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)