Actually the packaging does clearly state that U3 software comes with the device. But I'm glad to hear that you are now able to use the device as you wish. That's the goal, after all.
You're correct that Windows' AutoPlay mechanism is only supported for CD-ROM drive types, so until Microsoft updates Win2k, XP, and Vista to provide some other mechanism to get things going upon insertion, there's really very little we can do. Vista will give system administrators more control over whether or not removable mass storage devices are allowed to connect to the host, but it doesn't address any autoplay functionality.
I'm with you on the single partition flexibility constraints. This is the sort of valuable feedback we can take back to our engineering and management teams to improve the user experience. IMHO the manufacturers' uninstaller utilities should also be reinstallers and/or re-partitioners. There's really nothing mysterious about dividing a single physical disk into two or more partitions. Hard disks have supported that for decades.
Regarding Mac OS X, none of the Macs we use around here exhibit any problems with U3 smart devices. Two volumes mount on the desktop just as they do in Windows, except that Mac OS X doesn't suffer from the drive letter masking bug present in Windows. I'd like to learn more about the problem -- what version of Mac OS X is prompting you to insert the CD? That info would help us track down and address the problem.
No special sauce is required to copy a file to the host's hard drive when a U3 application is launched, or to delete it when the device is removed. No schroedinger partitions are required; the temporary files are located in the U3 directory of the logged-in user's Application Data directory.
You seem to lack an understanding of U3 technology, but I'm sincerely amused by your intellectual retort nonetheless. Bravo!:)
Seriously, if you insert a U3 smart device and run some U3 certified apps, then eject the device, you'll find nothing was installed on the host. The host's resources were merely used to execute the application from the U3 smart device, or temporarily from the host's hard drive for greater performance and stability if necessary. (Mainly because operating systems don't appreciate having the device on which an executable resides physically disconnected while the executable is running... it's similar to jumping out of your car at 60mph, but with severe digital road rash occurring on both the host and the removable device.)
It's a popular misconception that the connect progress dialog (which pops up when you insert a U3 smart device) is some sort of "auto-installer" and that it's putting "drivers" on this computer. Sorry to disappoint, but no special drivers are involved and no software was installed on the host. Upcoming releases of the U3 Launchpad even include a feature to disable autoplay for this device, so that nothing will disturb you when you plug it in.
The PortableApps software works very well on U3 smart devices. However, U3 smart device technology goes well beyond merely running an application from a removable storage device. It provides a unified framework under which U3 aware applications execute, a built-in software update mehanism for all applications installed on the device, secure "cookies" and related technology to support software licensing and encryption of user data, a Start Menu style interface for launching apps installed on the device, and much much more.
"It's not just a hamburger, it's a three-course meal in a nice restaurant with pleasant wait staff and soothing music... all for the price of the burger." Metaphorically speaking that is.
Could I ask you to please elaborate on your statement "the U3 software is one of the most godawful things in existence" -- what exactly is so "godawful" about it? Honestly, we'd really like to know!
There is no funky "orthogonal application persistence" whatsoever, other than storing the application itself on the U3 smart device, right alongside the user's data.
The U3 Launchpad (contained in the read-only CD-ROM partition) provides the user interface for launching applications installed on the device, password protecting the user data domain, and accessing the secure "cookies" area (among other tasks). It is not required to use the device as a removable mass storage device, nor does it install anything on the host computer (no special drivers, no special sauce...)
Aside from removing the U3 technology completely from the drive (tools for that are currently available for download) WHAT IF U3 smart device technology DID work on other operating systems? What features would you like to see and on which operating systems? I'd like to learn more about your likes and dislikes, especially objections to the technology as it exists today for Windows.
For example, many people object to the factory's two-partition format, so if there were a way to repartition the drive into a single volume, would that address the concern? Is it the lack of control over the format of the device that's the core issue, or is it something more specific? Is regaining 4 Megabytes out of a Gig or two from a $50 device really making people lose sleep at night? Please, let us know!
Protecting the host computer from malicious software is ultimately the responsibility of the system administrator and the user, not the removable storage device. However, U3 LLC takes host system protection a few steps further with our certification program, which ensures that any software downloaded from U3 Software Central is completely safe to install and run from any U3 smart device under any Win2k SP4 or WinXP operating system. We also have anti-virus and anti-spyware software available for download. Some titles even come bundled with the device, and everal more software titles are already in the pipeline.
Because that would require three times the current engineering effort to port the code to two other operating systems. We're well aware of the need for cross platform support and are already working on solutions for those systems. But all of this doesn't come for free, of course... software engineering is both time-consuming and expensive, and each operating system comes complete with its own set of issues. So U3 and our manufacturers chose to focus on the world's most widely available operating system first (and that's the honest truth). I'm a Mac and Linux guy myself, and at the end of a hard day at work writing Win32 code, must resist the urge to scrub the Microsoft "taint" from my fingers until they bleed... (LOL)
But Sweetie Darling, U3 smart devices DO NOT install anything on the host computer. No special drivers, no special sauce... in fact our certification program (which EVERY application sold through U3 Software Central must pass) does not allow ANYTHING to be installed on the host computer. So... what was your point again?
Just FYI... due to popular demand, upcoming U3 smart devices and U3 Launchpad upgrades will include a user preference to enable/disable the U3 Launchpad AutoRun behavior (that big annoying dialog that pops up when you plug in the device, which is also now much much smaller and less distracting). However, those who've used the U3 uninstaller will not be able to restore U3 functionality to their devices.
You hit the nail on the head; this is a case of drive letter masking.
U3 smart device currently require two drive letters, one for the read-only fake CD-ROM partition (that's how the U3 Launchpad auto-runs when you plug in the device) and one for the writable user-storage partition. If two consecutive drive letters are unavailable, perhaps because one of them is being used for a network drive, Windows gleefully horks on the duplicate drive letter (instead of assigning it one that isn't in use) and thus the user-storage partition does not mount. That also means the host computer is not configured properly for use with U3 smart devices. FYI, U3 has no control over this -- it's a legacy "feature" of the Windows operating system.
The solution however is simple: Either change the starting drive letter used for removable mass storage devices (e.g. using the Computer Manager utility, under XP right-click on My Computer and select Manage -> Storage -> Disk Management -> right click on U3 drive letter and select Change Drive Letter and Paths...) AND/OR change the drive letter assigned to the network volume (this may require your IT department or network admin to modify the machine's startup script).
In any case, it appears the computers at your college are not properly configured to allow U3 smart devices to be used on them. Considering that by the end of the year it will be very difficult to find ANY USB flash drive which does NOT contain U3 technology, it would be advisable for them to apply the necessary corrections to those machines' configurations as soon as possible.
What computers and operating systems does your college make available to students which you say do not work with U3 smart devices? They should work just fine when plugged into a Win2k SP4 system as well as all WinXP flavors and DO NOT install or require any special "drivers" on the host computer, other than the built-in USB mass storage drivers from Microsoft. If those computers have the CD-ROM "AutoPlay" feature turned off (for security purposes or other reasons) it's no problem really -- simply open the "U3 System" drive and double-click on the "LaunchU3.exe" icon. If there is some other technology on those machines which is preventing applications from launching off the U3 device, then you should check with the college's IT department responsible for maintaining those machines, to find out why they have disabled such basic functionality.
By the way, the writable user-storage partition of a U3 smart device is fully accessible WITHOUT the U3 Launchpad, unless you've assigned a password to that partition to protect it from unauthorized access. In that case, of course, you must run the U3 Launchpad application to unlock the partition. (duh...) So except for the initial access to unlock a password-protected device, you don't actually HAVE to use the U3 Launchpad. It works just fine as a standard removable USB mass storage device. If it doesn't we'd love to understand why not and help you work through any usability issues!
BTW, the read-only CD-ROM partition uses only about 4 megabytes of the total available storage space on the device. So for current 1 Gigabyte devices costing about $50, which is comparable to about 700 floppy disks in terms of storage, that's less than 0.000004% of the total available storage and is comparable to the space required for a couple 8 megapixel digital photos. Putting it into perspective then, the overhead for the U3 technology is almost completely immaterial.
In any case, SanDisk and mSystems both currently provide a U3 uninstaller which you can use to completely and permanently remove all U3 smart technology from the drive, permanently turning it into an ordinary flash drive with no U3 technology whatsoever. Yes, I said permanently. Did I mention permanently? Right-O, very good then... PERMANENTLY. (That means please don't ask us for a re-installer! Thanks.)
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Actually the packaging does clearly state that U3 software comes with the device. But I'm glad to hear that you are now able to use the device as you wish. That's the goal, after all.
Okay... "orthogonal application persistence" = CD-ROM partition (???)
You're correct that Windows' AutoPlay mechanism is only supported for CD-ROM drive types, so until Microsoft updates Win2k, XP, and Vista to provide some other mechanism to get things going upon insertion, there's really very little we can do. Vista will give system administrators more control over whether or not removable mass storage devices are allowed to connect to the host, but it doesn't address any autoplay functionality.
I'm with you on the single partition flexibility constraints. This is the sort of valuable feedback we can take back to our engineering and management teams to improve the user experience. IMHO the manufacturers' uninstaller utilities should also be reinstallers and/or re-partitioners. There's really nothing mysterious about dividing a single physical disk into two or more partitions. Hard disks have supported that for decades.
Regarding Mac OS X, none of the Macs we use around here exhibit any problems with U3 smart devices. Two volumes mount on the desktop just as they do in Windows, except that Mac OS X doesn't suffer from the drive letter masking bug present in Windows. I'd like to learn more about the problem -- what version of Mac OS X is prompting you to insert the CD? That info would help us track down and address the problem.
Note to self: slashdot AFTER coffee!
You are correct, U3 technology uses roughly 4,000,000 bytes out of 1,000,000,000 which is 0.004 or four tenths of a percent of the total storage.
No special sauce is required to copy a file to the host's hard drive when a U3 application is launched, or to delete it when the device is removed. No schroedinger partitions are required; the temporary files are located in the U3 directory of the logged-in user's Application Data directory.
You seem to lack an understanding of U3 technology, but I'm sincerely amused by your intellectual retort nonetheless. Bravo! :)
Seriously, if you insert a U3 smart device and run some U3 certified apps, then eject the device, you'll find nothing was installed on the host. The host's resources were merely used to execute the application from the U3 smart device, or temporarily from the host's hard drive for greater performance and stability if necessary. (Mainly because operating systems don't appreciate having the device on which an executable resides physically disconnected while the executable is running... it's similar to jumping out of your car at 60mph, but with severe digital road rash occurring on both the host and the removable device.)
It's a popular misconception that the connect progress dialog (which pops up when you insert a U3 smart device) is some sort of "auto-installer" and that it's putting "drivers" on this computer. Sorry to disappoint, but no special drivers are involved and no software was installed on the host. Upcoming releases of the U3 Launchpad even include a feature to disable autoplay for this device, so that nothing will disturb you when you plug it in.
The PortableApps software works very well on U3 smart devices. However, U3 smart device technology goes well beyond merely running an application from a removable storage device. It provides a unified framework under which U3 aware applications execute, a built-in software update mehanism for all applications installed on the device, secure "cookies" and related technology to support software licensing and encryption of user data, a Start Menu style interface for launching apps installed on the device, and much much more.
"It's not just a hamburger, it's a three-course meal in a nice restaurant with pleasant wait staff and soothing music... all for the price of the burger." Metaphorically speaking that is.
Could I ask you to please elaborate on your statement "the U3 software is one of the most godawful things in existence" -- what exactly is so "godawful" about it? Honestly, we'd really like to know!
There is no funky "orthogonal application persistence" whatsoever, other than storing the application itself on the U3 smart device, right alongside the user's data.
The U3 Launchpad (contained in the read-only CD-ROM partition) provides the user interface for launching applications installed on the device, password protecting the user data domain, and accessing the secure "cookies" area (among other tasks). It is not required to use the device as a removable mass storage device, nor does it install anything on the host computer (no special drivers, no special sauce...)
What OS features should we be leaving to the OS makers? Could you elaborate?
Aside from removing the U3 technology completely from the drive (tools for that are currently available for download) WHAT IF U3 smart device technology DID work on other operating systems? What features would you like to see and on which operating systems? I'd like to learn more about your likes and dislikes, especially objections to the technology as it exists today for Windows. For example, many people object to the factory's two-partition format, so if there were a way to repartition the drive into a single volume, would that address the concern? Is it the lack of control over the format of the device that's the core issue, or is it something more specific? Is regaining 4 Megabytes out of a Gig or two from a $50 device really making people lose sleep at night? Please, let us know!
Then please use them and stop trolling.
Protecting the host computer from malicious software is ultimately the responsibility of the system administrator and the user, not the removable storage device. However, U3 LLC takes host system protection a few steps further with our certification program, which ensures that any software downloaded from U3 Software Central is completely safe to install and run from any U3 smart device under any Win2k SP4 or WinXP operating system. We also have anti-virus and anti-spyware software available for download. Some titles even come bundled with the device, and everal more software titles are already in the pipeline.
Because that would require three times the current engineering effort to port the code to two other operating systems. We're well aware of the need for cross platform support and are already working on solutions for those systems. But all of this doesn't come for free, of course... software engineering is both time-consuming and expensive, and each operating system comes complete with its own set of issues. So U3 and our manufacturers chose to focus on the world's most widely available operating system first (and that's the honest truth). I'm a Mac and Linux guy myself, and at the end of a hard day at work writing Win32 code, must resist the urge to scrub the Microsoft "taint" from my fingers until they bleed... (LOL)
But Sweetie Darling, U3 smart devices DO NOT install anything on the host computer. No special drivers, no special sauce... in fact our certification program (which EVERY application sold through U3 Software Central must pass) does not allow ANYTHING to be installed on the host computer. So... what was your point again?
Just FYI... due to popular demand, upcoming U3 smart devices and U3 Launchpad upgrades will include a user preference to enable/disable the U3 Launchpad AutoRun behavior (that big annoying dialog that pops up when you plug in the device, which is also now much much smaller and less distracting). However, those who've used the U3 uninstaller will not be able to restore U3 functionality to their devices.
You hit the nail on the head; this is a case of drive letter masking. U3 smart device currently require two drive letters, one for the read-only fake CD-ROM partition (that's how the U3 Launchpad auto-runs when you plug in the device) and one for the writable user-storage partition. If two consecutive drive letters are unavailable, perhaps because one of them is being used for a network drive, Windows gleefully horks on the duplicate drive letter (instead of assigning it one that isn't in use) and thus the user-storage partition does not mount. That also means the host computer is not configured properly for use with U3 smart devices. FYI, U3 has no control over this -- it's a legacy "feature" of the Windows operating system. The solution however is simple: Either change the starting drive letter used for removable mass storage devices (e.g. using the Computer Manager utility, under XP right-click on My Computer and select Manage -> Storage -> Disk Management -> right click on U3 drive letter and select Change Drive Letter and Paths...) AND/OR change the drive letter assigned to the network volume (this may require your IT department or network admin to modify the machine's startup script). In any case, it appears the computers at your college are not properly configured to allow U3 smart devices to be used on them. Considering that by the end of the year it will be very difficult to find ANY USB flash drive which does NOT contain U3 technology, it would be advisable for them to apply the necessary corrections to those machines' configurations as soon as possible.
What computers and operating systems does your college make available to students which you say do not work with U3 smart devices? They should work just fine when plugged into a Win2k SP4 system as well as all WinXP flavors and DO NOT install or require any special "drivers" on the host computer, other than the built-in USB mass storage drivers from Microsoft. If those computers have the CD-ROM "AutoPlay" feature turned off (for security purposes or other reasons) it's no problem really -- simply open the "U3 System" drive and double-click on the "LaunchU3.exe" icon. If there is some other technology on those machines which is preventing applications from launching off the U3 device, then you should check with the college's IT department responsible for maintaining those machines, to find out why they have disabled such basic functionality. By the way, the writable user-storage partition of a U3 smart device is fully accessible WITHOUT the U3 Launchpad, unless you've assigned a password to that partition to protect it from unauthorized access. In that case, of course, you must run the U3 Launchpad application to unlock the partition. (duh...) So except for the initial access to unlock a password-protected device, you don't actually HAVE to use the U3 Launchpad. It works just fine as a standard removable USB mass storage device. If it doesn't we'd love to understand why not and help you work through any usability issues! BTW, the read-only CD-ROM partition uses only about 4 megabytes of the total available storage space on the device. So for current 1 Gigabyte devices costing about $50, which is comparable to about 700 floppy disks in terms of storage, that's less than 0.000004% of the total available storage and is comparable to the space required for a couple 8 megapixel digital photos. Putting it into perspective then, the overhead for the U3 technology is almost completely immaterial. In any case, SanDisk and mSystems both currently provide a U3 uninstaller which you can use to completely and permanently remove all U3 smart technology from the drive, permanently turning it into an ordinary flash drive with no U3 technology whatsoever. Yes, I said permanently. Did I mention permanently? Right-O, very good then... PERMANENTLY. (That means please don't ask us for a re-installer! Thanks.)