Windows only: You've seen its flashy features and were impressed with its speed, and now you wish you could put Google Chrome on your thumb drive and take it with you wherever you go? It's far from official, but German blogger Caschy has put together a portable version of Google Chrome you can run off your thumb drive. Just unzip the download to your thumb drive and run ChromeLoader.exe. All your Chrome settings and profile information now save to your thumb drive. This is a very early solution, and we'll be keeping our eyes out for a more streamlined version from the folks at PortableApps, but if you're dying to take Chrome with you, this Portable Chrome should do the trick.

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USB drives are an essential backup tool for road warriors, but occasionally Windows Vista tricks you by not assigning them their usual customary drive letter. I regularly use SyncBack, a perennial Lifehacker reader favourite for backup and file syncing, and it doesn't work if drive E: suddenly shows up as drive F:.
Fortunately, you can remap drive assignments in Vista, though it's a well-hidden option. Right-click on the Computer icon on your desktop or start menu, then click Manage (and go through all the User Account Control confirmation malarkey if you have it switched on). Expand Storage at the right, and select Disk Management. Right click and select Change Drive Letter and Paths, then select Change. Choose the letter you want and click OK. You may get an additional warning or two saying the drive letter is unavailable until you reboot, but press on regardless -- I've found it nearly always works. If you do have multiple drives or devices plugged in, you might also need to reshuffle the existing mappings to make the one you need available. For a more permanent method of assigning a letter to your USB drive, check out this method for creating shortcuts.

Samer from the FreewareGenius weblog steps away from reviewing software to take a look at how to create shortcuts on your USB drive. The problem: You can't create relative shortcuts in Windows, but since your USB drive letter can change each time you plug it in, shortcuts with full paths can break. Samer details how to use batch files to create shortcuts with relative paths, then goes a step further and converts the batch file to an EXE and gives it the same icon as the program it's launching. In his example, he's making a quick shortcut to Eject the USB drive using previously mentioned EjectUSB. If you're a real thumb drive junky, you can use batch files to quick-launch your USB workspace as soon as you plug in your thumb drive.

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Windows only: EjectUSB could be considered the nuclear option of USB drives that just won't property eject in Windows, because there's an "application or process" accessing it. Put EjectUSB on your thumb drive and run it, and the program will mercilessly kill every program, process, or anything else touching your drive, letting you safely remove it without any fear of data loss. It's obviously something you don't want to use when you've got important files open, but it's also a lot more convenient than restarting the computer. EjectUSB is a free download for Windows only; hit the via link below for a command line alternative for Linux systems.

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Windows only: Freeware application Desk Drive monitors your computer for new media—like a new CD, DVD, or thumb drive—then automatically creates a desktop shortcut pointing to your newly mounted media. Disabling autoplay is safer and less annoying than leaving it enabled, but that means you have to open up My Computer every time you plug in a thumb drive or insert a new disc. Desk Drive gives you quick and easy access to that media from your desktop as soon as you plug it in, similar to the default (and arguably better) behaviour found on Macs. The downside: Desk Drive takes up way too much memory (around 17MB in my test), so it may not be worth it unless you've got boatloads of RAM.

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This week's release of the Fedora 9 Linux distribution makes putting a full-fledged desktop on a portable USB thumb drive a three-click affair. Even better, you don't need Linux installed to create it, you can leave the data on your thumb drive untouched, and any files you create or settings you tweak remain in place the next time you boot up. After the jump, let's create a fully-functional desktop-to-go using a simple Windows program and a 1GB or larger thumb drive.

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The Pen Drive Linux weblog details how to install the Ultimate Boot CD, a popular system recovery tool, directly to your thumb drive so you can carry your emergency recovery toolbox in your pocket. We mentioned Ultimate Boot CD's thumb drive-ability when we highlighted UBCD as one of the top 10 free system recovery tools, but Pen Drive Linux steps through the process and includes links to all the files you'll need to download to set it up. The guide is clear and easy to follow, so repurposing that extra thumb drive as a system recovery drive should be a snap.

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DIY web site Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories steps through putting together your very own obscured USB thumb drive, with the end result looking like a sawed-off standard USB cable.The guide is thorough, and the steps are surprisingly simple. For the cost of one slim USB drive and a cable you're willing to destroy, you'll be the envy of all your friends and coworkers. No, this one's not likely to significantly boost your productivity, but sometimes you need a little Friday fun in preparation for the weekend.

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Windows only: If you're serious about keeping your workspace portable, previously mentioned tools like the Portable Apps Suite or MojoPac are the go-to resources for Windows users. However, if your thumb drive is already scrimping for space, and you just want a few super-lightweight apps that can handle most general office tasks, from word processing and spreadsheets to email and file sharing, the Tiny USB Office might be for you. Weighing in at under 2.5 megabytes, this lightweight suite of office apps is a no-brainer to throw on any old USB stick for a little productivity on the go. Tiny USB Office is freeware, Windows only.

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Productivity weblog Digital Inspiration rounds up several ways to travel without your computer, suggesting instead that you carry all the programs and documents you need on your USB thumb drive. We've covered most of the post's suggestions before, whether we were showing you how to carry your life on a thumb drive or rounding up the top 10 thumb drive tricks, so with the wealth of options out there for taking that thumb drive to its limits, I'm wondering:

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