10 Creative and Practical Uses for Your USB Flash Drive

They are small, handy, and just the thing you need to carry your digital information around. But that's not all, not by a long shot. We present you 10 of the glorious possibilities USB flash drives have to offer. Believe me, they are quite neat.

Run portable apps
No more hassling with to install numerous programs each time you have to get some work done or pass some boring hours on a different PC. A lot of useful software such as OpenOffice and Mozilla Firefox have portable versions that you can run instantly from your USB drive. Of course many more are available including games, media players and anti-virus software. Make your life even easier with a portable app platform such as PortableApps.com.

Boot an operating system

Running portable applications is great. You can do even more. Boot an entire operating system from a flash drive. Have you ever wanted to test out Windows 8 or Linux but at the same time keep your current operating system intact? Well, with the help of your trusty thumb drive and a bit of dabbling with online tutorials this is an achievable task. But be ready for possible technical weirdness.

Lock your USB stick

If the thought of somebody rummaging through your private stuff has kept you from uploading it to a flash drive, we are glad to inform you there is a way around that as well. Software such as TrueCrypt or Rohos Mini Drive can password protect and encrypt any information you want to keep secret on your memory stick in case of losing it or having it stolen.

Lock your PC

If you have a 007 strain in your DNA, you will like this one. With the help of a freeware utility by the name of Predator you can set up your USB stick to unlock your PC when plugged in and lock it when pulled out. Easy, and you will probably feel awesome doing it. If you forget or lose your thumb drive you can still log in with your password.

Rescue your PC

Only the thought of it makes me shudder, but suppose your machine is ridden with a deadly virus that renders it unusable. Luckily, even in a case like this there is hope. Hop on another PC, load AVG's rescue software on a USB stick, plug it in the sickly one, cross your fingers and hope for the best.

Maintain your PC

Windows users have the ability to maintain their PCs with the help of useful partitioning utilities such as Parted Magic. The latter lets you do things such as partitioning your hard drive, cloning the partitions and changing your Windows passwords. Pretty handy for something that you carry around in your pocket.

Boost your PC

Users of Windows Vista and above will be glad to know they can effectively increase their system's responsiveness by installing the ReadyBoost software and plugging their flash drive in the USB slot. The way this technology works is by using the flash drive's storage space as a memory cache additional to that of the hard disk.

Run a website

Web developers (and not only) can benefit greatly from the functionality Server2Go provides. This software runs out of the box with no installation required, and gives you the ability to run a full featured Apache-based web server directly from your USB flash drive without the trouble of configuring PHP, MySQL, etc

Wireless network connectivity

Your USB sticks can ease your troubles when you are connecting a computer or other devices such as a router or printer to your wireless network. WCN (Windows Connect Now) technology gives you the ability to save the wireless network configuration information to a flash drive and quickly import those settings by plugging it in the desired device (which has to be WCN compatible, though).

A gift to a loved one

A USB memory stick can turn out to be a really creative present, both as a physical object and as a carrier of the neat stuff you can put on it. Order a uniquely looking custom USB that fits the occasion, then upload anything you think the receiving end will enjoy along with your greetings.

And so, these are our 10 suggestions for utilizing your seemingly one-sided USB flash drives. Now that you know all the practical uses for them, contact Logotech. Our expert account managers will help you determine which style works best for your promotional flash drive needs.