What's On Your Thumbdrive?

Broue Master asks: "Nowadays, we need to support not only people at the office, but friends, family, friends of the family, family of the friends... you name it! They all run Windows to a degree and there are many tools to help you when assisting. Personally, I have a thumb-drive with removable memory cards. One of them has a small bootable Linux, the other one is filled with ready to use Windows utilities (CPU-Z, Ultra-Edit32), DOS utilities I've been collecting over the years, and Unix-style utilities (ps.exe, kill.exe, and others) ported to Windows, without the need for a layer like Cygwin. I also have a copy of the install files for AVG, Spybot, Sygate and the likes. But, even though I think I have many great tools, I'm sure I do not know about a lot of great others to help diagnose and solve problem. So I ask you, what's on your thumb-drive?"

Comments

Here are two excellent resources...

[jbarr]

For me, the key is to load "portable" versions of apps instead of "installable" versions. The point is not only to eliminate the need to install, but more importantly, not to leave traces of your apps behind. It's security and a courtesy. Two excellent sources are:

PortableApps.com
PortableFreeware.com

-Jim Barr
http://jimstips.com/

mozilla?

[qortra]

You missed firefox/thunderbird. It's shocking how many people don't have them, and how much grief they put themselves through because they don't.

Don't People Bother to "Search" Before Posting?

[AnswerIs42]

Could do a long post... but easier just to point to this /. post that was already up with MANY MANY good links.

Sysinternals

[nmb3000]

There are a myriad of great tools out there, but personally I have a copy of almost everything from Sysinternals on my thumbdrive. Top of the list are Process Explorer a (overclocked, suped-up, uber, and simply amazing) version of TaskManager. It shows everything you've ever wanted to know about a process but didn't know you could know. In addition, FileMon and RegMon are very helpful for troubleshooting permission problems, and the PSTools kit (psexec, pskill, etc) are also great. They also have a free read-only version of NTFSDOS (and even an NTFS filesystem driver for 95/98. The TCP/IP tools are also very good to have on hand. Best part is of course that they are free, and many have source available.

If you do any Windows troubleshooting, this website is a must-have. No joke.

Re:Sysinternals

[jarom]

Yeah, I find that the tools at sysinternals.com are among the best for figuring out what is going on on your system. My favorites are Process Explorer and AutoRuns (how to figure out *everything* that runs when you start up and log into Windows).

Re:Sysinternals

[Sexy Bern]

FileMon and RegMon are the bollocks when it comes to trying to remove admin rights for users. Fire up that errant app with both FileMon and RegMon running in the background and you'll pretty quickly find the registry entry or file/directory that needs its "All Users" granting "Full Control". Net result - Joe Bloggs doesn't have to run as machine administrator.

My malware cleaning stuff...

[zerocool^]

Trend Microsystems "Sysclean" package. It's just an exe file with the scanning engine, and you download the latest virus def patternfile, and it scans your computer. Very nice; TM I think is the best commercial AV product available.
Sysclean executable:
http://www.trendmicro.com/download/dcs.asp (under "Not a Trend Micro Customer")
Pattern files:
http://www.trendmicro.com/download/pattern.asp

I also carry, in the "Antivirus" folder:
Various utilities I've collected for removing Symantec AV
AVG Free installer (I tried to talk people into TrendMicro, because I honestly think it's better, but if they flat out refused, I'd install AVG for them - less virusy computers on teh intarwebs is a good thing)
vcleaner - avg's somewhat less capable version of TM's sysclean package.

Also:
A series of handy apps, including:
7zip - v313 (the older one seems to have less bloat)
adobe acrobat
Divx codec
VLC Media Player
Firefox
Winamp 2.92
IttyBittyProcessManager
Angry IP scanner
Killbox
MSRDPCLI.exe (MS Remote Desktop Client - for 2000/98 machines)
vbrun60 files

and a folder called "Computer Cleanup", containing:
ad aware personal (plus the latest defs.ref file, available form lavasoftusa.com)
CWShredder (remove cool web search spyware)
Hijack this
ewido setup
LSP Fix (for sneaky spywares that replace something with dns)
WinsockXPFix
BugOff
RegVac
Spybot S&D (plus latest update packs)

Yep.

Re:For those who know what I'm talking about...

[b0r1s]

Whip up your own using the BartPE live XP cd. I have two copies at work, one with RecoverMyFiles, Scandisk, and RAID repair utilities and another with Spyware and virus scanner apps.

Re:At last reckoning...

[Mostly a lurker]

Whenever including tools designed to try to clean infected systems, always include the important warning:

Do not clean infected systems. You can never be sure you have caught everything. Almost always, infected systems should be formatted and replaced by a clean install. Only under exceptional circumstances should the attempt to disinfect systems be made, and the user must be told that it is possible his system is still infected and that he should proceed accordingly.

Arsenal of Tools

[sixtyfivebit]

Funny, I also carry a thumb-drive with a removable memory card slot. It's this generic one floating around online: http://www.supermediastore.com/supermedia-handy-4i n1--usb-20-flash-memory-card-reader-yellow.html

I think they're a great idea, because I can move with the SD card market as flash memory becomes denser and denser. Speed hasn't been a problem, either. The thumbdrives support USB 2.0 and my SD card seems to be capable of a very decent data transfer rate.

I have a collection of Windows tools on the drive. Not Linux tools, because I can usually accomplish whatever it is I'm doing in the Linux environments I encounter day to day.

Network Tools:
* Raw TCP/IP transfer -> netcat ( http://www.vulnwatch.org/netcat/ )
* SSH/Telnet -> putty ( http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/ )
* Port Scanner -> SuperScan4 ( http://www.foundstone.com/resources/proddesc/super scan.htm )
* Classic Port Scanner -> nmap ( http://insecure.org/nmap/download.html )
* Packet Capture and Analysis -> WireShark setup ( http://www.wireshark.org/download.html )

Editors:
* General -> vim 7.0 ( http://www.vim.org/download.php )
* Hex Editor -> xvi32 ( http://www.chmaas.handshake.de/delphi/freeware/xvi 32/xvi32.htm#download )

Development:
* Tiny C Compiler ( http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/tcc/ )
* nasm ( http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group _id=6208 )

Misc:
* Lightweight Windows md5sum -> md5summer ( http://www.md5summer.org/download.html )
* Process Explorer ( http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/ProcessExplo rer.html )
* MP3 Encoding -> RazorLame with lame ( http://www.dors.de/razorlame/download.php )
* Terminal Emulator -> TeraTerm Pro ( http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA002416/teraterm.h tml )

The folder is 26.7MB.

Re:A few win32 apps on my drive

[enrgeeman]

you may want to switch to portaputty, it keeps stuff out of the registry, and in a neat little folder, same directory as the exe

Personal Wiki

[Lord Prox]

How about this... TiddlyWiki a personal wiki for notes. views in a web browser, pure javascript love, as handy as a PDA, and only 300kb of HTML.



Place a curse on Spammers

BIOS flash updates

[nsayer]

I recently upgraded my FreeBSD server machine to a Conroe CPU running in an Asus P5B. But I actually had to upgrade the chassis and motherboard before Conroe came out. Because of that, I actually got a P5B that had an older BIOS that wasn't Core 2 ready. So to do the upgrade, I was going to have to to a flash update.

The last time I had to do that, it was to a Dell laptop that dual-booted Windows, and the update only ran under Windows. Before then, it was DOS boot floppies and 'flash.exe'. So I wasn't looking forward to it.

Oh, how things have changed! Asus has a flash update program built into the BIOS and that program supports reading FAT filesystems on thumbdrives!

I hadn't actually used a thumb drive in a few years (since getting an iPod), so I actually had to dig it up from the bottom of a drawer, but it was there (the backup plan was going to be an SD card from the camera and the SD-to-USB adapter), and it worked.

Asus may not be the only ones that support OSless flash updates via USB, but it's the 2nd most convenient BIOS update I've ever had to do (1st place goes to Apple).

What I have on my drive.

[pspada]

Utils:

Hijack This. Spybot & Ad Aware. Various Virus scanners & fixes. Ghost and TrueImage. MSCONFIG for Win2k machines. Keyfinder. reg files for particular tasks. hosts file to limit access (to myspace!). Windows Disk Cleanup (cleanmgr.exe). IE5 & IE6 install files. IEradicator. CPUZ. Winsockfix. Various standard network drivers for all Windows OSes including USB network drivers. Office updates, various versions. Zone Alarm. Winzip & WinRAR. Some DOS windows unix util ports, i.e. kill.exe to kill processes. Editpad. VNC. WS_FTP. PCAnywhere. MBM5. Prime95. Powertoys for Windows various versions. Process Guard. Microsoft Virtual PC & VMware. Windows Fax installation files for Windows various versions. Panicware Pop-up Stopper Free.

Non-Utils:

Nice PD wallpapers & screensavers. Windows XP wallpaper powertoy. Adobe Photoshop Album Starter Edition. Google Earth. WinAmp. WinDVD trial version. Various Codecs.

I've probably forgotten an item or two, but that pretty much lists everything I might need beyond specific hardware drivers.

Re:USB Thumb Drives Spreading Viruses?

[AngusSF]

Another thing to be wary of on computers that you don't own is the risk of having the contents of your thumb-drive slurped, so don't use them for carrying around logins and passwords or credit-card numbers or WPA-PSK keys.

USBDumper

USBDumper (article is in French; here's the software) is a cute little utility that silently copies the contents of an inserted USB drive onto the PC. The idea is that you install this piece of software on your computer, or on a public PC, and then you collect the files -- some of them personal and confidential -- from anyone who plugs their USB drive into that computer. (This blog post talks about a version that downloads a disk image, allowing someone to recover deleted files as well.)

No big deal to anyone who worries about computer security for a living, but probably a rude shock to salespeople, conference presenters, file sharers, and many others who regularly plug their USB drives into strange PCs.

(See here: http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/08/usbd umper_1.html)

I have a write-protected PNY USB drive I use to carry around my tools, but now that I know about malware like this, I think I'm going to go to the trouble of burning a CD every week or so. Biggest trouble is going to be keeping AV signatures up to date.

All for repair and maintain...

[slicenglide]

I work in the IT field traveling to customer's houses.
I see all sorts of jacked up computers.. Here's the usual rundown of things that I keep on my drive.

Google Pack Installer - (three free months norton good for getting rid of virsues.)
Norton Intelligent Updater - Used to update defintions for every version of norton. Google it and grab the x86 version(the second on the page.)
Trend Micro Pattern Files - Same thing for Trend Micro, google it.
AVG Free - Something more permanent for cheap bastards.
Spybot and includes files.
Adaware personal and include files.
Ewido - I love you ewido, too bad you run really crappy in safe mode.

Dial-A-Fix - Reregisters dll files neccessary to components like windows update and SSL security. Fixes all sorts of permissions things jacked up by spyware as well. This is an amazing tool, google it and be amazed.

MS Scripting Engine 5.6 - This solves a lot of problems you will have with programs having blank screens, or if system restore is a blank screen, or windows update is blank as well.

XP Winsock Fix - Explicit^Software wrote this great vb script to reset the TCP/IP and WINSOCK stack to default settings. Useful if the internet isn't working, commonly associated with the nasty spyware.

Firefox - Nuff Said.

Drivers - I collect the drivers I need for the things I run into. The biggest collection are HP printer drivers, and linksys drivers for PCI cards and USB drivers.

Hijack This - Merjin software's great tool to give you the rundown on what's running on your computer. You really have to know what your doing with this tool though.

My Music - All my music that I tend to listen to.

Norton Ghost - I keep the install files for my copy of Norton Ghost on my drive, makes moving or replacing drives a snap.

MemTest ISO - Memory Tester.

DFT ISO - Drive fitness test for hard drives. If you know the brand of drive you are testing, use the tester from the manufacturer as they often print out RMA codes and have better tests for their drive. I've gotten free replacement drives this way from Maxtor and Seagate. Both companies which keep my business.

Linux Password Crack - Used to reset XP administrator logins for people that lock themselves out of their machine.

OpenOffice - I don't always have it on there, but good for people who need to do office stuff, and don't feel like being a pirate and recognize good stuff.

Linksys Firmware - Many linux firmware upgrade files for Linksys Routers and devices. WRT54g Versions 5 and 4 were buggy at times until you upgraded the firmware. Especially version 5. Sometimes the router was just plain defective.

SymNRT - Removes all versions of norton, there is also rnav2003 that removes below a certin point. Useful for when norton gets borked and ruins how the machine works.

Windows Updates - All critical sercurity patches, and a script that fires them off in proper order and silently.

SP2 - Big enough to list on it's own.

Windows Installer Cleanup Utility - Used to stop programs that constantly install themselves over and over and over and over and get really annoying.

There are many others, and I'm sure I've left out a few, but I think these will help everyone out.