In this guide we are going to create a flash drive with pretty much any tool you could need to diagnose and repair a pc as well as other useful tools for your everyday life. You will be able to run diagnostics, install a new OS (windows or Linux), boot into a live Linux environment, fix boot issues, run penetration testing, do data recovery, scan for malware and have a useful suite of programs of all kinds on the go.
Selecting the right flash drive
For what we are doing you will need a decent flash drive, a capacity of 128 GB or higher is recommended. Also, USB 3.0 and higher speeds are highly recommended, we will be writing a lot of data during the initial setup and when used as boot drive speed will be crucial. Now the most important characteristic is the thermals of the drive, unfortunately the majority of flash drives suffer from thermal throttling. Making them unusable after a few minutes of heavy use, like writing a large image or using them as a boot drive. The flash drive I chose is the Kingston DataTraveler Max (256 GB). And so far it has been a good choice, fast, stable and reliable.
The best version of Yumi in my opinion is the exFAT version, it supports both UEFI and BIOS boot. Also supports files larger than 4gb. You can get Yumi from their site
here
. Installing Yumi is very easy, just follow the steps below, and it will be ready in no time. Also make sure the flash drive is empty, because it will format it.
The whole process is pretty straightforward. Just be mindful of the selected drive to prevent any data loss. After the initial setup, all you will have to do to add a bootable image is select drive, then the distribution and lastly browse the ISO. Yumi is so awesome that it has integrated download links for the majority of ISOs! It’s a good idea to keep a copy of Yumi on the drive, you never know when you will need to add an ISO on the go.
What to install ?
There are many choices here, depending on preference and usage scenarios. I am going to split them into categories and mention the ones I installed. Having multiple tools for the same job is not always bad, one tool might work when another doesn’t.
Antimalware:
In this category it is a good idea to have multiple options, malware that cant be detected by one Antivirus it may be detected by another one. I used the following:
Bitdefender rescue CD
Kaspersky rescue environment
GDATA boot CD
ESET Rescue live CD
A very important part of our ultimate flash drive. It is an open source suite with a plethora of apps that can run directly from the flash drive. Once installed, you can download over 450 apps available directly from the integrated downloader. The apps that you will choose depend mostly on the size of the flash drive, below you will find how to install it and a list of the apps I used. You can get PortableApps from
here
.
One thing to notice on step 5 you should select a custom folder location and on step 7 create a folder in your flash drive and install it there. Otherwise, there is a good chance it will change the name of the drive and affect the functionality of Yumi. Once installed on your first run as you can see in step 11 you will be prompted to select the apps you want to install. If your network is limited or the flash drive is slow, I would recommend downloading and installing in batches. If you want to add more programs just click the button in step 13. I highly recommend taking a look at the options menu where you change things like the theme etc.
The apps I chose
Below you will find a list of the apps I chose to install, the apps that you will choose depend mostly on the drives size. Games are not required, but you never know :). Again, having multiple options is not a bad idea.
Show apps
2048Portable
2XClient
4stAttackPortable
7-ZipPortable
ADarkRoomPortable
AIMPPortable
AndreaMosaicPortable
AniFXPortable
AntRenamerPortable
ArmagetronAdvancedPortable
ArthaPortable
AssaultCubePortable
AtomicTanksPortable
AudacityPortable
BabelMapPortable
BalabolkaPortable
balenaEtcherPortable
BeretPortable
BigSolitairesPortable
BleachBitPortable
BlenderPortable
BrutalChessPortable
BYONDPortable
CaesiumPortable
CamStudioPortable
CanabaltPortable
ccPortable
CelestiaPortable
ChecksumControlPortable
ChromiumBSUPortable
ClamWinPortable
ColourContrastAnalyserPortable
CommandPromptPortable
ConsolePortable
ConvertAllPortable
CookTimerPortable
CppcheckPortable
CPU-ZPortable
CrystalDiskInfoPortable
CrystalDiskMarkPortable
CubePortable
DamnVidPortable
darktablePortable
DaveGnukemPortable
DatabaseBrowserPortable
DiaPortable
DiffImgPortable
DiffpdfPortable
DOSBoxPortable
DrawioPortable
DuplicateFilesFinderPortable
DVDStylerPortable
EkigaPortable
EmsisoftEmergencyKitPortable
EraserPortable
EraserDotNetPortable
EraserDropPortable
Explorer++Portable
FastCopyPortable
FileAlyzerPortable
FileZillaPortable
FirefoxPortable
FoxitReaderPortable
freacPortable
FreeCADPortable
FreecivPortable
FreeCommanderPortable
FreeDownloadManagerPortable
FreeMatPortable
FrhedPortable
FyrePortable
GetSudokuPortable
GIMPPortable
GnuCashPortable
GnumericPortable
GoldenDictPortable
GollyPortable
GoogleChromePortable
CommonFiles
GPU-ZPortable
grepWinPortable
HDHackerPortable
HedgewarsPortable
Hex-A-HopPortable
HexChatPortable
HijackThisPortable
HMNISEditPortable
HWiNFOPortable
IceBreakerPortable
IcoFXPortable
IHaveNoTomatoesPortable
InfraRecorderPortable
IniTranslatorPortable
InkscapePortable
IObitUninstallerPortable
IObitUnlockerPortable
IrfanViewPortable
IsotoxinPortable
JooleemPortable
JPEGViewPortable
KasperskyTDSSKillerPortable
KeePassPortable
KeePassProPortable
KeePassXCPortable
KeepNotePortable
KiTTYPortable
KoboDeluxePortable
KVIrcPortable
LameXPPortable
LANMessengerPortable
LBreakout2Portable
LibreCADPortable
LibreOfficePortable
LightscreenPortable
LinksPortable
LMarblesPortable
LucasChessPortable
LynxPortable
MarblePortable
McAfeeStingerPortable
MicroSIPPortable
Mines-PerfectPortable
MoneyManagerExPortable
Monster2Portable
mssPortable
MumblePortable
NetHackPortable
netPanzerPortable
NeverballPortable
Notepad++Portable
NSISPortable
NVDAPortable
OBSPortable
On-ScreenKeyboardPortable
OpenTTDPortable
PaintDotNetPortable
PasswordGorillaPortable
PathologicalPortable
PCI-ZPortable
PDF-XChangeEditorPortable
PeaZipPortable
PeerBlockPortable
PidginPortable
PingusPortable
PngOptimizerPortable
PokerTHPortable
PortableApps.comAppCompactor
PortableApps.comInstaller
PortableApps.comLauncher
PowderToyPortable
ProcessHackerPortable
ProjectInvinciblePortable
PushoverPortable
PuTTYPortable
PuzzleCollectionPortable
QuickBlackjackPortable
QuickBridgePortable
QuickCribbagePortable
QuickPokerPortable
QuickSolitairePortable
RAMMapPortable
RapidCRCUnicodePortable
RawTherapeePortable
rcvPortable
RegAlyzerPortable
RetroSharePortable
RevoUninstallerPortable
RocksnDiamondsPortable
RufusPortable
SauerbratenPortable
Scorched3DPortable
ScreenToGifPortable
SigilPortable
SimpleSudokuPortable
SmartDeblurPortable
SmartDefragPortable
SpybotPortable
SQLiteDatabaseBrowserPortable
SqlitemanPortable
SSD-ZPortable
StellaPortable
StellariumPortable
SudokuPortable
SumatraPDFPortable
SuperTuxPortable
SuperTuxKartPortable
T-3Portable
TeamViewerPortable
TEncoderPortable
TheLegendOfEdgarPortable
TheManaWorldPortable
ThunderbirdPortable
Tick5Portable
TileWorldPortable
Tipp10Portable
Toucan
TransmissionPortable
TreeSizeFreePortable
TwinDistressPortable
TypeFasterPortable
UltraDefragPortable
UNetbootinPortable
USBSudokuPortable
UUID-GUIDGeneratorPortable
VeraCryptPortable
VirtualMagnifyingGlassPortable
VirtualVolumesViewPortable
VLCPortable
VMMapPortable
WarMUXPortable
WAtomicPortable
WesnothPortable
WinBoardPortable
WhoDatPortable
WhyNotWin11Portable
WinDirStatPortable
winMd5SumPortable
WinMergePortable
WinMTRPortable
WinObjPortable
WinSCPPortable
WiseDataRecoveryPortable
WizznicPortable
XAMPP
X-MotoPortable
XonoticPortable
XyePortable
YUMIPortable
YUMI-UEFIPortable
ZazPortable
ZintPortable
ZoteroPortable
ZSoftUninstallerPortable
Installing NirLauncher is as simple as it gets, just download the zip and extract it to the directory you want. You will notice in the downloads there is a section with additional tools you can add, I highly recommend that you get the sysinternals package that offers a set of troubleshooting utilities from Microsoft. Installing the pack is also easy. All you need to do is download the pack and extract it In the Nirsoft directory, then drag and drop the sysinternals6.nlp to NirLauncher. The final directory will look something like the image on the right.
One issue you will most likely encounter is that your antivirus will very likely recognize most of the apps as threats, because in the wrong hand they can be easily used as hack tools. For that reason I highly recommend once you are done, to add everything to an encrypted zip file so that they are protected from AVs. Also, keeping the password in the file’s name is not a bad idea either. Changing packages is done easily through the packages menu as seen in the image below.
When removing an antivirus there is always a high chance it will not be removed, or it might be only partially removed. To solve this, almost all manufacturers have separate uninstallers for those occasions. Depending on the manufacturer you might have to do a bit of digging to find them, but you should definitely keep a copy of everyone you can find in a folder.
DHCP Server
Sometimes you might find yourself connected directly to a device without a static IP, and you need to give it an IP address to access its interface. What you can do is give yourself a static IP and run a DHCP server to give that device an IP. This tool in incredibly useful in this scenario, you can download it from
here
.
Post format installers
Just keep a folder with anything you need to install on a fresh machine. Bonus points if you automate the process with a batch script ;), might make an article about this some day. Below you will find what I use.
