11/16/07 This is Part 3 in our mini-series of travel related Tech Tips. Since most of us enjoy keeping up with our email and Internet access when away from home, we hope these Tech Tips will help make your holiday journeys even more enjoyable. Taking your computing wherever you go usually means carrying a notebook computer, a PDA, or a smart phone. But you really don’t need anything that big to compute on the go. All you need is a USB flash drive (also called a USB key or a USB thumb drive) and a free set of programs called PortableApps. With only a single USB flash drive you can do your work, communicate with friends and family, and more, simply by plugging the drive into a computer running Windows. PortableApps is a suite of Open Source software that has been specially written to run quickly and smoothly on a USB flash drive. You download one of the three PortableApps packages, which have download sizes (1MB/Base Edition, 30MB/Lite Edition, and 90MB/Standard Edition), along with whatever additional software that you want. All you need to do to use PortableApps is plug your USB flash drive into a PC running Windows. From there, it will start up automatically. If it doesn't auto-launch, just run the program StartPortableApps.exe on the USB drive and a menu will appear on the Windows system tray. Then click the application that you want to run, and you’re in business! The applications run right off of the USB flash drive and don't touch the hard drive of the computer that you’re plugged into. Because it only uses a USB port, some memory, and the computer’s Internet connection, it is completely safe to the computer you are plugging in to and you don't have to worry about leaving any files on the host computer when you walk away. So what are the applications that come with PortableApps? Many popular programs are built in, including OpenOffice (a free alternative to Microsoft Office), the Firefox Web browser, the Thunderbird email client, a number of graphics and Web tools, VLC (a player for audio and video files), and an antivirus tool. You can even get Sudoku! A full list of the available applications can be found at the PortableApps website. You can install the applications you want by downloading and running a simple installer. To remove an application just delete the application’s folder from your USB drive. Once installed, the applications that make up the suite run quite quickly and smoothly. Depending on the speed of the computer that you’re plugged into and how much memory it has, you may notice very little difference between the performance of PortableApps and software installed on a hard drive. PortableApps is currently only available for Windows users, sorry Mac and Linux. Choosing the Right USB flash drive Buy the best USB flash drive that you can afford. USB flash drives are fairly inexpensive. You can get a good 1 or 2 Gigabyte USB flash drive for under $25. As for how big the flash drive should be, that will depend on which PortableApps package you’re using. If you’re using the smaller package then a 256MB USB drive will be fine. If you’re using the large packages, we suggest getting a 512MB or 1GB drive. Remember that you’ll need space not only for your applications, but for your documents as well. PortableApps enables you to compute on the go in a package that literally fits in your pocket. While PortableApps won’t replace your desktop or notebook computer, it’s a quick, easy to use, and convenient way to get work done or stay in touch while you’re away from home. So if you don’t want to lug your laptop off on vacation with you, drop a tiny USB flash drive into your pocket and take your files and email with you. As always we thank you for choosing Brainstorm Internet! We appreciate you as our customer and invite you to stop by our offices anytime if you have a question or a problem, or if you just want to say hi to our friendly staff. Your Brainstorm Internet Team

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