Scott Dunn

With so many portable applications available today, most users have no reason to get a U3 drive. If you have one, you can find utilities for removing U3 LaunchPad software from SanDisk drives or from non-SanDisk drives. And if you change your mind, SanDisk has a free tool for getting it back.

--Scott Dunn

If you want an all-in-one package of basics--spreadsheet, word processor, graphics--you can have them all completely free. An excellent collection is Portable Apps, which comes in two sizes, Standard (260 MB installed) and Light (105MB installed). Both versions include antivirus, a Web browser (Mozilla Firefox), instant messaging (Gaim), a Sudoku game, a calendar and task manager (Mozilla Sunbird), and an e-mail client (Mozilla Thunderbird). The Standard version also includes a portable version of the OpenOffice suite, while this Light version comes with AbiWord word processor instead.

Note: This link takes you to the vendor's site, where you can download the latest version of the software. This suite is donationware. It is free to try, but the authors accept and encourage donations towards further development.

Dropbox is a newcomer still in beta testing that has some welcome features despite its simplicity. Like other synchronizers, it requires that you download and install software; but un­-like the others, it has almost no user interface. All it has is a tray icon that you click to see a pop-up window with one command for launching the Web site and another for opening an Explorer window to the Dropbox folder installed in your Documents folder.

The majority of your file syncing and sharing happens through the folder. You drag files and folders there to have Dropbox automatically upload them to the servers (beta testers get 2GB of free storage; in the future only 1GB will be free). You can also share files by transferring them to and from the Dropbox folder. If you upload a file that isn't in the Dropbox folder directly to the Dropbox site, a copy will appear--you guessed it--in your local Dropbox folder.

BeInSync does four particular tasks--synchronizing, sharing, providing remote data access, and backing up--and it does them very well. There's no confusing of these tasks, each of which appears as a giant button in the cleanly designed interface. If you opt for the smaller 'Launch BeInSync' button, you get a more sophisticated interface, but with the same four buttons at the top.

BeInSync handles file and folder syncing a little differently than other sync products I tried in that its sync function does not actually store your files on its servers (for that feature, you'd use the backup button); it simply syncs files be­tween computers that are online.

As its name implies, Syncplicity requires very little maintenance, or even any interaction, once you've set the program to do what you want. The installer prompts you to synchronize the usual suspects (Documents, Pictures, Desktop, and so forth), but you can specify any files you want. When you do, it copies them to Syncplicity's servers.

When you install Syncplicity on a second computer or add new folders to the server, it will offer to sync (download) the files already on the server to the second machine. If you agree, you can tell it where to put the folder. If a folder by the same name already exists in your specified location, Syncplicity asks whether you wish to merge the two. If you don't, you can enter a different location. Sending sharing invitations to multiple colleagues can be time-consuming: For each recipient, you have to click 'Add Someone' and then type in their e-mail address; you can't enter multiple addresses.

Using Microsoft's Live Mesh service is like learning to drive a car: Once you have the hang of it, it seems pretty straightforward--but if you've never sat in front of a dashboard before, it can be a little confusing at first. The current preview version serves mainly to provide you with remote access to other computers, a method to synchronize data on those computers, and a way to share data with colleagues.

Unlike the hand-holding interface of BeInSync, the Mesh Web site starts you off with a screen showing existing devices (including the online file manager, Live Desktop) and a big '+' button for adding one. With a new device, you log in to the Mesh site and click the '+' button to download and install the Mesh software. Once you've set up all your computers, you can connect to any one of them and even control that system remotely via Windows Remote Desktop, a Windows XP and Vista feature that Live Mesh enhances. (You might also need to install an ActiveX control on the system you're using to access another of your devices.) Unlike BeInSync, which provides access just to the data residing on other machines, the remote-desktop feature in Mesh lets you take complete control of a distant computer, although a slow Internet hookup will make the experience painful if not impossible.

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