It seems that some strange people have a pathological aversion to the Windows command shell or maybe cannot read English text and type Y or a number on a keyboard (??) and so they do not like running the E2B .cmd script files to make a USB drive.
So I have written a small Windows GUI called Make_E2B.exe which will run the scripts for them!
The new E2B v1.89a Beta download is available as a Self-Extracting WinRar .exe file from the Alternate Downloads Areas.
When it is run (Admin permission is required), it will extract the E2B files to a temporary folder on your system drive and then run Make_E2B.exe from that temporary folder.
You can then select a USB drive, a suitable language/keyboard and use the big red button to make an E2B NTFS USB drive. Note that FAT32 is not an available option (99% of users will only need NTFS). Also, it will configure E2B to not show file extensions in the menus and the menu will display the rotating E2B icon and the Boiler Plate.
You can also use the Extract E2B Files button to copy all the E2B files to a new folder. Then you can run the old \MAKE_E2B_USB_DRIVE (run as admin).cmd script from the new folder, as usual.
There is also a Test with QEMU button and an Update E2B Drive button which will allow you to update any E2B USB drive by running the update script.
I do plan to display the E2B version number in the next version of Make_E2B.exe, so you can see what version of E2B you are making.
This is a first attempt, so please let me have any feedback/comments as there may be some small bugs. No doubt various unofficial download sites will copy this version within an hour of me putting it up anyway!
I hope to distribute all future versions of E2B like this (i.e. no .zip or .7z files - just two self-extracting .exe files, one for DPMS and one non-DPMS versions).
P.S. I could add a button to Make_E2B.exe to run the \MAKE_E2B_USB_DRIVE (run as admin).cmd script which would allow you to choose FAT32\NTFS and various menu options and language/kbd options - let me know if you would like this...
So I have written a small Windows GUI called Make_E2B.exe which will run the scripts for them!
 |
| Make_E2B.exe |
The new E2B v1.89a Beta download is available as a Self-Extracting WinRar .exe file from the Alternate Downloads Areas.
When it is run (Admin permission is required), it will extract the E2B files to a temporary folder on your system drive and then run Make_E2B.exe from that temporary folder.
You can then select a USB drive, a suitable language/keyboard and use the big red button to make an E2B NTFS USB drive. Note that FAT32 is not an available option (99% of users will only need NTFS). Also, it will configure E2B to not show file extensions in the menus and the menu will display the rotating E2B icon and the Boiler Plate.
You can also use the Extract E2B Files button to copy all the E2B files to a new folder. Then you can run the old \MAKE_E2B_USB_DRIVE (run as admin).cmd script from the new folder, as usual.
There is also a Test with QEMU button and an Update E2B Drive button which will allow you to update any E2B USB drive by running the update script.
I do plan to display the E2B version number in the next version of Make_E2B.exe, so you can see what version of E2B you are making.
This is a first attempt, so please let me have any feedback/comments as there may be some small bugs. No doubt various unofficial download sites will copy this version within an hour of me putting it up anyway!
I hope to distribute all future versions of E2B like this (i.e. no .zip or .7z files - just two self-extracting .exe files, one for DPMS and one non-DPMS versions).
There is no Make_This_Drive_Contiguous button because you should not run Make_E2B.exe from an E2B USB drive.
Notes:
- The \Make_E2B.exe file is not copied to the USB drive when you make a new E2B drive.
- All the old E2B .cmd files are still present.
Using RMPrepUSB
If you want to use RMPrepUSB manually to make a USB drive, you can change the extension of the E2B download from .exe to .rar. Then RMPrepUSB will extract the files and copy them onto the USB drive. I may change the internal format to .zip on the next version though, so you will need to use a .zip extension next time...
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| Change the extension to .rar and RMPrepUSB will extract the files after the drive has been formatted. |
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