E2B v1.97d BETA available

New version available from the Alternate Downloads Areas (in both self-extracting .exe and .zip form in case of false-positive virus detection issues).

Changes from v1.96A

• Make_E2B.exe - Extract button now works even if no USB drive detected and not run as admin, now warns that user will require WinHelper USB Flash drive for WIndows Install ISOs if using Fixed Disk
• Desinfect 2017 sample .mnu file added
• Fix $Default E2B Menu.cfg by adding !BAT to prevent initial error message after using PimpMydrive.cmd (bugfix).
• Snappy SDIO .cfg file changed to suppress GNU licence EULA on first run + later version
• Change to all menus and language files - menu help text now does not have leading space at start of each help line. 
• New hstart and hwidth parameters can be set in MyE2B.cfg to set the x start offset and width of the menu help text. 
• 'No !BAT string in MyE2B.cfg' error message suppressed if no MyE2B.cfg file exists (bugfix).
• Small bugfix to E2B_Editor and it now lists both .bmp and .jpg files in open file dialog by default.
• New grub4dos version. String command bugfix in grub4dos and other small bugs fixed. New setmenu draw-box command added.
• CENTREHD code revised for better menu heading centering.
• Small \_ISO\SampleBackround.jpg file added for use with E2B_Editor.
• DrawBox.cfg theme added

Black Friday E2B Treats!

Why not upgrade your E2B drive to the fastest\best flash drive and take advantage of the Black Friday reductions?

SanDisk Extreme Pro USB 3.1 128GB - $60 or £66 (save $20/£27!!!)

or the 256GB version for only $100.

Tip: The 'Go' version is cheaper but slower (1\10th random 4K speed so not suitable for WinToGo)!

Now you can add WindowsToGo VHD files and boot to Windows 10 directly from your E2B drive - but you may forget that you are actually running from a USB drive!

E2B v1.96A released (bugfix for v1.96)

Due to a small bug in v1.96, I have decided to re-release v1.96 as v1.96A.

The bug was that if you had no \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg file, you would see a 'ERROR IN \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg file - Check first line starts with !BAT' message when you boot to E2B.

The new v1.96A does NOT include the latest changes in the v1.97c BETA version, so E2B v1.97c is currently the latest, most up-to-date version, although it is still at Beta status.

E2B v1.97c BETA available

Changes from v1.96 are:

1. New Make_E2B.exe - extract button now works even if no USB drive detected and not run as admin
2. Desinfect 2017 sample .mnu file added,
3. Fix $Default E2B Menu.cfg by adding !BAT to prevent initial error message after using PimpMydrive.cmd.
4. Snappy SDIO .cfg file changed to suppress GNU licence EULA on first run. 
5. Change to all menus and language files - menu help text now does not have leading space at start of each help line. 
6. New hstart and hwidth parameters can be set in MyE2B.cfg to set the x start offset and width of the menu help text.
7. No !BAT warning message if no MyE2B.cfg exists (bugfix)
8. SDI Origin .exe files updated.

Items 5 and 6 actually involved changing a great many .txt, .mnu, .g4b and language files to remove the space that was used in the menu help text.

The new version is available from the Alternate Downloads Areas.

E2B v1.97b available (with small bugfix)

E2B v1.97b is now available from the Alternate Download Areas.

There was a small bug in v1.96 reported by Nathan (thanks!).

If you run \_ISO\PimpMyDrive.cmd and then choose to add Themes, then when you next boot to E2B, you will see a warning message:

Press ENTER to continue and load the E2B menu.

This message occurs because E2B now checks that the \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg file starts with !BAT, but the new MyE2B.cfg that is initially used is just full of 00's.

Once you select a new Theme using the E2B menu, the error message will disappear because the contents of the MyE2B.cfg will be overwritten with new text.

Changes from v1.96 are:

• Make_E2B.exe - Extract button now works even if no USB drive detected and not run as admin
• Desinfect 2017 sample .mnu file added,
• Fix $Default E2B Menu.cfg by adding !BAT to prevent initial error message after using Pimp My drive.cmd.

If you have already run v1.96 PimpMyDrive.cmd and still see this error, selecting a Theme from the Main menu will fix it.

Add the E2B UtilMan password hack to any WinPE ISO's desktop

If your E2B USB drive contains bootable WinPE ISOs (e.g. Gandalf, Strelec, Bob Om, etc.), you can add shortcuts to the WinPE Desktops which will run the E2B UtilMan hack files. This will allow you to hack into any Windows system that is not encrypted.

YT video

1. First you need to add the PEStartup files and \TheOven_Startup.cmd to your E2B drive, as detailed in a previous blog here. For example, for a version with PortableApps already added, download and extract the PEStartup_Papps version to the E2B drive.

2. Next, boot to your WinPE ISO on the E2B USB drive (or if you prefer, you can double-click on the \AIO\Tools\PEStartup\PEStartup_x86.exe or PEStartup_x64.exe under your current Windows OS - but do not click on the 'Options - Perform' button or it will alter your Windows system!).

Some WinBuilder PEs such as Gandalf and Bob Om's PE v8 will automatically run PEStartup when WinPE boots. For other WinPEs, you will need to double-click on \TheOven_Startup.cmd to run PEStartup.

3. Now use PEStartup to add Shortcuts for \_ISO\docs\UtilMan\Utilman1PE_Patch.cmd and UtilMan4PE_Restore.cmd as shown in the screenshot below:

Add Desinfect 2017 + updates to E2B

I have updated the instructions in a previous blog on Desinfect.

You should be able boot from a Desinfect 2017 ISO with persistent virus signature updates if you follow the instructions carefully.

See the bottom of this page for details.

Add FreeBSD-based ISOs to E2B (+ new MPI Tool Pack released)

Bootable ISOs based on FreeBSD (e.g. FreeBSD-*11.1.iso) can now be booted by using .imgPTN image files.

I have just updated the MPI Tool Pack v.0.078.

Instructions are basically the same as for memstick images - see here (bottom of page).

For instance, you can MBR-boot to OPNsense ISOs (OPNsense-17.7.5-OpenSSL-dvd-amd64.iso) by creating a dummy .imgPTN file and removing the file extension from the ISO file so it is also loaded as a partition image.

To check if your ISO is compatible, load the ISO into 7Zip and look for a \boot\loader file inside the ISO.

Note: FreeNas .ISO files do not work using this method. You must use FreeNAS memstick images instead.

Geek notes

It is not possible to boot directly from the ISO using a simple menu such as:

Very useful additions to your E2B USB drive - Carifred Ultra Virus Killer and Tech Tool Store

If you have a sufficient knowledge of Windows to be able to repair a damaged or infected Windows system, you will know that it is not that easy.

For instance, although you may be able to boot to the infected Windows system, it may not allow you to run any .exe executable or use any browser.

So i just wanted to make you aware of Carifred's software for technicians. Not only do they offer free versions with very few limitations, but it also seems to provide the exact tools that an experienced Windows repair technician needs. The full licences are also very reasonably priced too.

This blog post is just a 'heads-up' to draw your attention to this software if you haven't come across it before.

SSL for Easy2boot and RMPrepUSB sites + how to increase your website earnings with Ezoic!

Because both sites go through Ezoic, it was super-easy to enable SSL for both sites.

I simply installed the SSL app (just one click on the Ezoic site) for each of my sites and waited a while.

https://www.rmprepusb.com

This should help the Google search ranking for these sites too and give people a 'warmer' feeling when accessing the sites.

This blogger site also has SSL too (you are probably viewing it now using the https URL).

https://rmprepusb.blogspot.com

About Ezoic

If you own a website, Ezoic can help you improve traffic, user experience and website earnings.

It is free to try and they will help you set it up (not difficult!), so you have nothing to lose.

Easy2Boot v1.96 full release now available

Changes from v1.95:

• Bugfix for .isofira01 as used for Strelec ISOs and fix some other .fira extensions (QRUN.g4b).
• Check for fixed type of .VHD\.VHDX file - dynamic VHDs won't boot (QRUN.g4b).
• If .txt file exists then don't suggest better extension, unless SCROLL LOCK is on (QRUN.g4b)
• Improve GIFtoIMA.cmd script to calculate size of .IMA file required.
  GIFtoIMA.cmd now will add code lines to your MyE2B.cfg file for you (optional).
• New 'rooftops' default wallpaper.
• New SWITCH_E2B.exe with improved file re-ordering for dual image payloads (see Method 4).  
• Check \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg begins with !BAT, and bugfix for falsely reporting a problem with MyE2B.cfg in some cases (menu.lst).
• Added some 'disk1' example XML unattended install files for Win7/8/10. 
• Larger cmd shell window for UPDATE_E2B_DRIVE.cmd so can see which files have been updated.
• Add linuxlite_persistence and linuxmint_persistence sample mnu files.
• Small text change to ENGlish Strings.txt (.imgPTN prompt, etc.).

Files are available from Alternate Download Areas.
The Main E2B site will be updated within a few days.

Please report any issues ASAP.

P.S. v1.96 could report a !BAT missing error under some conditions (e.g. no MyE2B.cfg), so I have released a bugfix version called 1.96A. If you already have v1.96, just download v1.96A and click the Update_E2B button to update your 1.96 E2B drive.

How I deleted unwanted gmail messages to save space on Google Drive

Google had started warning me that my Google Drive was starting to get full.

I used 'Empty Bin' in Google Drive but was still left with half of the storage space being taken up by Gmail messages.

So I went into Gmail and used the search filter larger:10m to list all files larger than 10MB.
This allowed me to find emails with large attachments.

I then went through and deleted any unwanted emails (which took a while!).

You can also use the search feature to search for emails from a certain person (from:amy) or older emails (larger:5m older_than:1y) . You can use OR like this (larger:5m OR older_than:5y).

Many more options are listed here.

Bob Omb's WinBuilder-based WinPe

I recently found another useful WinPE by Bob Omb (register to see Downloads).

I tried Bob.Ombs.Modified.Win10PEx64.v08.ISO (v8 does pick up the TheOven_Startup.cmd file automatically on startup).

A 2GB+ RAM system is needed for the 64-bit v08 version to boot directly from an ISO.

General overview of capabilities:

• Backup / Restore hard disks and partitions 
• Convert Disks to VHD 
• Test Hard Drives 
• Recover Lost Data on PC/Mac/Linux Drives 
• Recover Product Keys 
• Remove malware and viruses 
• Install any Version of Windows WinNTSetup
• ReFS Friendly (Now v3.3) 
• Backup Drivers 
• Remote connect to other machines -or- this drive from anywhere 
• Reset Passwords 
• FireFox Portable
• and much more!

P.S. v2 must be run as .imgPTN. v3 (2018) will boot as .ISO or as .imgPTN.

Updated PEStartup download

I have added a new PEStartup download to the RMPrepUSB tutorial #143.

Gandalf PE ISO with PEStartup_Papps files added to E2B USB drive (you can change the default wallpaper).

WinBuilder-based ISOs such as Gandalf's WinPEs will automatically be configured if you simply add the files to your E2B USB drive.

How to add Ubuntu\LinuxMint to E2B with MBR+UEFI persistence (and an unfixed bug in Ubuntu!)

Early versions of Ubuntu (pre-v14) and Ubuntu-based linuxmint distros (pre-v17.03) could be set up with persistence with no problem.

As long as you added the 'persistent' boot parameter, the kernel script would look for either:

1) a 'casper-rw' file (formatted internally as ext2/3/4)

    - OR -

2) a FAT or ext partition with a volume label of 'casper-rw' which has been formatted as ext2/3/4.

Ubuntu bug!

However, Ubuntu 14.04 and linuxmint 17.03 and (all?) later versions have a bug in the casper boot script which means that they may fail to boot when a casper-rw partition is present and if that partition is located after the filesystem partition in the partition table. This bug does not apply if you booted from an ISO file (only from a 'flat-file' partition), so the .mnu files used by E2B which boot from ISOs are not affected by this bug.

Bug report for Ubuntu here.

So there is no problem if you use a casper-rw file (except it must be on the same partition and it must be a FAT32 or ext partition). So you can create a very large (>4GB) ext3 file on the E2B NTFS USB drive and use a .mnu file to get persistence - but this only works in MBR\Legacy mode.

For UEFI-booting, we need to create a FAT32 .imgPTN file. However, this issue does affect E2B when using .imgPTN partition images...

E2B v1.96e available (bugfix)

There was a bug in v1.95 which means that (*for some reason) the .isofira01 file extension (as used for Strelec ISOs) does not seem to work.

v1.96e fixes this.

* The reason is that firadisk looks for a 'ramdisk' that is below 1MB is size, so using a larger ramdisk did not work!

E2B v1.96d now available

Just a small 'enhancement'.

In this version, if you have created a matching .txt file for your payload file, then E2B will not suggest an alternative file extension (unless SCROLL LOCK is on) and will boot straight to the payload file with no delay.

e.g.
\_ISO\LINUX\Ubuntux64.iso
\_ISO\LINUX\Ubuntux64.txt

I have reasoned that if you have taken the trouble to make a .txt file, then you have already tested it and it works and so has the correct file extension.

This message and delay is now suppressed if a .matching txt file exists.

If you don't like this new feature, please let me know and I will remove it.

E2B 1.96d is available from Alternate Downloads Areas as usual (see side panel on this page).

Modify any WinPE using PEStartup

Following on from my previous blog post on PEStartup, I have written Tutorial #143 on how to use PEStartup to configure any ready-made WinPE OS such as Strelec, Hirens, DLC, Dium and Gandalf WinPEs.

In fact, standard Win10PESE WinBuilder builds including the latest Gandalf Redstone 2 WinPE and Bob Omb's PEs 'just work' and will automatically run PEStartup when they boot, if you follow the Tutorial (you just extract files from a .zip file onto your E2B drive!).

If the WinPE does not have the correct plugin already, you just need to double-click on the \TheOven_Startup.cmd script to run PEStartup and configure your WinPE Desktop.
Many thanks again to Tứ Nguyễn for his PEStartup utility.

Add WinPE Reboot and Shutdown Desktop Shortcuts

Configure PEStartup to add Desktop shortcuts using wpeutil.exe

Add lightweight WinPE versions to E2B that you can easily configure yourself!

It is normally very difficult to tailor a WinPE project to your own requirements unless you rebuild the entire OS each time.

However, there is a way to make changes to your WinPE OS and have those changes remembered on reboots. For instance, you can specify your own wallpaper and Desktop shortcuts.

32-bit XP and 32-bit and 64-bit Win 10 PE builds are available.

See also the more recent blog post here for use with any WinPE.

Gandalf’s Win10PE x64 Redstone 2 build 15063 version 10-01-2017 is now available

Download from here. It is based on WinBuilder and ChrisR's Win10PESE project.

To add to E2B, just copy the .iso file to a menu folder (e.g. \_ISO\WINPE) and run \MAKE_THIS_DRIVE_CONTIGUOUS.exe to make it contiguous.

To suppress the tips and extension suggestions made by the QRUN.g4b script when you run it, just add the letter Q or q to the end of the filename. e.g.
Gandalf'sWin10PEx64Redstone2_10-01-2017q.iso

Do not uses spaces in the filename. If you want to change the menu entry and have spaces in the filename, use a .txt file - e.g. Gandalf'sWin10PEx64Redstone2_10-01-2017.txt

To change keyboard locale press CTRL+TAB.

Tip: if you add PEStartup to your USB drive and PortableApps.com (Start.exe) to the Desktop as Startup options. you can use the Shutdown/reboot button in the PortableApps GUI to shutdown/reboot (as the Start Menu Shutdown\Reboot does not work). You can also add lots of PortableApps apps easily too. Gandalf Redstone 2 will automatically run PEStartup 20 seconds after it loads the Desktop.