Automatically Backup Your Flash Drives Using Portable USBFlashCopy

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If you are looking for a software that will backup your flash drive automatically when you are inserting it, but you never found a good useful one, then check USBFlashCopy which makes the process really simple and painless for you. It comes with automatic backups feature that is profile based for individual flash drives, if you have many.

Every time you plug a new USB flash drive into your computer, USBFlashCopy identifies it and asks you if you want to make a new profile, use the default profile, or never backup the contents of the flash drive. If you choose “new profile” USBFlashCopy then offers you an array of options like where you want to store the backup to, name the backup, select copy speed, and filter out file types that you don’t want to back up. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Software Review, Utilities, Windows

Portable Linux Apps: Find All Your Favorite Linux Applications In One Place

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My regular readers knows how much I am fond of portable applications. After all why I will not? See, there are many advantages of portable apps. You can easily carry them around in your USB flash drive or portable hard drive and use them even if the computer does not have them installed. Till now, I have mostly talked about Windows compatible portable apps.

Thankfully, I have found a website known as “Portable Linux Apps” or PortableLinuxApps.org for satisfying my thirst for Linux platform compatible portable apps. Portable Linux Apps is a free web service that hosts a collection of many useful Linux applications.

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Filed Under: Linux, Tips and Tricks

CodySafe Sigma: Feature Rich Portable Apps Launcher [Software Review]

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I like portable applications very much, after all, why I will not? See, You can easily carry them with you in a USB flash device or a portable HDD, they don’t bother you much with settings since, if you configure it once and take it to whichever machine you use, the settings remains persistent. But, there is one disadvantage about using these portable apps. You have to search for the executable which you want to run, which is sometimes time-consuming, and, if you carry hundreds of portables apps with you, like I do, you can easily understand this.

For eliminating this disadvantage, many developers came up with portable application launchers that works and looks like Windows Start Menu. CodySafe Sigma is one such application launcher menu for the portable apps installed on your USB flash drive. It offers many features normally not found in any other portable apps launchers. The icing on the cake? The developer has generously offered a discount coupon code to My Technology Guide readers as well as 15 free licenses for CodySafe Sigma, you can find the details about this giveaway at the end of this article.

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Filed Under: Contests, Giveaway, Software Review, Utilities, Windows

Universal USB Installer: Make Linux Live USB Flash Drives with Persistent Storage

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I triple boot my system with Windows XP, Windows 7 and Ubuntu but I also like to test other Linux distributions. Most of the time, to test the other operating system and distributions, I use VirtualBox or VMware Player to virtualize them. But for those Linux distributions that offers Live CD/DVD option, I use my USB flash drive to test them live.

This saves me time as I don’t have to first configure the virtual machine and install the Linux distros to test it. In my previous articles, I covered two softwares, UNetbootin and Multiboot USB Menu that helps me to make the distros ready to be booted directly off my USB flash device.

Another, very good utility that helps me create persistent storage on my flash drive is Pendrive Linux’s Universal USB Installer. What I meant when I said “persistent storage”? It means that you’ll actually have some permanent storage space in your flash drive to save things like your files and preferences, instead of having a clone of your disc image in your flash drive. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Linux, Tips and Tricks, Utilities, Windows

SE-TrayMenu – Free tray launcher and hotkey manager for Windows

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SE-TrayMenu is a very simple, easy to use, light weight (portable application size is only 114 KB and the standalone installer is 404KB) and free portable application launcher for Windows. SE-TrayMenu is the best alternative to the Windows Quick Launch feature. It resides in the system tray and gives access to a customizable pop-up menu (on mouse over) through which you can select an application to run. You can easily add any programs, documents, folders, Internet links, etc. shortcut to the pop-up menu by simply dragging and dropping. You can also easily add shortcut keys to any of the shortcuts for quick access. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Software Review, Utilities, Vista, Windows, Windows 7

How To Create a Linux Live Bootable USB Stick using UNetbootin

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Have you ever wanted to have a portable operating system, that can live inside a small USB flash drive and you can carry it around with you? Although, this is possible and have been around for some time. It was possible for a geek to run a Linux distribution from a USB stick just like you would have run it from a Compact Disc, but this task was quite hard to do. Why? Because the process was very geeky! You had to type a lot of geeky commands in a terminal and if, somehow, you forgot one or typed something wrong, the process had to be started all over again. Well, the process is now not at all geeky with so many simple applications available that makes it possible for anyone to create a bootable USB flash drive with any of his favourite Linux Distro in it. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Linux, Tips and Tricks, Windows

How To Boot Multiple ISO from USB using Multiboot USB Menu

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Multiboot USB menu developed by PendriveLinux.com helps a user to easily boot into multiple ISO files from a USB flash drive. Multiboot USB is a very easy to use application that helps you format and prepare your USB drive to boot into multiple supported ISO disk images.

At present Multiboot USB supports a number of Linux distributions like Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, DSL, etc. and other ISO that helps in carrying out administrative and system tasks like Memtest86+, Parted Magic, Ultimate Boot CD, etc. The complete list updated by the developers is available at this page. The page also provides direct download links to the ISO it supports. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Linux, Tips and Tricks, Windows

How To Setup a USB Flash Drive to Install Windows 7

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If you have a netbook and would like to upgrade it to Windows 7, you may be wondering how to do it without a clunky external DVD Drive. Previously, we showed you how to install Windows 7 from a USB flash drive. But the process was very geeky and involved some risks. We also talked about a nice little utility that does the job easily but we didn’t show you how to use the program. Today, we will show you how to setup a USB Flash Drive to install Windows 7.

The process of installing Windows 7 from a flash drive is essentially the same as installing it from Windows 7 DVD media. When using a flash drive, the main work involves setting it up so that it becomes a bootable device with the OS on it.

Note: You’ll need a minimum of a 4GB USB flash drive for the Windows 7 installation files. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Tips and Tricks, Windows, Windows 7