SanDisk
SanDisk is a brand for flash memory products, including memory cards and readers, USB flash drives, solid-state drives, and digital audio players, manufactured and marketed by Western Digital. The original company, SanDisk Corporation was acquir ...
and
M-Systems
M-Systems Ltd., (sometimes spelled msystems) was a Nasdaq-listed Israeli producer of flash memory storage products founded in 1989 by Dov Moran and Aryeh Mergi, based in Kfar Saba, Israel. They were best known for developing and patenting the ...
, producing a
proprietary
{{Short pages monitor
;Freezing with certain CD writing software: There is a possibility of slowing down or freezing Windows XP Pro if certain Windows drivers that are associated with high-volume data transfers to CD writers using certain CD/DVD burning software installed.
;Proprietary format/closed platform: The U3 platform is a "closed" platform /
proprietary format
A proprietary file format is a file format of a company, organization, or individual that contains data that is ordered and stored according to a particular encoding-scheme, designed by the company or organization to be secret, such that the decodi ...
.
SanDisk
SanDisk is a brand for flash memory products, including memory cards and readers, USB flash drives, solid-state drives, and digital audio players, manufactured and marketed by Western Digital. The original company, SanDisk Corporation was acquir ...
, the rightsholders for U3, ask for a 5% royalty from USB flash drive manufacturers who wish to implement the platform on their products.
;Two drive letters: As a work-around to the lack of Auto-Play for Flash drives on older versions of Windows, the U3 software creates two drive letters (one which presents itself as a CD to allow Windows' auto-play to start the launcher, and another for storing user data). Although this is the only way to implement auto-start functionality on pre-Windows XP systems, it could be considered a
kludge
A kludge or kluge () is a workaround or quick-and-dirty solution that is clumsy, inelegant, inefficient, difficult to extend and hard to maintain. This term is used in diverse fields such as computer science, aerospace engineering, Internet sla ...
, and the extra drive letter created can be an annoyance. However, it is possible to prevent Windows from allocating a drive letter for the "CD drive" via the Windows "Disk Management" tool—as long as the user has the appropriate rights/authority to do so.
;Incompatibility with certain embedded systems: Some host systems – such as photo kiosks, consumer electronics, and other
embedded computing
An embedded system is a computer system—a combination of a computer processor, computer memory, and input/output peripheral devices—that has a dedicated function within a larger mechanical or electronic system. It is ''embedded'' a ...
devices – cannot correctly mount U3 "smart drives." The problem may arise because the emulated CD-ROM is the first drive presented to the host system. As such, the device is detected as a CD-ROM drive or not at all. Although some newer photo kiosks are U3 aware and can overcome this limitation, it still exists on many platforms.
See also
*
USB flash drive
Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard that establishes specifications for cables, connectors and protocols for connection, communication and power supply ( interfacing) between computers, peripherals and other computers. A bro ...
*
List of portable software
For the purposes of this list, a portable application is software that can be used from portable storage devices such as USB flash drives, digital audio players, PDAs or external hard drives. To be considered for inclusion, an application must ...
*
Portable application creators Portable application creators allow the creation of portable applications (also called portable apps). They usually use application virtualization.
Creators of independent portable
No agent or client is required for these (also called " agentless ...
*
Live USB
A live USB is a portable USB-attached external data storage device containing a full operating system that can be booted from. The term is reminiscent of USB flash drives but may encompass an external hard disk drive or solid-state drive, ...
*
Live CD
A live CD (also live DVD, live disc, or live operating system) is a complete bootable computer installation including operating system which runs directly from a CD-ROM or similar storage device into a computer's memory, rather than loading f ...
*
Comparison of application launchers
An application launcher is a computer program that helps a user to locate and start other computer programs. An application launcher provides shortcuts to computer programs, and stores the shortcuts in one place so they are easier to find.
In ...
*
Windows To Go
Windows To Go is a feature in Windows 8 Enterprise, Windows 8.1 Enterprise, Windows 10 Education and Windows 10 Enterprise versions prior to the May 2020 update, that allows the system to boot and run from certain USB mass storage devices such ...
Notes
References
External links
*
* {{cite web
, url=https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,1861681,00.asp
, title=Full Preview - U3 Preview
, date=2005-09-21
, author=Ben Z. Gottesman
, publisher=
PC Magazine
''PC Magazine'' (shortened as ''PCMag'') is an American computer magazine published by Ziff Davis. A print edition was published from 1982 to January 2009. Publication of online editions started in late 1994 and have continued to the presen ...