Turn your USB drive into a flexible media player.
With large flash drives available at cheap prices, they've become popular for music and video files in addition to the usual documents and pictures. With portable software (Windows programs that run on any computer without installation) your USB drive can become a massive digital jukebox in addition to simple storage. You can carry versatile media player software as well as the files you intend to play, then use them on any Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7 computer.
Instructions
1. Visit the PortableApps website (see Resources).
2. Navigate the website and download any media programs you want to your computer desktop. Some good choices are Audacity Portable (for music editing), Songbird Portable (a music manager similar to iTunes) and VLC Portable (a versatile media player).
3. Double-click on the installer package you saved to your desktop. Follow the instructions and install the program to your desktop. This does not install the program on your computer, per se -- it just puts the executable and configuration files on the desktop. Repeat this process for every program you want to use on your USB drive.
4. Plug in your USB flash drive or external hard drive. Click the "Start" button, then "Computer" or "My Computer." Click and drag the files you installed to your desktop (the program folders and files, not the installer .exe files) to your USB drive.
5. Transfer any music or videos you want to play onto the USB drive.
6. Unplug the USB drive and plug it into another Windows computer. If you don't have another computer nearby, just use your own to try out the process. Click the "Start" button, then "Computer" or "My Computer." Double-click on the USB drive and start one of the portable programs you copied to the drive. The program's .exe file may be in its own folder.
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