The Kingston DataTraveler Workspace (32GB)$85.71 at Amazon Marketplace
looks like a high-capacity USB 3.0 flash drive, but it's more than mere
storage. It offers Windows To Go, a portable, bootable version of
Windows 8 that lets you use an IT certified operating system on one or
many systems, giving employees the freedom to work on the PC of their
choice, or to move from one PC to another and back again, without
missing a beat. Plus, it's all safe and secure, letting your people work
wherever they happen to be, on whatever PC they happen to have access
to. It's your go-to solution for taking Windows on the road without the
bulk of a laptop, making it our Editors' Choice for Windows To Go
devices.Design and Features
The DataTraveler Workspace looks like any other high-capacity flash drive, with a USB 3.0 connector and a chunky, rugged design similar to the Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 Generation 2 (32GB) $49.47 at Amazon Marketplace, featuring the same total capacity and a variation on the same chunky plastic and metal construction. Larger capacities are also available, with 64GB versions available for purchase ($170) and 128GB versions available for custom order (Pricing varies by order).
Unlike other flash drives, the DataTraveler Workspace isn't pure storage, but a portable operating system, and reads as a fixed NTFS drive. In practice, it's a small solid-state drive (SSD), complete with an integrated Sandforce SSD Controller and support for TRIM and S.M.A.R.T commands. It's also secure, offering support for BitLocker encryption and Trusted Boot anti-malware and boot protection software. We might have liked to see some hardware based access protection as well, a la the LOK-IT Secure Flash Drive or the Aegis Secure Key but the security available should still be sufficient.
There is some storage space available for installing programs and saving files—17.5GB on our 32GB review unit—but for real storage, you'll want to pack along another flash drive or portable hard drive. Designed for corporate use, the drive came with a 64-bit version of Windows 8 Enterprise, which can then be used on any machine running Windows 7 or Windows 8. An added touch to make the removable drive a bit more resilient—if accidentally removed, you have 60 seconds to plug the drive back in without losing any data or disrupting your work session. In the longer term, Kingston also protects the drive with a two-year warranty.
It's worth noting, however, that if a full operating system isn't necessary, other drives, like the Victorinox Swiss Army Slim Flight offer private zero-footprint Web browsing, and plenty of drives offer password protection and a secure partitions for keeping private data private, including both the Victorinox and the Editors' Choice SanDisk Extreme 3.0 (64GB)$63.80 at Amazon Marketplace. This is a more specific tool, designed for administrators that need to deploy a fully bootable corporate workspace without the necessity of a corporate issued PC.
The drive itself uses USB 3.0 in order to offer the best possible performance while also being broadly compatible. When connected via USB 3.0, the drive offers top sequential speeds of 250 MBps (for both read and write). It's slower when connected via USB 2.0, but it will still work, meaning that you can plug it into most PCs in use today and fire up your portable OS wherever you happen to be. The only issue to be wary of is heat. When in use, our review unit ran hot, reaching temperatures of 99-degrees Fahrenheit (as measured with a Fluke IR thermometer).
Using the drive is fairly straightforward. The drive plugs into the USB port of the PC—most current PCs will do (more on that below)—and it's a simple matter of booting from the drive, which usually involves only a keystroke or two during the boot sequence. Instead of accessing the PC's regular operating system from the hard drive, it fires up the copy of Windows To Go stored on the drive. Once the drive begins booting, you'll see the Windows 8 logo come up on the loading screen. Log in with a Windows ID, and you'll be greeted by the Windows 8 Start Screen. The initial boot to a host PC may be slow as drivers are loaded, but afterwards, Windows To Go should be up and running in 6 to 8 seconds.
Once you've booted into Windows To Go, you'll be utilizing the same hardware you would have when booting up the target PC normally, with the exception of the hard drive. You'll get full-powered processing and graphics without accessing the host PC's files, or it accessing yours—all of the host PC's drives and the files on them will be inaccessible, and won't even show up in Explorer—but you will have access to the storage on the DataTraveler Workspace, as well as any external storage (like a second flash drive or portable hard drive) that you might connect. As a result, you're safe from any viruses or malware on the host system, and can rest easy knowing that your own files are safe from prying eyes. Microsoft also recommends using Windows To Go in conjunction with either a VPN connection or DirectAccess, and storing larger files and resources on the corporate network.
During use, you'll be able to install and run programs as you normally would onto the Kingston drive. For instance, you can pre-install Microsoft Office onto the remaining space on the DataTraveler WorkSpace, and use that to launch your Word, Excel, or Powerpoint files and work on them. Because it reads as a fixed drive, rather than a removeable drive, you don't have to install a special bootable version of the programs.
A couple of caveats: You won't be able to access the Windows Store or any of the Windows 8 Apps available through it. Also, the size of your primary drive is limited to the remaining capacity of the flash drive. Aside from the differences in storage, the user experience is exactly like using Windows 8 on any other PC, though you may notice the occasional lag when connected via USB 2.0. Once you're done, simply unplug the drive, and it's like you were never there.
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