GET WIKIPEDIA ON A STICK
There’s a Wikipedia page for just about everything. And while it’s perhaps not quite as authoritative as the Encyclopaedia Britannica, it’s good for a crash course on a specific subject. Until, that is, your internet connection goes down. However, thanks to a free tool called
Kiwix, you can download the entire Wikipedia database of over six million articles to a USB stick, meaning it’ll be available even when you’re offline.
First, download Kiwix (go to www. snipca.com/37302 and click the Windows logo), then extract the contents of the ZIP file to your USB stick. Open the ‘kiwix-desktop_ windows…’ folder on your stick then double-click the ‘kiwix-desktop.exe’ file. Click ‘All Files’ at the top, type wikipedia in the search box, then click the Size column twice so the biggest files are listed first.
The full Wikipedia database (including pictures) will be listed at the top. To download it, click the Download button on the right. However, at 79GB you’ll need a large USB stick to accommodate it. For a smaller version, scroll down the list to the ‘Wikipedia (Simple English)’ database (see screenshot).
This is essentially a cut-down version of Wikipedia, but with over 180,000 articles it still contains a formidable amount of information, and at just 1.67GB will fit on most USB sticks. Plus, it’s bang up to date, with the latest version released only last month.
Once you’ve downloaded a Wikipedia database, you can browse it just like you would the Wikipedia site. Click ‘Local’ Files in the left sidebar to see your downloaded databases, then Open at the far right. You’ll now see the Wikipedia homepage. To search it, use the address bar at the top.