Here's a handy and fun use for any USB drive. Several freely available media player software packages (such as certain versions of Winamp) do not require registry entries to run. What this means is that they can be effectively run off any computer without installation.

You might already use your USB flash drive to carry music and other media files from computer to computer. Why not carry around the program to play them with as well? Simply copy the player and your files to a directory on the computer you have plugged into (or even run the player from the drive) and enjoy your media files!

Here's links to a couple of media player applications that can be run straight from their executable files, and will thus work fine on USB drives: Zoom Player (video and music) and XMPlay (audio only). Simply download the files, unzip them to your USB drive, add your media files and move out!

Carry a bootable, portable arcade on your USB drive

Bored in class? Need something to make your off time at work pass faster but can't install games? How about having an entire arcade on your USB drive?

AdvanceMAME is an open-source emulator for arcade games, the kind you might have used to play in the days before Playstation. This in itself is not novel. MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) and its variants have been around for ages. What is novel is that the latest release of AdvanceMAME (2.4.0 as of this article), supports booting from USB drive.

AdvanceMAME, like all MAME versions, uses ROM files, images of the original arcade machine programs you might have played. Generally these files are copyrighted, but you can find many legal ROMS on the Internet. AdvanceMAME comes with three games to get you started, and a menu system so intuitive that it's not even worth describing.

To install AdvanceMAME on your USB key, download the latest files from here and unzip them to a folder on your hard drive. Now plug in your USB drive and format it (right click the drive in 'my computer' and choose format). Use the FAT file system.

Navigate to the folder that you unzipped the AdvanceMAME files to and double click the 'makeusb' batch file. A DOS window will open and begin the process of installing the necessary boot files onto your USB drive. Once the install is complete, simply boot any system with the USB drive to load AdvanceMAME and start playing.

Find out about this and many other reviews by joining the Weekly PCstats.com Newsletter today!

- Windows XP Service Pack 2 - Firewall Setup and Configuration -Eliminating Spyware and Hijacker Software - Diagnosing Bad Memory - 101 Tips and Tweaks for WindowsXP - Burning CDs and DVDs - Optical Drives & Recording Formats - Securing Your Wireless Network - Little Known Features of WindowsXP - Ergonomics & Computers - Annual PC Checkup - Installing WindowsXP - Encryption and Online Privacy - Home Networking and File Sharing - Forgotten Passwords & Recovery Methods - Preventing Data Theft from a Stolen Laptop - Creating a Weblog / Blog - Installing RAID on Desktop PCs - RAM, Memory and Upgrading - Ten Steps to a Secure PC - Flashing A Motherboard BIOS - Windows XP Safe Mode Explained - Upgrading Win98 to Windows XP

- The Registry: Backups, Repairs, and Protection - Diagnosing Bad Hard Drives - Decrypting Document & Zipped File Passwords - Spyware protection and Removal - Wireless home networking - Internet Connection Sharing - Remote Access to Computers - Hard Drive Data Recovery - Firewalls and Internet Security - Back up and Restore Data in WinXP - Assembling Your Own PC - VPNs and Internet Connection Security - Legally Copying Software and Music - Setting up a FTP Server in WinXP - Creating MP3 Music Files - Stopping Spam - Cloning WindowsXP - Browser Hijacking and How to Stop It - Printer Sharing on a Home Network - Converting Videotape Into Video Files - Creating a WindowsXP Install CD with Service Pack 2 - Creating a Flashing a Video Card BIOS - Making DVD Movies from Video Files - Synchronizing Files and Folders - Crash Recovery and the Blue Screen of Death