[Web4lib] U3 Devices: was IE7 security settings

Andrew Hankinson andrew.hankinson at gmail.com
Mon Mar 26 11:36:24 EST 2007 

It's a circular process: You can't uninstall it without Windows, and  
you can't use it without Windows.  In order for it to be useful, you  
have to have access to a Windows machine, one way or another.  I ran  
into this problem as I don't have administrator access on any Windows  
machine. (There are some of us out there!)

There's no technical reason why U3 couldn't have put their  
applications on a formattable partition on their drive.  I would have  
been OK with that, and I think most people (judging from the comments  
on this list) would be OK with that - a few clicks and it's gone.   
This added dimension of vendor lock-in, however, is annoying and  
pointless.

Andrew

On 26-Mar-07, at 10:27 AM, dan at riverofdata.com wrote:

> I'm no fan of U3, but why not just reformat it?  Well, I guess you  
> can't technically it a reformat, but you can go to http:// 
> www.u3.com/support/default.aspx#CQ3 and find out how to uninstall  
> it.  When I bought one a year ago (having no idea U3 was on it or  
> what it was) I don't think it had the uninstall on the flash drive  
> itself.  But even if yours doesn't have the uninstall on the drive,  
> the website link above has the links to do so.
>
> The only issue we have with them is students learning that on our  
> public computer lab machines in the library the "useful" part of  
> their U3 drive is an F drive, instead of E, as the "useless" part  
> grabs the E drive.
>
> I've not seen a U3 drive try to install anything on lab computers,  
> but perhaps that's because users can't install anything.
>
> dan
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Andrew Hankinson andrew.hankinson at gmail.com
> To: Web4Lib web4lib at webjunction.org
> Sent: 3/25/07 12:12 PM
> Subject: Re: [Web4lib] U3 Devices: was IE7 security settings
>
>>>
>>> On Mar 24, 2007, at 2:55 PM, Andrew Hankinson wrote:
>>>
>>>> On this note, I'd just like to pass something along that I have
>>>> recently experienced regarding U3 devices.
>>>>
>>>> I recently purchased a Memorex U3 keydrive, not knowing quite how
>>>> it worked.  When I first plugged it in, it started installing
>>>> various things which, to me, is a very bad thing to do.
>>> It doesn't install on the host computer.  It installs itself on the
>>> keydrive, and configures itself to run on the host computer.  There
>>> are some windows XP machines that won't allow this, however (I
>>> suspect it depends on the type of "lockdown").  I've tried it on
>>> all of our public PC's (Win2000 and WinXP) with no problem, but it
>>> wouldn't load at all on a co-worker's WinXP machine (works fine on
>>> my older, Win2000 machine).
>>
>> If it's dependent on 'lockdown' I would suspect something being
>> installed is taking place - it would 'install' the first time I
>> plugged it in, but would already be on there on subsequent plug-ins,
>> so something was happening.
>>
>>>
>>>> Second, when I brought it home and plugged it into my Mac, it
>>>> mounted as TWO drives, both of which had to be ejected in order
>>>> for me to unplug the device.
>>> heh, I did that, too. :-)  Then I found OSX Portable Apps (http://
>>> www.freesmug.org/portableapps/) to install on it!  But first you
>>> have to create a Mac partition on it to hold the OSX Apps.  So I
>>> tried keeping the U3 part and adding a 500 MB Mac OS extended
>>> partition (seems to have worked), then installing some OSX Apps on
>>> the partition.  _Seemed_ to be o.k., but I couldn't actually get
>>> the apps to work from the keydrive. :-(
>>
>> I guess that's my point.  I found it really annoying (plug in, wait
>> for it to do it's thing, popping up windows and bubbles and just
>> generally being a nuisance) without a valid payoff, i.e. I could get
>> the same functionality with a Portable Application.
>>
>>>
>>>> I couldn't format the U3 partition without downloading a Windows-
>>>> only uninstaller, which had to be run with administrator
>>>> privileges (!) in order to wipe out the U3 partition.
>>> Why?  It doesn't take up that much space, and you may find it
>>> useful later.  Once you uninstall, you can't put it back.  Of
>>> course, if your computer won't recognize the drive at all with it
>>> on there, you would probably want to delete it...
>>
>> See the response above... I'm usually a pretty patient person, but I
>> have little or no patience for technology that isn't seamless and
>> doesn't 'just work'.  One of the things I like about key drives is
>> that you plug them in and they 'just work.'  This U3 business, with
>> it's "installing U3," "configuring..." etc. was a nuisance.
>>
>> I'm a student, and we often have to give presentations very quickly
>> in a classroom setting, one after another.  When I plug my key drive
>> in in front of an audience, I don't expect to want to stand around,
>> waiting for something that I have little or no use for.  I don't
>> expect I'll ever want to put it back, so I think I'm safe there. :)
>> I think it's also partially the 'arrogance' of U3 when you want to
>> uninstall it.  When you downloading the uninstaller you have to
>> justify your decision to do so to them.  There would be nothing
>> preventing them from making U3 a R/W partition on a keydrive and
>> allowing you to reformat it as you please.
>>
>>>> I've also been wondering what the difference is between a U3
>>>> device and 'portable applications.'  It seems like all U3 does is
>>>> provide a 'start' menu for any applications on your drive, but
>>>> again, I didn't get much of an opportunity to use it.
>>> The U3 site includes some of the portable applications available
>>> from http://portableapps.com/.  But it also includes commercial
>>> apps, which may have a free version or a demo/trial version.  Avast
>>> antivirus is included on the keydrive, which is pretty handy,
>>> except that it's a trial version that expires after three months.
>>
>> Poking around the portableapps.com, I see that ClamAV has a portable
>> application (http://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/clamwin_portable)
>> that doesn't expire, if you're looking for a good Antivirus package.
>>
>> I guess it all boils down to personal preference, like so many
>> things.  I can see that I'm being picky about little things (it
>> doesn't really take *that* long to install it, in the grand scope of
>> things), but it's all the unnecessary steps I have to take, on my Mac
>> and on a PC, for very little benefit.
>>
>>>
>>>> Cheers,
>>>> Andrew
>>>
>>> The only downside I've seen is the bigger apps (e.g.,
>>> openoffice.org, gimp) run really slow on the keydrive.  Firefox
>>> works great, though.  On the whole, it's been really useful on the
>>> occasions when I needed an app which wasn't on a public pc.  Other
>>> than that, it still has a lot of space to use it as a plain usb
>>> drive. :-)
>>>
>>> Carol Bean
>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 24-Mar-07, at 12:52 PM, Erik Adams wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I was adequately forewarned about Firefox responses BUT... do you
>>>>> have
>>>>> access to U3 devices on your staff computers? If so you can
>>>>> always buy a
>>>>> U3 smart drive http://www.u3.com/smartdrives/ and download the
>>>>> Firefox
>>>>> for U3:
>>>>> http://software.u3.com/Product_Details.aspx?productId=89&lang=en-
>>>>> US . I
>>>>> love mine and I've been able to get around most IE problems at
>>>>> work with
>>>>> it (and without asking the systems guys to change a bunch of
>>>>> settings
>>>>> for me :) ).
>>>>>
>>>>> Erik
>>>>>
>>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>> From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org
>>>>> [mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Lynne  
>>>>> Puckett
>>>>> Sent: Saturday, March 24, 2007 9:36 AM
>>>>> To: web4lib at webjunction.org
>>>>> Subject: [Web4lib] Ineternet Explorer 7 security settings
>>>>> override[Scanned]
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Howdy, folks!
>>>>> I know the answer to this is probably obvious but I can't see  
>>>>> it for
>>>>> looking too hard.
>>>>>
>>>>> Has anyone figured out how to override the security settings in
>>>>> IE7 so
>>>>> you can go where you want to go? Without turning ALL of them off
>>>>> completely? Not to mention that when you change the default  
>>>>> security
>>>>> settings it has that annoying little bar whining at you about
>>>>> changing
>>>>> them back & you can't shut it off.  Answers I do NOT want to
>>>>> hear, thank
>>>>>
>>>>> you: 1-use Firefox (sometimes I can't); 2-shut off everything
>>>>>
>>>>> Here's my examples:
>>>>> Trying to go to the secure side of www.bluetooth.com IE7 says
>>>>> there's
>>>>> something wrong with the certificate. Click on go there anyway,
>>>>> install
>>>>> the certificate, it still won't go there. I've installed the
>>>>> security
>>>>> certificate 3 or 4 times now & still can't get to the site. It
>>>>> won't go
>>>>> past the certificate thing.
>>>>>
>>>>> www.time.gov - US Government site (not that that is any  
>>>>> guarantee of
>>>>> security, but still!) IE7 says the publisher is not trusted; so I
>>>>> go to
>>>>> the publisher tab in the security settings to tell it that indeed
>>>>> I do
>>>>> trust that publisher, but no publisher is listed. So I can't
>>>>> check the
>>>>> time, for crying out loud. I did update the Java etc & still
>>>>> could not
>>>>> get thru, because IE7 doesn't like Uncle Sam.
>>>>>
>>>>> Any ideas? Thanks.
>>>>> Lynne
>>>>>
>>>>> -- 
>>>>> L. E. Puckett
>>>>> Networking Systems Librarian
>>>>> lpuckett at billings.lib.mt.us
>>>>> Parmly Billings Library
>>>>> 510 North Broadway, Billings, MT 59101 http:// 
>>>>> www.billings.lib.mt.us
>>>>> Ph: 406-657-8258
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> Web4lib mailing list
>>>>> Web4lib at webjunction.org
>>>>> http://lists.webjunction.org/web4lib/
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> Web4lib mailing list
>>>>> Web4lib at webjunction.org
>>>>> http://lists.webjunction.org/web4lib/
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Web4lib mailing list
>>>> Web4lib at webjunction.org
>>>> http://lists.webjunction.org/web4lib/
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Web4lib mailing list
>>> Web4lib at webjunction.org
>>> http://lists.webjunction.org/web4lib/
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Web4lib mailing list
>> Web4lib at webjunction.org
>> http://lists.webjunction.org/web4lib/
>>
>>
>

More information about the Web4lib mailing list