Got Sandisk 8 gig flash--question

OK -- thanks for your suggestions. Staples matched the Circuit City Sale
price, so I picked up the flash drive.

My question: when I inserted the drive, a screen comes up that talks about
their U3 system and there is a program called Launchu3.exe on there. What
does this do? Does it xfer some of my programs like IE and other key
programs so I can use these on another system. Or what?

Mel

Looks like you're responding to somebody's post. But since you started a
new thread, who knows whom you're thanking and why?

For info on U3: http://u3.com/

Daddy

MZB wrote:
OK -- thanks for your suggestions. Staples matched the Circuit City Sale
price, so I picked up the flash drive.

My question: when I inserted the drive, a screen comes up that talks about
their U3 system and there is a program called Launchu3.exe on there. What
does this do? Does it xfer some of my programs like IE and other key
programs so I can use these on another system. Or what?

Mel

On Sat, 11 Oct 2008 22:19:44 -0400, "MZB"
wrote:

OK -- thanks for your suggestions. Staples matched the Circuit City Sale
price, so I picked up the flash drive.

My question: when I inserted the drive, a screen comes up that talks about
their U3 system and there is a program called Launchu3.exe on there. What
does this do? Does it xfer some of my programs like IE and other key
programs so I can use these on another system. Or what?

Mel

I removed U3 from my flash drives. With U3 you can install programs
on the flash drive that you can use on other systems without having to
install them on the computer. It was fun playing with for a short
period of time, but I didn't have a use for them because my apps are
installed on my computers.

There were a lot of useful programs about 1 1/2 years ago when I
looked into U3. I think Open Office can run on a U3 Flash drive for
example.

U3 might be very useful for someone such as a student that would use
the flash drive on a desktop system at home / dorm, and school
computers when on campus.

There is also a system or program called Migo that I played around
with that you can Google to find more about if being flash-based makes
sense for you.

There were a lot of useful programs about 1 1/2 years ago when I
looked into U3. I think Open Office can run on a U3 Flash drive for
example.

It can run on any, u3 or not - check out portableapps.com

On Sat, 11 Oct 2008 22:19:44 -0400, "MZB"
wrote:

OK -- thanks for your suggestions. Staples matched the Circuit City Sale
price, so I picked up the flash drive.

My question: when I inserted the drive, a screen comes up that talks about
their U3 system and there is a program called Launchu3.exe on there. What
does this do? Does it xfer some of my programs like IE and other key
programs so I can use these on another system. Or what?

Mel



It launches the U3 encryption for that flash drive. I have several of
these flash drives and I like U3 but I've read many don't like it
because it takes up some space on the flash drive. I read that U3 was
going to be replaced by something else but I haven't verified this.

Also as Journey mentioned in another post, I like "Migo" for
encryption too. I'm using it for some files on my hard drive. I have
not used it on any flash drives tho.

Actually, I've been pleased with True Crypt for purposes of encryption.

I might get rid of u3.

Can I just do it by deleting the launchu3.exe on my flash drive?

Mel
"RnR" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 11 Oct 2008 22:19:44 -0400, "MZB"
wrote:

OK -- thanks for your suggestions. Staples matched the Circuit City Sale
price, so I picked up the flash drive.

My question: when I inserted the drive, a screen comes up that talks about
their U3 system and there is a program called Launchu3.exe on there. What
does this do? Does it xfer some of my programs like IE and other key
programs so I can use these on another system. Or what?

Mel



It launches the U3 encryption for that flash drive. I have several of
these flash drives and I like U3 but I've read many don't like it
because it takes up some space on the flash drive. I read that U3 was
going to be replaced by something else but I haven't verified this.

Also as Journey mentioned in another post, I like "Migo" for
encryption too. I'm using it for some files on my hard drive. I have
not used it on any flash drives tho.

On Sun, 12 Oct 2008 12:42:12 -0400, "MZB"
wrote:

Actually, I've been pleased with True Crypt for purposes of encryption.

I might get rid of u3.

Can I just do it by deleting the launchu3.exe on my flash drive?

Mel


I think this will answer your question and more....
http://www.sandisk.com/Retail/Default.aspx?CatID=1450

On Sun, 12 Oct 2008 13:34:23 +0100, Colin Wilson
o.uk wrote:

There were a lot of useful programs about 1 1/2 years ago when I
looked into U3. I think Open Office can run on a U3 Flash drive for
example.

It can run on any, u3 or not - check out portableapps.com

Wow, thanks for that link. There are some apps that I would want to
run from a flash drive, such as VLC Media Player and Open Office. It's
going to be fun checking out the non-U3 portable apps!

Hi!

Actually, I've been pleased with True Crypt for purposes of encryption.

As have I.

I might get rid of u3.

Can I just do it by deleting the launchu3.exe on my flash drive?

No. Sandisk provides a removal tool that must be used to get rid of it. The
U3 technology hides a certain portion of the memory that is available and
will show up as a CD-ROM drive (!!!).

William

I wouldn't say that U3 'hides' memory. The creators of U3 wanted their
application to automatically start when the usb drive is inserted.
However, Windows XP does not support autorun from a USB drive (at least
not at the time U3 was introduced.) Of course, Windows XP /does/ support
autorun from an optical drive. Do you see where this is going?

A U3-enabled drive contains firmware that makes it look to Windows like
an optical drive. That's where the extra drive letter comes in...for the
bogus optical drive. Your USB drive gets its own drive letter. But
because XP thinks your USB drive in an optical drive, the U3 software
can start automatically. You could say it's a hack.

U3 never took off. I don't know why. Maybe not enough software writers
saw the need to pay a royalty to U3 when there are plenty of free USB
menu systems.

The U3 firmware and software can be removed with SanDisk's removal
utility, but I don't know if it's supported on non-SanDisk drives.

William R. Walsh wrote:
Hi!

Actually, I've been pleased with True Crypt for purposes of encryption.

As have I.

I might get rid of u3.

Can I just do it by deleting the launchu3.exe on my flash drive?

No. Sandisk provides a removal tool that must be used to get rid of it. The
U3 technology hides a certain portion of the memory that is available and
will show up as a CD-ROM drive (!!!).

William