Installation
Installation is, like so many USB flash drives, very easy. Simply plug in the flash drive into a free USB port and Windows detects it, after which you can use it. The Cruzer Profile populates 2 drives once it is inserted, one drive for the locking and unlocking software and one drive which is locked once the software is initialized and can be unlocked after that and holds the other software.
Usage
Like I mentioned before, there's one part of the drive which sets up the security for the Cruzer Profile. With this software you can imprint your fingerprints in the settings and using those prints you can unlock the other drive and even use fingerprint security to log onto Windows itself. For the last option you have to setup another program, which I will get into more on the next page.
The drive itself is pretty small and it has a smart way of protecting the fingerprint scanner as well as the USB connector. It consists of two parts, the bottom part is the fingerprint scanner and the top part is the drive itself, each connected to each other with a cable. The underside of the fingerprint scanner has rubber feet on it to prevent it from slipping as you scan your finger. On the top right corner of the key is room for a neck strap, which is accompanied with the drive. When you plug in the Cruzer you will get two drives, a small and a second bigger one. If you look at the second drive, the one that can be locked, it holds three other software packages, CruzerLock 2.1, CruzerSync and a trial version of PocketCache. These programs allow you to secure your private data on the drive itself. I mean secure in this case in the broadest sense of the word. You can put a backup on the drive and synchronize Outlook settings. CruzerSync enables you to easily synchronize, access and edit all your personal files and Outlook data from one computer to another. It encrypts the data securely using AES 128-bit encryption. With this tool you can simply take your documents, Internet Explorer favorites and Outlook contents such as emails, meetings, contacts and everything and store it on your flash drive securely encrypted. During the setup you will be asked for a password and hint, after which you can select the data to backup. Once you've setup the selections and password, you will get a nice looking synchronization manager. If you forget the password the synchronized data will be erased.
CruzerLock 2.1 is based on EncryptX' Secur-Flash/Secur-DataStor. It allows you to encrypt sensitive information such as files or folders on your flash drive. That way if you loose the flash drive you won't have to worry much about sensitive data falling into the wrong hands. There are two versions of it, the free which you get with the drive and the basic. The basic version allows you to encrypt files on your harddisk as well, place you flash drive encrypted files on your hard disk and play with the compression. You have to pay to upgrade the free version to basic. EncryptX mentions that the encryption algorithm used is Blowfish 448 bit. Cruzer PocketCache is a specially designed backup program, made by Kadena Systems. It enables you to backup files and folders to the flash drive, pure and simple. This version is a trial version and as such you will need to buy a license if you want to use it outside the evaluation period.
All the software you see listed above is only compatible with Windows and should be considered trial versions. Linux and MacOSx however are not supported. Another thing not mentioned is the boot support. It doesn't mention if this drive has any support for it. Check out the test results to see if it did.
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