Messages

1

Software / \"Real\" windows boot CD

« on: July 05, 2003, 01:36:43 AM »

Someone asked how you make a generic Windows 98 boot CD. Well, what you need to do is shoot Plug 'n Play in the foot.


I am a rather evil person, in that I've migrated Win 95/98/Me hard drives from one machine to the next using a really scary approach:

1. Boot old computer into Safe Mode.

2. Open Device Manager, and start deleting EVERYTHING!

3. Delete all ports, devices, system resources, etc etc. You want that puppy blank.

4. Remove hard drive, put in new/different PC, power up.


When Windows comes alive on the new system, it will look really plain.. 640x480, 16 colors. In fact, in this state, plug 'n play is itself NOT INSTALLED so it can't and won't do plug 'n play detection.

Next step, reinstall plug 'n play. You can do this simply by going to Add New Hardware and detecting any devices. Along the way it'll find some various items plus a weird Plug 'n Play component. Once this installs, Windows will suddenly go mad redetecting drivers, possibly even before you can reboot after this initial detection.

Driver reinstallation is a long process, involving many reboots. If it prompts for a driver search, just keep hitting next next, don't look at CD/floppy/etc, finish. In the end it may have duplicate keyboards and duplicate floppy controllers, which can be removed once it's settled down after ten or so reboots.

Now you can carry on with your old programs, games, documents, etc, but on an 1800mHz system rather than the old 600mhz system.



When creating a CD, if you delete every device, and do NOT reinstall the plug 'n play component, it may run just fine off the CD with no devices whatsoever listed in the device manager. This Windows, with a castrated form of Plug 'n Play may work just fine on many different PC types, without trying to detect and install any new/unknown devices in the various PCs.

If you want, you could Add New hardware, but don't do plug 'n play and only install generic drivers yourself. This way you can pick a generic VGA display driver, a generic network card driver, etc.

2

Software / Copying bootsector / master boot record?

« on: June 22, 2003, 02:28:08 PM »

So anyway, as you may be aware, I am trying to make a bootable Windows XP CD.

There is a snag here. I can't use the CD-ROM bootsector including with XP setup or Win PE setup, because that bootsector tries to run NTLDR in the \I386 folder.

This is not how Win XP normally boots. The normal bootsector only wants to find NTLDR in the root of the filesystem, in \.

However, I can't find a copy of this normal bootsector in a file anywhere on XP setup / Win PE setup, even though XP setup installs it on the hard drive during a normal Win XP install.

At this point I may need to make a copy of the bootsector already on the hard drive and use that to create this special CD. however, I know of no such program that is capable of doing this.

Maybe I might be able to do it with a raw disk/sector editor, to copy the sector(s) and to copy the sectors to a data file?

3

Software / Everything you wanted to know about WinPE

« on: June 20, 2003, 03:53:39 PM »

No, it's more than those files. Some of the executables in the \WINPE folder dig through a Win XP Pro CD to make the custom boot image.

Here are what the various WinPE files are for:

• You run MKIMG.CMD to do the actual building process. Put you XP Pro CD in the drive, and tell MKIMG where to put the WinPE build directory and the final ISO image (if desired).
  
• DSKIMG.EXE makes a disk image of a floppy in drive A. What for? On ia64 we need to copy setupldr.efi to floppy and image it and use that as the boot image.
  
• OSCDIMG.EXE takes the build directory on your hard drive and turns it into a bootable CD, with the proper boot sector, boot loader, etc.
  
• ETFSBOOT.COM is really a copy of the CD boot sector. Used by OSCDIMG.EXE to put a bootsector onto the ISO image.
  
• BLDHIVES.EXE creates the custom registry files for WinPE using the registry files on the Win XP CD.
  
• CONFIG.INF used by BLDHIVES.EXE for making the customized WinPE registry.
  

Though FACTORY.EXE and NETCFG.EXE aren't in here, and aren't automatically put onto the ISO by MKIMG. It appears you need to manually install them from the OEM Preinstallation Kit Tools folder. (I need to read the documentation some more.)

4

Software / Everything you wanted to know about WinPE

« on: June 20, 2003, 01:12:59 AM »

Windows PE is not a standalone CD by itself.

Windows PE is on a special CD called the Windows XP OEM Preinstallation Kit.

It is actually quite tiny, because all that is on the OEM Preinstall CD is a folder with about 1.8 meg of files.

You must have Windows XP Pro in order to get Win PE, because the files on the OEM Preinstall CD are just \"builder files\" pulling bits and pieces from Win XP to built a Win PE CD.

Here is what's in Windows PE:

Code: [Select]

G:\WINPE>dir
 Volume in drive G is XRMOPK_EN
 Volume Serial Number is BA28-A6CE

 Directory of G:\WINPE

08/29/2002  07:00 AM    <DIR>          .
08/29/2002  07:00 AM    <DIR>          ..
08/29/2002  07:00 AM            38,400 BLDHIVES.EXE
08/29/2002  07:00 AM            99,086 BUILDOPTIONALCOMPONENTS.VBS
08/29/2002  07:00 AM             2,096 CONFIG.INF
08/29/2002  07:00 AM            13,312 DEPEND.EXE
08/29/2002  07:00 AM             8,192 DSKIMAGE.EXE
08/29/2002  07:00 AM             2,048 ETFSBOOT.COM
08/29/2002  07:00 AM             2,536 EXTRA.INF
08/29/2002  07:00 AM             7,668 MKIMG.CMD
08/29/2002  07:00 AM            55,808 OEMMINT.EXE
08/29/2002  07:00 AM            75,776 OSCDIMG.EXE
08/29/2002  07:00 AM                 0 SAM
08/29/2002  07:00 AM                 0 SAM.LOG
08/29/2002  07:00 AM                 0 SECURITY
08/29/2002  07:00 AM                 0 SECURITY.LOG
08/29/2002  07:00 AM                 0 SOFTWARE.LOG
08/29/2002  07:00 AM               106 STARTNET.CMD
08/29/2002  07:00 AM                14 STARTOPK.CMD
08/29/2002  07:00 AM               167 WINBOM.INI
08/29/2002  07:00 AM         1,440,054 WINPE.BMP
08/29/2002  07:00 AM             1,224 WINPEDEF.INF
08/29/2002  07:00 AM             1,190 WINPEOEM.SIF
08/29/2002  07:00 AM            30,802 WINPESFT.INF
08/29/2002  07:00 AM            99,116 WINPESYS.INF
08/29/2002  07:00 AM            11,463 WPEMSCLI.INF
08/29/2002  07:00 AM             2,042 WPENB.INF
08/29/2002  07:00 AM            20,573 WPETCPIP.INF
              26 File(s)      1,911,673 bytes
               2 Dir(s)               0 bytes free

G:\WINPE>
As you can see, the Win PE builder files are actually ridiculously small. Of the 1.8 megs, 1.4 is used for a silly desktop wallpaer. So the actual size of the WinPE builder files is a mere 478k.

That's really all that stands between Win XP Pro and Windows PE. http://images.thetechguide.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif\' class=\'bbc_emoticon\' alt=\'\' />

5

Software / Any sites for WindowsPE ?

« on: June 20, 2003, 12:42:43 AM »

If you buy 3 or more OEM licenses from an online retailer, you may just get the OEM Preinstall kit CD thrown in. A standard Microsoft System Builder kit is a small cardboard box just big enough to hold 3 shrink-wrapped OEM CDs, stickers, and manuals, and in EVERY box the OEM Preinstall CD is just thrown in for your convenience.

The 3 or more is the key.. how many of you have bought an OEM license via NewEgg or some such? Then how many of you wanted like 3 or 4 OEM license CDs? I'll bet very few people have ever ordered more than one copy, so your chances of getting the preinstall kit are much less.


So, basically for a source, you should look to NewEgg or other nerd-oriented parts stores that will sell OEM licenses with some other inexpensive bits of hardware.


-Scalar

6

Software / Installing XP -ON- a CD (not a bootable setup CD)

« on: June 19, 2003, 11:53:42 AM »

For example.. if you run Win 2k or XP, you've got an NTLDR file in the root of your hard drive. So what does it do exactly? Notepad can help you find out. (Turn on word wrap in the menus to make this easier. It'll make long lines wrap, so you only have to scroll down to see everything in the file.)

 http://images.thetechguide.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ph34r.gif\' class=\'bbc_emoticon\' alt=\':ph34r:\' />      http://images.thetechguide.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ph34r.gif\' class=\'bbc_emoticon\' alt=\':ph34r:\' />       http://images.thetechguide.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ph34r.gif\' class=\'bbc_emoticon\' alt=\':ph34r:\' />        http://images.thetechguide.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ph34r.gif\' class=\'bbc_emoticon\' alt=\':ph34r:\' />       http://images.thetechguide.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ph34r.gif\' class=\'bbc_emoticon\' alt=\':ph34r:\' />       http://images.thetechguide.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ph34r.gif\' class=\'bbc_emoticon\' alt=\':ph34r:\' />


NTLDR.txt:

Windows NT has found only %dK of low memory.  512k of low memory
is required to run Windows NT.  You may need to upgrade your
computer or run a configuration program provided by the manufacturer.

Windows NT has not found enough extended memory.  7Mb of extended
memory is required to run Windows NT.  You may need to upgrade your
computer or run a configuration program provided by the manufacturer.

Memory Map:
     %lx - %lx
    NTLDR is corrupt.  The system cannot boot. NTLDR is corrupt.  The system cannot boot. ax:%x dx:%x cx:%x bx:%x es:%x
 TRAP %lx  
DEBUG TRAP   ================== DOUBLE FAULT ================================
  ===== STACK SEGMENT OVERRUN or NOT PRESENT FAULT ===============
  ============== GENERAL PROTECTION FAULT ========================
  =================== PAGE FAULT =================================
 ** At linear address %lx
  ===================== EXCEPTION ================================

multi(0)disk(0)fdisk(0)
net(0)
multi(0)disk(0)cdrom(%u)
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(0)
Falied to write the new signature on the boot partition.
Failed second ArcSeek on the boot partition to check for a signature.
Failed to ArcRead the boot partition to check for a signature.
Failed to ArcSeek the boot partition to check for a signature.
Couldn't Open the boot partition to check for a signature.
Couldn't initialize memory
Couldn't initialize I/O
\i386\ntdetect.com  ntdetect.com    \ntdetect.com    NOLEGACY
deviceExtension->MapRegisterBase    D:\nt\private\ntos\boot\lib\scsiboot.c  ASSERT File: %s line: %l
deviceExtension->Flags & PD_DISABLE_INTERRUPTS  D:\nt\private\ntos\boot\lib\scsiboot.c  ASSERT File: %s line: %lx
!(deviceExtension->Flags & PD_DISABLE_INTERRUPTS)   D:\nt\private\ntos\boot\lib\scsiboot.c  ASSERT File: %s line: %l
ERROR - Unimplemented Firmware Vector called (FID %lx)
FindDiskSignature found no match for %s
ERROR - GDT and IDT are not contiguous!  GDT - %lx (%x)  IDT - %l
Out of permanent heap!
ERROR - FwAllocateHeapPermanent couldn't find the LoaderMemoryData descriptor!
ERROR - Unopened fileid %lx closed
multi   eisa
multi(0)disk(0)fdisk(0)partition(0)
eisa(0)disk(0)fdisk(0)partition(0)
multi(0)disk(0)fdisk(1)partition(0)
eisa(0)disk(0)fdisk(1)partition(0)
multi(0)disk(0)fdisk(0)
eisa(0)disk(0)fdisk(0)
multi(0)disk(0)fdisk(1)
eisa(0)disk(0)fdisk(1)
disk    cdrom   rdisk   partition
multi(0)key(0)keyboard(0)
multi(0)video(0)monitor(0)
SCSI ReadCapacity: Enter routine


Lots more in here. Take a look at your own copy of NTLDR for the rest of it.  http://images.thetechguide.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cool.gif\' class=\'bbc_emoticon\' alt=\'B)\' />

(BUT DO THIS ON A BACKUP COPY ONLY!)

7

Software / Installing XP -ON- a CD (not a bootable setup CD)

« on: June 19, 2003, 11:27:23 AM »

One thing I've discovered about Win 2000 and Win XP, is that they have a fairly nice little hacking tool built right into the operating system. In fact, you've probably used it for more boring purposes and never even realized the potential of this important program.

It's called Notepad.  http://images.thetechguide.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif\' class=\'bbc_emoticon\' alt=\'\' />

Notepad in W2k/XP is a little different from the W95/W98/WMe Notepad. In those earlier versions of Windows, Notepad had a hard-coded file size limit of something like 32 kilobytes.

However, in W2k and up, the file size for Notepad is virtually unlimited. You can open files span tens of megabytes if you so choose. Sure, it'll be really laggy opening, but it WILL open the file. This makes Notepad an excellent tool for examing the innards of just about any sort of system file or program.

All you have to do is unhide extensions in explorer, make a copy of the file you want to examine, and then rename it from *.EXE or *.DLL or *.DAT or whatever, to *.TXT. Windows will complain about you changing file types, but ignore it and go ahead.

Now open it in Notepad, and look around for strings of text. This is really all it takes in many cases to learn how a program functions and how it interacts with the rest of the operating system, because Microsoft is so very verbose about how its programs do stuff.


-Scalar

8

Software / Installing XP -ON- a CD (not a bootable setup CD)

« on: June 19, 2003, 11:14:06 AM »

When you type the commands

SFC /CACHESIZE=0
SFC /PURGECACHE

Windows itself will delete everything in the dllcache folder. You don't have to do anything to remove them, as it shoots itself in the foot blindly following your orders.  http://images.thetechguide.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/huh.gif\' class=\'bbc_emoticon\' alt=\':huh:\' />

The only catch may be with Windows XP Home, since I saw that WFP uses a separate \"Service Pack 1\" folder for storing WFP files. I am not sure if the SFC purge command will clear that too.... but really what sort of moron will want an XP Home boot CD anyways, after all this work?

I tested the above purgecache on Windows XP Pro SP1 OEM, with no troubles, and no lurking service pack folder anywhere..


-Scalar

9

Software / Installing XP -ON- a CD (not a bootable setup CD)

« on: June 18, 2003, 06:49:10 PM »

Sure you can put Windows XP on a CD-ROM, or a boot flash.


In fact, after doing some more exploring, I've discovered that Microsoft has a specific way of letting you do it. All you need is a special CD with Windows XP Embedded development tools.

Yes, Microsoft is well aware that their OS wants to write out [censored], that it won't be able to write to a CD. So they have a hack for their own OS, known as the Enhanced Write Filter, which can redirect writing to an alternate device (such as a RAM disk) so their OS stays happy.


So, the easy way to do this is to get ahold of a Microsoft XP Embedded development tools. Oh, yeah, piece o' cake right? Likely only bigtime portable electronics manufacturers can legally get it. http://images.thetechguide.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif\' class=\'bbc_emoticon\' alt=\'\' />


But, at least you can read Microsoft's documentation for it all you want:  http://images.thetechguide.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif\' class=\'bbc_emoticon\' alt=\'\' />

Welcome to Windows XP Embedded

El Torito Design Considerations

Creating a Bootable CD-ROM with the El Torito Feature in Windows XP Embedded

How to Create a Bootable CD-ROM


-Scalar

10

Software / Installing XP -ON- a CD (not a bootable setup CD)

« on: June 18, 2003, 11:54:05 AM »

This could almost be a topic of its own, but the first stage of putting XP on a CD is to turn off all that junk that wastes space and bloats the operating system.

However, it will generally be far easier if you have a DVD burner, since you can make a bootable CD with many gigs of capacity. I don't have a DVD burner yet, so for now I'm making just a basic, stripped down CD with a minimum of software... basically just Windows itself and no other programs.

A standard XP install uses about 1.5 gigs of disk space, but most of that is not critical to the operation of the computer. If you have more than about 192 megs of memory, I've discovered that you can even disable virtual memory completely and XP will still work okay.


Do NOT do this with your primary computer. Do this on a secondary computer where it doesn't matter if you screw up and you can freely reformat and reinstall Windows. (If you try these hacking steps on your main system, you deserve the pain you'll receive for being such an idiot.)



Step 1: Install XP as FAT32 only on test/hack system

There's no such thing as an NTFS-formatted CD, and you may need a Win98 boot floppy at some point to hack this when XP is not running.


Step 2: Make Windows stop trying to protect you from yourself

Open My Computer
Go to Tools - Folder Options...
Click on the View tab
Under Hidden files and folders, select Show hidden files and folders
Uncheck Hide extensions for known file types
Uncheck Hide protected operating system files... yes, Microsoft, I really DO want this. http://images.thetechguide.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif\' class=\'bbc_emoticon\' alt=\'\' />


Step 3: Disable System Restore, and delete restore points

Go  to Start - Settings - Control Panel - System - System Restore tab
Check box Turn off System Restore and hit OK
Windows warns you that all restore points will be deleted. Hey, great. Hit OK.


Step 4: Castrate Windows File Protection

Go to Start - Programs - Accessories - Command Prompt
type SFC /CACHESIZE=0 and hit Enter
type SFC /PURGECACHE and hit Enter


Step 5: Turn off the virtual memory pagefile

Go  to Start - Settings - Control Panel - System - Advanced tab
Under Performance hit the Settings button
Click on the Advanced tab
Under Virtual Memory hit the Change button
Select No paging file and hit the Set button
OK - restart computer


Step 6: Disable hibernation

Go  to Start - Settings - Control Panel - Power Options - Hibernate tab
Uncheck Enable hibernation


Step 7: Delete cached setup drivers

Go to My Computer - C: - Windows (show files) - Driver Cache
Delete the i386 folder


Step 8: Gut out the help system

Go to My computer - C:- Windows - Help
Select all files other than Tours
  (Hit Control - A, then hold down Control and click on Tours)
Delete them.

In a few seconds the Windows File Protection alert will appear. Since you gutted out its cache folder it can't magically restore the files you just deleted, and it wants the Windows setup CD. Well... ignore it. Drag it off to the far bottom-right of the screen, so just the tiny upper-left corner is visible. Now, continue deleting files... http://images.thetechguide.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif\' class=\'bbc_emoticon\' alt=\'\' />

Open the Tours folder, select htmlTour, and delete it.
Open the mmTour folder, select all, and delete them.


Step 9: Gut out the remote assistance system

Go  to Start - Settings - Control Panel - Administrative Tools - Services
Select the Remote Desktop Help Session Manager
Right-click on it, and choose Stop
Right-click on it, select Properties, and under Startup type, choose Disabled
Close all those windows

Go to My Computer - C: - Windows - PCHealth - HelpCtr
Select all files other than Binaries and delete them
Open the Binaries folder, and delete all files inside


Step 10: Get rid of those stupid animations and stop the handholding in file search

Go to My Computer - C: - Windows - srchasst
Select all files and delete them
Ahhhhh, we've got the old Win2000 file search back.


Step 11: Disable file search indexing service and delete catalogs

Go  to Start - Settings - Control Panel - Administrative Tools - Services
Select the Indexing Service
Right-click on it, and choose Stop
Right-click on it, select Properties, and under Startup type, choose Disabled
Close all those windows

Go to Start - Search - For files and folders
On the left, you'll see that it's unhappy about the Indexing Service being disabled.
Click on the highlighted Indexing Service link
Click the Advanced button
For each catalog listed, select it, right-click, and choose Delete.
Close the Indexing service window, and click OK on the other window (leave it indexing off)



You should be able to stop here. At this point, the total hard drive size is about 670 megs, just enough to fit onto a 700 meg CD-R.

Oh, Windiws file protection is still unhappy. Move up the window for WFP, and click Cancel. It'll next ask Hey dumbass, those files were important! You sure you want to screw up Windows, you moron?! Click Yes.   http://images.thetechguide.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif\' class=\'bbc_emoticon\' alt=\':rolleyes:\' />

Oh, but it hasn't given up! It'll again prompt you. Hit Cancel, and tell it one more time you don't care, and it will finally give up and not bother you anymore.

-Scalar

11

Software / Installing XP -ON- a CD (not a bootable setup CD)

« on: June 18, 2003, 10:37:05 AM »

Bleah, it's almost impossible to find anything on this topic. There's about 30,000 hits on google that talk about making a bootable Windows XP CD, but virtually all of them are referring only to the setup program used to install XP onto a hard drive.

That is NOT what I am talking about. This is a hacking question, which very few people are likely to understand or be able to help out with. I am not expecting a large number of responses. http://images.thetechguide.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif\' class=\'bbc_emoticon\' alt=\'\' />

I am attempting to run the GUI, the core, the actual operating system, from a CD. You can take this CD, stick it in a computer running linux, reboot, and viola, you're now running XP on the system. Take the CD out, reboot, and it's back to linux again.

when you use a bootable setup CD on a computer, you ARE running Windows XP, but in a stripped-down mode that is text-only. It should therefore be possible to hack a setup CD in such a way that you can get the actual installed OS to run from a CD.

I am not too concerned about total portability here, such as having it always work on any PC. Just the PC it was built from at the start is good enough to get the project started.


That said, is there anyone intimately familiar with how a bootable 2000/XP setup CD accesses files, and in what order? Please, don't all of you who know this post at once in reply.  http://images.thetechguide.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif\' class=\'bbc_emoticon\' alt=\'\' />

-Scalar