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U3: A New Stage in USB drives’ Deployment

The U3 technology and concept are entering into our lives with growing confidence each day.
In a nutshell, U3 is an operating system which is installed on the Flash USB drive and allows users to launch U3-adapted applications on any computer to which the given device is connected.
In this way, U3 allows to bypass the difficulty of installing the software on each computer on which one wishes to work. It is enough to insert the Flash drive - and the workplace is ready. The majority of removable USB drives manufacturers already either directly support the U3 technology on their units or employ similar portable technologies.

The initialization of the U3 system takes place directly after the device is connected to a computer. The available volume of the Flash drive is mounted as two disks: the first one, in size of up to 4 Mb, is a read-only CDROM-like drive, which supports the auto-run feature. The second one, occupying all the remained volume on the drive, is defined as a usual removable storage disk, which can be used both for reading and for writing data. Before unplugging from computer, the U3 device should be safely removed by means of the system tray utility.

The appearance and success of the new U3 platform has encouraged a large number of software vendors to develop U3 version of their products, to the extent that now most of the popular software titles are also available for U3 drives. These are all kinds of antivirus software (e.g. McAfee Antivirus ), programs for reading popular formats of office documents, and of course popular Internet browsers such as: FireFox, Opera, QIP and the like.

However, many other applications beside those LISTED above have been ported to work in the U3 environment including some interesting programs developed by EISST Ltd, a UKcompany specialized in zero-footprint security applications: the e-Capsule™ Private Safe, the e-Capsule™ Private Browser and the e-Capsule™ Private Mail. The first is allowing to encrypt, storing and manage data written on the Flash drive, the second one is a secure browser, ensuring high level of encryption of the navigation data and allowing to leave no traces on the computer in the form temporary files or records in the system register and, finally, the e-Capsule Private Mail is an protected email client for people who appreciate confidentiality and privacy in their electronic correspondence. Within a short time since its introduction, the U3 technology has occupied a segment space in the application market which traditionally belongs to the portable computers. The convenience of carrying a USB flash drive with a number of pre-installed software packages and with secure data storage,capabilities has opened the door to transforming any computer into a private and convenient extension of one own’s PC.

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