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One of Microsoft’s most interesting offerings right now isn’t found on a laptop or desktop PC, but a small, pocketable drive. Windows To Go (WTG) puts an executable image of Windows 8.1 onto a specialized flash drive, letting you then use the device on any PC you happen to have. It’s an excellent option if you’re security conscious, professionally paranoid, or even just have to travel from one office to another with any regularity. The 64GB Spyrus WorkSafe ($155) is just such a device, a WTG drive that adds a number of extra security features and packages them into a usable solution. One caveat, however, is that it’s hard to find, and you’ll probably need to contact Spyrus directly for purchase.
Design and Features
The WorkSafe is essentially a self-contained operating system on a stick that lets you take a stable work environment from one machine to another, complete with security and privacy tools. The drive resembles a standard flash drive, though the black, metal case feels almost like a piece of military hardware. The stout metal construction covers an epoxy filling, a physical security measure that protects against both physical threats, like water, dust and shock and prevents any hardware tampering. It’s similar in some respects, to the IronKey Workspace W500( at Amazon)(Opens in a new window), or the IronKey Workspace W300 (64GB), which both use an epoxy-filled design.
A metal cap protects the USB connector when not in use, and there’s a helpful rubber tether that prevents losing a loose cap. The cap also helps seal out physical damage—when it’s locked in place, the drive can safely be submerged in up to 1 meter of water for several minutes. The drive is on the large side, measuring 3.44 by 0.96 by 0.4 inches (HWD), large enough to make accessing some ports a problem, and definitely large enough to block access to adjacent USB ports.
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As a WTG drive, this is far more than just a storage device. Instead, it reads as a fixed drive, booting from the device with its own portable Windows 8.1 operating system. So long as it meets the basic hardware requirements—a processor with a clock speed of 1GHz or more, at least 2GB of RAM, and DirectX 9-capable graphics—you can plug into any PC (Windows or Mac), and boot up to the same Windows desktop. The drive, when purchased, does not have its own copy of Windows, since it’s expected that you will be using the WTG drive with your own Windows 8.1 Enterprise license, but Spyrus includes its own tool for simple image creation. When setting up that disk image, be sure to add any software you want to include initially, since it’s quite difficult to install software and apps onto the drive afterwards.
Booting from the WorkSafe is relatively simple. Plug the drive into a USB port on the system, then power on the host PC. During the regular boot sequence, you’ll be able to access the system BIOS (usually with a function key, such as F6 or F12), and point the system toward the Spyrus drive as the boot source. This causes the PC to boot up using the image of Windows found on the drive instead of the image stored on the PC hard drive.
Once the PC is booted from the drive to Windows , you should have basic support for all of the host system’s devices (monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc.), but you won’t be able to access the PC’s primary drive, a security measure that prevents snooping and transmission of malware. For extra storage space, you could opt for a larger capacity model—Spyrus offers the WorkSafe in capacities up to 256GB—but I’d recommend a second high-capacity flash drive, like the Lexar JumpDrive M10 Secure (64GB)($11.99 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window), or an external hard drive, like the Seagate Backup Plus Slim (2TB)($179.02 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window).
Spyrus has also added some pretty significant security features, like chip card interface device (CCID) support and an embedded readerless smart card (with FIPS 140-2 Level 3 PKI) that authenticates user credentials for secure network access and for PKI digital certificate functions, like multifactor authentication, smart card logon, encrypted email, and VPN access. When not booted into the WTG OS, you can still use the plugged-in drive for smart card logon.
The WorkSafe also offers centralized management tools with Spyrus Enterprise Management System (SEMS), which allows the drive to be disabled and enabled remotely (a handy feature when dealing with a lost drive) and to recover a forgotten boot password. There’s also BitLocker installed for either full disk encryption or the creation of a separate encrypted Data Vault partition. For more advanced security options, take a look at the Spyrus WorkSafe Pro, which adds military-grade encryption and extra layers of protection.
Pricing and Performance
Spyrus offers the WorkSafe in several different capacities, ranging from 32GB to 256GB. Our review unit is the 64GB model, which sells for $155, or $2.42 per gigabyte. A smaller 32GB unit sells for $99, or $3.09 per gigabyte, while larger capacities have lower per- gigabyte prices; the 128GB sells for $325, or $2.53 per gigabyte, while the largest 256GB model sells for $475, or $1.85 per gigabyte. By comparison, the 32GB IronKey Workspace W500 has a list price of $175, or $5.46 per gigabyte, while the Kingston DataTraveler Workspace (32GB), which has a list price of $90, is just $2.81 per gigabyte.
The WorkSafe offers fairly good read and write speeds over USB 3.0—Spyrus claims speeds up to 240MBps (read) and 240MBps (write)—a little slower than the IronKey Workspace W500, which offers 400MBps (read) and 316MBps (write) speeds, but it still results in a relatively smooth user experience. It also boots in a relatively quick 18 seconds, so there’s not a lot of extra hassle using the WTG drive instead of a locally installed copy of Windows. Performance is slower over USB 2.0, but it’s still pretty usable. As with all of these OS-on-a-stick solutions, the drive does run warm after some use, but it’s not bad in this instance, hitting just 96 degrees Fahrenheit (as measured by a Fluke IR thermometer).
Conclusion
If you’re interested in outfitting your workers with Windows To Go drives, the Spyrus WorkSafe is a flexible solution with several useful added features. Most of these features, like hardware-based security and a rugged design, you’ll also find in the IronKey Workspace W500, though the Spyrus drive is unique in offering Mac support. The IronKey W500 remains our Editors’ Choice for its faster performance and wider retail availability, but the Spyrus WorkSafe is still a good option to consider.
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Source link : https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/spyrus-worksafe-64gb