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US Patent 7,120,785 describes a 'method and apparatus

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rendering user accounts portable', whereby a user account can be stored to an external storage device and moved to another computer.

'The multi-user computer system, eg. through its operating system, locates user accounts not only in local storage of the multi-user computer system, but also in any removable data storage attached to the multi-user computer system,' the patent says. 'Hence, by coupling the external, portable data store to another multi-user computer, a user is able to login to any supporting multi-user computer and be presented with their user configuration and user directory.'

The patent goes on to explain that the user account may be stored alongside general data storage or 'other functionality'. All of which seems to suggest that at some time soon we may be able to load our user accounts onto an iPod, hard drive or USB keydrive and take them wherever we go.