Improve your Android’s battery life

   Does the battery of your Android phone last more than a day? If it does, you deserve an award! Most Android users complain about poor (or absolutely terrible) battery life of their smartphones. While we agree that smartphones are battery hogs, a few small tips here and there will definitely help your phone run for a much longer time. Here are few ways to boost your Android’s battery life.

TIPS

1)  Widgets: Widgets draw a lot of battery as they need to be constantly refreshed to provide the constant updates. And yes, they do look good. Remove widgets that you do not use. Even better if you could uninstall the widget if you do not use it. This is required because, in the case of lot of widgets, even if you do not use the widget on your home screen, it runs in the background drawing power.

Solution:  Try to use widgets sparingly.

2)  Brightness: Reduce Brightness. Settings > Display > Brightness. Saves a lot of battery.

         Automatic Brightness: One of the quickest battery drainers. Since the device uses sensors to discover the amount of light to display, switching this off, helps in reducing the sensor usage and decreases load on the CPU. Thereby decreasing battery drain.

Solution: Use ‘Power Widget’. Check if this is available on your widget list or download this from the Android Market. It allows you to manually change the brightness of your screen as and when required. Helpful, because you do not need to get to settings every time you want to change the brightness.

3)   Wireless Connections:
1. Switch off 3G/2G Data, Wifi and Bluetooth when not in use. Power Widget can be configured to help you manage it by giving options for each.
2. You can also automatically disable wifi if you are not using it by using the sleep policy. Go to: Home > Menu > Settings > Wireless & network settings > Wi-Fi settings > Menu > Advanced > Wi-Fi sleep policy > Choose from options – When Screen turned off, Never when plugged in, never.
3. 2G uses less battery than 3G. If you do not require high speeds at all times: Settings > Wireless controls > Mobile networks > Use only 2G networks


4)   Haptic Feedback or Vibration: To vibrate your device, a considerable amount of battery is required. But it is essential to know when a call or SMS is received, especially if you carry your device in your pants pocket in a noisy environment. Also, Haptic feedback is the vibration that occurs when you press buttons on your phone, for example, when using the keyboard.

Solution: Reduce vibration for most activities and only use for essentials, like phone call or message.

You can remove most vibrations from apps which have notifications. If the notifications are not important, use the menu in the app and remove vibrate from settings. Also, you can remove vibrate for call waiting or when you receive an sms while on call. Since you can hear the beep, most people do not require the extra vibrations. Plus, it is distracting.

5)   Automatic Updates: To understand why this is important. Let’s first understand what it actually does. To keep you updated the device or app needs to sends a message to its respective server if there are any new updates. Then wait for the server to respond back and understand the response and provide a feedback on your screen. This entails the use of internet as well as CPU and memory usage. Now imagine this has been set to check every 5 minutes in a day. It will keep on doing so, thereby reducing battery, even when you are not using your device.

Solution: From the Home Screen > Menu > Settings > Accounts & Sync Settings > Disable Auto-sync (can be accessed directly using Power Widget). You can reactivate it as and when required and remember to switch it off once sync is complete.

1.  At the bottom of the same screen, check Manage accounts. You will see various accounts like Google – named as per your email address, Facebook (if you use it), etc. Here you will see apps that you can update manually by opening the app when required and refreshing it. Such apps can be removed from the auto sync list by clicking on the account to be removed and clicking on remove account. Also, you can add new accounts if required. Click on Add Accounts to see which accounts you can add.

2.  In Manage accounts, each account can be changed as per your preferences. For example: if you click on the google account, you will see options like – Sync Contacts, Sync Gmail, Sync Calender, Sync Google+ (if you use it) etc. Untick any that is not useful to you. The same can be done for the other accounts.

3.  Common Error: Users install multiple third party apps for the same account. A very common example is Facebook and Friendcaster. Both are used for Facebook, so it’s not important for both to be a part of the Manage accounts. Notifications still work without it.

Apps Solution: With so many apps updating in the background, it is no surprise that battery doesn’t last a day. If all your apps like mail, news, twitter, facebook, gmail, etc. check for updates every 10 minutes, that will be 144 times in a day for each app. A big battery drain.

Since most good apps allow you to go into their settings. Look for update interval or polling frequency or something similar. Reduce it to 1 hr or more depending on how critical it is for you. The more you can reduce this the better it is, of course. This is a need v/s capacity, so to each his own.

6)   Background Data: Another Option found in Home Screen > Menu > Settings > Accounts & Sync Settings. Background data is not required for all apps to work. Some like Android Market, Backups apps to Gmail etc. do require it. However, a normal user doesn’t use it all the time.

Most manufacturers provide an option to disable the background data through widgets. If you cannot find this option, you can download a small app called “Sync Settings” which provides direct access to the Accounts and Sync settings page. From here you can disable or enable the background data. The plus point for this app is the size plus it installs a shortcut on your home screen and not a battery draining widget.

7)   Sounds: Audible touch tones or screen lock sounds: The new smart phones provide a lot of bells and whistles that we are charmed by. Although, they may sound good, but as for every other feature, it needs power.

Solution:

1. Reduce Volume for Ringtone

2. Speaker phone use more power than the earpiece so use it only when required.

3. Disable: Audible touch tones, Audible selection, Screen lock sounds, Haptic feedback etc.

8)   GPS or Location: GPS switched on means that the receiver is on constantly looking for a satellite and trying to connect. There are many times when you do not need the accuracy of GPS satellites and can instead use wireless networks like your mobile data connection or Wifi to provide the location.

Solution:

1. Switch off GPS when not required (Power widget can provide direct access to the settings). Else: Home Screen > Menu > Settings > Location and Security > Untick “Use GPS satellites”.

2. Use Wireless networks: Tick it. The benefit of this is that it will only search when required by the device and that too when you choose to connect to the internet.

9)   Installed Applications: As more and more applications are installed, the device has to read the data. The more data read is equal to more battery usage. Also, many applications run in the background even when you are not using it. This increases the usage of the resources like CPU and RAM making your device slower and also the battery.

Solution:

1. Check your battery usage: Home Screen > Menu > Settings > Application settings > Battery use. This will tell you which processes are draining the battery the most, helping you make an informed decision on which apps to remove.

2. Uninstall applications that are not required. You can always reinstall when required from the Android Market. To do so: Home Screen > Menu > Settings > Application settings > Manage applications > select the application > Uninstall

3. For the apps that you use, always check if it has an exit or quit option. This closes the app completely releasing resources.

For example: Games generally ask you if you want to quit. Do so. Opera Mobile is another good example. However, the option to exit is not there by default. To do so, open Opera Mobile > Menu > Settings > Advanced > Enable ‘Exit button’. Always use this option to exit as this is a big app and uses a lot of memory.

10)   Reduce the number of home screens: Most devices use multiple home screens. Good Launchers provide up to 7 screens. But rarely are all the screens used by the user.

In most cases, users have 5 - 7 home screens but use only 3 – 4. Suggest decreasing the number of home screens to the ones used. A general good figure is not more than 4. Lesser the better.

11)   Reduce Animations / Transitions: Don’t we love the sliding, rolling, tilting etc when we go from one screen to another. They all use resources. Try and reduce animations or transitions either from the launcher (home screen) or individual apps. If you see apps showing animations, there sure will be a way to reduce or disable the animations. Look for them in the settings.

12)   Disable Live Wallpaper: Live Wallpapers are a constant drain on the battery. Use sparingly.

13)   Background Wallpaper: Use Darker background wallpaper. Brighter ones use more battery.

14)   Screen Time out: Enable screen time out. This will not only help the battery but also keep roving eyes away. Home screen > Menu > Settings > Display > Screen timeout. The shorter the period, the less power your display will use.

15)   Strong Network connection: Devices use more battery when searching for a network connection. If your mobile network fluctuates a lot, you will lose more power. Try keeping it a area which has a good reception. Download Antennas if you need to know where you are receiving a good connection.

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Ten Reasons to Love the New Outlook.com

Is Outlook.com a better alternative to Gmail? Here are 10 features where Outlook definitely has an upper hand over Google’s email program.

#1. Outlook is fast

The most impressive thing about the new Outlook.com, other than the beautiful UI, is its speed. It feels fast and though Microsoft is calling Outlook.com a preview version, it has been pretty stable for me.

#2. Social Done Right

Google has integrated a social network into my mailbox that could be growing but none of my friends and family members use it. On the other hand, Outlook is tightly integrated with Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn that most of us actually use.

#3. Quickly Find the Space-Hogging Emails

Locate the big emails easily and recover space in Outlook with a click.

This is one feature that Gmail users would love to have – the ability to sort emails by size. You can delete the messages that have big attachments – maybe video files and large presentations – and thus recover space with a click.

#4. Send Large Files and Email Attachments

With Outlook (and Gmail), you can send any number of file attachment provided the overall size of the message is less than 25 MB. The alternative is that you upload the file to Google Drive or Dropbox and include the download link in your message.

Outlook is more tightly integrated with SkyDrive and if you try attaching a file that exceed the 25 MB limit, it will automatically send it via SkyDrive.

#5. Block Emails from Particular Addresses or Domains

Some people love sending email forwards and other useless messages that do not deserve a place in your mailbox. Your web mail’s spam filter won’t block these emails as they are most coming from “real” people.

You can create filters in Gmail to block such people (or domains) permanently but Outlook has a simple solution.

You can block emails from specific senders or all messages originating from a par domain 

Select a message and choose “Sweep” -> Delete -> Block all future messages.

For bulk additions, go to your Outlook setting and choose Safe and Blocked Senders under “Preventing Junk Mail.” Here you can specify domain names (like @mail.ru or @com.cn) or individual email addresses and messages from these blacklisted address will be automatically deleted.

#6. Use HTML and CSS in your Rich Emails

Both Gmail and Outlook services offer a WYSIWYG editor to help you compose rich-text emails with images, headings, aligned text and other formatting.

However, Outlook also offers an HTML editor where you can write, or rather code, email messages directly in HTML and CSS Styles. While you are writing a new email, or replying to an existing one, go to Options and choose “Edit in HTML.”

Your Gmail or Outlook’s WYSIWYG editor doesn’t support tables or custom CSS sytems but now you can easily add them to your email messages without resorting to any workarounds.

#7 Get Disposable Email Addresses inside Outlook

If you are to share your email address will a less trustworthy website, you often use a disposable email address without revealing your primary address.

Hotmail and now Outlook, lets you create temporary email aliases that are just regular email addresses but you can delete them or create new ones whenever required. You can also rename an existing alias without deleting.

To create an email alias, open Outlook Mail Settings and choose Create an Alias under Managing your Account.

#8 Easily Recover your Deleted Mails

You can recover email that might have been accidently deleted from your Outlook inbox. 

#9 Unlimited Storage Space for your Mails and Attachments

Gmail offers 10 GB of storage space for free accounts. Outlook offers virtually unlimited storage that expands.

Microsoft Outlook includes email storage that expands to provide you with as much storage space as you need. Your inbox capacity will automatically increase as you need more space. [Storage Limits]

The maximum size of an email message (including attachments) that you can receive in Outlook is 25 MB which is similar to Gmail.

#10. Sign-in with a Temporary Password

You can sign-in without entering your account password.

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The Best Google Chrome Extensions for YouTube

Meet some of the best YouTube extensions for Google Chrome that will add missing functionality to the YouTube website improving your overall experience.

Do you spend more than a few minutes watching videos on YouTube? Here are some essential extensions for Google Chrome that will add new and missing features to the YouTube website thus improving your overall YouTube experience.

The Best YouTube Extensions for Google Chrome

1. Looper – This add a new “Loop” button near the YouTube video player and once clicked, the current video will play in an infinite loop until you hit stop. This comes handy if you are enjoying a music video on YouTube that you want to watch (or listen) over and over again.

2. Toggle Comments – Viewer comments on YouTube videos are annoying, they rarely add any value and are often filled with profanity. The Toggle Comments add-on will automatically hides the comments from all YouTube video pages (default behavior) but you can always press the “Comments” switch to bring them back.

3. Turn off the lights – This lets you watch YouTube videos in a distraction free environment. While you are on a YouTube video page, click the bulb icon in the Chrome address bar and everything but the video player will fade to dark – much like the cinema screen. You can also use the shortcut key Ctrl + Shift + L to toggle between regular view and dimmed background view.

4. YouTube Feed – If you have subscribed to multiple channels on YouTube and would like to be notified as soon as new videos become available in your subscriptions list, the YouTube Feed extension is for you.

YouTube Feeds adds a little button to your Chrome extensions bar and offers almost instant notifications whenever new videos are uploaded or liked by the channel owners that you are subscribed to.

5. YouTube Thumbs – YouTube generates three thumbnail images for all videos and sometimes these still frames can give you a good idea of what the video is all about.

With the YouTube Thumbs extension installed, you can hover your mouse over any video thumbnail on the YouTube website and it will auto-play the three thumbnails in a loop much like an animated GIF.

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Send your Gmail Attachments to Google Drive

Imagine this. You are reading a Gmail message on your mobile, the message contains one or more file attachments, you apply a label (say GoogleDrive) to that message and automatically all those attachments are saved to one of the folders on your Google Drive.

And since Google Drive will automatically synchronize with your desktop folders, the saved email attachments will instantly download and become available on your local disk as well for offline viewing.

Save Gmail Attachments in Google Drive

You don’t have to install any extensions and the technique will work just fine in the web and mobile version of Gmail (including any of your Gmail Apps that support labels).

Setting the Stage

If you would like to have a similar setup for your Gmail and Google Drive, all you need is a minute. Just follow these easy steps:

1. Assuming that you are logged in to your Google account, create a copy of this sheet in your Google Docs (now Google Drive).
2. Open the sheet and you should see a new Gmail menu – click Initialize and grant the necessary permissions. This is your sheet (see source code) and you are not sharing your Google credentials or data with anyone else.
3. Next go the Gmail menu again and select Run. Close the Google sheet and you are done.

Behind the Scene

Here’s how the program works. The Google sheet will monitor your Gmail mailbox in the background (every two minutes) and as soon as it finds any message that has a label GoogleDrive, it will automatically save all the attachments in that message to the Gmail folder on your actual Google Drive.

Once the basic setup is ready, apply the label GoogleDrive to any of your email messages in Gmail and the attached files should become available in your Drive (both online and offline) in the next few minutes.

Troubleshooting tips

If you are getting errors like “Service invoked too many times,” you can increase the trigger duration. Open the same sheet in Google Docs, go to Tools –> Script Editor and then choose Resources –> Current Script Triggers. Change the value of Minutes timer from “Every 5 minutes” to say “Every 15 minutes”.

If you would like to stop the script from running in the background, go to the same trigger screen and simple delete the “SendToGoogleDrive” time trigger.

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Five ways to access blocked Internet sites

The Internet is a vast expanse and there’s a ton of information out there, most of it is legal, while some of it is illegal. Unfortunately, due to a number of reasons, sites that have content that may be in the clear might also get blocked by either the authorities, your ISP or sometimes even your office network administrator. Gaining access can be considered to be a very technical and complicated process, but it really isn’t. We’re going to look at some of these ways to unblock sites. Most of these techniques are really simply, while a couple of others might need more than a minute or two to get running.

Unblocking by changing your DNS server

A DNS server is like an index, with a list of domain names - such as YouTube.com, Tech2.com and pretty much every other site on the Internet. When you type in a website address in your browser, your computer sends a request to the DNS server and it tells you the IP address for that site. One of the easiest ways for ISPs to stop access to a particular site is by removing the entries for the sites that need to be blocked. ISPs can choose to redirect the request to a different site or a notice page as well.

A simple DNS server change could open up your connection

However, there is a way around this. There are free, fully open third-party DNS services run by organizations and other ISPs. The most popular ones are run by Google and OpenDNS. All you need to do is change your DNS server settings to theirs. In a typical Windows 7 system, head over to the Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network and Sharing Center > Change adapter settings. Right click on your network adapter, click on Internet Protocol Version 4, click on Properties. Click on the Use the following DNS server addresses and enter the DNS server of your choice. Google’s DNS addresses are 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4, while OpenDNS’ are 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220. Click on OK to save the settings and reboot your PC.

Using browsing proxies

Browsing proxies are services that allow you to use their Internet connection, thus bypassing most of the restrictions setup by the ISPs or the network administrators. There are plenty of these on the Internet that can be accessed through your browser. All you need to do is access them and enter the URL of the site that you want to access in the address bar provided by the site. All the requests will then be channeled through that browsing proxy server.

The only downside to this of course is that if the browsing proxy itself gets blocked by your ISP, you’ll have to find another one. Some of these browsing proxies, depending on how popular they are, can be slow to access. A quick Google search for ‘anonymous browsing proxy’ will give you a long list of services available on the web.

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Google Drive: Top 10 things you must know

Google has recently come up with its Google Drive cloud-storage service that lets you store up to 5GB of data on Google's servers for free. But before you start driving with Google's new cloud service, here is all the basic information that you must know about it.

1. Google Drive is Google's newly launched cloud-based storage service that lets users store data online on Google's servers, and access the same anywhere, anytime. In other words, it is a place where users can create, share, collaborate, and keep all their stuff.

2. If a user runs the free Google Drive application, he will get a folder on his computer (Windows or OSX) where he can drag his files in to. Any data stored in that folder is kept on your hard disk and is also copied to account in the cloud. Users can anytime, anywhere access those files from drive.google.com or from other computers, including mobile devices.

3. Google Drive is offering the first 5GB of storage per account for free. Additional storage will be sold for prices starting at $2.49 per month for 25 gigabytes.

4. Users can choose to upgrade to 25GB for $2.49/month, 100GB for $4.99/month or even 1TB for $49.99/month. When you upgrade to a paid account, your Gmail account storage will also expand to 25GB. This will be a bonus for you!

5. Users can install Drive on their Macs or PCs and can download the Drive app to their Android phones or tablets. The company says that it is working on a drive app for iOS devices.

6. Any file you put in the drive, and any changes you make to the data stored in the drive are automatically updated not just in the cloud but on all the other devices that you have connected to the Drive.

7. Within file size and space limits, users can store any file or folder, which they can store on their hard drives, in a cloud drive.

8. Google Docs is also built right into Google Drive, so users can work with others in real time on documents, spreadsheets and presentations.

9. All users may not have immediate access to the Google Drive service. The Google Drive page says, "Your Google Drive is not ready yet." And when you click the 'Notify me' button beneath the message, it states: We'll email you at ******@gmail.com (your email address) when your Google Drive is ready.

10. Users can attach photos from Drive to posts in Google+. According to the company, users will soon be able to attach stuff from Drive directly to emails in Gmail.

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Google adds 2.5 GB to Gmail storage

Google launched the Gmail service on April 1, 2004 on invite basis. In these eight years time span, it has gradually increased its storage from 1 GB to 7.5 GB. Google has launched the Google Drive, cloud storage service yesterday and to celebrate it, the company has added 2.5 GB storage for the Gmail users.

The Gmail team has mentioned in the official Gmail blog that they are increasing the free storage from 7.5 GB to 10 GB. This does not mean that the Gmail storage counter will jump directly to 10 GB. It will happen gradually. This storage is not fixed and it will be increasing slowly.

This additional 2.5 GB increase is for all the users of Gmail while those who are signing into the paid account of Google Drive will get a total of 25 GB free storage. The paid accounts enable them to enjoy storage space of 25 GB, 100 GB and 1 TB in Google Drive for $2.49, $4.99 and $4.99 per month.

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Android Glasses Have Arrived

Epson has been around since the dot matrix printer days. I know some of you are thinking “What’s a dot matrix printer”? Well just take my word for it, it’s a long time.

The Tokyo Japan based company has announced the availability of the Epson Moverio BT-100 Android powered glasses. They carry an MSRP of $699 but for the technology you’re getting, that’s a relatively good deal.

The Moverio BT-100 feature include:
80 inch perceived projection display
Dolby Mobile surround sound
Wi-Fi Connectivity
6 hour battery life
1gb of built in storage
microSD slot with 4gb card.

More after the break

The glasses use micro-projection technology along with an Android powered track-pad controller. The user can enjoy video on the 80 inch perceived projection display. You can also experience 3d side by side content and download digital content.

Apps like Netflix, Amazon Kindle, and Angry Birds work great on the Moverio BT-100 glasses.

“As the world leader in visual imaging technology, Epson continually strives to set industry benchmarks for quality and innovation,” said Anna Jen, director of New Business Development, Epson America. “The Moverio BT-100 see-through display is poised to significantly impact not only the way people interact with content for personal enjoyment, but the development of content for future applications – from virtual training platforms to a new way to interact with 3D CADenvironments to visualizing 3D design renderings.”

Highlighted features:

• Enhanced Mobility: Rechargeable battery offers nearly six hours of battery life
• Removable Memory: Built-in card slot supports up to 32GB microSDHC card
• Download and Go: Transfer content, games and apps to the included 4GB microSDHC card or internal 1GB of user storage on the controller
• Adobe® Flash® 11 Support: Stream videos from popular television websites featuring Flash 11 content and content rich Flash-enabled websites
• Big Sound: Dolby® Mobile surround sound delivered to personal earphones or Moverio’s detachable earphones (included in-box)
• Innovative Navigation: Touch-enabled track pad and navigational buttons enable easy interaction of content
• Immersive 3D: Enjoy side-by-side 3D content like never before

Epson is also looking for developers interested in working on the platform. Developers can visit www.epson.com/moverio for more information, as can consumers interested in the first ever Android glasses.

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Create a secret partition on a pen drive

A workshop, where we show you how to create a secret partition on your USB pen drive which can be accessed only on your PC

There is no way you can partition USB pen drives. They show up as a removable drive on the PC. In order to do so, you need to trick the operating system into recognizing the USB pen drive as a fixed hard drive. To do this, you will need to create your own set of drivers. In this workshop, we shall demonstrate just that. Doing so, you can create multiple partitions and store your private data on it. Only the first partition will be visible, and the other partitions will not show up on any other PC, but your own.

This way, you can store your personal data away from your friends and family, and also you can avoid viruses affecting this data when plugged in on another computer. To do this, all you need is a simple universal USB pen drive driver, which can be downloaded from ‘http://www.mediafire.com/?oqlgdvcymzz’. Download the archive, uncompress it to a folder on your desktop and get started. Don’t forget to backup the contents of your pen drive, as it will format it.

Step 1: Plug in your pen drive into your PC’s USB port. Next, right-click on ‘My Computer’ and click on ‘Manage’ in the context menu. Click on ‘Device Manager’ on the left pane. This will show all the hardware devices connected to your PC. Now, on the right pane, scroll down to ‘Disk Drives’ and you should see your pen drive connected here. Right-click on the pen drive and select ‘Properties’.

Selecting properties for the flash drive

Step 2: In the properties window that just opened, click on the ‘Details’ tab. From the scroll down menu under ‘Property’, choose ‘Device Instance Path’. You should see a string of characters highlighted in the ‘Value’ window below, which should read something like ‘USBSTORDISK&VEN_&PROD…..’ Right-click on this value and select ‘Copy’. Now close all the windows without saving changes.

Selecting the Device Instance Path

Step 3: Now open the folder that you uncompressed after downloading the universal USB flash drive driver. In this folder, find and open the file named ‘cfadisk.inf’ in ‘Notepad’ or any test editor you prefer (Notepad++ is ideal to be used here’ (download from ‘notepad-plus-plus.org’).

Modifying the flash driver

Step 4: Now locate the words ‘device_instance_id_goes_here’, which is available on line 26. You need to replace these words with the string you just copied to the clipboard from the Device Manager. Save the file and close the editor.

Step 5: Now go back to the ‘Device Manager’ page (repeat step 1). This time click on the ‘Driver’ tab and click the button ‘Update driver’ 

Switching to the updated driver

Step 6: On the next window, choose ‘Browse my computer for driver software’ when the system asks how you want to search for the driver software. Then on the next window, choose ‘Let me pick from a list of drivers …. ‘. 

Step 7: On the next window, uncheck the box ‘Show compatible hardware’ and click on the ‘Have disk button’. Now click on ‘Browse’ and from the universal USB driver folder on your desktop select the ‘cfadisk.inf’ file and click on the ‘Open button’, followed by the ‘OK’ and then ‘Next’ buttons on the previous windows.

Step 8: An update driver warning message should show up stating that you are trying to install a driver, which is not compatible with your hardware. Ignore the message and click on ‘Yes’. The system will start installing the driver and show up another warning that the driver is not a verified or authentic driver. Ignore this one message and click on ‘Install this driver software anyway’. Let the system update the driver and you shall receive a message of a successful driver update. 

Windows security warning for the driver

Note: You can use this modified driver for this pen drive only. To use another pen drive, you will need to do the whole process again.

Step 9: That’s all you needed to do. Now once you are back to the ‘Computer Management’ window, click on ‘Disk Management’ from the left pane and start partitioning your pen drive as you would with a regular hard drive. You can create multiple partitions and format them, accordingly. 

Partitioning the flash drive, like you would a hard drive

Note: You can access all the partitions on the pen drive only from your PC. Other PCs will only be able to see the first partition and the rest will be unavailable. Make a copy of the driver on the first partition of the pen drive and you can install it on other PCs, in case you need to access the other partitions.

This way, you can plug in the pen drive on your friend’s PCs without worrying about your private data. To reset everything back to the way it was, simply delete the partitions completely and uninstall/delete the driver for the pendrive from the Device Manager.

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