If you’re like me, you may have a bunch of useless USB drives lying around in your house. USB drives will still come in handy from time to time, but I rely more and more on the cloud. However, there are times when you are unable to connect to the cloud and the USB stick is your only choice.
When I travel, I carry a USB drive with me that has a variety of applications and files that I can use to search for wireless networks, create disk partitions, burn CDs and DVDs, edit photos, and more.
In this article, I’m going to write about 12 useful tools that you can carry around on a USB drive to accomplish useful tasks in your daily life. Feel free to leave comments and let us know which apps you have on your USB stick.
NirLauncher
NirLauncher
NirLauncher is a collection of over 150 free utilities created by NirSoft. Nirsoft, if you didn’t know, builds all sorts of amazingly useful applications for Windows that can do just about anything you can think of.
They have programs for recovering passwords, browsing wireless networks, viewing browsing history, viewing open TCP / IP ports, testing Internet download speeds, tracking folder changes, and more. All utilities can be run from a USB stick without having to install anything on the host machine.
Microsoft Security Scanner
Microsoft Safety Scanner
It’s always important to have a portable antivirus program with you, especially if you need to copy files from someone else’s computer to a USB drive.
Better to scan all of these files first and make sure they are virus-free. Microsoft Safety Scanner is a free utility that can be downloaded to a USB stick and contains all the latest virus definitions.
Another good portable antivirus program is Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool, which is also free. Another good one is ClamWin Portable And if you like, you can put some antivirus tools on your USB stick, just like that.
Infra-recorder
Infra Recorder
Infra Recorder is a great portable application for burning CDs and DVDs on the go. You can also create disc images and even use the program to copy an existing CD or DVD to another disc or image. It is a very easy to use program that also supports CD and DVD rewritable.
Explorer ++ Portable
Explorer ++ Portable
Explorer ++ is a great little explorer replacement utility with many features. It includes tabbed browsing to view multiple folders. It also has a window that will show previews of the files as they are selected.
You can also use it for more complex tasks like splitting and merging files, changing file dates, keeping directory listing, etc.
Portable VLC Media Player
VLC Media Player Portable
It’s always a good idea to have a good media player on a USB drive in case you want to play a file on someone else’s computer and they don’t have a media player or the correct codecs are installed.
The portable version supports a wide variety of video and audio formats, including MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, XviD, WMV, MP3, etc.
Portable GIMP
GIMP Portable
GIMP is a popular free photo editing program. I’ve used GIMP from a USB stick quite a few times, so I recommend it. Often times, I have a friend or family member who wants to email some photos, but they are huge.
I just fire up GIMP, resize the photos for them, and they’re ready to go! It also supports layers and other advanced photo editing features.
KeePass Password Safe
KeePass Password Safe
KeePass is one of my favorite programs because it is absolutely essential if you are really serious about protecting your passwords.
Also, I use different passwords on almost every site, so they are all difficult to remember. KeePass is encrypted, very secure, and is a great way to keep track of all your passwords on the go.
Recuva
Recuva
Recuva is a great program that you can use to recover deleted files or photos. It works with hard drives and external media such as flash drives and SD cards.
It will provide you with a list of files that can be recovered as well as their recovery potential, as well as a file preview. The program has been around for a long time and works very well.
SoftPerfect Network Scanner
SoftPerfect Network Scanner
A network scanner is very handy if you need to quickly scan all the devices on the network and get information such as their IP address, MAC address, hostname, and more. The program can also find shared folders, listen on open TCP ports, shutdown machines remotely, and more.
TreeSize
TreeSize
TreeSize is a program that quickly scans hard drives or network locations and tells you exactly how all your disk space is being used. You can quickly identify which folders are the largest, down to the file level.
I have used it many times when I go home to my parents and they cannot understand why there is no more space left on their hard drives! Another good option is SpaceSniffer
Firefox Portable
Firefox Portable
Obviously, if you need to browse on someone else’s computer, it’s always a good idea to use a portable web browser. Thus, the history of your visits will not be saved on their computer. This is a great way to keep traces clean and not worry about someone digging into your belongings later on.
If you’ve forgotten to sign out of your email program, or they have an add-on that saves any login information you enter in your browser, you can let someone else access your account. Using a portable web browser prevents this from happening.
Portable Pidgin
Pidgin Portable
The last program I use is Pidgin, so I can log into my Google Talk account and talk to my friends. It works with many services like Bonjour, ICQ, AIM, IRC, Sametime, and more. Very useful when you need to chat on a different computer and don’t want to enter your credentials.
So, these are 12 portable free programs that you can use on your USB drive for work! Feel free to leave comments and let us know what you find helpful. Enjoy!
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