While not exactly a life-or-death piece of gear, a portable USB drive/thumb drive can be massively useful for people who work/live/play on computers. Aside from carrying files around, there are a host of useful portable apps that come in handy in a variety of situations. These apps are free and require minimal storage space on your drive, so there's little reason not to have them loaded up and ready to go.If you use public computers frequently or want to leave a light footprint on your work computer, a USB drive like this is a must-have. They're also quite handy for troubleshooting tech problems for friends/family.
Here are a few suggestions for outfitting up your USB drive:
Security
- TrueCrypt for keeping sensitive files secure and encrypted
- The TorBrowser bundle for more secure web browsing
- Encrypted IM via Pidgin
- Secure data removal/deletion tool like Eraser Portable
- History removal with something like BleachBit
General Utility
- A portable copy of the Linux OS; helpful for getting to your files if there's an issue with Windows. See Pendrivelinux.com
- Portable Firefox or Chrome, with your needed bookmarks ready to go
- Antivirus program like ClamWin
- Spy/Adware remover like SUPERAntispyware
- Other portable utilities that you may use--I use NotePad++ for basic coding and GIMP Portable for basic image editing
- I've also found it handy, on occasion, to have digital backups of important documents on my drive. Make sure they're well protected, hidden and encrypted!
