The Playful Seraph

By now you have a USB drive, and it’s encrypted, if not with the best system, then at least the best you can pull off on public terminals. Now you have to start thinking about what you want on your flash drive.

NOTE: This section deals with my own choices regarding programs, and it’s very unlikely that everything will be perfect for you. Check out sites like PortableApps.com and especially PortableFreeware.com for more programs.

The first thing you need, regardless of your situation, is a way to easily launch your programs. You need the portable equivalent of the Start menu, and you can find such a thing in PStart. Installation and setup should be self-explanatory.

I then put on a web browser — you can use Torpark; if you need the anonymity, but I’m sticking with Portable Firefox. It’s completely self-contained, and you can install all your favorite extensions like normal.

I use GMail, so I don’t need an email client, but there’s Portable Thunderbird for that. If you use it, I’d recommend you use the version with Enigmail and GPG — might as well be secure.

I also added an IM client. You can use Portable Miranda IM, but I didn’t like the interface, so I stuck with the program I use normally: Gaim.

Now here’s a large issue — a word processor. Unless you’re planning on using whatever MS Word you find (or don’t find, since it’s not default on Windows), which is not very secure, you should get an alternative. I originally had PortableOpenOffice, but I found it far too slow, and it took up too much space for me. I went to AbiWord, which isn’t as good at reading OpenDocument files, but it’s smaller. And while you’re browsing, grab a basic text editor like Notepad++ while you’re at it. Regular Windows Notepad just won’t cut it for advanced work.

If you’re like me (and you’re probably a bit similar if you’re reading this), you want to bring some music along with you. I personally took my favorites from the YTMND soundtracks and put them on my flash drive. But you’ll want something to play them with — not only do I not trust Windows Media Player to keep a secret, but what if you have some OGG files and WMP can’t play them? Get VLC — it may not be very pretty, but it seems to have every codec known to man.

Many times in the past, back when I was emailing files to myself to get things to and from school, I felt the pain of forgetting to send an important paper right when I needed it. If only there was a way to get someone on my home computer and send it to me! Oh, wait, there is — remote desktop. Using a program called VNC is great for connecting to and manipulating your computer from anywhere (make sure you keep the password secret, for obvious reasons!). Lifehacker has a very good tutorial on this here.

At this point, you have the basics, so it’s just a matter of adding whatever you think you’ll be using. I added a unit converter, Latin dictionary, a highly compact bitTorrent program, and a couple games: Freeciv and Vulture’s Eye.

At this point, there’s not too much you have to do to make a useful flash drive. My next post will discuss adding the small stuff. If you come up with a good program to put on your flash drive, go ahead and tell me about it!