gHacks technology news » usb flash drive http://www.ghacks.net A technology blog covering software, mobile phones, gadgets, security, the Internet and other relevant areas. Tue, 24 Nov 2009 23:31:44 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 Use USB Flash Drives To Lock Windows http://www.ghacks.net/2009/08/29/use-usb-flash-drives-to-lock-windows/ http://www.ghacks.net/2009/08/29/use-usb-flash-drives-to-lock-windows/#comments Sat, 29 Aug 2009 13:55:24 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=15815 microsoft windowsA running Windows section can either be locked manually by the user or automatically. Either way the user needs to enter a password before work can continue. Predator offers another option to Windows users. The program can prepare an USB flash drive so that it is being used to lock and unlock Windows sessions.

A Windows session would be locked by simply removing the connected USB drive from the computer system. Connecting the USB flash drive again would unlock the system. This without having to enter a password to do so.

Predator needs to prepare an USB flash drive before it can be used for that purpose. This process writes a keyfile on the USB device that is read by the software program whenever a computer needs to be unlocked.

lock windows sessions

The user needs to specify a backup password as well. This backup password can be used to unlock a session if the USB flash drive is damaged or not available at all.

Predator will not harm any files that reside on the USB flash drive during the process. It offers several additional options that are used to configure the process in more detail. This includes enabling support for multiple monitors, setting the screen darkness, hiding all desktop items or minimizing all windows.

The screen will go black whenever the user removes the USB drive from the computer system.

Predator will write events to a log file that can be used to analyze attempts to access the computer system. The software will also change the keys on the USB drives frequently to prevent that a copied keyfile can be used to access the system.

Predator can also be configured to sound an alarm whenever someone tries to access the PC. The software is a viable alternative for users who (have to) lock their Windows sessions frequently.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2009/08/29/use-usb-flash-drives-to-lock-windows/feed/ 13 Spotlight-V100 and Trashes Folders On USB Flash Drives http://www.ghacks.net/2009/08/19/spotlight-v100-and-trashes-folders-on-usb-flash-drives/ http://www.ghacks.net/2009/08/19/spotlight-v100-and-trashes-folders-on-usb-flash-drives/#comments Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:34:47 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=15535 A friend of mine contacted me recently with a problem that he could not figure out on his own. He discovered that two hidden folders had been created on his USB flash drive. One folder was named .spotlight-V100 while the other was named .trashes. This puzzled him as he was certain that they were not created by him or any program that he used to work with. A quick research on the Internet solved the problem.

The .spotlight-v100 and .trashes folders were created automatically by an Apple Macintosh computer system that the USB flash drive was plugged in before. These two folders are automatically created whenever a USB flash drive is connected to a computer system running an Apple Mac operating system. Spotlight is a indexing process on the Mac that will save the information that are gathered in the .spotlight-v100 directory.

The .trashes folder on the other hand is simply a trash folder for the specific drive which is also created by Apple Macintosh computer systems. Windows users can simply delete both hidden directories to free up disk space.

There is however no need to worry that these two folders have been created by malicious software.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2009/08/19/spotlight-v100-and-trashes-folders-on-usb-flash-drives/feed/ 3 USB Flash Drives Cleaner http://www.ghacks.net/2009/08/19/usb-flash-drives-cleaner/ http://www.ghacks.net/2009/08/19/usb-flash-drives-cleaner/#comments Wed, 19 Aug 2009 12:53:35 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=15531 USB Driver Fresher has been designed to clean USB flash drives automatically when they are plugged into the computer system the software program is running on. The program uses rules to automatically scan and clean files and folders on USB flash drives. There are several situations where this might come in handy. Some operating systems do automatically create files and folders, for example a thumbs.db file, .Spotlight-V100, .ds_store or .trashes folders. While it has been designed to clean these files and folders it can be used for other purposes as well as the rules are flexible enough to cleanup all files and folders that might be stored on the USB flash drive.

usb flash drives cleaner

Existing rules can be modified or removed and new rules added. Supported are file and folders names plus the wildcard. It is theoretically possible to clean all files that are stored on USB flash drives by adding a *.* rule. This could be interesting for users who have to clean a lot of USB flash drives or want to work with empty drives on a specific computer system.

The software program will run hidden and cleanup connected USB flash drives automatically. These settings can be changed in the options of the program so that a confirmation is required before the data is deleted on connected USB flash drives.

USB Drive Fresher is a free software program for the Windows operating system. It is available for download at the developer’s website. Supported operating systems are Windows XP, Windows Vista and several other Microsoft operating system. It is likely that the program will also run under Windows 7.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2009/08/19/usb-flash-drives-cleaner/feed/ 1 USB Flash Drives: USB Vaccine http://www.ghacks.net/2009/03/06/usb-flash-drives-usb-vaccine/ http://www.ghacks.net/2009/03/06/usb-flash-drives-usb-vaccine/#comments Fri, 06 Mar 2009 17:17:01 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=10971 Panda Security has released a new security software program that increases the security of usb flash drives. The portable software program called USB Vaccine provides the means to vaccinate both the computer system and usb flash drives.

Computer vaccination referring to disabling autorun completely from removable media like usb flash drives or optical drives like CDs or DVD drives. To enable the protection of the computer system from programs that are auto-executed if usb flash drives or CDs or DVDs are inserted into the computer drives.

A click on vaccinate computer will immediately disable autorun on the computer system. The USB drive vaccination option on the other hand will disable autorun from selected usb flash drives. The drives have to be connected to the computer system before the computer can be protected. Every connected usb flash drive will be listed in a pulldown menu. A click on vaccinate usb will prevent autorun from being executed from that usb flash drive.

It should be noted that it is not possible to undo the autorun protection of a selected usb flash drive in the computer system using the security software. Another limitation is that it will only work on usb flash drives that have been formatted with the FAT or FAT32 file system.

usb flash drives

Panda Research USB Vaccine increases the security of a computer system in regards to usb flash drives and other media with autorun capabilities. The security software has been tested under Windows Vista, Windows XP and even Windows 2000. It will work on all

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