Registered Charity No 288007

Convener: Tony Errington        mailto:tony@arunvalleyu3a.org.uk

Venue: Masons Way

The Personal Computer Group

The PC Group meets on the 3^rd Tuesday of the month at 2pm and so far has 13 members. There is a wide range of experience and lively discussion of topics of interest to which all contribute. The “old” U3A Laptop has been updated with Windows Millennium Edition operating system and is available for loan to members. New members are welcome, although space is limited.

Meetings will be on the following Tuesdays:

19^th January - Discussion of making a DVD of a slide show for playing on a home DVD Player

16^th February - John Whittington will discuss Microsoft PowerPoint

16^th March

20^th April

Tony Errington

PERSONAL COMPUTER GROUP   

The group topic at a recent meeting included the use of CD writing software and storage of information USB sticks using portable application software.

Two different approaches were considered.  The first a proprietary approach used by the makers of San Disk USB sticks is called U3 software. This was described by Tony Errington.

Graham Martin described a similar development using open source software, developed so that it is free for all which is available on the internet, at ‘PortableApps.com. A few notes on this are reproduced below:

What is portable application software?

Portable application software is a computer program that you can carry around with you on a portable device and use on any Windows computer. When your USB flash drive, portable hard drive, iPod or other portable device is plugged in to any computer, you have access to your software and personal data just as you would on your own PC. When you unplug the device, none of your personal data is left behind.

No Special Hardware is needed. You can use any USB flash drive, portable hard drive, iPod/MP3 player, etc, and no additional software is needed.

Consider the Possibilities.

Use your web browser with all your favourite bookmarks

Carry your calendar with all your appointments on your memory stick.

Carry your email client with all your contacts and settings

Carry your instant messenger and your contact list

Carry your whole office suite along with your documents and presentations

Carry your antivirus program and other computer utilities

Carry all your important passwords and account information securely

Consider the Convenience.

Have your favourite websites handy to hand when you want them

Have your presentation AND the required software ready to go for a presentation

Have your banking links with you if you want to bank online while travelling

Have utilities handy, that may not be on another computer, when visiting family or friends.

Use your own programmes on any Windows computer including at the Library, all without leaving any personal data behind.

What Programmes are available?

The software allows you to have a complete office suite of programmes, including a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation tools, drawing package and database  packaged as a portable application on your USB stick so you can plug it in to any computer and work independent of the programmes on that computer, wherever you go.

Both systems incorporate ‘OpenOffice’ software which is a full-featured office suite that's compatible with Microsoft Office, Word Perfect, Lotus and other office applications. It's easy-to-use and feature-rich, performing nearly all of the functions you'd expect in an office suite, but at no cost.

You can get also more information about the Open Office Suite at ‘www.OpenOffice.org’ but it is probably best to either buy it ready installed on the San-Disk USB, or download it from PortableApps.com as part of their package which has the advantage of being usable on any USB stick or portable storage medium.

The ‘PortableApps’ software provides a truly open platform that works with any hardware you like (USB flash drive, iPod, portable hard drive, etc). It is open source built around an open format that any hardware vendor or software developer can use.

The PortableApps.com Suite and Platform is free. It contains no spyware. There are no advertisements. It isn't a limited or trial version. There is no additional hardware or software to buy. You don't even have to give your email address. It's 100% free to use, free to copy and free to share

Included Applications

All versions of the PortableApps.software include an integrated ‘menu’ and ‘Backup utility’ along with a set of custom icons, an autoplay configuration, folders and a quick start shortcut.

In addition, the packages include the following software all downloaded as one package:

OpenOffice.org Portable (office suite including, Writer (word processor), Calc (spreadsheet), Impress (presentations), Base (database utility),Draw (drawing)

Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition (web browser)

Mozilla Thunderbird, Portable Edition (email)

Mozilla Sunbird, Portable Edition (calendar/tasks)

ClamWin Portable (antivirus)

Pidgin Portable (instant messaging)

Sumatra PDF Portable (PDF reader

KeePass Password Safe Portable (password manager)

Sudoku Portable (game)

Mines-Perfect Portable (game)

CoolPlayer+ Portable (audio player)

If you only have a low capacity memory stick it is possible to download a reduced package which includesAbiWord Portable (word processor) instead of OpenOffice Portable. With the current low price of memory sticks it is probably best to start with a USB stick of  4-16 Mb and download the complete package.

A complete set of easily understandable instructions is also available to download.

Extra Add-on Packages available in a portable format.

In addition to the basic download,  a number of other applications are now available as ‘Portable Apps’ and a selection is given here and can be downloaded from the same website.  These programmes have been developed independently and certainly GIMP is to be recommended for photographic manipulation.

GIMP Portable - Photo and Image Editor.  Well worth using for photo manipulation and editing.

Cornice Portable Image Viewer, image viewer with slideshow

Sudoku Portable

Virtual Magnifying Glass Portable Magnification,  A full-featured screen magnifier

On-Screen Keyboard Portable On-Screen Keyboard, Easily access an on-screen keyboard for extra security

Firefox Accessibility Extension

Audacity Portable - A simple audio editor and recorder

BonkEnc Portable - extract, convert, and encode audio

DVDStyler Portable CD/DVD Burning and Authoring,,DVD menu authoring tool

InfraRecorder Portable - full-featured CD and DVD burner

CoolPlayer+ Portable - Lightweight, fast, easy-to-use audio player

MPlayer Portable - Full-featured movie player with support for most video formats

VLC Media Player Portable - An easy to use media player that plays most audio and video formats

VirtualDub Portable Video Editors, ,  - video processing and capture utility

ClamWin PortableAntivirus - Antivirus on the go

PortableApps.com MenuApplication Menus - An easy-to-use system tray launcher

InfraRecorder Portable: CD/DVD Burners - full-featured CD and DVD burner

7-Zip PortableFile Compression & Packaging - Multilingual file archiver and compressor

PeaZip Portable: - Easy to use file archiver and compressor

PortableApps.com AppCompactor: - shrink apps without affecting functionality

Xenon File Manager Portable:File Managers: - portable file browser

Command Prompt Portable: - Simple link to a customizable command prompt

ConvertAll Portable: - convert units of measurement

Eraser Portable: - securely delete files and data

JkDefrag Portable: - Disk defragmentation and optimization

Lightscreen Portable: - easy to use screenshot tool

WinDirStat Portable: - disk usage analyzer and cleanup tool

winMd5Sum Portable: - check md5 sums to verify files on the go

WinMerge Portable: - file comparison and merging

KeePass Password Safe Portable: - Password Manager. Secure, easy-to-use password manager

Toucan: Synchronization - backup, sync and encrypt for advanced users

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