Computer Act!ve - UK (2022-04-27)

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stick, then launch Rufus and select your
stick in the dropdown menu below
Device, before clicking the Select button
to the right of ‘Boot selection’.
Click the ‘Zorin-OS-16.1-Core-64-bit.
iso’ file in your Downloads folder, then
click Open. Click ‘Start’ and Rufus will
ask permission to download two
additional files. Click ‘Yes’, then, on the
next screen, click OK to acknowledge
that you understand any data already on
the USB stick will be destroyed.
To launch Zorin, follow our instructions
in the box on page 52. When Zorin starts,
it presents you with two options: Try
Zorin OS or Install Zorin OS. Click the
first of these and the operating system
will launch. Be aware, though, that
anything you save when working within
this environment will disappear the next
time you reboot. It is vital, therefore, that
you get into the habit of copying off your
files to another USB stick, or an online-
storage service such as Dropbox.

Stay anonymous on shared
computers

What you need: 8GB stick

If you share a computer with other
people, you’ll leave a trail of your activity
on it. Unless you browse anonymously,
any website you visit will show up in the
machine’s history. Also if a tool like
LibreOffice Writer crashes when you’re
using it on someone else’s PC, it will offer
to recover the temporary data the next
time it starts, revealing what you were
writing. Worse, there might be keylogger
malware on the computer that’s reading
what you type, allowing it to steal your
passwords.
However, you can avoid this risk by
installing a secure operating system like
Tails (‘The Amnesic Incognito Live
System’) on a USB stick, then booting
into that instead of the OS already
installed on the computer. It gives you
more control over your data, and you can
be sure no remnants will be left behind
on the internal drive.
Tails features tools for creating strong
passwords, blocking ads and browsing
securely using Tor (The Onion Router),
which ‘bounces’ your browsing activity
through multiple servers to obscure
your identity and location. Click the
Applications tab at the top left to see
these (see screenshot top of page).
To download Tails, visit http://www.snipca.
com/41510 and click ‘Download only (for
USB sticks)’ at the bottom. On

the following screen, click

‘Download Tails 4.2 USB

Image (1.2 GB)’.

When it’s finished

downloading, launch

Rufus and select your USB

stick from the dropdown

menu below Device. Next,

click Select to the right of

‘Boot selection’, click the

‘tails-amd64-4.28.img’ file

in your Downloads folder,

then click Open. Now click

Start and when Rufus

warns you that all data on

your USB stick will be

destroyed, click OK. To

launch Tails, follow the instructions on

page 52.

Run Google’s Chrome OS

What you need: 8GB stick; Google

account

With Chrome OS, everything works

through a browser, which means it could

be just what you need if you spend most

of your time online rather than on your

desktop or in File Explorer. It has very

low system requirements too, so

installing Chrome OS on a USB stick

lets you breathe new life into an old

computer.

To install it, we suggest using Google’s

extension Chromebook Recovery Utility

from http://www.snipca.com/41514. You’ll see

there that the tool has a mere two-star

rating, which might make you wonder

why we’re recommending it. The answer

is that it worked flawlessly on our PC and

that some of those who left negative

reviews found it worked fine once they

ran Chrome as Administrator. If you need

help, read Google’s instructions: http://www.

snipca.com/41559.

Once you’ve added the extension to

your browser, open it, then click ‘Get

started’, followed by ‘Select a model from

a list’. Select ‘Google Chrome OS Flex’

from the ‘Choose a manufacturer’

dropdown menu (^1 in our screenshot

above), and ‘Chrome OS Flex (Developer-

Unstable)’ from the ‘Choose a Product’

menu^2.

Plug in your USB stick and click

Continue. Click the menu below ‘Select

the media that you’d like to use’, choose

your stick from the list, then click

Continue. Finally, click ‘Create now’. Your

browser will download the Chrome OS

recovery files to your internal drive. Once

this has finished, Windows will ask if

you’re happy for your browser to make

changes to your device. Click ‘Yes’, and it

will save the downloaded files to your

USB stick.

Reboot your computer when it’s

finished by following our instructions in

the box on page 52. When it’s started,

select a language, then click ‘Try it first’

followed by Next (the other option is to

install it on your internal drive, which

will wipe your existing operating system).

Select your Wi-Fi network and enter your

password, accept the terms and

conditions, then log in using the email

address and password associated with

your existing Google account.

Click the

top-left

Applications

tab to open

the tools

you can use

in Tails

Select these options to start installing Chrome OS on your USB

stick

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Issue 630 • 27 April – 10 May 2022

Run Anything From A

USB STICK