Turn Your USB Thumb Drive Into A Powerful Application Suite!

When the U3 software first debuted and were installed on thumb drives, geeks all over rejoiced at the idea of being able to easily carry their essential set of software diagnosing tools wherever they traveled. Instead of having to download each piece of software on a client’s computer and then having to install it, they can now simply plug in their USB drive and run the tools directly off of it. No messy installations/uninstallations to worry about as well as having no Internet connection to download the tools in the first place! However, it’s been a while since U3 debuted and because a lot of people loved the idea, they’ve also created other similar services that beats U3. The software is called LiberKey. This also serves as a reminder to all of you. Competition is always good when you are a consumer!

Liberkey, like U3, allows you to turn your USB thumb sticks into your own software repository that can be carried with you wherever you travel to. Liberkey is really useful when you consider the fact that not every computer you use will have the desired applications or tools that you normally use on your own computer. While it’s certainly possible to download and install those applications, it’s usually a hassle and quite rude, especially if you are not close friends with the computer owner. Think about all the benefits you’ll reap from bringing your own suite of application with you. If you are helping out a buddy with their computer problems, there are a host of tools that you can download from LiberKey’s website that allows you to troubleshoot the problem. What if you wanted to securely delete a file you downloaded on a friend’s computer? You can do that as well with a program called Omziff. How about quickly converting a video file your friend has stored on their computer to be compatible on your iPod? Well, now you can because you got FormatFactory installed in your LiberKey! While the possibilities does seem endless, it is limited on whether or not your favorite application has a portable version or not. If a application is a standalone, meaning no installation is necessary, than you most likely can just throw the executable into your thumb drive and then access it on any computer. However, applications like Firefox needs to be installed first (one-time deal) onto the thumb drive before use.
The great feature separating LiberKey from the rest of the competition (which I’ll talk a little about at the end) is that it has a auto-updating feature. With so many programs and applications installed, you’ll want a quick and simple way to make sure that everything is up to date. Instead of having to open up each application and checking to see if there is an update, in LiberKey, you can check for every application installed from their website with a couple of clicks.

You can download LiberKey from here.

# Installation
The LiberKey authors were friendly enough to bundle LiberKey in three different suites: Basic, Standard and Ultimate. Each version has more bundled applications installed by default than lower versions. If your thumb stick ain’t got too much storage room, you’ll want to install the Basic suite. If storage is not a problem, go for the Standard or Ultimate versions. Remember though, even if you install the LiberKey suite, your thumb drive is still a storage device. Meaning, you can still use it to store your regular data as you could before LiberKey was installed. You can think of LiberKey as an ‘added’ bonus. Your thumb drive don’t have to be solely dedicated to LiberKey, although you could if you want to. Once you have it downloaded, run it and when you proceed to the part where it asks you where you want to install LiberKey, remember to point it to your USB thumb drive directory!

I installed LiberKey on my 8GB thumb drive. Although I could have gone for the Ultimate edition, I choose instead to install the Basic version. By doing so, I start off with the minimum amount of default applications. I then browsed through the large catalog of supported apps on LiberKey’s website and installed only the one’s I wanted or need. By choosing to install the Ultimate edition, I’m sure there will be a ton of software that I will never use. It’s up to you how you’ll want to proceed. But either way, there is no standalone version of the LiberKey software itself. You must install one of the suite versions if you want LiberKey.

# Getting familiar with LiberKey
Once you have LiberKey installed, launch it and you will be greeted with it’s main menu interface. You will also most likely be presented with updates to the applications it had just installed. If you want to enable automatic updates in the future, simply create a free account on their website and log in. Doing so has its benefits, mainly the ability to have LiberKey ‘silently’ install the apps without your intervention. Automatic updates is a huge feature for LiberKey so you’ll want to make sure you’re signed up for it.
Applications are grouped into different categories, with sub-categories under that. As you become more familiar with a application’s name and ability, you can easily delete the the sub category folder if you wish to. For example, you probably already know that Firefox is a web browser so instead of it being listed in a separate folder (called Browser) under Internet, you can delete the folder and have it listed right under Internet for quicker access. Note that you can add your own categories and folders in LiberKey to organize your software the way you want it to.
Not sure what a application does? No problem. Clicking on a application will have LiberKey pop out a information box detailing the specifics of the tool. With so many apps available, this is a big help. In the Options menu, you’ll find more preferences you can enable/disable.

If you look at the top of the list, you’ll will see a option labeled LiberKey Tools. Expanding this list will give you yet more configuration options. One key feature is the Disable/Enable file association option. By enabling file association, you will be able to seamlessly work with files on the computer with the applications you have installed in LiberKey. For example once turned on, if you installed the ClamWin antivirus application, you can now scan any file or folder by simply right clicking on it and select the option to have it scanned by ClamWin. You can say it’s a quick way to integrate LiberKey with your current computer. You can simply disable file association whenever you please and all of your original settings will be restored. Very neat!

# Installing new applications
Of course, you are not limited to the applications that came bundled with the LiberKey suite you’ve picked out earlier. Simply head over to their website and you will find a myriad of other portable applications listed by category and ready to be installed at your command. The neat part is that beside each of the software, it will tell you whether or not you already have it installed in your LiberKey. For example, a lot of the software is already installed if you downloaded the Ultimate version. Therefore, you don’t need to install it again if you see the bubble with the letter ‘U’ in it (B for Basic and S for Standard versions) next to the software.
If you do want to install it and it didn’t come bundled with your LiberKey version, installation involves only a couple of clicks. First you’ll want to make sure that you enable the file association option within LiberKey. Next, you simply hit the ‘Install’ icon next to your software of choice on the LiberKey’s website and a dialog box should popup asking you for your permission to install the app in your LiberKey. Your LiberKey app will temporarily shutdown, the new app will install itself and LiberKey will start back up when all is done. You can now browse to the new software’s respective category and it should be ready to use. Repeat this procedure for any other new app you want to install from LiberKey’s website.

Well, as you can see, LiberKey is a very useful way of turning your old USB thumb stick into your very own powerful application suite that you can take with you anywhere. No longer do you have to rely on your buddy to have all the tools to diagnose their computer already installed. No longer should you be afraid of browsing the web on a public computer for fear of leaving traces behind in Firefox. No no longer should you travel unprepared!

PortableApps
If you are looking for something similar to LiberKey (with a more attractive interface), look no further than PortableApps. I believe they don’t have an auto-update feature like LiberKey but that shouldn’t be too big of a problem. Most applications that need to be updated immediately when patches are available include your browser and email client and those can be updated manually without too much hassle. Although LiberKey’s website seem to have more available software for installation, PortableApps isn’t a slouch either. Either way, whichever one you choose, they both do a excellent job.