I know mIRC can run off usb as it is now with out a problem but what is the likelyhood of a u3 port of mIRC. I think it would be killer.

Huh?
What does mIRC have to do with the Universol Serial Buss? Its a port..on your computer...that mirc dosnt interact with (unless you use usb ethernet adaptors...and even then it just binds to the ip stack, windows works out all hardware issues)

What is this U3 you speak of?

They mean that mIRC can currently be run off a usb device, such as a flashdrive and so on.

As for U3, a quick search came up with "New technology from a company called U3 allows a drive to store and, when plugged into any PC, securely run applications--without leaving a trace of data on the host computer. The applications (which must be U3-compliant), data, and personal settings all reside on the portable drive, permitting you to temporarily turn any Windows 2000 or XP system into a personal workstation without threat to your privacy."

I believe the suggestion is a U3 compliant version of mirc, or for mirc to be made u3 compliant.

I'm curious as to the need. mIRC can already be run without putting any information on a computer it is connected to.

it will write it's last close time to the registry...

which would be an interaction with the host machine

Would that be a great problem though?

He did say "mIRC can already be run..."
Its not hard to deny a program access to a spot in the registry.

Indeed, but the attempt could be noticed or logged. Besides, doing such a thing would prove very hard on a machine that is not your own. From my understanding a U3 compliant program should leaves no traces on any system, it should run entirely contained on the portable drive without any system requirements other than the os being 2k/xp

Personally, I can't see many legitimate reasons to need this. Let's see what I can think of for reasons to use such a thing...

1) Use mIRC at work without leaving records other than internet traffic... (not illegal, but immoral)

2) Run mIRC on someone else's computer without their knowledge (again, not necessarily illegal, but still immoral)

3) Parents/Spouse/etc. told you that you couldn't use mIRC and chat on IRC and you want to do so without being caught (again, not illegal, but immoral)

4) Run mIRC on someone else's computer with their knowledge, where you're just trying to prevent your login information information from being seen by the other computer (legitimate reason, but this is possible running it off a USB device... it won't matter if the "last run" time is in the registry as it doesn't have "secret" information)

Yes, I know "immoral" is a "fluid" word in that the meaning changes per person, but I think that most will agree that doing any of those things I marked as being immoral really are wrong to be doing.

Any others? I admit I may be missing something, but I just really don't see a legitimate need to hide that you were using mIRC.

And, in any case, internet traffic would still be logged if any logging method were used. You can't hide that just by running it with this U3 thing.

Damn but its hard to run anything that doesnt leave a trace somewhere, just the act of selecting the program to run leaves traces.
The program would have to go in and actually remove the fact it was run.

Also i doubt if a system was monitoring activity at any levvel you could ever hide , simple monitors like antivirus sometime record some levels of activity, and then advanced monitoring like api watchs, you would never get away from. Still i guess U3 likely means the application by its own hand leaves no trace. I have never heard of the thing before.

It would be better if Microsoft made a Compact XP version that could be installed on 256KB or larger USB drives and booted from a PC that supports booting of USB drives...

Although Microsoft should limit access to the host computer's drives unless the administrator's password is known for the drive.

256kb? That really IS compact!

LOL, that would be! Sorry, change that to MB...

I have a bootable floopy disk with less than 256k on it, and that gives me full access to all the drives, so its possable to do.

Yes, but he specifically said Comapct XP.

I dont see much pratical use for altering mirc in any way to be a 'u3' compliant program either, and i hadn't heard of it prior to this thread either.

Wouldn't booting an os off a flashdrive be very slow?, the os has to configure itself for the hardware in the system, everytime you change the system it would have to redo it?

Such XP systems already exist and are also on CD's (Read-Only!).... Ever hear of ERD commander? It's a CD-Based version of XP that is used in emergencies (ERD=Emergency Recovery Desktop).

I am aware of such cd os's, but a flashdrive is writable, so i am working on the assumption that a person would change settings.

Yeah, change settings on the flash drive, not on the internal hard drives. Boot from flash drives, leaving the host computer uneffected by the "visit"... I can see this being useful with public PC's such as those at a library.