I really like my USB sticks, but what I never did like is that there is no security when saving my data or making backups.
One solution to encrypt your data on an USB stick is to use the open-source program TrueCrypt. TrueCrypt can create a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mount it as a real disk. Any file that is stored on this virtual drive is automatically encrypted on-the-fly.
More information, download and an active community can be found at http://www.truecrypt.org
How does it work?
Portable Start Menu 3.0 Beta-1 can now automatically mount and dismount a TrueCrypt container on your USB-Stick or hard disk what makes it really easy to work with encrypted programs or documents. All drive letters to that container are adjusted automatically, that means that you can use absolute drive letters within the PSMenu user interface.
The USB stick must contain at least the following files:
- Portable Start Menu
- TrueCrypt program files
- TrueCrypt container
Here is a typical directory listing of an 8GB USB stick with a TrueCrypt container (“backup.tc” in that example):
To use a TrueCrypt container in PSMenu, open the PSMenu program configuration, select the “TrueCrypt” tab and follow the “Setup Wizard”. This Wizard creates a unique file name in the root folder of your TrueCrypt Container. Please do NOT delete this unique file from your Container, otherwise PSMenu will not be able to mount/dismount the container automatically!
Portable Start Menu 3.0 Beta-1 can be downloaded from the Beta-Section.
excellent just what I was looking for, downloading!
TrueCrypt has a traveler disk option that allows you to automatically mount it aswell.
Excellent idea. However……Truecrypt requires admin rights on the computer it is running from, as far as I know. And for that very reason I have left Truecrypt and started using FreeOTF. A very favorit for the moment. Check it out.
By the way…. couldn´t find place in the forum for this so I will put it here.
Further enhancments for Portable Startmenu that I would like to see;
The ability to have a specified file(s) executed when quitting. (For cleanup or whatever)
The ability to change icons and the ability to join an icon to a BAT/CMD. Many of my apps on the sticks starts with a BAT/CMD and I am stucked with the ugly default icon
And, the ability to execute up to three (?) lines of command for a given
application. That would be like when klicking on a choosed application step1 exectues, when done, step 2 and when done step3.
Thanks
> The ability to change icons and the ability to join an icon to a BAT/CMD.
You can already assign custom icons in that beta version.
> And, the ability to execute up to three (?) lines of command for a given
> application.
This is not planned within PSmenu, you have to use external BAT files for that.
I noticed that it isn’t possibile to use the character & for application name.
When edit name I can see for example “MP3 Splitter & Converter”, but when load up the menu and choose the application named the &-sign is gone.
//Peter
> the &-sign is gone.
Thanks, should work in the next version.
Couple of feature requests:
1) Once PSmenu is already running, if you double-click the USB icon in Explorer, instead of it telling you that ‘PSMenu is already running’, it would open either a specified file, URL, or just open the contents of the USB.
2) As soon as PSMenu is loaded from the USB, it should open up the menu so you can see all your files without having to click the icon in the systray.
Thanks!
Hi, I just tried to install AM-DEADLINK – why do I have to be Admin to install it? If it is just a tool that works on textfiles, this should not be. Could you please make it portable also for non-priv users? THANKS!
Hi, I d like to know how can I mount container with PSmenu and Truecrypt like favorite driver letter, because it still mount me like first free drive letter? I try change settings in psmenu.xml with commands /l by docs on web page truecrypt but unsuccessfully.
Many thanks
PSMenu currently uses the following command line parameters to mount a container:
/q /c n /m rm /v CONTAINERFILE
It’s not possible to change this somewhere in the program configuration.
It is possible set up the PSMenu so as the Truecrypt container always open like same drive letter for example: container.tc always will be after mount drive X:\ ?
Thanks
I think I’ll implement customizable command line parameters for TrueCrypt in the next version, then you can do whatever is possible via TrueCrypt command line parameters.
It will be great, then it will be just the program, what I was looking for a long lime ago, many thanks!
Great WORK version 3.1 have implemented customizable command line parameters for TrueCrypt. Many thanks.