How to Create the Ultimate USB Key Ring to Solve Any Computer Problem

If you7;re ;the computer guy; (or girl) to your friends and family, you7;re probably asked to diagnose and fix their problems on a regular basis. If you can7;t stand to tell them to leave you alone, you might as well embrace your role and come prepared with one key ring full of flash drives to rule them all.

With a set of drives filled with portable versions of useful PC repair and maintenance programs, along with some bootable troubleshooting utilities, you7;ll be ready for just about any problem.

Step One: Grab Your Drive(s)

Any USB drive should work for this guide. You can fit most of the portable apps below on one single flash drive, though a few of the tools require a dedicated drive that you can boot from2;this allows you to solve problems on computers that won7;t even turn on.

The best approach is probably to have a big, fast primary drive with most of the self-contained programs (and which you can also use for your own personal files), and a handful of small, cheap drives for the self-booting utilities.

We recommend Kingston7;s DataTraveler SE9 series. It comes with support for USB 3.0 ports for speedy operation on supported PCs, and its thick steel ring allows for the addition of multiple drives, so you just have one key ring to rule them all. At the time of writing, the 64GB version is a very reasonable $27 on Amazon, and lower capacities for the self-booting tools are nice and cheap as well.

Step Two: Gather Your Tools

Here are the tools we recommend for your ultimate key ring, and what they do. For now, you can just download all these to your PC; and then we7;ll add them to your key ring in the next step.

Google Chrome Portable: Because you don7;t want to use someone else7;s browser, do you? The link above is a modified version of Chrome that launches from any folder, updated with the latest stable release from Google.

Revo Uninstaller: This tool is a fast method for uninstalling applications, like the bloatware that tends to cling around on new machines. It has a few useful extras, like a ;Hunter Mode; that can uninstall programs just by pointing at their window2;great for that crapware you aren7;t sure the name of. Best of all, it can also clean up those annoying leftover directories in places like the main programs folder and the startup menu.

Avira Rescue System: a self-booting drive tool that can clean viruses, malware, and other nasty stuff off of other operating systems. This one will require its own USB drive on your key ring. Make sure to update it periodically with the official freeware tool2;instructions for creating your own USB rescue drive are at the link.

CrystalDiskInfo: A tool for checking the health and longevity of hard drives. Handy if you think the storage on a PC is failing.

Speccy: An easy way to quickly see all the technical specifications of a computer, including non-obvious stuff like the number of RAM DIMMs installed and the number of expansion slots used.

Process Explorer: A tool that helps you identify running processes. Handy for identifying running malware and other bad stuff.

AdwCleaner: A tool that seeks out and destroys adware2;those annoying toolbars and pop-up menus that tend to install themselves when unknowing users download free programs that are bundled with all kinds of mildly malicious advertising. The program is a self-contained executable you can launch from a USB drive.

Peerblock: A tool for creating a quick firewall, selectively blocking incoming and outgoing traffic.

MBRtool: This isn7;t a standalone app, but a bootable tool that requires its own flash drive. Once you create it, you can pop the drive into any PC and boot from it to repair the master boot record, one of the most common causes of an OS boot failure.

HWMonitor: An easy way to inspect all kinds of esoteric hardware and settings that aren7;t normally visible in Windows, like all of the temperature and fan sensors on the motherboard. Especially handy if you7;re tuning a ;Gaming; or performance PC.

Wireless Network Watcher: This program can show you all of the devices connected to your local network, including their IP addresses and MAC addresses. Very useful if something is giving you network issues, or you suspect someone7;s on the network when they shouldn7;t be.

WinDirStat: a disk analyzer and cleaner. Good for quickly finding big and unneeded files to free up space if your friend7;s hard drive is getting full. If you prefer a more graphical layout, SpaceSniffer is a good alternative (or addition).

NirSoft password recovery tools: this collection of programs is designed to recover usernames and passwords if no easy recovery option is available, like resetting via email. The various tools work on web browsers, wireless networks, Windows Protected Networks, and even remote desktop tools.

Hiren7;s Boot CD: an all-in-one package that includes a ton of tools for repairing and optimizing computers, all squeezed into a self-booting CD file. Don7;t let the title fool you, you can run it from a dedicated USB drive as well. (Note: this actually contains a number of the tools we7;ve included in this guide, plus a lot more2;but having your own versions of the tools on a non-bootable drive makes things a little easier, so we included them in this list anyway.)

ProduKey: another Nirsoft tool. This one helps you find Windows and other registration keys, in case you7;re unable to verify someone7;s legitimate copy, even from other PCs on the local network. It7;s a portable, all-in one application, but using its advanced functions requires a bit of command line use.

ShellExView: for cleaning all of that crap off the Windows right-click menu after you7;ve gotten rid of the programs your friends shouldn7;t have downloaded.

BlueScreenView: this very useful tool will show you the results and minidump files behind the machines latest blue screen (of death) crashes. Much better than reaching for your phone camera in the five seconds the screen is up.

The Official Windows Recovery Drive: Lastly, don7;t forget that you can also create a USB recovery drive from within Windows2;and if you frequently find yourself repairing someone7;s PC, it might be a good idea to do that once you7;ve fixed their problem and gotten the computer into a working state. This will require its own flash drive.

Step Three: Create Your Drives

Gathering your tools is the arduous part2;the rest is super easy. Plug in your big flash drive and just drag all the portable tools you downloaded over to it (preferably organized into folders, since many portable tools may create additional files the first time you start them up).

There are, however, a few tools on that list that require their own dedicated flash drives, so you can boot from them. That7;s where the ;key ring; idea comes into play.