The advantages of USB sticks are well known. Compactness is one of them, but let that also mean a greater risk of loss or theft. Not so bad for your stick, but for your data. With Granite Portable you create a 'virtual vault', accessible only to those who know the password.
Granite Portable 1.4.2.0
Language:
English
OS:
Windows XP/Vista/7/8 (with .NET Framework 3.5)
Website:
//graniteportable.com
6 Score 60- Pros
- Simple
- Portable
- Negatives
- Rudimentary Start Menu
- No feedback
The idea is that you extract the downloaded zip archive to the root of your USB stick. It is important that the stick is formatted with the NTFS file system. If that is not the case and you still want to do that without data loss, you can do that from the command prompt with the command convert x: /FS:NTFS (where x is the drive letter of your USB stick).
If the software is on the stick, start the program file Granite Portable Launcher.exe in the root folder. The first time you need to create a new ID (preferably with a strong password). Once you are logged in with this, a large icon will appear at the bottom right of your screen. If you click on this, the Granite Portable start menu will appear. Here you will find, among other things, a button to your virtual safe on the stick (vault).
The Granite Portable start menu, right after installation.
That's nothing but an encrypted file that only appears as a regular folder when you're properly logged into Granite Portable. The makers themselves talk about a 'double-layered security' but don't reveal anything else. However, data you place in this folder will be automatically unreachable once you are logged out of Granite Portable.
Start menu
However, if you look at the start menu, you will notice that Granite Portable is more than just a data vault. You can also use the tool as a start menu with links to all kinds of portable apps that you can place on your stick - on sites like //portableapps.com you can already find dozens of apps. In particular, any exe or lnk files that you place in the Programs subfolder will automatically have a shortcut in the Granite Portable start menu.
Underlying: the so-called vault only becomes a folder after a correct login.
This also applies to urls and folders that you place in this subfolder. However, for those who are mainly looking for a mobile start menu (and do not immediately need a virtual vault), there are better alternatives, such as SyMenu or the PortableApps.com platform.
