Wouldn’t be great to stroll into an internet cafe, stick a flash drive in the USB port, and have your desktop, bookmarks and documents immediately available without leaving any traces on the host machine?

That is what Lexar is promising to ship in July with PowerToGo software on high-end 1 and 2 GB flash drives. The software comes from Ceedo Technologies, an Israeli software company, that says

Ceedo Personal is a powerful working environment for portable storage devices such as USB flash-drives and hard drives. It allows users to carry their programs, documents, e-mails and favorite browser with them, accessing them through an easy-access menu once connected to a computer.

The Ceedo [OS] provides Ceedo users with an independent, private working space, created separately from the host computer’s operating system. Ceedo users can run their carried programs on any [Windows] computer, work on their documents and access their e-mails on the go.

You don’t have to wait for Lexar. Go to Ceedo, download the software, and try it yourself.

Be aware that tiny hardware key loggers can capture passwords and messages on public PCs. Use an on-screen keyboard and the mouse for passwords. If the security of your messages is important, stick with a laptop.

You can also load “portable” applications on a thumb drive. Anyone competent to comment on the security of that?