184
votes

I have been on the lookout lately for some good tools to fill up my flash drive and I thought I would ask the Server Fault community for recommendations on good tools that will fit onto a thumb drive.

Some I use are Driver Packs, CCleaner and the portable apps suite.

7
  • 9
    If this were SO I would say notepad++. But, alas, I am at a loss.
    – jjnguy
    Apr 30, 2009 at 9:48
  • 7
    A good text editor is critical for server admin too I think Apr 30, 2009 at 10:18
  • For what OS? [this comment does not need 15 characters]
    – Tony Meyer
    Apr 30, 2009 at 10:22
  • Any OS that uses config files longer than 15 lines long! Apr 30, 2009 at 10:38
  • 13
    Wish that people would add items individually to a question like this because otherwise everyone posts huge lists which everyone eventually just gives up reading. Apr 30, 2009 at 12:22

61 Answers 61

2
votes

To mention a few I don't yet see listed:

WhyReboot (reports restart queued operations)
CPUID's CPU-Z (hardware info)
CloneSpy (duplicate files)
Scanner (disk usage)

I also second @John's recommendation for the suite of tools by NirSoft in addition to SysInternals, too many to bother listing separately.

2
votes

I work with a lot of MS-SQL installs so I always have a copy of the old (no longer shipped) odbcping.exe. Last Microsoft SQL version to ship it was SQL Server 2000 (afaicr).

Very useful to determine if there's a problem with a SQL Instance.

usage: odbcping [-S Server | -D DSN] [-U Login Id] [-P Password]
2
votes

moveable python

1
  • I can't understand why this isn't upvoted yet (?!).
    – Rook
    May 28, 2009 at 11:07
1
vote

You can get UBCD4WIN on a thumbdrive

http://www.ubcd4win.com/

1
vote

Installer for AVG anti-virus.

1
vote

VPC 2007 and Two VHD's:

  • XP Clean & patched / template box
  • XP Loaded with tools and goodies
1
vote

I just loaded up my thumb drive with:

  • 7-zip portable
  • Autoruns
  • Eraser portable
  • Filezilla portable
  • Firefox portable
  • JkDegrag portable
  • Process Explorer
  • Putty
  • Truecrypt
  • Vim
  • VLC portable
  • WinDirStat portable

I have another thumb drive that is a bootable live Linux which comes in handy for gparted, dd, etc.

1
vote

sysinternals was already mentioned, but I wanted to point out Desktops explicitly. It's an awesome tool when it works.

Desktops allows you to organize your applications on up to four virtual desktops. Read email on one, browse the web on the second, and do work in your productivity software on the third, without the clutter of the windows you’re not using. After you configure hotkeys for switching desktops, you can create and switch desktops either by clicking on the tray icon to open a desktop preview and switching window, or by using the hotkeys.

1
vote

I know linux has been mentioned, but DamnSmallLinux has a VM version > 50 Meg's it's pretty awesome.

1
vote

For disk usage, I've seen utilities that use treemap visualization mentioned, but not the ancient, small, and unfortunately named Scanner (distributed as scn2.zip).

I find Scanner's sunburst chart much easier to read than treemaps, even if it lacks some of the features and speed of things like WinDirStat and SequoiaView.

1
vote

Use TiddlyWiki as a notebook: http://www.tiddlywiki.com/.

Ideal for carrying all your system-administration notes around on a stick. A full-featured wiki with wiki markup, links and tags in a single self-modifying html file.

1
vote

OpenOffice! It's not perfect, but darned handy. There's a portable version too.

This way if I get to a machine that has some budget version of Microsoft Office, or heaven forbid MS Works, installed I have tools that I am used to readily at hand.

1
vote

Spacemonger v1.4 for tracking down large files/directories. Free, small and colourful.

0
votes

Right now I have a 16GB OCZ Rally2 which I find dead handy. I keep lots of the tools mentioned above on it (in portable app form, mostly).

I've got the contents of some useful OSs on there: notably Windows XP, Server 2003, and also the Win 7 Beta. I created a partition that is compatible with W7 too so I can install directly without an optical disc. Dead handy for testing on laptops with varied hardware configurations.

0
votes

Tor -- you never know when you're going to need Web access that is free from cookies, Java, and other plug-ins.

0
votes

JkDefrag v3.36 - Better than the Native Windows disk degfragmenter. It can run from your USB drive. And best of all, it's FREE!

2
  • Superseded by www.mydefrag.com and now at 4.0. Unfortunately, it's install-only but there's only one directory so you can zip it up and run that portably.
    – dmoisan
    Jul 22, 2009 at 21:26
  • I stick to jkdefrag - mydefrag seems comparitively bloated. Mar 19, 2010 at 21:13
0
votes

Look at the PC Repair/Toolkit

For reference:

  • DCoT Menu
  • Active@ ISO Burner
  • AutoCompress
  • Brute Benchmark
  • CCleaner
  • CDmage
  • DriveImage XML
  • Double Killer
  • DTaskManager
  • encopy
  • Eraser
  • ERUNT
  • explore2fs
  • File Assassin
  • Filemon
  • Hash
  • HDDScan
  • ICE ECC
  • LC ISO Creator
  • LSASecretsView
  • NTREGOPT
  • Patcher
  • PMMon
  • ProcessExplorer
  • ProduKey
  • Regmon
  • Restoration
  • Roadkil’s CommTest
  • Roadkil’s Disk Image
  • Rootkit Revealer
  • SequoiaView
  • System Information for Windows
  • TweakUI
  • Universal Extract
  • Virtual CD Control Panel
  • What Changed?
  • Why Reboot?
  • WirelessKeyView
0
votes

If you need to view/edit XML files of any type I highly recommend First Object XML Editor.

Lightweight, no install, tree-view/editor synchronisation, syntax highlighting, and best of all a customizable Indent option (F8) to make sense of crazy Microsoft config files ;)

0
votes

Drive Snapshot disk imaging tool:

http://drivesnapshot.de/

No installation necessary, so you can just run the EXE on any host (Windows) to create a disk image to an external drive or network location.

0
votes

I have a bootable Ubuntu USB thumb drive(recently updated to 9.04), It has saved Data from many dead laptops and PCs.

0
votes

I like this USB software package -- http://portableapps.com/

0
votes

Just wondering... How big is that flash disk supposed to be? I myself have one that is 32 GB and there's a lot that you can fit on that. ;-) If you use it on a system that can boot from USB, you might even consider installing a complete operating system on it, to run from USB. (Most likely going to be Linux.)

0
votes

I'm a fan of SIW (System Information for Windows). Lets you check a lot of computer information from a small exe file that fits on a thumb drive. It's got a free version as well which has always done everything I needed it to.

0
votes

I would add the following:

  1. Tunnelier
  2. KeePass
0
votes

Clonezilla Live, Knoppix and Trinity Rescue Kit are great for larger usb drives. I edit the syslinux.cfg file so all 3 are bootable.

0
votes

Pendrivelinux: make your thumb drive bootable!

They also have persistent installs now: your-whole-pc-on-a-stick ;-)

0
votes

I like to mention two old-school apps I use:

  1. Windows NT 3.5 File Manager (winfile.exe). A single file that gives me raw access to the file system. For 2000/XP use the version that came with NT4 Service 4. Under Vista/7 the original version doesn't run anymore, but there is a patched version at http://people.ee.ethz.ch/~davidsch/vistafm/

  2. 4NT, a powerful command line interpreter, for the cases when Powershell is not installed. Sadly, the vendor discontinued it.

0
votes

iperf and wireshark are good. Not sure why you'd use the other sniffer when Wireshark is around.

0
votes

Win7 install/PE and ghost32 for PE.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .