E2B v1.A1d Beta available

Download v1.A1d

Here are changes from v1.A0 (italic font = new changes added since v1.A1c Beta)

• Added 'WARNING: Some types of AV software can cause ChocBox.cmd to run extremely slowly' to chockbox.cmd. 
• Improve Adjust_E2B_Menu.mnu sample menu file - the user can change menu settings, etc. from within a single menu.
• Added \_ISO\docs\Multiple Backgrounds folder - read the ReadMe.txt file and use the ready-made files included. 
• Menu wallpaper files which are automatically used as wallpaper file can now have .jpg file extension as well as .bmp, e.g. \_ISO\WIN10.jpg, \_ISO\DOS.jpg.
• PimpMyDrive.cmd now adds Adjust_E2B_Menu.mnu - some of the other menus are now not added to make the Main menu tidier.
• Sub-menu files \_ISO\xxxx.g4b, .bmp and .jpg are now automatically used if they are present (e.g. \_ISO\ANTIVIRUS.jpg will be automatically used when the AntiVirus menu is loaded)
• SUB_MENU_Maker.cmd file also added to into the \_ISO folder for user convenience (same file as \_ISO\docs\E2B Utilities\E2B SUBMENU Maker.cmd).
• PatchMe script updated to suppress the 'A20 Debug' message on bootup.
• .bat, .xml and .bak files are now ignored if they are in a menu folder.
• .jpg and .bmp files can be placed in menu folders and they will be loaded as background wallpaper when selected by user from the menu.
• .f24 and .uni.gz font files can be placed in menu folders and they will be loaded as new font when selected by user from the menu.
• Few very minor bug fixes.

Make your own E2B 'Launcher' utility

Linasoft's AutoPlay Menu Builder can be used to create your own 'Launcher' executable. You can use an existing template and then make changes to it - perhaps change the language, etc. or add more items.

Although originally intended to create auturun.exe + autorun.inf files for use with CDs that would auto-run when inserted into a computer's CD-ROM drive, it is a useful application to create your own 'Launcher' utility for E2B too (it makes a Windows .exe executable).

Here is a screenshot my current E2B Helper:

E2B eBook progress report

The 'How to make a multiboot USB drive using Easy2Book' eBook has proved far more popular than I ever imagined!

I thought that it might have interested only 10-20 people at most, but since mid-June I have now sold over 100 copies which really surprised me, but it's very nice to know that all my efforts were worth it! The 130pp book took me over 3 weeks from start to finish (sometimes with a 12-hour day and some weeks were 7-day weeks!). After writing the first draft, I carefully followed all the exercises myself to look for any problems in the instructions and I also added screenshots and diagrams. Glen kindly proof-read many drafts and final revisions and since then I have updated and improved the PDF - the latest version is now v2.3.

However, I have had very little feedback on the eBook, so maybe nobody has actually read it yet or they fell asleep trying to read it!

Version 2.3

If you still have the original receipt email from Payhip, you can re-download a later revision of the PDF for free (contact me if you have problems).

If you would like a version in ePub (.epub) form for your eBook reader device, please contact me. I do have a .epub file of v2.3 but it is not quite as nice as the PDF due to the limitations of the epub format.

eBook #2?

I am now thinking about writing another E2B eBook and there are a number of possible topics, three of which are listed below.

E2B v1.A1b and c Beta now available

v1.A1c

• Adjust_E2B_Menu.mnu has been improved so it is now loaded as a separate menu.
• PimpMyDrive.cmd now adds Adjust_E2B_Menu.mnu to the PIMP folder.
• E2B now automatically looks for menu wallpaper files for each sub-menu (see below). Now you can just add .bmp or .jpg files and they will automatically be used for the background image for that menu - no .mnu files are required.

How to add new menu folders to Easy2Boot (e.g. BIOS Flash tools)

If you are a Tech, you may want to keep many BIOS Flash utilities on your E2B USB drive for each of the different models that you encounter.

So you may wish to have a menu structure like this:

Main Menu -> BIOS Flash Menu -> [Manufacturer] -> [Series]


For instance for Lenovo T-series systems, the menu structure would be:

Main Menu - BIOS Flash Menu - Lenovo - T Series - T560_v1.25.imgPTN

E2B v1.A1a Beta available

1.A1a Beta

• Add 'WARNING: Some types of AV software can cause ChocBox.cmd to run extremely slowly' to chockbox.cmd. 
• Improve Adjust_E2B_Menu.mnu sample menu file so the user can change menu colours from within the menu. 
• Add \_ISO\docs\Multiple Backgrounds folder - read the ReadMe.txt file and use the ready-made files included. 
• Menu wallpaper files can now have .jpg file extension as well as .bmp, e.g. \_ISO\WIN10.jpg.

I found that my Comodo AntiVirus software was causing Chocolatey (and thus ChocBox.cmd) to run extremely slowly. Just disabling it was not enough to fix the problem as the task was still running in the background - I had to either kill the Comodo AV task or uninstall it!

The Adjust_E2B_Menu.mnu sample .mnu file now lets you change the menu text colours as well as other menu settings.

I have added a new \_ISO\docs\Multiple Backgrounds folder with instructions to help you set up your E2B USB drive to load a different background wallpaper for each menu. The most difficult thing now is actually making the 18 different 800x600 wallpaper jpg files required! You can add your own menu heading to each wallpaper graphics file and remove the E2B text heading from the menu if you wish.

1. Use the "\_ISO\docs\Templates\CenteredMenu\MyE2B.cfg" for your \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg file.

2. Follow the instructions in the \_ISO\docs\Multiple Backgrounds\ReadMe.txt file.

3. Tweak the \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg file to remove the menu heading (and footer help text and menu entry help text) if you wish.

More info at http://www.easy2boot.com/configuring-e2b/multiple-backgrounds/

Amazon Prime day!

If you are an Amazon Prime member (hint: you can sign up for a 30-day trial for free!) then there are lots of bargains to be had today and tomorrow only.

Unsurprisingly, the best deals are available on Amazon kit, but there are also good reductions on some high-priced goods as well of over 50%!

Here are a few bargains for US and UK clients (affiliated links):

Amazon.co.uk

£100 off Echo Show - Black (Best bargain!)
£39 off SanDisk Ultra 3D SSD 1TB up to 560MB/s Read/up to 530MB/s Write
£22 off SanDisk Extreme Pro 64 GB 160 MB/s CompactFlash Memory Card - Black/Gold/Red
£35 off SanDisk SSD PLUS 960 GB Sata III 2.5 Inch Internal SSD, Up to 535 MB/s
£15 off SanDisk Ultra Fit 128 GB USB Flash Drive USB 3.0 up to 150 MB/s
£15 off Fire TV stick
Canon EOS and Sony camera bargains

Click here for more Amazon UK deals.

Free Amazon Prime 30-day trial.


Amazon.com

Note: Some deals don't start till later today.

$100 off Echo Show
$30 off Echo 2nd generation
$20 off Fire TV stick

$110 off Toshiba 50-inch 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV with HDR - Fire TV Edition

Click here for more deals.

Free Amazon Prime 30-day trial

Easy2Boot v1.A0 is now released

Change from v1.99 are:

• New grub4dos \grldr (2018-07-01) supporting centering of menu entries and menu help text (new grub4dos setmenu --middle-align command).
• Three new Themes added to demonstrate centred text menu entries.
• New \_ISO\docs\Sample mnu files\E2B Menus\Adjust_E2B_Menu.mnu menu.
• TimeDiskAccess.mnu added - allows user to test raw sector read speed under BIOS of all drives in system. Useful for comparing USB+BIOS driver performance.
• New SHORT_HL variable can be used to set the highlighted menu entry to only highlight the menu text and not the whole menu line. 
• UPDATE_E2B_DRIVE.cmd now checks in case the user has renamed some of the standard E2B .mnu files (e.g. ZZSubmenuAll.mnu) and asks user if they want to delete them or keep them.
• New version of E2B_Editor.exe now uses 24-bit colour values for the heading and footer colours.
• STRINGS.txt files changed - no need to pad out menu headings.
• Small bug fix to remove extra space after menu entries in sample .mnu files.
• KBD_QWERTY_USA keyboard file added so can pick using E2B_Editor.
• Bugfixes to internal handling of menu positioning, etc.
• Bugfix for v1.99 - MAKE_CONTIG.cmd script is now copied across when making an E2B drive (running Update did copy it across but Make_E2B_USB_Drive.cmd did not copy it across).
• Small fixes to centre menu heading when UTF-8 characters used (e.g. Arabic, Chinese, etc.).
• If the FONT variable's path contains ".f24" then 24-high fonts will automatically be used. 
• Small changes to Check_for_Update.cmd and UPDATE_E2B_DRIVE.cmd to display E2B version numbers.
• Some of the .cmd files are now modified to use %WINDIR%\System32\find.exe in case users Windows Path environment variable points to a different version of find.exe.

The new downloads are available on the Alternate Download Areas (see side bar of this blog).

The www.easy2boot.com site download links will be updated in a few days.

MPI Tool Kit v0.083 now available

The new version is available from the Alternate Download Sites (e.g. OneDrive)

MakePartImage.cmd has now been modified to estimate the size of the .imgPTN file needed by using 7z.exe. It is now much more accurate (but takes a bit longer) and the 'Suggested size' seems to always work now (at least on the 100 files I have tested so far...). It also has better error handling.

Note that you should only run one instance of MakePartImage at a time and it does not seem to work if the target folder is a Microsoft Storage Pool volume (ImDisk issue?).

The script Convert_all_ISOs_to_imgPTN_Files (run as Admin).cmd which is in the Utils folder of the MPI Tool Kit folder has also been improved. This batch file allows you to convert all the isos in a folder (and subfolders) without needing to answer the usual questions from MakePartImage or press ENTER. Just go and get a cup of coffee and the .imgPTN files should all be there when you come back.

(You still need to answer the delete/make EI.cfg question though for Windows Install ISOs).

You can now specify a partial file spec (e.g.  fed*.iso) and ask it to re-make all .imgPTN files again or only the missing ones. It also does not have to be an iso (e.g. you can use *.ima or dlc*.zip).

If you select AUTORUN, it will also use the 'best guess' for the Syslinux version rather than prompt you for which version to use.

0.083 is not yet released on the official www.easy2boot.com website as it is considered a 'Release Candidate' at the moment.

Please let me know how you get on if you try it.

P.S. 0.083 is now available on the www.easy2boot.com website - it is a slightly different version from the RC candidate. The new version is dated 2018-07-10.

E2B v1.A0b Beta now available

Download from Alternate Download Areas as ZIP file.

Changes are:

• New grldr (2018-07-01)
• New \_ISO\docs\Sample mnu files\E2B Menus\Adjust_E2B_Menu.mnu menu
• Bugfixes to internal menu positioning, etc.
• Bugfix for Make_E2B_USB_DRIVE.cmd v1.99 - MAKE_CONTIG.cmd script is now copied across when making an E2B drive (running UPDATE_E2B_DRIVE.cmd did copy it across but Make_E2B did not).
• UPDATE_E2B_DRIVE.CMD now displays latest stable and Beta versions that are available (using web access).

Copy Adjust_E2B_Menu.mnu to your MAINMENU folder and you can tinker with moving the menu about instantly...

E2B v1.A0a Beta available!

Since the last version was 1.99, the next version will be 1.A0.

So the first Beta is called v1.A0a

This version has a new Beta version of grub4dos (not yet officially released) to which the developer yaya has kindly added some new features.

We can now ask grub4dos to center the menu entries and the menu help text automatically.

Here are some screenshots:

Revision 2 of the E2B eBook is now available

Revision 2 is now available. It has slightly more content, more pictures and hopefully less typos thanks to 'Glen'.

If you had previously ordered the Easy2Boot 'Getting started with Easy2Boot' PDF from Payhip, then you should be able to use the download link in the email that you received to re-download the new revision 2 PDF. If not, then contact me.

- o O o -

P.S. My cat is really annoying me at the moment because I can only feed him after sunset which, in the UK, is well after 9pm. Still, there are only a few more days to go until June 24th when Ramadan finishes (you see, he's a Persian cat!)...😹

New Hiren's WinPE 10 64-bit ISO

Just found this post on reddit about a new Hiren's type WinPE.

It is not an official Hiren ISO but is made by a 'fan group' - see here for more info.

E2B v1.99 is now re-issued - please update!

There was a small bug in the grub4dos version of E2B v1.99, so I have updated the download with a new version of grub4dos (plus a few other very minor changes).

v1.99 is not yet available on the E2B website, so only users who read this blog and have downloaded the old v1.99 will be affected.

The \grldr file should be dated 2018-06-18 in the latest version of E2B v1.99.

The small bug in the old grub4dos version was that the animated E2B icon could spontaneously disappear when using the menu cursor keys.

Having trouble 'Safely Removing' USB Hard drives with the latest Windows 10?

I have been using 'Disk Ejector' from QuickandEasySoftware (free).

You can copy it to your Desktop or to the E2B USB drive.

You can also try USB Safely Remove from http://safelyremove.com as an alternative.

How to prompt for ComputerName and UserName before you start an automated Windows Install

By using an XML file, we can automate the installation of Windows 10 in Easy2Boot.

The XML file can have a preset or random UserName and ComputerName, or it can be configured to only have an Administrator account or to prompt for the User Name near the end of the installation process.

For instance, an XML file for SDI_CHOCO could be picked by the user and a fully unattended and automated Windows 10 install would then proceed.

However, it would be useful if we could use the same automated XML file each time we installed it to a different system, but could prompt for a different ComputerName and UserName before we started the installation. This allows us to get a cup of coffee whilst ten different systems are installing without having to come back and enter the UserName half-way through.

See also this later blog post for automatically setting the Serial Number in the ComputerName based on the same method as used in this article.

We can set different values by using grub4dos to modify the XML file before we boot to the ISO...

E2B v1.99 now available

At last E2B v1.99 is now available!

Note: I have just quickly updated the 2018-06-18 download to v1.99 2018-06-16 - the more recent version just has improved help in Make_E2B.exe, a small bugfix to grub4dos and a new sample mnu file added.

Note: The new eBook is written for use with E2B v1.99.

Changes from E2B v1.98 are:

Bob Omb's WinPE10 64-bit v.3.1

Bob's latest release of WinPE 10 64-bit (v3.1) can now work either as a .ISO file in E2B or as a .imgPTN file.

If you boot it as an ISO, it will auto-detect the TheOven_Startup.cmd (if present on your E2B drive) and run PEStartup (see here for details).

Tip: End the filename with the letter Q to suppress E2B's QRUN prompt - e.g. Bob_Omb's_v3.1_64q.iso. Do not use spaces in the filename because WinBuilder ISOs don't work correctly if there is a space in the name. The file extension must be .iso.

Instead, you can create a .txt file using the \_ISO\TXT_Maker.exe file. This allows you to have spaces in the menu entry (e.g. 'Bob Omb's WinPE10 64-bit'). The ISO must not have any spaces and must end in .iso. You can also use the '64-bit' option in TXT_Maker so that the ISO will only be listed in the menu if run on a 64-bit system.

UEFI

If you convert the ISO to a FAT32 .imgPTN file, you will be able to MBR or UEFI-boot to it and also have some persistence. I suggest you increase the suggested size when you make the .imgPTN file, to allow you to add your own portable apps, shortcuts, etc.

E2B v1.99h Beta available

• This version has the latest version of grub4dos 0.4.6a 2018-06-08
• Also a Sample .mnu file Run_ISO_With_Alarm.mnu added (sounds an alarm before running ISO) has been added.
• PimpMyDrive.cmd now adds a 'Play a tune' menu to the Main menu.
• Alarm.g4b added to \_ISO\e2b\grub folder so just issuing the command 'alarm' will sound an alarm.

This is probably the last Beta before release as E2B v1.99 full release, so let me know if you find any issues.

As before, if you have animated graphics displaying and you also simultaneously play a tune, the tune may play slower than it should unless you stop the animation (press F2 to toggle animation on and off). Any key press will stop the tune from playing.

Download from Alternate Download areas or direct link here.

Intel Processor Diagnostic Tools

This Intel Windows 64-bit (and 32-bit) tool will identify your CPU and stress test the CPU cooling solution in your system.

You first need to install the software onto Windows before running it.

Intel Processor Diagnostic Tool (May 2018)

Other tools

Other Intel tools can be found here.

The bootable CPU Identification tool and CPU Frequency ID tool are Windows .exe utilities which make a bootable DOS floppy (wow - it's so useful to have a bootable floppy disk these days!), or a .imz floppy disk image file from which you can extract a bootable .ima file using 7Zip.

However, if you download the files (various languages are available), you can use 7Zip to extract the .com file directly from the .exe download (e.g. extract BPFREQIDE.com or BPROCIDE.com) and simply copy the .com file to your E2B USB drive (e.g. \INTEL folder).

Then you can boot to the FreeDOS floppy image which is already on your E2B drive (DOS Menu) and run the .com files from FreeDOS (e.g. \INTEL\BPROCIDE.com).

This screenshot is from Virtual Box, so ignore CPU results!

Intel® Processor Frequency ID Utility Installation Guide - Bootable Version (2004)

Intel® Processor Identification Utility Download - Bootable Version (2015)