How to use a USB flash drive: 10 unusual ways

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Save your favorite music, speed up the operating system, deal with viruses, protect passwords - all this can be done using a regular flash drive.

Today, old USB drives, supplanted by the ubiquity of high-speed Internet and cloud services, are no longer as popular as they used to be. Nevertheless, it is still too early to write them off for scrap. Here are 10 cases in which you will have to look in the bowels of your desk for your old USB flash drive.

1. Try Linux

Free operating systems based on Linux attract many, but not everyone is willing to spend time and effort on their full installation on the main computer. Having a USB stick of sufficient capacity completely solves this problem.

Any user, even with very weak computer knowledge, can download the distribution kit of interest to him and create a bootable USB flash drive based on it. After that, all that remains is to restart the computer and boot into the new system. If you like it, you might consider installing it as an operating system.

2. Use portable applications

If you travel often or have to use other people's computers, then you can write your favorite applications to removable media and run them right from there. There are special tools for this, the most famous of which is Portableapps.com.

The Portableapps.com platform provides convenient launch and organization of portable applications stored on a USB flash drive. You can connect your USB drive to almost any Windows computer and use all the programs and necessary files.

3. Record travel details

Yes, it is more convenient and safer to store a lot of data in the cloud, but not in all cases. For example, you go on vacation to a place where access to the network is expensive or simply not available. The same goes for planes, trains, buses and cars.

The right decision would be to prepare for the trip in advance: write a sufficient number of films, music, books and other necessary files to the USB flash drive, which will allow you to while away the time on the road and not depend on slow and expensive cellular communications.

4. Defeat viruses

If your computer has been infected with viruses, it will not be so easy to get rid of them. Modern viruses are able to disguise themselves and block anti-virus software in such a way that it is simply impossible to cope with them in an active state.

In this case, special recovery utilities will come to the rescue, such as Anvi Rescue Disk, ClamWin Portable, Avira PC Cleaner or Emsisoft Emergency Kit, which are written to a removable drive and can scan the system right from there. As a rule, they already contain the latest updates and are distributed completely free of charge.

5. Recover the system

Sometimes the computer just refuses to boot. Therefore, it is better to prepare a lifebuoy in advance for this unpleasant event.

There is a special utility for this in the Windows 10 operating system. You can find it in the main menu of the operating system under the name "Recovery Disk". You just need to plug in the USB stick, run the Rescue Disk Creation Tool, and then follow the instructions that appear on the screen.

6. Speed up Windows

Almost all new computers are equipped with enough RAM for comfortable work. However, older cars can become desperately slow due to lack of it.

Windows provides the ability to increase RAM using an external flash drive. Connect it to your computer and then click on its icon in File Explorer. Select Properties from the context menu, and then go to the Ready Boost tab. If the drive is suitable, here you can activate the Ready Boost feature to speed up Windows.

7. Secure passwords

Not all flash drives are suitable for this task, but only those that support FIDO U2F - a special technology of universal two-factor authentication. In this case, the drive acts as a USB token that stores keys and independently performs cryptographic operations.

After a simple setup process, you can use your USB drive to securely log into accounts including Google, Dropbox, Dashlane, LastPass. Today, many programs and online services support this type of authentication.

8. Showcase a portfolio

When applying for a job, they now not so much look at education and work experience as at real examples of completed projects. If your work is digital, then it is most convenient to record your portfolio on removable media before the interview to show it to a potential employer. It can include a resume, video, slideshow, presentation.

9. It's safe to surf

We are talking about installing on a removable media a special version of the browser based on TOR technology, which provides a completely private mode of browsing web pages. After the session ends and the flash drive is disconnected, no evidence remains on the user's computer by which it would be possible to trace the browsing history and downloaded data.

10. Record your favorite music

The era of tape cassettes, on which fans carefully stored the albums of their favorite bands, is irrevocably gone. However, today they may well be replaced by USB drives.

Write down selections of your favorite music so that it will always be with you. Your computer may burn out, your internet connection may crash, and your cloud music service may go bankrupt, but this will not affect your music player's track list in any way.