By default, Windows XP will not allow you to use anything but the FAT and FAT32 file systems to format your USB drives. With a little fiddling you can also enable the NTFS file system on your removable devices though. As for whether you would want to, there are pros and cons.

On the positive side, enabling NTFS allows you to encrypt your documents with Windows XP’s built in file encryption (though you should only do this in a Windows 2000 or 2003 domain network). It also allows the use of file compression to stretch the capacity of your disk. You can also use NTFS to allow and deny permissions for individual files and folders within XP, something you can’t do with FAT file systems. You can also set disk quotas. In short, enabling NTFS on flash drives might have several benefits for IT departments that use or issue these devices as standard. (more…)

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Folder redirection refers to the redirection of user folders such as Documents, Pictures, Start Menu and Desktop. While in Windows XP, only five folders could be redirected, Vista allows ten folders. Folder redirection is intended to replace the older concept of having a “home folder” for users. The problem with this (and most of us Admins still face this with users) is that there are too many applications that do not allow you to specify a default path for storing data files and users simply accept the default ending up with some files on the network, some in their [potentially roaming] profile and some on the local system.

Folder redirection supports two modes: Basic and Advanced. Basic redirection sends everyone’s folders to the same location and creates special subfolders for each user while advanced lets you to set folder redirection paths for specific groups. (more…)

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Like we have autoplay feature on CDs, it’s possible to autorun programs and applications from your removable USB flash drive, provided you use it on Windows XP SP2.

Here’s a quick guide on how to autorun portable applications from your USB drive. (more…)

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USB Drive

The USB drive is a portable, easy-to-use and secure solution for transporting and sharing your daya. USB stand for Universal Serial Bus. Lightweight and compact, the USB drive is incredibly small and can fit right into your pocket, requries no cables, power supplies, or batteries. It plugs into any computer’s USB port.

To make it work , plug the drive into a USB port on your computer. It is plug -and-play for new verson of operating system, but some operating system, such as Windows 95/98 do not automaticaly load the drive .

A single USB port can be used to 127 peripheral devices, such as mice, modems, and keyboards. There are various types of USB and length of drive , strong from 8 MG to more than 1 GB of data.