I seem to be getting a lot of hits on the Windows8ToGo page on my site, so I have added a YouTube video to help people to get started. Using JFX's tool, you can now directly download and extract the essential WAIK tools in about 30 seconds, rather than have to download the entire 1GB WAIK and then install it!
Monday 13 August 2012
Friday 3 August 2012
First attempts at Raspberry Pi
I finally got my RPi a few weeks ago but have not had the time to play with it until now.
The first mistake I made was trying to power it from one of it's two standard USB ports (as I did not have a mini-USB power adapter at the time). This appeared to work, in that the RPi powered up and gave some video on the HDMI connection. However, the RPi kept crashing and rebooting and the USB keyboard did not work.
I was getting very frustrated until I tried a new mini USB charger (ordered from Amazon) - now it works well and does not crash.
Next, I tried Debian Wheezy, but I found it very slow - even for gmail browsing, and I could not find any instructions that worked to get YouTube working.
Finally, I tried an XBMC build from http://wordpress.silenz.se/ and then found a guide on how to install BBC iPlayer and other TV add-ins. I also found that a TVCatchup add-in is also available, so I can watch Live UK TV as well! Picture quality varies and there is some buffering delay on occasion even though I have a direct Enet connection.
It is ironic that TVCatchUp plays live TV, whereas as BBC iPlayer and other TV players play recorded TV!
My next step is to get a WiFi dongle working and then an IR dongle for a remote mini-keyboard.
The first mistake I made was trying to power it from one of it's two standard USB ports (as I did not have a mini-USB power adapter at the time). This appeared to work, in that the RPi powered up and gave some video on the HDMI connection. However, the RPi kept crashing and rebooting and the USB keyboard did not work.
I was getting very frustrated until I tried a new mini USB charger (ordered from Amazon) - now it works well and does not crash.
Next, I tried Debian Wheezy, but I found it very slow - even for gmail browsing, and I could not find any instructions that worked to get YouTube working.
Finally, I tried an XBMC build from http://wordpress.silenz.se/ and then found a guide on how to install BBC iPlayer and other TV add-ins. I also found that a TVCatchup add-in is also available, so I can watch Live UK TV as well! Picture quality varies and there is some buffering delay on occasion even though I have a direct Enet connection.
It is ironic that TVCatchUp plays live TV, whereas as BBC iPlayer and other TV players play recorded TV!
My next step is to get a WiFi dongle working and then an IR dongle for a remote mini-keyboard.
Sunday 8 July 2012
82 - install XP from XP ISOs
This new tutorial shows you how you can place a number of different XP install ISO files on a grub4dos bootable USB drive and have multiple grub4dos menu items so that you can have a fully automated install without modifying the ISO - even if the ISO is a standard MS one.
The grub4dos menu allows you to specify a diskpart script so you can partition and format the drive however you want, an unattend.txt answer file so you can automate the install and change any settings you like, and a folder that will be copied over to the target C: drive during the install. This folder can contain all the drivers for a specific system, so you can use the same ISO to install a Dell PC or an Asus laptop and specify a different driver folder, diskpart script and answer file for each.
You can also have different answer files for different languages and timezones but use the same XP install ISO. This process will also work with nLited ISOs or XP install ISOs that are already semi-automated.
It uses WinPE v3 as the bootable OS and then runs diskpart and winnt32.exe to start the install. Only a single USB boot is required - the next boot is off of the hard disk.
The grub4dos menu allows you to specify a diskpart script so you can partition and format the drive however you want, an unattend.txt answer file so you can automate the install and change any settings you like, and a folder that will be copied over to the target C: drive during the install. This folder can contain all the drivers for a specific system, so you can use the same ISO to install a Dell PC or an Asus laptop and specify a different driver folder, diskpart script and answer file for each.
You can also have different answer files for different languages and timezones but use the same XP install ISO. This process will also work with nLited ISOs or XP install ISOs that are already semi-automated.
It uses WinPE v3 as the bootable OS and then runs diskpart and winnt32.exe to start the install. Only a single USB boot is required - the next boot is off of the hard disk.
Sunday 1 July 2012
81 - Make your own automatic image restore partition
If you want a hard disk backup partition which can be easily restored by a newbie, it can be done using imagex. This allows you to make a backup of the Windows volume and then restore it at a later date just by selecting it from a boot menu.
A full Windows XP restore on my laptop takes less than 2 minutes.
Checkout Tutorial #81 to set up your grandma's system with a 'reset' feature for when it all goes horribly wrong!
A full Windows XP restore on my laptop takes less than 2 minutes.
Checkout Tutorial #81 to set up your grandma's system with a 'reset' feature for when it all goes horribly wrong!
Saturday 16 June 2012
QEMU
Some people have reported that the QEMU button in RMPrepUSB does not run on their system. This may be because I am using the qemu-system-x86_64.exe version 0.15.1. The latest version of RMPrepUSB in the Beta Downloads section uses qemu.exe and may give better results.
So far, I have not been able to make any version of QEMU boot a WinPE 64-bit iso, which is rather disappointing...
If you are having trouble getting QEMU to run after trying this new version, please let me know and let me know what OS you are running, etc.
P.S. The most common problem is that you are assigning too much memory to QEMU, untick the 'No User prompts' checkbox and select a smaller size of memory when you run QEMU (e.g. choose 900 instead of 1300). If that still does not work and QEMU does not launch, reduce it even more.
So far, I have not been able to make any version of QEMU boot a WinPE 64-bit iso, which is rather disappointing...
If you are having trouble getting QEMU to run after trying this new version, please let me know and let me know what OS you are running, etc.
P.S. The most common problem is that you are assigning too much memory to QEMU, untick the 'No User prompts' checkbox and select a smaller size of memory when you run QEMU (e.g. choose 900 instead of 1300). If that still does not work and QEMU does not launch, reduce it even more.
Monday 30 April 2012
Latest version improves file access performance
v2.1.647 has a slightly modified filesystem tweak. This improves file access time for small files by about 10% when formatted as FAT32 or NTFS. See reboot.pro thread for more details. This makes file copying to your USB drive even faster!
Wednesday 7 March 2012
Monitor which apps are using the network/internet
Microsoft Network Monitor at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=103158&clcid=0x409
This free MS tool will capture all network packets and show you which application is responsible for them. This is useful for checking if a newly installed application sends any secret network packets, etc.
You can see the data that it sends in each packet too. A useful tool to have in your box!
There is a support article here and a support forum here.
There are also some specialized plug-ins for it that might be useful:
TCP Analyzer Expert: Make Your Network Run Faster – For Microsoft Network Monitor 3.3
Top Users Expert for Network Monitor 3.3 – For Microsoft Network Monitor 3.3
The first is a post describing the tool which can analyze and suggest issues with your network based on packet capture data. The second provides a report on which users are eating up all the bandwidth.
This free MS tool will capture all network packets and show you which application is responsible for them. This is useful for checking if a newly installed application sends any secret network packets, etc.
You can see the data that it sends in each packet too. A useful tool to have in your box!
There is a support article here and a support forum here.
There are also some specialized plug-ins for it that might be useful:
TCP Analyzer Expert: Make Your Network Run Faster – For Microsoft Network Monitor 3.3
Top Users Expert for Network Monitor 3.3 – For Microsoft Network Monitor 3.3
The first is a post describing the tool which can analyze and suggest issues with your network based on packet capture data. The second provides a report on which users are eating up all the bandwidth.
Thursday 1 March 2012
Easy2Boot
Well it's been a busy week!
RMPrepUSB and RMPartUSB have been tweaked (v2.1.643) and RMPrepUSB has improved menu tabs (checkout latest version!). I have had reports that formatting HDDs as NTFS has failed for many people and have tweaked the code to improve this. As a last resort, the NTFS format routine now calls format.com if the FormatEx API call fails! However, it still needs a drive letter to be assigned by Windows before the drive can be formatted (use the Drive - AutoMount Drives tab to update the Registry to do this).
Next we have Easy2Boot. This is an early project to make it easy for anyone to add a new bootable binary (OS, memory test, etc.) to a multiboot USB drive. Once they have made the Easy2Boot USB drive using RMPrepUSB, all they need to do is add a .mnu file and the payload file(s) (e.g. an ISO) and the USB drive will automatically add this to the user menu each time it is booted. This means a user does not need to edit a menu.lst file at all.
Lastly, Windows 8 Consumer Preview has arrived, and I have updated my Win8ToGo and Win8 on VHD tutorials accordingly. Why not try Windows 8 now without affecting your current OS at all? A download link and Beta Product Key is provided in the articles or on the 'Useful Links' page.
RMPrepUSB and RMPartUSB have been tweaked (v2.1.643) and RMPrepUSB has improved menu tabs (checkout latest version!). I have had reports that formatting HDDs as NTFS has failed for many people and have tweaked the code to improve this. As a last resort, the NTFS format routine now calls format.com if the FormatEx API call fails! However, it still needs a drive letter to be assigned by Windows before the drive can be formatted (use the Drive - AutoMount Drives tab to update the Registry to do this).
Next we have Easy2Boot. This is an early project to make it easy for anyone to add a new bootable binary (OS, memory test, etc.) to a multiboot USB drive. Once they have made the Easy2Boot USB drive using RMPrepUSB, all they need to do is add a .mnu file and the payload file(s) (e.g. an ISO) and the USB drive will automatically add this to the user menu each time it is booted. This means a user does not need to edit a menu.lst file at all.
Lastly, Windows 8 Consumer Preview has arrived, and I have updated my Win8ToGo and Win8 on VHD tutorials accordingly. Why not try Windows 8 now without affecting your current OS at all? A download link and Beta Product Key is provided in the articles or on the 'Useful Links' page.
Wednesday 22 February 2012
v2.1.640 is coming!
This new version has a menu at the top. Unfortunately this can only support English as vb6 does not seem to be able to change the font set (e.g. Chinese) and also I do not have translated text for all the extra menu items anyway. The menu headings can be hidden using the RMPrepUSB.ini configuration file and setting MenuVisible=False - note that this also disables their shortcut keys too.
RMPartUSB has been changed very slightly so that if FAT16+64hd/32sec is specified, then type 06 will be used for the partition type. This is required if booting to DOS 6.22 (DOS 6.22 does not support LBA FAT16 ptn types or any FAT32 types).
New version of WinContig will be added when it is available. Help PDF will also be updated.
RMPartUSB has been changed very slightly so that if FAT16+64hd/32sec is specified, then type 06 will be used for the partition type. This is required if booting to DOS 6.22 (DOS 6.22 does not support LBA FAT16 ptn types or any FAT32 types).
New version of WinContig will be added when it is available. Help PDF will also be updated.
Friday 10 February 2012
v2.1.638 includes WinContig
New Beta includes CTRL+F2 WinContig function to make all files on the selected drive contiguous.
www.rmprepusb.com
www.rmprepusb.com
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