MojoPac
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MojoPac is a software virtualization product from RingCube Technologies. MojoPac turns any USB 2.0 storage device, such as iPods, USB flash drives, portable hard drives, USB-enabled cell phones, and USB-enabled digital cameras, into a portable computing environment. The term "MojoPac" is used by the company to refer to the software application, the virtualized environment running inside this software, and the USB storage device that contains the software and relevant applications. MojoPac supports popular applications such as Firefox and Microsoft Office, and it is also high performance enough to run popular PC Games such as World of Warcraft and Half-Life 2.
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[edit] Usage
To initially setup the MojoPac device, the user runs the installer and selects a USB device attached to the system. Once MojoPac is installed, it creates an executable in the root of that device along with an autorun file that gives the user the option of starting the MojoPac environment automatically when the device is plugged in. Once this application is started, a new Windows Desktop (with its own wallpaper, icons, shell, etc.) is started up in the virtualized MojoPac environment. Any application that runs inside this environment runs off the USB device without affecting the filesystem of the host. A user installs most applications (including Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, Firefox) on the portable storage device by simply running the installer inside this environment. The user can switch between the host environment and the MojoPac environment by using the MojoBar at the top of the screen. Once the user is done with the applications, they just exit out of MojoPac and eject the USB device.
To run the applications on a different computer, the user does not need to reinstall the application. The user can plug the portable storage device into any Windows XP computer. All the user's settings, applications, and documents function the same irrespective of which computer the portable storage device is connected to. The computer does not need any special applications or drivers installed to use MojoPac.
When the portable storage device is disconnected from the computer, there is no personal information left behind on the computer.
[edit] Features
- Supports the majority of popular applications and games. [6]
- Works on any USB2 storage device including flash drives, external hard drives, and iPods.[7]
[edit] Requirements
- Requires Windows XP Home or Pro; Windows 2000 is not supported, though Vista will be supported in the near future [8]
- Requires Administrator access. A special version, MojoPac Usher, can be run in Universities or other locked down environments if the administrator is present to log in once [9]. A Limited User version is under development. [10]
[edit] Security
MojoPac does not include features to encrypt the data on the USB drive, but does have a password protection system that prevents a person from starting up the MojoPac environment. All the files on the USB drive do not have any additional encryption, which is problematic if the MojoPac device is lost. However, this is no different from a default Windows XP installation and MojoPac can be used together with OTFE software such as FreeOTFE [1] or TrueCrypt to provide any desired strong encryption and plausible deniability (just as Windows XP can). A MojoPac device secured using this type of software is reasonably safe in the case of theft.
Because of the virtualization performed by MojoPac, applications running inside the MojoPac environment cannot (generally) modify the host. For example, all the browsing history for Internet Explorer and other browsers are stored on the USB device rather than the host. Similarly, if a malicious program tries to delete the C:\Windows directory inside MojoPac, the files on the USB device are deleted, but the files on the host machine will remain. However, it is possible for a user to modify MojoPac's system files, which are then reflected to the same system files of the host PC[2], so the current level of isolation between the virtual environment and the host PC is not as strong as provided by full machine virtualization technologies like VMware. RingCube has stated this is a known bug which will be addressed in a future version of MojoPac[3].
[edit] Comparison with other systems
[edit] Alternative mobility solutions
U3 requires modifications to the target applications to get them to run from the external device. This means that it doesn't support certain proprietary applications such as Microsoft Office and Adobe Photoshop. Ceedo can run target applications (including Microsoft Office and Adobe Photoshop 7[4]) without modification but the user is required to purchase an add-on product called Argo that allows this functionality. Both U3 and Ceedo can run without Administrator privileges while MojoPac currently cannot. MojoPac has a virtualization layer that prevents applications from writing to the host machine; Ceedo can do this if the application is installed via Argo as mentioned above; and U3 requires the application to be "unobtrusive".
VMware ThinApp allows applications to run from external devices without application modifications and supports applications such as Microsoft Office and Photoshop. In addition VMware ThinApp can run without Administrator privileges and does not use or require device drivers. VMware ThinApp's virtualization can be configured to sandbox all changes the host PC from modifications, only allow modifications to the Desktop and "My Documents", or allow full read/write access to the host PC's filesystem. VMware ThinApp can startup from a USB device in less than a second on a new PC, Mojopac must reconfigure itself for new devices which typically takes several minutes. VMware ThinApp requires a "snapshot" capture process using a clean Windows computer to create virtual applications and is optimized for use in ISV, corporate, and enterprise environments. Mojopac supplies a separate virtual environment for easier conversion for individual consumers. VMware ThinApp supports all Windows operating systems and dynamically reconfigures applications to move from operating system to operating system. VMware ThinApp occupies less than 500k on disk, while Mojopac requires at least 35MB of free disk space to install. VMware ThinApp can run applications directly from the compressed state reducing disk space requirements in half and doubling loading times over USB. It should be noted that VMware ThinApp is an extremely expensive piece of software, charging USD $4,995[5] to do its work, placing it way out of reach of the general consumer.
[edit] Alternative virtualization solutions
Moka5 and Portable ACE use VMware to virtualize the application. This means they require the user to install the VMware drivers and player on the host machine. Because of MojoPac's lighter weight virtualization, it can run the latest games and multimedia applications with less performance impact than Portable ACE. MojoPac also has a smaller footprint since the portable device does not require a full Windows installation. Mojopac announced support for Juniper SSL VPN Solution on Aug 7, 2007.
