How virtualization software Hopedot VOS carry your PC on USB drive

Hopedot VOS is a software solution that enables you to use any portable storage device to have access to your files and applications on any other Windows PC. It allows you to store settings for files, programs and browser settings so that you don't have to carry your laptop everywhere but instead can use your portable storage device with the Hopedot VOS software. It creates an operating system that is virtual and stored on the portable storage device.

The nice thing about Hopedot VOS is that it gives you a number of options when it comes to storing your new virtual machine. Hopedot VOS virtual operating system can be stored on a USB flash drive, external hard drive, or other portable storage device like an iPod in addition to your Windows desktop or laptop. Storing your Hopedot VOS on a USB flash drive does have its pros and cons. Probably the most obvious pro is that your virtual machine becomes extremely portable. You can literally just put it in your pocket. The con is that a USB flash drive may be limited in storage, and the performance may not be great due to the data transfer rates of some USB flash drives. Therefore, it’d better to choose a high capacity and fast speed USB drive to bring out the best performance of Hopedot VOS virtual system.

Hopedot-VOS-virtual-operating-system 

Not only is it nice to always have your personal browser settings with you all the time, including your favorites, but also you can have your favorite applications at your fingertips. After all, you can install any Windows compatible application on to your virtual desktop. You can even install some of your favorite games. With the help of Hopedot VOS virtual operating system you can create a PC in your USB drive. Then you can carry your necessary software and settings every where and use this software in any PC without installing this software in that PC. Even if you love to play game, install that game in Hopedot VOS in your USB drive and just connect your USB drive in any PC to play the game.

Upon getting into your Hopedot VOS virtual desktop for the first time, you’ll probably say to yourself, “This looks like Windows.” The good news is that it is Windows, so you can use it like you would any other version of Windows for the most part. The nice thing about the creation of a Hopedot VOS virtual desktop is that you are up and running on a fresh copy of Windows in 5-10 minutes as opposed to the hour or longer a fresh install of Windows would take on Virtual PC. While in your virtual desktop, you can easily switch back to the host machine, so it’s no problem if you need to go back to your host machine for any reason.

Hopedot-VOS-Portable-USB-Solution

It will not affect the connected PC, the PC also not affect your USB drive. The software provides all types of security as well as your privacy. Your application information, browsing history as well as your data will be never left behind in the connected PC. So, if you want to use it, just download Hopedot VOS tool and install it in your USB drive. After installation, your USB flash drive behaves just like a PC and you are ready to install your necessary software in the USB flash drive. With the fact that there travel rules and restrictions can change frequently, being able to bring just a portable storage device makes life on the road much easier. 

Bring your own PC Anywhere with Windows To Go or Hopedot VOS Encrypted USB Drive

What’s Windows To Go? Some of my readers may ask. It’s an enterprise feature of Windows 8 that enables the creation of a Windows To Go workspace that can be booted from a USB-connected external drive on PCs that meet the Windows 7 or Windows 8 certification requirements, regardless of the operating system running on the PC. At the very beginning, Microsoft named this feature as “Portable Workspace”. To put it simply, it allows enterprises to provision a full corporate environment people can boot and run from on multiple computers on a USB drive. "Users want to work from different places -- on an airplane, at the coffee shop -- and they want to work from more than one device," said Karri Alexion-Tiernan, Microsoft's director of product management for Windows To Go.

The notion of Windows booting from a USB sounds familiar when I firstly heard about Windows To Go. As a virtualization technology enthusiast, I have mentioned in my previous articles that softwares like Prayaya V3 and Hopedot VOS can be a very easy-to-mange portable workspace creator as well. An obvious resemblance between them is that you can take Windows home with you from work only with a tiny USB drive rather than a heavy laptop. But it’s Windows 8 this time. I have to admit that I am really looking forward to its final release in October.

What we are talking here is not portable applications or something like that. It is about carrying the whole PC environment on a USB to any accessible PC or laptops. If you want to experiment with Windows To Go but do not want to order a new certified USB drive, you can create your own Windows To Go USB drive. Get ready a 32 GB or larger USB 3.0 drive (it can also be an external hard drive) and build the USB drive on at a Windows 7 or 8 PC. Another thing you need is Windows 8 DVD ISO and Windows 8 Developer Preview Product Key. The process is a little complicated in my view. 

What if you are using Windows 7, XP, Vista or older systems and you don’t have a 32GB 3.0 USB drive? Hopedot VOS will be a good choice for you to experiment how you can bring your corporate PC to your home PC. It only requires a fast speed USB (or external hard drive) and a PC using Windows 32 bits system. The installation of Hopedot VOS is as easy as any other standard softwares and takes less than 2 minutes.

It’s no doubt that Windows To Go will bring great convenience for enterprises to improve employees’ productivity, to save on capital expenditures and to apply IT management for data security and disaster recovery etc. But still there are some shortcomings different from a traditional Windows installed on a local PC. As to where you are supposed to store documents, the solution is to save data in the cloud, more specifically Microsoft’s own SkyDrive, that is, you should have a Microsoft Account. I should say it’s not what I expect at this point. Both Prayaya V3 and Hopedot VOS can save data within the virtual environment and be taken to any PC without problem. Let’s take Hopedot VOS Security Edition for example. You only need to create a safe partition when you install Hopedot VOS on a USB drive. And then all the applications and data will be automatically encrypted into this safe partition and immediately accessible after the USB is plugged into the PC.

Since the workspace is roaming from one PC to another laptop on a USB drive, the security issue matters a lot. Therefore, Windows To Go makes a sacrifice that the user’s local hard disk is inaccessible from the Windows TO GO environment, which guarantees that the Windows To Go workspace doesn’t get infected by any downloaded malware. Similarly, Hopedot VOS Security Edition also completely annihilates the access to the local hard drive to isolate the VOS virtual environment from the host PC. If users want to transfer data between the VOS system and the host Windows OS, the data must be imported or exported with pre-set data management password.

On the whole, Windows To Go and softwares like Hopedot VOS will definitely make our life easier to some extent. I will keep following up with their new moves.

Hopedot VOS Customization Service and Software Solutions for Data Security and Virtual Desktop

We all know that full productivity and data security matter a lot for the stable development of enterprise. And one of the biggest challenges for IT department is to find a most optimal solution to balance the two without exceeding IT budget. As setting up permissions for each employee or restricting the use of USB drives at office does not always work to protect enterprise data but bring much inconvenience by compromising employees’ work efficiency. To help solve this problem, Hopedot company introduces its advanced software solutions and customization service to the market.

Have you ever met with the situation where you have to take several hours to re-build up a productive corporate computing environment after system reinstallation? Have you tired of carrying around a bulky laptop everywhere you go? Have you been worrying about your new idea, design proposal, intellectual property and even sensitive data being copied or stolen? Have you thought about replacing the laptop by a lightweight USB drive which can boot a complete operating system with all the data encrypted? All of the above mentioned headaches will come to an end using Hopedot VOS software solutions.

By enabling to create a virtual operating system directly from a USB drive on any Windows-based PC, Hopedot VOS software solutions can be widely used on secure data and secure workspace. For effective and economic IT management, the host PC can be maintained a clean operating system with zero installation of any applications. The IT department centrally manages and provides the customized Hopedot VOS enabled USB drives to employees with all the needed softwares pre-installed in VOS system. Employees just need to plug in the USB drives and can get access to a productive workspace at office, at home and in hotels etc.

Using Hopedot VOS, all your sensitive data, browsing history, user password and favorite applications will be securely encrypted in a virtual operating system. The virtual system will be isolated from the host system with its own standalone registry. Therefore, there will be no trace left behind and no virus infection from the host PC. It’s the best easiest and ideal solution to take a virtual desktop to any PC with only a fast speed USB drive.

Some of Hopedot VOS successfully applied solutions are:

RoamingWorkspace Solution,

SecureWorkspace Solution,

SecureMultimedia Teaching Solution,

FinancialGuard Solution,

……

As the practical needs vary, Hopedot VOS customization service will provide better software solutions according to users’ requirements. Organizations can customize Hopedot VOS to fit their existing company USB drives or directly order Hopedot VOS encrypted USB drives from Hopedot company, which meet the security requirement of FIPS 140-2 Level 2 and 256-bit AES hardware-based encryption. The customization options include but not limited to logo design, languages, colors, specific features added etc.

Hopedot VOS solutions are quite flexible and can be utilized to either fulfill its portability function or securely protect private information. Along with the widespread use of virtualization technology, we can see that a virtual operating system on a USB drive is indeed a pioneering work and will bring great convenience for enterprise management.

A review of Hopedot VOS Standatd Edition

It’s not always easy to find the right software to meet your needs. Or you just don’t realize your life can be easier with the help of some software unknown to you. Have you ever thought about making any PC your PC? Hopedot VOS is the exact answer for that requirement.

Using Hopedot VOS, you can create a virtual operating system based on any Windows system. In Hopedot VOS virtual environment, you can install unlimited applications and run them, surf the net and do most things as you do in Windows. It can be installed in local disk or external storage devices like USB drive, that is, the VOS operating system is portable to be used at anywhere. Most importantly, no traces of your operations in VOS system will be left so that your local system will never be affected whatever you do in Hopedot VOS.

Installation:

It takes less than two minutes to install Hopedot VOS Standard Edition. No plug-in is needed. The first time you start Hopedot VOS, a box will pop up and ask you to create your own VOS account and set password. You can change the setting to automatically login next time. Furthermore, you can install VOS both in local disk of a PC and in USB drive and then login with your personal own VOS account.

Interface:

You will see a navy blue desktop interface after you enter the Hopedot VOS environment (you can change the desktop picture). The toolbar will draw your attention too. It enables you to switch between the two systems very quickly. And you are also allowed to change settings and lock the VOS screen. The lock screen function helps protect confidential data in VOS system while you temporarily leave the PC.

It’s a very clean system with only IE browser and some basic icons. But the Standard Edition allows you to access the files of the host system, so that you can build up your own familiar PC environment in a short time. You will also find a Hopedot VOS folder on the desktop. This is for you to save all the data and you can copy the whole folder from computer hard disk to USB drive or from USB drive to computer hard disk.

VOS desktop mode

VOS small window mode

Pros:

Hopedot VOS is a great solution to make portable virtual PC come true. The similar Windows interface saves your time to get used to it. If you don’t want to switch between two systems all the time, you can change the VOS mode from the desktop to small window by toolbar. The small window mode makes no difference of VOS’s utility and convenience.

By using Hopedot VOS, you don’t have to wait for re-installation of must needed software in other people’s computers or after system crash. It supports not only common use software but also some professional software like SQL 2000.

Cons:

Hopedot VOS is a virtual operating system and the installation of some software on it may be affected by the security software of the host system.It can not be used on PC with Windows 64 bits system now.

 

Conclusion:

Hopedot VOS is an advanced virtualization software not limited to personal use but can also be applied to enterprises and industries of different kind. You will find a lot more features that Hopedot VOS can do after you try to use it. Its free trial version is with all the features mentioned above and you are allowed to use it freely 100 times. 

How PortableApps, Hopedot VOS, Ceedo and Prayaya V3 differ from each other

After I found out a new portable launcher—Hopedot VOS, I suddenly realize that there have been quite a number of portable launchers in the market, e.g., PortableApps, Ceedo, Prayaya V3 and other less famous softwares. Some of my blog readers asked me which launcher is the best. Well, it’s really a hard question to answer. Each product has its own highlight and competitive advantage. To choose the right one, we not only need to list out the pros and cons of all portable launchers. But most importantly, we have to know our actual demand and requirements, not just what the products can do for us.

Along with the release of more and more free portable applications, it is obvious that the demand of people’s requiring a portable and convenient PC workspace anywhere is growing rapidly. A USB drive equipped with all kinds of portable applications, beyond doubt, saves us a lot of troubles, like carrying around heavy laptops on business travel, waiting for the reinstallation after system breakdown, or getting upset for no games to play on grandpa’s computer. However, that is far away from our expectation of running all the personalized PC stuffs on any computers we access to. To put it simply, we want the USB drive to generate an operating system the same as any Windows OS (like Hopedot VOS and Prayaya V3 do), and then we can do things exactly the same as on our personal computer.

When I decided to draw the following table to compare PortableApps, Hopedot VOS, Ceedo and Prayaya V3 in the following aspects, I’m not trying to define which one is the best. In fact, I personally appreciate them a lot for the convenience brought to my PC life and satisfy my different needs respectively. The table is mainly a reference for those who want to know more about these four launchers to meet their demand.

From the above comparison, we can see that PortableApps basically focus on portables applications on USB drives. Its platform has published a large number of freeware portables apps. The software is free to download as well. Maybe, for most of people, the simpler, the better.

                                                                                

Hopedot VOS has nearly all the features I think about, except that both the Standard Edition and Security Edition don’t support to run on computers controlled by administrative rights. I have tried to email Hopedot company and got the feedback that they can customize a new version to work under no administrative rights if needed. I like its desktop interface like Windows OS and easy-to-manage toolbar the most.

Hopedot VOS Security Edition toolbar

Ceedo is good enough if it can be installed in the local hard drive of the host computer as Hopedot VOS and Prayaya V3 do. It’s expensive but I should say it is worth the money.

Although it’s great that Prayaya is free now, I also notice a little difference between the free version and the previous purchased version. Prayaya’s toolbar has become very simple, only retain the “switch” button to switch back and forth between two Prayaya’s system and the host system. That’s why we can’t lock the screen or change to small window mode now.

V3 toolbar of the purchased version

V3 toolbar of the free version

In general, each portable launcher is not perfect. We will never know which one is the best fit for our needs if we don’t try. PortableApps and Prayaya are free. Hopedot VOS’s trial versions are free to download as well. It allows users to try 100 times and all the features are fully functional. It’s a pity that Ceedo doesn’t provide free download.