ADD APPS TO YOUR DRIVE

Why plug in another USB drive, or download tools from the net, when you can embed any portable tool directly into your recovery drive? Once embedded, the tools can be directly accessed through Win10PESE’s Start menu, or via an icon in the Taskbar Notification area.

To add apps to your drive, first expand the “Apps > Portable” section in Win10PESE’s left-hand pane, then check “PStart and Papps.” Next, click the “Open Source Folder” button to open the folder where your portable apps need to be collected, each one inside its own folder. Once you’ve copied them into here, return to Win10PESE, and carefully enter the folder name of each app under “Directory of Apps,” plus the name of the program’s executable file under “Name of exe.”

To add a shortcut to the Start menu, check “Start menu,” and then specify the folder (get this from Projects\Win10PESE\ Apps), and shortcut name; you can add a desktop shortcut, too, by checking the appropriate box. Finally, if you’re burning a DVD, rather than creating a USB recovery drive, be sure to select “Run from RAM” to allow any antimalware tools to download and process updates. Then create the disc in the usual way.

What sort of portable apps should you be looking to add to your toolkit? Two recommended antimalware tools are Emsisoft Emergency Kit ( www.emsisoft.com/en/ software/eek), which utilizes two antimalware engines, and Malwarebytes Junkware Removal Tool ( www.malwarebytes.com/ junkwareremovaltool) for PUPs.

Piriform ( www.piriform. com) provides portable versions of CCleaner (cleanup tool), Recuva (data recovery), and Speccy (system information). Another data recovery tool worth adding is DMDE Free ( https://dmde.com), while a wide array of tools, from alternative browsers, to disk encryption, to drive health monitoring utilities, can be found at www. portableapps.com.

Finally, if there’s a specific utility you want, check with the vendor’s website—often, you can find portable builds buried away in the downloads section.