Repairs, surfing, virus check, complete system? The fact that a large USB stick offers space for 50 live systems should not tempt you to use it haphazardly. It’s all about making the right choice! Given the number of suitable candidates, it’s important for every user to make a selection that covers their own requirements without creating unnecessary redundancies and overlaps. The recommendations in this article and in the associated table are deliberately limited in terms of quantity, but should cover all tasks. There are no fundamental restrictions: If the hardware is fast (USB stick and computer), then every Linux version runs perfectly on USB — live or installed. (If you are more of a Windows type, we have suggestions on how you, too, can use a flash drive to create a portable PC survival kit.) Further reading: 3 free Linux distros that look and feel like Windows Repair and service All of the tools presented in this section are pure live systems without installation options, that are only used when necessary. The tools, some of which are quite small, are classic candidates for a multiboot stick that you put together with Yumi or Ventoy. Persistence is not necessary, in most cases not even possible. IDG Super Grub2 Disk Super Grub2 Disk is the “lifeboat” for defective Grub boot managers. With the option “Detect and show boot methods,” the booted utility searches all drives for Linux and Windows systems, then displays their list and boots the selected system. This indispensable helper is tiny, weighing just under 16MB. The actual repair of the Grub environment then takes place with the following command in the running system: sudo grub-install --recheck /dev/sdasudo update-grub Rescatux Rescatux offers a browser, file manager, terminal, and accessories on a Debian system with LXQT desktop and can also serve as a general emergency system. However, the graphically organized script collection Rescapp takes center stage. While Super Grub2 Disk only searches for and starts installed systems, Rescatux can restore defective Grub boot loaders. Under “Grub,” the repair option “Restore Grub” can write a new Grub boot loader and integrate all recognized operating systems (Linux and Windows) into a new boot menu. There is also Windows support: The section contains repair tools for MBR and UEFI environments. Rescatux was developed by the Grub developers, but there is no guarantee of successful repairs. Gparted Live Gparted Live is the very undemanding live system from the Gparted developers, which enables the Gparted partitioning program to run on any hardware. The live system is rarely absolutely necessary because Gparted is pre-installed in many live distributions or can be temporarily installed there. However, additional Gparted Live as a guarantee for an up-to-date Gparted can never do any harm. The partitioner is the tried and tested graphical classic for deleting, creating, enlarging, and shrinking hard disks and partitions. Apart from the core tool and a spartan browser, the live system offers hardly any other software. IDG Rescuezilla Rescuezilla is a cloning and backup tool for drives and partitions. In contrast to the more feature-rich Clonezilla, Rescuezilla is also suitable for beginners with its simple graphical wizard (basically just “Backup,” “Restore,” and “Clone”). It is a small Ubuntu live system which, in addition to the main program, comes with a useful mini-setup on the subject of storage drives: Gparted, Gnome disks, test disk (undelete), and browser. Clonezilla Clonezilla is the classic backup and cloning tool. The live system has no graphical user interface and is used in English-language, text-based menus. Clonezilla is only necessary instead of the more convenient Rescuezilla if extended network capabilities are required — for example, for backups via SSH/SFTP (Samba also supports Rescuezilla). Hardware Detection Tool Hardware Detection Tool provides a complete overview of a computer’s hardware. Any raw copier can transport the IMG file from the download DVD or from hdt-project.org to USB (dd, Win 32 Disk Imager, Etcher), but the multiboot tools Yumi or Ventoy cannot handle it. You can successfully get HDT into a multiboot collection if you use the functionally identical ISO image Core3 HDT from www.serverelements.com. Memtest 86 Memtest 86 performs thorough tests of the RAM. This is not often needed, but the mini-ISO is in good hands in a Ventoy multiboot collection and only requires 6MB of space. Specialized surfing systems Every Linux live and second system gets you securely online. With regard to a customisable browser via persistent memory, small Ubuntus are probably the easiest candidates. However, the following surfing systems offer particular specialities, the necessity of which you must judge for yourself. Tails As an extremely restrictive live system, Tails specializes in anonymized web access via the TOR browser. Customizable persistence contradicts this concept, but is possible in principle with the Tails persistence setup tool (vault symbol), which creates an encrypted Luks partition for this purpose. However, this only works on a USB stick that is set up exclusively for Tails — multiboot is not possible. The user can choose what the Luks partition should store — such as the options “Additional Software” (post-installations) and “Browser Bookmarks” (in the TOR browser). Parrot Home: This offshoot of Parrot OS focuses on the security interests of private users and offers access to the anonymous TOR network, among other things.IDG Parrot Home Parrot Home is an offshoot of Parrot OS that completely dispenses with the professional security tools of the core version. Instead, there is an installable all-purpose system that is tailored to the security needs of private users. This includes the anonymizing TOR browser, anonymous data exchange with Onionshare, and encryption tools such as Zulucrypt. Parrot Home is not focused on pure live operation. However, the Debian system is capable of persistence and is a convenient, universal system with a focus on web security, either on its own or in the Yumi/Ventoy multi-bootstick. Porteus Desktop Porteus Desktop is clearly specialized in fast internet access. It offers boot times of less than 15 seconds on USB and browser launches in 2 or 3 seconds. However, the investment here is higher than with Ubuntu or Parrot Home. The pure live ISO can be installed in any multi-boot stick, but in this form it does not even have a browser on board (which can be installed temporarily). If you want to use Porteus in a handy way, you have to transfer it to USB as a stand-alone system via the “System > Porteus Installer” menu. The root password will be requested (toor). A persistence file can then be set up on this Porteus instance with “Settings > Porteus Savefile Manager,” which permanently saves an installed browser and other settings. Fatdog 64 Fatdog64 is one of the numerous Puppy variants, all of which are specialized for pure live operation. The download sources for all Puppys can be found here. Puppy systems are small and fast and have their own persistence concept to customize the live systems. The ISO image of Fatdog64 booted from a Ventoy stick offers the option “Fatdog64 with savefile in USB device” in its boot menu. The “Create Save File” dialogue will then appear automatically when the system is later shut down. In this case, the Ventoy partition, where the Puppy ISO is also located, can be specified as the destination. The Puppy-Linux will then remember previously made keyboard settings via “Quick Setup,” desktop settings via the “Fatdog64 Control Panel,” or even the WLAN password. Of course, further installation or browser customizations are also possible. Puppy variants are not specialized as surfing systems, but are ideally suited for this purpose. Repair and special systems Any live Linux or Linux installed on USB can be used as a repair tool, as any repair software can also be installed there temporarily or permanently. Backbox Backbox is nothing more than an Xubuntu that has been upgraded to a “hacker system” using tools. It can therefore be installed on request or equipped with the familiar tools with persistence for live operation. The focus of Backbox is shown in the main menu by the categories “Auditing,” “Anonymous,” and “Services.” The latter is about web access to the anonymizing TOR network, as offered by Tails, Parrot Home, and Knoppix. The unique selling point are dozens of well-stocked hacking, analysis, and cracking tools and security scanners under “Auditing,” supplemented by data recovery tools such as test disc or wipe commands for data destruction. Most of these tools require prior knowledge or a willingness to familiarize yourself with them. System Rescue System Rescue is the classic live repair system for advanced users. Automatically logged in as root, you work mainly with terminal programs on an English-language desktop. The typical data rescuers Photorec and Testdisk are also included, as is the partitioner Gparted. However, if you want something more convenient, it is better to use MX Workbench. MX Workbench MX Workbench removes the installation option from MX Linux (the original system) and offers a pure live system for system repairs. A few settings are recommended at startup. Although persistence is offered, it should be prepared by a partition labelled “MXPersist.” This means that persistence can only be realized here if MX Workbench is written solo to a USB stick (“MX Live USB Maker”). A separate “Workbench Tools Launcher” starts for the tools collected in the distribution, which automatically presents the most important tools at system startup. Knoppix Knoppix can be categorized as a special system, but also as a live all-purpose system. Knoppix is always a recommendation for any large multi-boot stick, as it contains almost everything that repair systems or surfing systems bring with them (including access to the TOR network). The persistence option, which is called “overlay partition” in Knoppix, is only possible solo on a stick, however, as a USB stick must be formatted specifically for Knoppix with a running Knoppix using “Knoppix > Copy Knoppix to Flash.” After selecting the target data carrier, the “Installation on FAT32 with additional overlay partition” follows. With overlay persistence, Knoppix then allows all kinds of customizations. Virus scanner systems Live systems with virus scanners are a separate category of Linux-based special systems that are available from practically all AV software houses (Avira, Bitdefender, Kaspersky, etc.), such as the Ubuntu-based Avira rescue disc. Such live tools are only required by users who have Windows systems installed. The external system guarantees uncompromised scanner operation. What all live systems of this type have in common is that they require an internet connection in order to load the latest virus definitions. In addition, a browser is always on board, but these live systems are not sufficient as a general repair system. All-purpose and secondary desktops Pure live systems are not suitable for a mobile second system: One or two desktop or browser settings are sorely missed, and the supplied software lacks essential programs. A live system with persistence may be sufficient; you are only on the safe side with an installed desktop system on USB. If you can count on USB 3.x everywhere, an Ubuntu distribution is the best choice. Xubuntu/Lubuntu Xubuntu and Lubuntu are good candidates for combining desktop comfort and smooth working on the USB stick. If the system on USB also has to cope with older devices, there are even smaller and more economical candidates: A USB favorite for tidy installation: The Q4-OS distribution with a classic Trinity desktop has been visually modernized and is smaller and faster than any Ubuntu.Q40S Q4-OS Q4-OS with Debian substructure and Trinity desktop is fast and undemanding. The system boots on USB 3.0 sticks in 13 seconds for login and only takes up around 400MB of RAM after logging in for the system and desktop. The Trinity desktop is based on KDE 3 and has been thoroughly modernized visually in the latest versions. Q4-OS is not ideal for live operation because it has to reload packages from the internet after selecting the language localization. However, it is an ideal candidate for installation on USB. Repair system MX Workbench presents the tools particularly conveniently.IDG MX Linux MX Linux uses either XFCE or the particularly slim window manager Fluxbox on a Debian basis. The Fluxbox version is a slim choice for USB sticks, XFCE the more convenient one. MX Linux sees itself as a desktop system that needs to be properly installed, but it also positions itself for live use: As a live system, MX displays the “Persist” item in the boot menu, which can be expanded with F5. Of the options displayed, “persist_all” is the simplest. This enables a flexible MX Linux in live mode. With proper installation on USB 3.0, the boot time for desktop login is around 15 seconds. The RAM requirement is less than 500MB. All programs, including browsers and Libre Office components, are remarkably responsive. Read...

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TechHive Editors Choice At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Extremely affordable Long list of features includes energy monitoring Matter support Cons App can be slightly confusing First-time setup results in a ton of emails Our Verdict The price is the primary attraction of Linkind’s full-color, tunable-white smart bulbs, which include energy monitoring and Matter support. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Linkind Matter Smart RGBTW A19 Smart Bulb Retailer Price $22.19 ($5.55 / Count) View Deal $29.99 ($7.50 / Count) View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Let’s be frank: Linkind’s smart bulbs won’t blow you away with their unprecedented feature set, amazing color quality, or even their support for Matter. What will impress is their biggest selling point: Their price tag, which at the time of this review was an amazing value at a less than $20 for a pack of four. While you’ll occasionally see other brands on sale at around that point or even a few cents less, that’s about as cheap as it gets for a full-color, tunable-white Wi-Fi bulb right now. The bulb hardware itself offers zero surprises, presented as a standard A19 bulb with a large white heat sink beneath an Edison-style globe. The bulb features RGBTW LEDs—red, green, blue, and tunable white—with a white color temperatures ranging from an exceptionally warm 1800 Kelvin to a very cool 6500K. The bulb draws a maximum of 9 watts while putting out 800 lumens, equivalent to a 60-watt incandescent bulb. Linkind’s light quality looks fine, the bulb dims smoothly, and the cost per bulb is amazingly low. Need other form factors? The bulbs are available in additional shapes and sizes, including BR30 floodlights and slightly taller A21 Edison bulbs, as well as light strips. Tunable and dimmable white-only bulbs are also an option if you don’t need color and want to save even more cash. Linkind’s A19 smart bulbs deliver higher quality light than you might expect for the bargain-basement price.Christopher Null/Foundry Installation and setup Configuration is done through an app called AiDot (the name of Linkind’s parent company), and smart lighting users will find this to be a fairly familiar tool, albeit one with a slightly quirky interface. Bulbs are added by scanning a QR code printed both on the manual and the bulb itself, with the former being much more convenient if you’ve already socketed the bulb. Note that this QR code is labeled as a Matter code, but it works for both Matter connections and in AiDot’s own ecosystem. I had only one slight hiccup during initial configuration, as the app could not locate the bulb; but this turned out to be because I did not have the appropriate Bluetooth permissions turned on in iOS. A close reading of the error message received during the setup process will alert you to this. Oddly, it’s something I’ve never encountered previously. You’ll find all the color-tuning settings you’d expect in the AiDot app. Christopher Null/Foundry With Bluetooth permissions properly enabled, I was able to quickly onboard the bulb to the AiDot app, bridge it to my 2.4GHz Wi-Fi network (5GHz networks are not supported), and begin managing it normally, though you’ll need to deal with a minor barrage of email messages to set up your account. The AiDot app has the usual features, though the layout again can be a little unintuitive. You’ll find white light settings confusingly under the “Color” menu item, for example. A full color wheel lets you choose your ideal shade, or you can move over to the “Presets” menu to choose from dozens of dynamic color-shifting modes. As with most color-shifting systems, some of these are more interesting than others, so you’ll need to experiment to find the ones that look the best in your environment. As well, a “DIY” mode lets you choose your own colors and effects if you want to get deep into tinkering. The Linkind bulb includes a final mode—“Music”—which uses your phone’s microphone to shift color and brightness in tune with ambient sound. Again, this is highly tunable based on how bright or kinetic you want the color changes to be. A bevy of dynamic color modes are preloaded, though some are more intuitive than others. Matter support makes it easy to incorporate these bulbs into any smart home ecosystem.Christopher Null/Foundry Full support for automations is built into the app, and not just schedules (including effects that gradually dim or brighten). For example, you can set the light to change color if rain is in the forecast or be triggered based on your location via a geofencing feature. The AiDot app also has a final feature that tracks energy usage, including running time and power consumption in kWh by day and by week. Bar graphs let you monitor power use at a glance. With all these features in the AiDot app, it might seem superfluous to connect the bulb to another ecosystem, but the bulb’s Matter support meant I had no trouble onboarding the bulb to iOS Home via Matter through a quick QR code scan with my phone, though as with many Matter devices, you’ll lose access to some of the features available in the AiDot app if you choose to bypass it. Further reading: This review is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best smart lighting Should you buy Linkind Matter Smart RGBTW A19 Smart Bulbs? Linkind’s light quality looks fine, the bulb is quick to respond, it dims smoothly, and of course it costs very little per bulb. As brand names go, Linkind is as anonymous as the next—I’m not even sure how to pronounce it—but it’s hard to argue with the results. Read...

A funny thing that happened to me recently was that I accidentally dunked the end of a USB cable in my coffee cup when I was moving it over my desk. “My coffee’s going to give me a little extra energy boost today,” I thought as I pulled it out and examined the connector for drips of delicious, amber-colored goodness. But as funny as it was, it raised an interesting question for me, that being: Could I simply use my USB cable right away as I had intended to do, or was my cable now roached? I wasn’t sure, so I investigated. Here’s what I found out… Wet USB cables: The lowdown While most USB cables are water resistant, it’s important to note that this is the kind of water resistance you can expect from a knockoff 1980s analog wristwatch, meaning you can splash them a little bit without there being much of a problem, but you generally don’t want to submerge them in water — they’re simply not made for that. The most vulnerable part of a USB cable is the connector, since it’s open to the environment and not bound by plastic or rubber. Regardless of where your cable gets wet, you should shut down the device you’re using quickly and then unplug it if it’s plugged in. You also shouldn’t use the cable right away but wait an hour or more until it dries out first. This ensures that you’re not transferring the corrosive water (or coffee as it may be) to your USB port or allowing the liquid to damage the cable itself. You can also help dry out your cable with a few carefully applied techniques. How to dry your cables If your cable gets wet, you can use a cloth to dry it off, running a closed hand down its length. If the connector gets water inside it, give it a little shake to get any droplets out first. Then use the end of a tissue or a microfiber cloth to carefully poke inside and soak up any remaining droplets that remain there. I used the above techniques on my USB cable connector and found it worked perfectly once I plugged it in again. Want a quick solution? Try this… A hairdryer can speed up the process of drying out a connector if it has water inside it, but there are a few steps you’ll want to take to protect your cable from being melted by the hairdryer’s powerful heat. First, you should always switch the hairdryer to the lowest heat setting. You’re also going to want to keep your cable at a safe distance from the hairdryer’s nozzle, to ensure you get a constant flow of hot air that won’t start to burn the cable or connector — a distance of 14 inches should do the trick. A wet USB cable can be dried and used again.  Pexels: Liza Summer Drying with a hairdryer should get your cable dry enough to reuse in just 15 minutes rather than several hours, but just be sure to check that it’s completely dry before plugging it in. So, in summary, while most cables do have some level of water resistance and will survive being splashed or momentarily dunked in water (or other beverage), you should still apply caution before using one again and dry it out completely to keep your devices safe from harm. Read...

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If you don’t keep Teams updated on your computer, Microsoft will block your access to the communication app, Neowin reports. When Microsoft releases a new version of the Teams app, you have 90 days to install the update or you’ll start seeing a “blocking page” that requires you to install the update before you can resume using the app. Teams will start sending you recurring update reminders at the 30-day mark. If you don’t want to update, you can switch to the web app. Microsoft explains that the reason for the block is to ensure that all users stay safe with the latest security updates and compliance measures. The company first made this announcement back in November 2024, with a message posted to the Microsoft 365 Message Center: “Keeping Microsoft Teams up to date is critical to ensure your devices are secure and compliant. By default, and as designed, Teams updates automatically which successfully updates most clients in the world without additional overhead for customers. Microsoft Teams is governed by the Modern Lifecycle Policy which requires that the Teams desktop client be kept up to date. […] As documented, when a client falls out of date, the user will see: Recurring in-app alerts, if the app is between 30d-90d out of date. A blocking page in Teams, if the app is greater than 90 days out of date. At this point, the app will show options to update, to contact their IT administrator, or continue to Teams on the web. As an example, if the Teams app is hypothetically on a version released on January 1 and the next update is fully available on January 15, an in-app alert would be shown on February 14th (30 days after the January 15th update).” A more recent message gave specific dates for when you’ll start seeing the blocking page in Teams. If you’re on the Windows desktop app, you’ll start seeing it on April 11, 2025. For Teams in a VDI environment, the start date is May 6, 2025. For the macOS app, it’ll start on May 15, 2025. Read...

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Peter Scott says his regional council colleagues are “wasting money” by allowing staff to continue planning work in the face of legislative change. Read...