but found Liberkey was a lot more useful and better updated.

I carry a mini flash drive with medical information. It is labeled ICE but a Medical symbol would help. Doomsday Preppers might use the flash drives as miniature HD's.

They are still here, and big size too. Just search carefully.
Because first thing you should have is write protected stick. And only then put some tools to them.

i downloaded combofix.exe and mcafee detected a trojen and removed the file. that was a nasty way to get me a trojen.
i hope the author of this article has checked the site

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/combofix/

kannan

It's a false positive. The file ComboFix uses to determine whether something is a virus triggers McAfee's detection system because it also looks like a virus.

As an oversimplified example, let's say the real virus has the string "kannan rules!" in it. ComboFix has a list of virus signatures, and among them is "kannan rules!". Now McAfee comes along and says "ComboFix has the string 'kannan rules!' - it must be that virus."

How anyone can live without Everything Search [drive must be NTFS formatted] I don't know - remarkable program; CalendarScope is password protected personal calendar that works nicely; xyPlorer is just an excellent portable file manager (only Everything is free but the other two are well worth it..); MyInfo is excellent PIM (although non-portable askSam is my all-time favorite info organization app.. just say'in..).

ComboFix is usually a malware utility "of last resort", that shouldn't be used unless you're fully aware of what it does. Normally, we carry other malware utilities like MalwareBytes and TDSS (Root) Killer on our USB sticks carried for work (IT). On my personal USB drive, I have many of the PortableApps programs like LibreOffice, FireFox, Thunderbird, etc. For those who have any sensitive data on the drive, TrueCrypt is a must.

At the checkout counter (all over) get a box of ALTOIDS. After you finish freshening up, line the box with a thin, plastic-foam lining. You can fit 4 to 7 USB sticks in here! Label makers help you keep them straight. Use another box for AA & wafer batteries, also extra USB cords for connecting your cell & tablet; don't forget ear phones. Use label maker to label the boxes also - I use nearly 10 of them (maybe more.)

HFS (http://www.rejetto.com/hfs/) is a stand alone 'file server' that runs over HTTP. A great tool for setting up a quick file transfer to another box. Essentially it provides a web server interface to whatever files YOU choose to share. It has a 'virtual file system' where you can essentially link to files that you want to make available without having to copy them.

HFS is free, open source, and portable (runs directly from your USB stick without installing).

Downloaded the Cornice Portable application and when installing McAfee detected the Artimus! trojan. BE CAREFUL!!

the blue ray disc could be wiped out. but cd's , specially write only= are very useful in these scenarios. viruses cant over write , unlike usb, sd metal drives and etc.

daviddag is right. but if the thing you are fixing wont command a cd drive, yAs= you must have two usb's= usb1 and usb 2. use usb2 for your fixings. usb1 as back up only. after fixing=format usb2 and copy usb1 to usb2 . your pc was maybe infected also= so better have these files from usb1( you may secure first your pc using usb1(updated) before copying usb1 to usb2) .

world of mis trust.

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