A disadvantage of using Windows option for USB safe removal is the fact that it's almost impossible to know which stick is which, especially if you plugged in multiple USB drives into your computer. This program comes as an alternative to Microsoft's safe removal solution that provides you with a quick and effective way to eject USB sticks.
USB Safely Remove lives in your System Tray from where you can access its Options panel, check the status of the connected USB drives, eject sticks, etc. The program is very simple to handle, so you don't need much computer experience to use it.
Once a USB drive is connected to your PC, the application immediately notifies you. You can define a global hotkey for quickly ejecting the USB stick. However, it doesn't always work. In my testing, the utility occasionally failed to complete tasks when using the global hotkeys.
The application also provides you with various options for changing the way the names of the connected drives appear in your System Tray.
In my opinion, this utility is a bit expensive for it can do. It's worth buying this program for your computer only if you work with USB drives often. Personally, I prefer using Windows' solution for safely removing USB sticks as I rarely connect more than one drive at a time and don't find it difficult to eject it when needed.
v4.3 [May 1, 2010]
"Unable to stop" window has been reworked
"Forced Stop" button became smarter, now it not only closes all files opened by the processes on the device, but it tries to close portable applications (applications that are run from the external drive you are intending to stop). USB Safely Remove sends command to close the application so they can normally stop and save their settings. If the application refuses to be closed (e.g. it displays message "Are you sure you want to exit?") you have to find the application on your desktop and close it manually...
... or you can bring it to the front of the desktop or just forcibly kill it.
Also we simplified this window interface by removing "Close programs" button. Now considering that "Forced Stop" feature became smarter, this button became useless, moreover it was confusing and a bit unsafe as pressing it could lead to closing of some important processes (e.g. your whole desktop in case if Explorer were opened on the removable drive). However we still leave the ability to close or forcibly terminate a specific program on the list from the context menu of the process (by right clicking to the process).
Bugs fixed
"USB Safely Remove assistant service" crashed if there were too many files opened from the drive that was being stopped
Better compatibility with Win Vista & 7 (sometimes program may not launch on these OSes)
Sometimes the program may not restore hidden drive letters (if "Hide drive letters" option was disabled)
Configuration and monitoring for temperature controllers, power controllers, and recorders
