by Gina Trapani
You’re headed to your buddy’s house and you want to play some World of Warcraft or watch a downloaded movie while you’re there. You don’t have to drag along your entire laptop to do so. Set up your “PC on a stick” with portable software MojoPac, a standalone Windows installation that runs directly from a flash drive or iPod.
Plug in your MojoPac-enabled portable drive into your buddy’s PC, launch Windows from it, and use any application or document directly from the drive, no footprint left behind on the host PC. Great for anyone who works on several PC’s on a regular basis - or who just wants to separate certain apps and documents from a computer they use - MojoPac is a convenient, portable Windows virtual machine.
Uses for MojoPac
Your “PC on a stick” lets you do all sorts of things, like:
* Listen to your music library, watch videos and download podcasts from any PC with iTunes installed on your MojoPac (along the lines of Adam’s self-sustaining iPod, but using full-on iTunes.)
* Watch downloaded video like movies or TV shows with your media player of choice from any PC on your MojoPac.
* Play PC games like World of Warcraft, Everquest or Half-Life from any PC and take the game and its current state with you.
* Use expensive PC software you have limited licenses for, like Microsoft Office or Photoshop, from any computer.
* Surf with your preferred browser, store your passwords and other sensitive data separate from an untrusted host PC.
* Backup working copies of your essential software so that if your computer crashes or hard drive fails, you can plug your MojoPac into another PC and have a working environment ready to go.
Sound good? Let’s get it running.
Install MojoPac
To get MojoPac set up, you’ll need:
* A USB flash drive or disk-mode enabled iPod
* A Windows XP PC where you can log on as an administrator
* The MojoPac software - Windows only, $29.99 a license, free 30-day/200 boot trial download available.
Here’s how to install MojoPac.
1. Prepare your portable drive. If you’re installing MojoPac on a USB flash drive, clear off as much disk space from it as possible. Then, optimize it for fast reading and writing. In My Computer, go to the Properties panel of the portable drive. In the Hardware tab, choose the drive, and click Properties, then in the Policies tab, check off “Optimize for Performance,” as shown.
If you’re using an iPod, make sure the “Manually manage music” option is checked in iTunes, and that “Enable disk use” is also checked off.
2. Register for a free web site account at MojoPac.com (I know, annoying but necessary) and download MojoPac. Launch the MojopacInstaller.exe file and point it at your iPod or USB drive letter. You’ll need the web site login you just registered to activate the software, and you’ll have to set up a device-specific login name and password as well. Keep track of both of these logins.
3. Launch MojoPac. Once MojoPac is installed on your portable drive, browse to the drive contents and click the MojoPac Start.exe file, as shown:
Click the Start Mojo button, and enter the device-specific login information you set up in step 2. MojoPac’s first boot takes a few extra minutes to get your portable Windows installation in order, so grab a drink while it gets everything set up.
Now you’ll be sitting at your MojoPac Windows desktop, which resides entirely on your portable drive but “borrows” the CPU, video drivers, internet connection, keyboard and mouse from the host PC. Across the top you’ll see a MojoPac toolbar that lets you switch back and forth between host PC and MojoPac, as shown (click to enlarge).
(Sorry for the tiny screenshots there, folks.)
If you browse to My Computer in MojoPac, you’ll notice the portable drive you’re running from is MojoPac’s C: drive. Unlike most virtual machines, you cannot access the host PC’s disks while in MojoPac, however, while you’re in the host PC you can write to your MojoPac drive.
While you’re in MojoPac, you can install any Windows application you want - not just portable apps. Photoshop, iTunes, VLC media player, any PC game, full-on Microsoft Office - you’re limited only by how much space is available on the disk. As such, MojoPac turns your portable disk not only into a data backup, but a working software application backup.
Speaking of data, MojoPac also provides a neat little data copy utility that moves your documents onto your MojoPac. To get into it, quit MojoPac (while you’re in MojoPac, right click the system tray icon and choose Exit MojoPac), and then restart it. Instead of clicking the Start Mojo button, click the Data Copy button. Choose which folders on your host PC you want to move into your MojoPac installation, as shown. (Click to enlarge.)
Easy as pie.
Advantages of MojoPac
Compared to a similar free product like Damn Small Linux (which can also run from a flash drive) MojoPac is dead-easy to install and use. For the dedicated Windows user (and let’s face it, most people are), MojoPac is just familiar - there’s nothing more to learn, except some ins and outs of managing an external disk. Unlike embedded Damn Small Linux, MojoPac detects Windows settings like screen resolution and goes full-screen automatically, no muss or fuss required.
Disadvantages
Unlike Damn Small Linux, MojoPac isn’t free. Currently a license costs 30 bucks, with 3 additional at 15 a pop (a limited offer right now.) Also, while MojoPac advertises itself as a solution for folks who are limited by IT restrictions on software - say, at the office - you must be logged into the host PC as an administrator to run MojoPac, something most users in IT lockdown are not. I also experienced a minor bug after running MojoPac - for some reason it turned off my host PC’s font smoothing.
Lastly, while MojoPac is a great way to use your full-on virtual PC on the road, the speed depends entirely on how fast the computer can read and write to the disk. Even with a fast disk, this will be slower than working on the host PC itself.
Overall, MojoPac combines the advantages of portable apps, virtual machines and bootable disks into an easy-to-use and affordable package. Got any questions or thoughts about MojoPac? Let us know in the comments. Thanks to Kat for bringing MojoPac to our attention!
Gina Trapani, the editor of Lifehacker, just found the perfect use for her retired, 2nd gen iPod. Her semi-weekly feature, Geek to Live, appears every Wednesday and Friday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Geek to Live feed to get new installments in your newsreader.
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