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Live Windows Bootable CDs for Sysadmins
WhoDaresWins writes "Ever wonder how to make a Knoppix-like live Windows bootable CD (or DVD)? Well its now possible using Bart's Preinstalled Environment (BartPE) bootable live windows CD/DVD. It's basically an expansion of the Microsoft's own Windows PE (Preinstallation Environment) idea which is a minimal Windows (XP/2K3) based bootable live CD with a command prompt and the ability to run some basic Windows GUI. Bart's PE allows anyone to make a bootable CD using their own Windows XP/2K3 media with Bart's PE Builder. What's more many people have contributed quite a few plugins that allow you to use the BartPE discs as quite a nifty system administration tool and with some work an almost usable quick system."
Read subject.
Like, 8 years ago?
we can get that Windows OS out of our hair... ;)
I was going to sleep in tomorrow, but now I'm going to have to give this a try instead! If this works, it will be a huge timesaver.
Lessee:
1) It's Windows. Forget "open".
2) It's Windows. Forget "stable".
3) It's Windows. Forget "drivers" without a dozen driver install disks...
4) It's Windows. Forget "Source code".
5) It's Windows... most apps won't run without registry editing and all kinds of other crap.
Oh, and did I mention... It's Windows?!?!?
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
This has been available for over a year....
It'll be so bloated it'll take the same amount of time to boot as it would take to install windows proper.
Sometimes I wish I was a plumber, then I'd know how to deal with other people's shit.
Seriously, PE Builder has been flying around for a very long time. Plus you can just download a Windows PE off of many IRC servers. Nonetheless, Windows PE/PE Builder has saved my balls many times. Almost lost my porno on one incident.
You come for the NTFS support and stay for the win32 API. By far the other most useful things are the virus scanner and the networking support. You can easily detect all nics that XP will support outof the box or create a plugin if it doesn't
It's great for fixing Windows machines that won't boot. While I would prefer to use Knoppix and systemrescuecd BartsPE is usually more suited.
Beings aspergers AND pulling chicks... I enjoy the challenge!
"New hardware has been detected. Please reboot for the changes to take effect..."
"Windows is shutting down"
"Write configuration failed. The volume E: is read-only"
***
"Loading Windows"
"New hardware has been detected. Please reboot for the changes to take effect..."
How is this different than the startup disk that Winternals has had for years. Disk recovery, basic network and disk access. All sounds the same to me. http://www.winternals.com
To be honest, it feels more like a disappointment than a relief. I'm sure people can identify: we've all faced our horrible problems in the era of Windows 95 and 98 (and others). The operating system seems to completely crash and will only boot up to a screen that tells us some vital file is missing. Or perhaps we have that horrible old floppy disk with a few core programs on it, all of which are near useless. DOS is our only way to go... unless of course the floppy drive is broken. (Happened to me once... rendered the computer seemingly quite useless to me, with my level of knowledge at that time). Do you know what it's like remembering my MSN searches from 5 years ago, when I checked if a Windows bootable CD was a plausible thing? After all of those years, and all of those trials... suddenly, it's here. I happen to think that Windows XP is a fine operating system, and with Norton & Ad-Aware, most bad things are kept off my system anyway. Even the horrible "Your computer has started up in 640x480 with 16 colors, no sound card registered, no video card recognized, and no monitor apparently ever installed for NO APPARENT REASON WHATSOEVER" situation rarely comes up. And NOW we have bootable Windows? It's a silver lining with a cloud, if you ask me.
I tried bratPE. But it does not contain the windows GUI.It just contains one start menu like thinge. Sure its based on XP and you can use it for fixing disks etc. But it cannot be used for applications like browsing or desktop applications.
But hey WinPE is command line based !
Python script to convert photos into "artsy" portraits: http://p2pbridge.sf.net/pyPortrait/
I'd like to announce the new Blue Screen of Death plugin. This plugin makes a blue screen of death a simple click away. Remove the unpredictability of not knowing exactly when your system will die!
Warning: Does not remove other blue screens of death.
http://pebuilder.meetup.com
Also don't forget the slashdot meet.
http://slashdot.meetup.com
Beings aspergers AND pulling chicks... I enjoy the challenge!
Needless to say, this is good news for Microsoft as it may increase the acceptance of Windows as an alternative to Linux on the desktop ;-)
but then I get to thinking about hardware drivers and wonder how the heck they did it. One thing Linux has gotten pretty good at over the years is handling a billion zillion hardware drivers so that you know you've got the right ones for installing a system. I've never had good luck in Windows when upgrading the hardware if I leave the old driver in place.
You might be able to get away with a basic set of simple drivers (Basic IDE, sound blaster, NE2000...) but then you lose any sort of performance you might have once had... I'd like to know how this thing actually works.
I had just inherited a new notebook from a co-worker that had just left. I needed to make sure that all the corporate information on the notebook was accounted for. Unfortunately this was one they had built up themselves and noone had the admin passwords to the local machine. Enter ESCD.
Using this nice little CD I was able to boot to a linux environment, read the NTFS partitions and make changes to the password files with a nice little menu to step me through it.
A couple of quick changes later and I was able to log in to the machine as the local computer admin and receover all information that had been stored on there. Was quite funky.
Solitaire's source is now available. Why don't you build your own?
Ah, this stuff has been around for like 4 years, at least. We were using this kind of technology at the University of Chicago back in 1999 with WindowsNT images. (The department I worked in was responsible for supporting all of the public-use workstations throughout campus, and we naturally relied on disk imaging technologies.)
If you buy a product like Altiris LabExpert or Norton Ghost and are very clever, you can jury rig an entire operating system environment onto a CD.
Oddly enough, we stumbled on how to do this kind of thing while researching Wake-Over-LAN and PXE technologies. Apparently, the system BIOS just needs to be smart enough that it can look at something other than a PCI/IDE/SCSI hard drive for information with which to load a kernel into memory. If your BIOS is PXE enabled, it's smart enough to tell the system bus to look for a kernel on the network card (in the case of a Wake-On-LAN network boot) or on a CD drive (in the case of a CD boot).
FYI, PXE is Intel's Preboot Execution Environment specification, and is therefore working at the hardware level underneath Microsoft PE (Preinstallation Environment).
Nonetheless, the hardware capabilities which have allowed Windows to be booted from a CD have been around since 1999, at least, as they are part of Intel's PXE specification.
Just my two cents...
I used partition magic 8.0 to create a partition for my new fedora install, and it did that just fine... but it messed something in the windows registry so that now when I boot to xp it starts booting, then stops with some error about 'xmnt2002.exe' failing autocheck... Online help forums say I need to edit the registry but I cannot do that from any where else... or can I? will this enable me to do it? does anyone else know how to fix this?
was on a Windows trading website (they trade old/new beta's of windows software for tinkering).. This little project isn't very legal at all, if anything, this attention its getting may get them a nice little memo for Microsoft. They are basically stripping down a piece of the new installer for windows and turning it into a small OS for simple applications.. I mean, a good idea and all and sounds fun but its just going to piss off Microsoft..
I've left to find myself. If you happen to see me, please, keep me there until I return.
...an almost usable quick system.
Almost usable...doesn't that describe all versions of Windows, stripped down or not?
Have you tried booting into the recovery console? If that's possible, you can use the console registry tool, reg.exe, to make changes.
What about MS licensing? what are the limitations of distributing something like this? Knowing Microsoft It can't be free..... can it?
"Fear the penguin"
Linux with kernel panic...
MadPenguin.org
"i think if you read the eula, you can use my software on only one comptuer at a time. you can not install it on one computer and boot it into memory on another. i would like to introduce you to our team of lawyers. don't let their horns or fangs fool you. they are really nice. (ha ha ha ha). i might also remind you that there are specific ways in which you may use my software, all of which you agreed before you even opened the CD (thinks to himself: damn, i'm clever). if it isn't specified, and you don't have a license to do this, then you may not."
and this is another reason i use linux.
My problem? I was perfectly gruntled, until some numbnuts came by and dissed me.
Among other things, the PE environment (or at least, the ones made with PE builder) are limited to 6 processes. They also reboot after 24 hours (intentionally, no less!), resolution is limited to 800x600, 16 bit color, etc. What this tool is really good for is scanning for viruses, doing repairs that otherwise would be difficult (or impossible) under your normal operating environment, etc. In fact, one thing I just saw PE builder used for was to flash a firmware on a machine that only had Linux on it.
If Microsoft will ever release Kinoppix-like full-functional live CD version of Windows with a set of most frequently used apps, that will make many windows users' lives much easier. All viruses and worms that screw up your system by overwriting system configuration files/registry and by installing junk (e.g. spyware) on the hard disk will be history --as long as applications are allowed to run only from the CD-Rom. You can still keep custom icons and all junks (e.g. your mp3s and appz collection for file sharing) on hard disk, while everything in C:\Progra~1 and \Windows dirs will remain as they are supposed to be on a CD. Works just like XboX, I guess. Forget customization: security is more important than your custom wallpapers, don't you think?
Only and the biggest problem with Win-Live CD is that YOU CAN'T PATCH IT! and the fact is MS loves patching your PC. So after all, Win-Live is just another dream. How unfortunate.
Meanwhile, Windows live-CD will allow me to get rid of fat32 partition on my machine. no more dual-boot necessary....
"Bootable Windows"
As opposed to all those that won't boot?
Well, this IS something new!
Any word on when they plan to leak the source?
No shit, I've seen posts like that for the past few weeks, what is it?
Anyone got the source code for this? /just kidding
...2) It's Windows. Forget "stable"....
/. editor.
Tell me how this post is a troll?
Yeah, I agree. Your original post should have been modded down as "redundant" instead. Let's file a claim to the
The Winternals product costs maybe $300. Bart's is free.
Also, it doesn't matter if Bart's is new. What matters is that more people need to hear about it.
I wish Bart's was better documented and easier to customize.
Note that Bart is doing for Microsoft customers what Microsoft should have done. Microsoft provides PE only for its biggest customers. Everyone else gets a crippled version of the OS.
Even if you have Bart's Windows XP is still crippled: "Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows XP have crippled file systems." The file system cannot copy some of the files that are necessary to the operating system. Microsoft provides no way of making functional backups of its newer operating systems! (Yes, I know about Sysprep and NTBackup and third-party methods. Microsoft technical support agrees with my statement.)
When building a Bart's CD, the program just finds the user's own Windows XP operating system files, and incorporates them into the Bart's CD. No knowledge of the NTFS file system is required, because the actual, real NTFS file system is included.
I've skimmed the homepage with great interest. There is definitely the potential for an even greater tool than has already been created by this guy. But considering what folks are capable of doing, how are the guys at Redmond going to respond? With the recent code leak in the news, it could be very easy for Gates & Co to pull an SCO or something else in the spirit of control and intimidation to stop users from doing what they consider to be "unacceptable" use of the Windows EULA.
What's more many people have contributed quite a few plugins....
Bart addresses the bureaucratic legalities of using the original install media further down on his web page but when push comes to shove how solid is his position when his own code and that of his contributors are concerned?
Stay sentient. Don't drink bad milk.
This man released something which involves making a copy of the copyrighted intellectual property from Microsoft! We must stop him, or Windows will be available on P2P networks very soon, and terrorists will use it to destroy the world!
(This 'copy is bad' nonsense works both ways, right?)
Christophe (Don't hesitate to point out my spelling and grammar mistakes, I want to learn - Thanks).
sid is the story id. formkey is a random string that is needed to make posts. A new one is created everytime someone clicks "Reply to This". My guess is a script is parsing each story looking for these formkeys and generating either trolls or posts intended for karma whores. If you noticed the original poster's homepage, it links to anti-slash.org. They specialize in disrupting Slashdot, through the use of "jihad" tactics. These karma whores will make posts that are generated from anti-slash's extensive +5 score database. Later they'll use these accounts to spew trolls, flamebaits, and crapfloods.
If you read the page linked to you'll see that he belives it is completely legal. He steps through the various versions and acknowledges that some of them was in fact illegal in some way or another, but he says that this latest version is completely legal.
OTOH, I am sure that some random guy won't have much of a chance against a horde of MS lawyers if they decide they want to shut him down.
The Dell Server Assistant CD, a CD-ROM you get with any Dell server, is a booting CD that loads Windows NT and then runs a GUI program that lets you select a disk layout, an operating system, parameters for the operating system (system name, IP address etc) and then prepares an unattended installation file for that operating system. It asks for the OS installation CD, copies it to the disk, and hands over the installation process.
This CD uses some commercially available software kit, the name I now cannot recall, to load a Windows NT system into RAMdisk and let it run from there.
Unfortunately there is no apparent way to exit the installation GUI and go to the NT desktop.
This CD has existed for many years, and I sometimes wondered if we should make the effort to "hack" it and use it as a system repair tool for NTFS based systems.
I don't think this CD is anyway related to Microsoft WinPE technology, but I wonder why it does not stop and say "we must now reboot for the changes to take effect" all the time. It runs on a wide range of Dell servers and I don't think they are completely hardware compatible in the strict sense that Windows often requires.
Haven't done this myself, but presumably you could use RegEdt32 and just load the hive that you want to edit.
I've done this on a normal windows installation, so as long as you have RegEdt32 and any required files, I don't know why it wouldn't work.
As far as I am conserned... ERD Commander from Winternals has allways been my tool of choice.
You can boot up a stripped version of Windows. Unlock admin-accounts. Access local-net, make backups of documents on an otherwise f**ked up harddrive... And yes, there is a command prompt.
And no, I am not affiliated with Winternals, but ERD Commander has been around since NT4.0-days, if I remember correctly.
Maybe this is some kind of free tool, unlike ERD Commander, but it isn't news.
Not Buzzword 2.0 compliant. Please speak english.
I thought VD usually happened after someone scored...
You point was... again?
First of all, lets understand you're talking about Windows in general and not WinXP eight years ago. Well, the answer is you could. I saw a number of write-ups on how to make a CD that would win Win95 right from the CD. Let me add that, because of the driver issues and such you did have to build it for the system you were configuring for (at least if you wanted to use anything other than the minimal VGA drivers) and you might have to ignore a few error message that it spit out while it booted, but it could be done. You wouldn't be able to make a CD you could carry anywhere, but some people were making CD"s that could boot like Knoppix for a classroom environment (without the obvious "cheat" of just installing from CD to hard drive and then running from hard drive). Finding the information is proving a bit tricky, but I should have it somewhere. When and if I find it, if someone doesn't beat me to it, I'll post what I have or a link to same.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
OS 9 and older...
put any Mac installation CD in, restart while holding down the C key.
OS X
use Carbon Copy Cloner. This is just a GUI for the UNIX utilities built in. After making a clone CD, follow OS 9 instructions.
> with some work an almost usable quick system
I can't even get an almost usable system after installing Windows
Fuck this. Go for Knoppix. It's $500 less expensive.
WhoDaresWins,
It constantly amazes me to get answers like the one you quoted. First, the person who answered has a serious anger problem.
Second, he missed the point. He was warned in the Slashdot story, but he missed the point anyway. Microsoft provides no way to make a functional backup of a Windows XP boot partition. That's a fact. Microsoft technical support agrees with this.
Third, did you read the answer to the comment you quoted: #7455912? Apparently not, because larien (5608) gives a complete answer and bigpat (158134) criticized the original poster for his anger.
Fourth, he talks about Sysprep. He apparently doesn't realize that Sysprep is not available to most users of Windows XP. He also assumes that the user is attached to a domain. Most aren't.
I think that an OS with no full backup method does not meet the need for Fitness for Merchantibility. That legal standard may not apply to Windows XP, but it should, in my opinion. In another field, the manufacturer would not be allowed to provide an incomplete product.
The sociology of his answer is more interesting than what he said.
Thanks for writing the story about Bart's and getting Slashdot to publish it. I already knew about Bart's, but the some of the comments were useful to me.
Not everyone wants to give Winternals $300. Especially since the capability should be supplied with Windows XP, without having to pay more.
There has also been an article in german's well-known c't magazin that covers the process to create your very own live-windows-xp-cd. Just look at c't 02/04 p.180 and following.
About 6 months ago, I had an older Windows NT 4.0 server go bad on me, so I did a bit of research on these Win PE boot CDs. While I use PeBuilder now, one of the first ones I found was the avast! Bootable Antivirus & Recovery Tools (BART) CD. It's commercial, but you can download a trial. It's quite slick, it's got avast! antivirus, a registry editor, and TCP/IP support.
Just another option...
Why can't Windows developers come up with something new, instead of copying Linux all the time?
FYI --> VD := Valentines Day.
(taxonomical guideline for moderators: this is a mountain troll)
CC.
TaijiQuan (Huang, 5 loosenings)
Microsoft has a free publicly released ram disk driver. It's a complete piece of crap. It has like an 8MB limit. That's far too small to do anything with. And to resize it you have to reboot. There are some other commercial 3rd party ram disk drivers out there, but they are expensive (usually over 100 dollars, sometimes over 500). Windows should have an included ram disk driver. It's an EXTREMELY useful tool for both servers and desktops.
Get some damn common.
...has spent years since DOS 3 booting and rebooting a computer to get it just right? I would have given up by now
I've noticed that everyone who is for abortion has already been born - Ronald Reagan
but it's rather indispensable to me.... www.wininternals.com sell an ERD (Emergency Recovery Disc) it's a bootable CD that boots into WinXP and gives full access to NTFS partitions. With tools for changing passwords (unknown ones) and file recovery. It has pulled my nuts out of the fire in teh past.
I mean, an OS on a CD is the ideal natural form of the whole "one OS media per machine" approach. Put the CD in any machine you please, but it'll only be in one at a time. The natural use supports rather than fights the whole single-machine-license thang. And it's convenient enough, most people wouldn't see this as a "bug".
Interesting. I don't think Sysprep was part of the retail CDs. Maybe it is now. I didn't know it was possible to download Sysprep. I was told by a Microsoft technical support person to use only the Windows 2003 Server version of Sysprep, since earlier versions have bugs.
Microsoft technical support people never suggest using ASR for a full functional backup of a Windows XP boot partition. MS tech support says there is no way to back up a Windows XP partition without 3rd party tools. I've been told this repeatedly by several Microsoft technicians. If ASR works, why do Acronis (my favorite), Ghost, PowerDeploy, and other 3rd party programs exist?
Youd think so, but no. I have yet to find a registry editor which allows you to manually point to an alternate hive.
So what exactly is it doing when you open up Regedt32 and choose "Load hive" ? I guess I don't understand the distinction....
The thing that makes Knoppix (and the like) so nice is that you just download an ISO and burn it. This sounds like I have to build something myself. (Not surprisngly though since it would be illegal to distribute a prebuilt ISO.)
The whole point of SLashdot is to bash MCSE's and Windows, while not knowing anything about a version of Windows since 98. IF you know about sysprep, riprep, RIS, SUS, how to slipstream a service pack into the seup, group policies, administrative templates, or any of that, why you must be a loser.
You must suffer bannination
Vote Quimby!
Hey, this could be a great tool for converting Linux users to WinXP!! Now they can try Windows without installing it and when they start to like it, they can switch to a WinXP installed on the harddrive.
This Live-Windows-CD is also great, if you need to use Windows but all your friends have Linux and in your office there is only Linux etcetc... Don't worry, now you can keep this CD in your pocket, and use Windows on any computer!
Oh wait... did I just get something backwards?
If it's good, maybe it'll take some market share from BSD.
I've had a W2K server box up (as in turned on continuously, running as a mail, file and print server) for over a year.
Running an unpatched Windows server for a year is about the stupidest thing you can do. If I ever let our Windows servers go unpatched that long I'd be fired (and with good reason.)
Even if you can get a Windows box to run for a year, it doesn't mean that you should. Yes, it's impressive since not many people have done it, but you need to pay more attention to security. We don't need a bunch of nimda2 factories all over the net because Windows admins are trying to get unix-like uptimes out of their servers.
http://www.jankratochvil.net/project/captive/
(haven't used it myself but CT, the local german computer mag, says it's OK and they seldom miss a trick)
sofa -- so good
is a minimal Windows (XP/2K3) based bootable live CD with a command prompt and the ability to run some basic Windows GUI.
So, what's it good for?
They care if they can edit the word processor docs. They care if they can use their spreadsheets and read their email. They want to browse web. Office secretaries don't want to change the world. They want to get their job done.
Open Source is a Good Thing but end users care about SOLUTIONS not TECHNOLOGY. Change your tactics.
Don't tell your friend that this is better cuz it's 'open'. Tell them it's better cuz it's free, it's portable and it's faster on the same hardware.
Agile Artisans
It even allows you to prepare a boot CD for one machine from a backup-set, hosted by another...
"My opinions are my own, and I've got *lots* of them!"
Please also keep in mind that Altiris is part of the wonderful Canopy Group who are behind the fine folks at SCO. Myself, I wouldn't buy water from these guys if my guts were on fire.
Well... Knoppix runs a full-blown Linux with a full-blown desktop. Windows just can't compete... *lol*
They described how to do this with Windows 95 in 1999.
http://www.heise.de/ct/english/99/11/206/
The information is at this link, c't magazine 1999.
http://www.heise.de/ct/english/99/11/206/
I use this at the computer service place where I work, and it's wonderful. It has modules for Ad-aware and McAfee, so it fixes most windows problems in about 10 minutes. It also has network support, and norton ghost, so you can backup the whole system to the network very easy.
I have been using this to make slipstreams of XP Pro for me and my friends since SP1 came out.
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
Now its coming back to me. (I couldn't think clearly at 4:34 AM.) ASR and Sysprep are mutually exclusive. SUS only works if you are attached to a domain. ASR doesn't work if there if the hardware to which you restore is different than that from which you made a backup, as it will be if something fails several years after installation (or even months, sometimes), because you won't be able to buy hardware similar to the original.
There should be a large, large protest about this. The copy protection built into Windows (the registry) prevents saving all your installation and configuration work. This is not a problem with Linux, for example. Copy protection is fine, but not when it prevents your right to make a backup of your own installation and configuration work, which may easily be worth more than the cost of Windows XP.
I've had managers who wouldn't touch closed-source apps because they didn't trust them and/or couldn't extend them. I've had non-developer colleagues who wouldn't touch closed-source apps because they cost money whilst open-source was a free-download away...
Are they hiring?
Besides Bart/PE, he's also created SCSITools, a very handy SCSI diagnostics package that, from what I've been able to tell, rivals the functionality and usefulness of the much higher-priced 'niche market' packages.
My one regret is that he didn't include Windows 2000 Pro in his list of supported systems for the bootable CD's. I may try it with such anyway, just to see what happens.
Bruce Lane, KC7GR,
Blue Feather Technologies
Anybody have a free solution for imaging machines with a Sysprep'd NTFS image from a network? Cheap company doesn't want to pay for Ghost. Thanks.
I'm actually surprised that someone hasn't marketed this before. Last year while building an embedded system with Embedded XP, we built a few bootable XP CDs with various levels of the OS. A few years before that we did the same thing with 2000. And before that we had done it with NT too. We found that the CDs were a simple way to test our platform, without writing an eprom (or later to a DOC). We had no interest in marketing it as they were working in a vertical marketn (weren't interested in mass-marketing).
mx
I've also discovered a way to use my ladder to remove nails from the wall.
Of course, pre-Win95, Booting Win 3.0 would have been even simpler (no registery to deal with), but back then computers couldn't boot from the CD (and few people had CD writers).
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
Most Linux live CD's have all the functionality of a full OS install. Why would we use a stripped-down hardly-useful Windows CD instead?
Why is this news?? Microsoft products playing catchup to Linux is oooooold news.
I'd rather be a conservative nutjob than a liberal with no nuts and no job.
wonder how long until the guy gets interrogated for "stealing the win2k source code" for this.
seriously, he may or may not, but microsoft's on a witch hunt atm, and this guy releases this.
That and they might be pissed for not thinking of doing this sooner.
prolly more than likely get sued, then after they win, they'd come out with a live cd distro.
on another note, this could prove useful to those who dont know shit about linux and want to repair XP or other windows builds.
Y'know how windows users always complain about how difficult it is to install and configure linux. This bootable Windows CD has totaly lost me. Why do I have to download all this other crap just to get it to work on any system? The only thing this has over knoppix (presubaly) is native NTFS support. There's nothing I haven't been able to do to a windows machine with knoppix except write to NTFS.
I have been using Bart's PE disk for a few months now. It is esy to use and is a fantastic resue tool that has pulled my butt out of the fire more than once.
We run Windows 2000 with NTFS and every once in a while the OS blows up on a machine. We gotta get the data off before we re-image it. The data can be worth thousands and our customers don't seem to back up too often.
I use Bart's PE disk and a USB hard drive, Boot using the PE disk and access the borked drive, pull all the data I can find and copy it to the USB drive then reimage the computer and put the data back on. It has never failed to work.
We can turn around a borked machine from anywhere in the country in three days (one day in-house and two days in the mail). Our customers are very happy and Bart's PE disk has made our lives a lot easier.
I'm thinking of writing something for Bart's disk that would automate the process so I can express them the disk, the hard drive, and an ISO of the standard image and let them do it themselves.
Helevius
I use it to defrag my windows system. Delete the hyberfil.sys and pagefile.sys and the defrag goes much smoother and faster.
I discovered it about two months ago. It's fantastic. There are plugins for antivirus software so if you suspect that a machine is infested you can clean it out.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
Barts CD is nice, but this is better. Here is the description of SuperWINPE 2004. I don't know Bart personally, but he may have just ripped off SuperWINPE.
Is it just me or haven't you been able to boot from the Mac OS CDs for years? I even remember Norton Utilities for Mac booting into its own Mac OS that ran from the CD. I'm actually surprised that Windows hasn't implemented this feature, because back in my Mac days, it saved me from having to format my hard disk quite a few number of times.
"You had this look that of an angel, it was such a bad disguise" --Dishwalla
We just got a couple Dell PE2650s and 1750s where I work and I noticed that the Server Assistant CD now runs under Linux rather than NT. You can even switch to alternate consoles and tinker around if you like.
Anybody know this could be used to run a Win32 based BIOS flashing app? The last few BIOS updates Dell's put out for my Inspiron 5150 have been apps that run within windows, and one fixes and issue with battery charging that's been driving me nuts. I haven't been able to use them, since I run a full linux shop. If it could work, I'll barrow my roomate's machine for a bit, burn a disc, and give it a try.
// Dumps core here
Retard!
Windows is 90% of the problem.
The other 10% of the problems I run into are
OTHER software packages that create data that
are PROPRIETARY in nature and screw you silly
if you don't have the 'origional' windows
running with the proper registry keys.
(like... when your M$ OS decides to take a healthy shit)
Soooo many problems people have, soooo much money
I have to charge them.
I'd be ever so much happier, and the users would be
ever so much richer if they'd just dump
the proprietary shit.
'Course I'd be poorer and It would give me an excuse
to get out of the computer business (Which I really wouldn't mind at this point)
Windows blows and is fucking everything up that
it's installed on..... get rid of it now or you
will eventually pay the price.
All of you who want to use this ala Knoppix better be prepared to violate some EULA's and make some code changes. From TFA:
# Q: Does PE Builder remove the 24 hour time limit? A: No!
# Q: Does PE Builder remove the "can only start 6 processes" limit? A: No!
You can run 6 or fewer processes for 24 hours or less. On second thought, maybe that's not all that different from regular Windows........
knoppix@cool-dual-beast:~$ uptime
12:57:34 up 9 days, 21:49, 1 user, load average: 0.50, 0.38, 0.34
Guess Knoppix has this one beat.
"Finally?"
... they even had WinPE available as of 2002... Why is it that Slashdot, in it's oft-admitted-but-bashfully-trying-to-hide linux zealotry often publishes articles about the 'evil empire' technology "finally arriving" without checking up on facts, et al.
Prototypes of this were done as early as 2001 folks
When the real linux movement takes over, I hope it's not staffed with the 'glory-days-are-still-here-isn't-linux-cool' types I see here often. Do some research, STFU a little bit, and enjoy the ride dudes.
Slashdot "libertarians": Small government for me, big government for those I disagree with. -1, I disagree with you
Now we will NEVER know how many Linux desktops and/or users are out there! Getting statistics of current Linux vs. Windows desktops would be like gauging the population of Manhattan/any major metropolitan area: it would balloon upwards during the day, and drop down drastically at dusk.
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
I've seen this before. Many of the "new features" that people liked so much about XP had been in Linux already for _years_. Some basic UI features that I depend on every day (like virtual desktops) are _still_ not in Windows (or OS X), or are so buried that I would never find them unless I worked for Microsoft -- probably not even then.
And yet, many people look at Linux and seem to think that we copied everything. This is true of some things, of course (think OpenOffice), but it makes me wonder -- how long until people start thinking that Knoppix is a ripoff of this Windows livecd?
And don't think this hasn't happened before. Remember the Microsoft Hall of Innovation...
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
You are disagreeing with Microsoft in what you say. Who should people listen to when considering Microsoft products, you or Microsoft?
Where you been?!
= 94 171
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http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?cid=8084375&sid
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?cid=8284380&sid
Those of us at Damn Small Linux forum have been fiddling with putting DSL on the hard drive, just like it was running from the CD. It's great, really. I got tired of hearing my CDROM drive spin, so I got into putting DSL on the drive, to speed it up, and quiet the CDROM. We have been advised that although it is possible to boot from a USB device, those things have limited read-write ability, and should not be treated like a hard drive, rather like a big floppy. I do like to keep my restore tarball and it's control file on the USB drive, it's only used once to load your own web browsers, files, wallpapers, etc. and then once to backup anything you want added to the tarball. You can take the drive out of the USB port after the restore, if you don't intend to backup when you shutdown. Here is my howto on putting the DSL live cd on the HDD. /knoppix and filetool.sh, and a 30 mb partition for the tarball and the control file, filetool.lst. I often put this on a slave hdd.
All that is required is a small 60 mb partition for
---
Not too portable, but gives you some practice working with this kind of distro.
Although a fine utility, it does not work on Windows AD Domain Controllers. ERD Commander is the only package that I know of that will allow you to reset a Windows Domain Admins password.
cd030225.iso
Patch your hive or clear your password
it's because oracle are trying to be clever and shipping a "universal installer CD" that's meant to work on any OS they support. in their eagerness to take their platform independence to a tedious conclusion, they broke the fuckign thing.
sometimes, the easiest solution isn't the worst solution...
are you trolling? or just stupid? patching 2000 boxes does not necessarily mean rebooting: that's what "hotfix" means. a year or two uptime's fine with regular patching...
BitDefender Live (www.bitdefender.com) is a antivirus program that is multiplatform. It works on linux desktops & servers, windows desktops & servers, palm pilots, yahoo messsenger, and on and on. When windows is messed up it can quarentine the virus, say to a thumb drive so if the infected file happens to be explorer.exe its not completly deleted.
I love this program, it does wonders at a university with lots of mindless stupid users.
~ryan
have used this pre packaged installer before.. its good for sure.. and a life saver for sysdmins. Must try the network bootable floppy maker and the corp boot cd maker! cheers
Amit Agarwal a.k.a Netahoy http://www.netahoy.org/
No, seriously, the best reason I've found to use this (over Knoppix or similar Linux/BSD's on a CD) is support for Windows-only hardware, like every wireless card I have.
I can't believe it worked! I got windows to run of a CD!
this is what I did..
1. I downloaded bart's boot CD..
2. then I used my windows 1.1 (5x1.44) floppy disk set to install windows in a folder under the bart's boot cd folder..
3. burned the cd using bart's instructions
4. booted to dos thru the cd, went to the windows folder and executed "win"
5. posted this message (from another computer)
Note: for some reason, I got my video card messed up.. couldn't decided to go for a XGA or a EGA and it corrupted that microsoft logo that shows on a blue screen in the beginning.
now I will attempt administration!
God is real unless declared as int