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Ever since I created my USB drive and tweaked it with a menu system, I’ve been getting asked how to do it, and what programs I’ve used, well keeping a long story short, I basically spent nearly three days using different menu systems, including Portable Apps Menu, geek.menu, and a few others before finally deciding on PStart.

PStart is definitely the most minimalistic option, but it works out well. It’s very light-weight and has ALL its settings and information stored in one single XML file. So the program itself is easily kept (and managed) on the root of your drive.

The first thing you’ll want to do is download PStart. Be sure to get the non U3 edition listed.

After you download it, install it to your thumb drive, which is pretty self-explanatory. After that, open your thumb drive and you’ll see PStart.exe in the root of the drive. I personally renamed PStart.exe just to Menu.exe, but if you do something similar to this, you will also need to rename the XML file it creates (when it runs for the first time) to the same name. Example would be Menu.exe and Menu.xml both need to reside in the same folder. If you have Menu.exe and PStart.xml you’re configuration won’t work. The simpler solution here is just to leave it as PStart.exe unless you’re picky.

After this, you can create an autorun.inf file that will let you launch the menu automatically. Keep in mind that Windows 7 has disabled autorun files from functioning off USB media, so this only works for Windows XP and Windows Vista, but is still handy to have in case you ever plug into an XP/Vista machine.

My autorun.inf file looks like this:

[autorun]

LABEL=Corey DeGrandchamp
ICON=.\CruzerMicro.ico

ACTION=Menu
OPEN=.\PStart.exe

shell\Menu\command=PStart.exe
shell\Lost\command=Lost.exe

This is how it looks when it’s working properly.

The LABEL and ICON attributes will affect how the drive looks in “My Computer” when it’s plugged in. I have a custom icon for my Cruzer Micro that I use, so I have that assigned also.

If you’re wondering what the “Lost.exe” portion of that file is, we will get to that later!

Once you have your autorun configured, and set a custom icon (if you wish), then it’s time to move onto installing apps!

Most apps I have are from the PortableApps suite of applications, and they can be downloaded individually from the AutoIt. We’ll specific component we’ll use is “Aut2Exe”. This will convert our .au3 file into a .exe to be run on any computer running Windows. I ended up using a custom icon for this as well, you can grab my icon below. Just right click and save it.

The Aut2Exe is pretty easy to use, just feed it your .au3 file and the .ico file, and tell it where to make the .exe file. I put mine in the root of my USB drive and tied it into the autorun file above.

Next up on the list, is a simple batch script that checks your USB drive for errors.

@ECHO OFF
CLS
COLOR 0A
ECHO.
ECHO.
ECHO.
TITLE Checking %2 USB drive for errors…
ECHO Checking USB drive for errors…
ECHO.
CHKDSK %1
ECHO.
PAUSE

Just copy/paste the above and save it as check.bat and make a slot in your PStart menu for this as well.

And the last item is a way to eject a USB drive… This one is a bit more complicated… It will prompt you to close all open files and programs, you do NOT have to close the PStart menu before using this, just any open files, such as a portable application or a document from your USB drive. It’s just a friendly reminder, if you don’t close them, the drive will just fail to eject properly. After it prompts you to close the programs, it will wait for any key input to confirm you’ve closed them, then it will instruct the user to wait for the confirmation message that the drive has been ejected before removing the drive. See the screenshots below for more details.

This isn’t a simple copy/paste job for this, so I’ve packaged up everything that I’ve used as a .zip file. Just put it somewhere on your thumb drive and point your PStart menu item to the Eject.bat file.

Here’s the download: USB_Disk_Ejector.zip

That’s about all I have for you for right now. If you have any questions at all leave them in the comments here and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Trying out something new!

We moved away from standard twitter posting of new blog posts (which synced with Facebook through a Twitter application.) a while ago, and moved to an app called “Networked Blogs” which I had liked because I seen other big-name tech blogs use it in the past. However I recently found out they add their own toolbar to the top and don’t give direct traffic to your site unless you PAY them. Since I’m running this site out of my own pocket, that’s not really an option. I recently noticed Gizmodo and Steam use a different app…

As of today (as long as things work out) We’re using a new Facebook plugin called RSS Graffiti.

Well, thanks to comex‘s new jailbreak for all current iOS devices including the iPhone 4, I’ve got a new list of my top 10 jailbroken apps and modifications to iOS!

10. MobileVolumeSound – is a very simple modification to iOS, it simply adds the familiar “bloop” sounds from OS X when you’re turning the volume up or down. Just a nice little addition that gives your jailbroken iDevice a bit of charm. Works out of the box on iOS 4 and iPhone 4!

09. PDF Loading Warner – is a little utility to prevent hijackers from taking control of your device. Comex’s jailbreak used a PDF font exploit to jailbreak your device, but attackers could use that same vunerability to take CONTROL of your device. This is a must install for those “just in case” scenarios. It will simply pop up and ask if you really want to laod a PDF, so no websites can try to load them without you noticing.

08. Winterboard – is clearly one of everybody’s favorites. Seems to work with iOS4 and iPhone 4 without much issue. The old themes based on summerboard aren’t really worth it anymore, especially if you have an iPhone 4, but if you’re graphic savvy you can make some of your own themes. Right now I’m using Winterboard to change #02 in my list (biteSMS) to the standard retina display’s Messages.app icon. Possibilities are really endless though, so keep an eye out for some iPhone 4 based themes!

07. Notifier – is a modification of an old favorite, StatusNotifier. It uses the same technique but actually works on iOS 3.X and 4.X. You may want to install the package called “Status Notifier Fix” instead though, it will include this and the required libraries to run, as well as a Winterboard theme to make the notifier icons used the ones that were originally packaged with StatusNotifier. For those of you unfamiliar with StatusNotifier, it puts icons next to your battery to alert you of new IMs, SMSs, MMSs, emails, missed calls, and voicemails! Please note however, Notifier has not been updated with iPhone 4 graphics, so they’ll look a bit “old school” until there is an update.

06. Installous – is a shady subject for sure… But lets face it, it lets you try out apps before dropping big money into them. Like $30 for the LogMeIn app. Add the repository of http://cydia.hackulo.us/ and install this package. You’ll be quite satisfied. As of right now they’re currently looking for graphic designers to help assist in a redesign and update for iPhone 4 displays as well!

05. LockInfo – is actually a bit pricey for an app, but the things that it does is fairly amazing. It’s not 100% ready for iOS 4 just yet, it works but there’s still some bugs in it. I personally use this to keep myself informed of new emails on my lock screen, the current weather, new notifications, and I keep a an event list of my calendars visible for the next 2 weeks. It really helps me stay organized and helps me stay up to date on work-based tasks also.

04. SBSettings – was something I found it hard to live without when I purchased my iPhone 4, it’s something you take for granted and should be one of the first things you install. Thanks to BigBoss for keeping this updated and ready to go for iOS 4!

03. Cyntact – by saurik, who is the author and maintainer of Cydia. It’s $0.99, but I always recommend this one, as it helps support Cydia’s developer which can’t be a bad thing at all, but also for the simple fact that its an amazing modifaction to iOS which shows your contact pictures next to their names in the contact list, phone list, and even works in third party apps as well. It’s been updated for iOS 4 and the iPhone 4 with support for high resolution pictures as well!

02. biteSMS – is an amazing SMS tool with amazing popup notifications, and SMS management. It has a large number of settings. It’s been updated for iOS 4, with high resolution graphics for the iPhone 4 as well. You really need to check it out to see for yourself!

01. Infinifolders – written by chpwn is $1.99, but its absolutely well worth it. It’s something Apple should have done from that start, it allows you to have more than 12 apps per folder, it allows you to scroll through them vertically. Having one “Games” and one “Utilities” folder really helps clean up your Springboard