'Don't put your laptop on your lap!'

I recently read an interesting post from the 'Life of MDW' blog here, which was about why you should NOT call a notebook a 'laptop'.

When I worked at RM (which sold computers to schools), we always called them notebooks, however, despite this, the teachers always called them laptops!

Note: The most common causes of notebook damage were: 1) picking a notebook up by holding the screen and gripping the display too tightly and cracking it, 2) notebook falling off a chair\sofa\lap whilst on, 3) sitting on it when in a bag (often damage was caused by the UK three-pronged mains plug pressing into the screen lid).

Add JustBrowsing+config file to E2B

The August 2014 version of JustBrowsing allows you to save the browser settings in a config file.
The file must be saved on a mounted volume which has a volume name of JUSTDATA.
'maddog' asked me to make a .mnu file for it...

Here is the .mnu file for Easy2Boot which allows you to have these settings persistent on each boot.
Depending on the ISO, you will need to change the name of the iso file in two places and maybe edit the title text too...

# Create file \justbrowsing-rw in root of E2B USB drive using RMPrepUSB - Create small 5MB Ext2 FS  Volume Name = JUSTDATA
# Place the iso file and this file in \_ISO\MAINMENU\MNU  (or some other menu folder at 3rd level - e.g. \_ISO\LINUX\BROWSER)

iftitle [if exist $HOME$/justbrowsing_20140808_chrome.iso] JustBrowsing with Config file\n Settings are saved in a configuration file

set ISO=$HOME$/justbrowsing_20140808_chrome.iso
set PERS=/justbrowsing-rw

if "%E2BDEV%"=="" set E2BDEV=hd0 && pause E2BDEV forced to hd0!
if exist CD echo WARNING: Cannot use partnew command! && pause && configfile (bd)/menu.lst
#enable parttype output
partnew (%E2BDEV%,3) 0x0 %ISO%
# make empty table entry in 3rd position in ptn table
debug 1
parttype (%E2BDEV%,2) | set check=
debug off
set check=%check:~-5,4%
if "%check%"=="0x00" partnew (%E2BDEV%,2) 0 0 0
if not "%check%"=="0x00" echo WARNING: PTN TABLE 3 IS ALREADY IN USE! && pause
debug 1
if not exist %PERS% echo WARNING: %PERS% persistence file not found! && pause
errorcheck off
if "%check%"=="0x00" partnew (%E2BDEV%,2) 0x0 %PERS%
errorcheck on
/%grub%/QRUN.g4b %ISO%
boot

I will add the final version of this to next Beta release.

Google Drive falsely reports that some .7z files are infected!

I recently changed from using .zip files to .7z files (using the 'Ultra' compression setting) because .7z LZMA compression made much smaller files (e.g. 30MB .zip reduced to under 20MB if I use .7z + 'Ultra' compression) and thus made it quicker to download for everyone.

However, Frettt (who translated the German Strings.txt file in E2B) pointed out to me today, that if he attempted to download the Easy2Boot_V1.70DMPS.7z file from Google Drive, it reported it as 'Infected'!

E2B - bug in PTN2_Menu.mnu sample menu file!

Jason has just reported an issue when he tried to use the \_ISO\docs\Sample mnu Files\E2B Menus\PTN2_Menu.mnu file in his \_ISO\MAINMENU folder so he could run payload files from the second partition of his E2B drive.

We found a typo in this sample .mnu file which causes it to just reload the Main menu!

E2B v1.70 has the correct version of this menu file which should be as shown below (correction shown in red):

# EXAMPLE .MNU FILE FOR 2ND PRIMARY PARTITION  (max for E2B is 2 Primary ptns or 1 Primary+multiple logical ptns) - see also PTN_LOG1_Menu.mnu
# You can add payload files under \_ISO on partition 2 and they will be included in the menu
# EDIT lines 1 and 3 to match the name of your partition (hd0,1) and  folder (/_ISO)
# Add this file to the /_ISO/MAINMENU folder
# 2nd Primary partition is (hd0,1), 3rd Primary = (hd0,2), fourth primary = (hd0,3), first Logical partition = (hd0,4), second Logical partition = (hd0,5), etc.

iftitle [ls (hd0,1)/_ISO/ > nul && if "%GFX%"==""] ^Ctrl+2 PARTITION 2 Payload Files Menu [Ctrl+2]\n Run payload files in Partition 2 \\_ISO folder
set LBACKMENU=(bd)/%grub%/menu.lst
(bd)/%grub%/QAUTO.g4b .automenu (hd0,1)/_ISO
debug 0
configfile (md)0x3000+0x50

# For GFX menu (delete if you don't use GFXBoot menu)
iftitle [ls (hd0,1)/_ISO/ > nul && if not "%GFX%"==""] PARTITION 2 Payload Files Menu\n Run payload files in Partition 2 \\_ISO folder
set LBACKMENU=(bd)/%grub%/menu.lst
(bd)/%grub%/QAUTO.g4b .automenu (hd0,1)/_ISO
debug 0
configfile (md)0x3000+0x50


I am sorry if this caused anyone problems trying to get this menu to work!
http://www.easy2boot.com/make-an-easy2boot-usb-drive/using-other-partitions-or-drives/

Note
In E2B, the Main menu is kept in memory at (md)0xa000 - this is used when you press F8 from within any sub-menu to quickly re-load and display the Main menu. The most recent menu that was enumerated is stored at (md)0x3000. So 'configfile (md)0xa000+0x50' will load the Main Menu, whereas 'configfile (md)0x3000+0x50' will display the last menu that was enumerated which could be the Main menu if you have just booted to E2B, or if you have just run a menu entry from say the \_ISO\DOS folder, then (md)0x3000 will contain the DOS menu.

E2B v1.70BetaB available

Just a few small changes:

• If the filename contains the string 'bartpe' then the file extension .isomemF01 is suggested by QRUN.g4b.
• You can now define different background wallpapers for the AUTO menu, the Windows Installer menu and all the Windows Installer sub-menus. This can be done by creating a specifically named .bmp file for each one (e.g. \_ISO\WIN7.bmp, \_ISO\WINMENU.bmp, etc.).
  OR
  You can create a .g4b file (e.g. \_ISO\WIN7.g4b, \_ISO\WINMENU.g4b) for each menu which allows you to specify any filename for the bitmap and also set the menu colours for each menu.
  For more details read this page.

E2B v1.69 released

See previous blog for changes.

E2B v1.69Beta5/6 available

Unless I get any negative feedback or more suggestions, this will be the final Beta before I release v1.69. The download is now a 7MB .7z file instead of the usual 9MB .zip file.

Note: Beta6 fixes bug in Beta5 in Make_E2B_USB_DRIVE.cmd (stopped after copy files).

Changes from v1.68 are:

• Fix graphicsmode command in menu.lst (bitmap needed to be exactly 800x600 or 1024x768).
• Subset of NTBOOT added for direct boot of .WIM (PE3), .VHD and .VHDX Windows 7/8/10 OS files. ReadMe.txt file in NTBOOT.MOD folder on how to add full NTBOOT.
• For XP/PE1 .VHD's, file extension now must be changed to .vhdboot (now must use .vhd for PE3-based OS's)
• Make_E2B_USB_Drive.cmd and Update_E2B_Drive.cmd now tries copy bootmgr from C: drive to NTBOOT.MOD folder, if it is present (required by NTBOOT function). 
• new grub4dos 0.4.6a bugfix for UDF ISOs causing crashes,  e.g. pmagic.iso.
• isoboot.g4b now works with newer parted magic ISOs
• unifont and default backgound file now compressed using lzma (makes smaller files than gzip and faster to load).

OneDrive download area

Google Drive download area

Read more: http://www.easy2boot.com/download/

How to easily create WindowsToGo VHD files on an Easy2Boot USB drive

New: For a much easier method than the one detailed below, use WinToUSB to make a bootable VHD, see this blog post.


The method below has now been deprecated. E2B can directly boot from VHD files now and WinToUSB provides a much easier way to create a bootable VHD.

Another method

The direct boot (NTBOOT) feature added to E2B v1.69 will allow you to copy WindowsToGo 8/10 OS VHDs to any normal menu folder on the E2B drive (e.g. \_ISO\WIN or \_ISO\MAINMENU) and boot from them. You can have as many Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) files as you can fit on your E2B USB drive and they don't need to be contiguous either!

E2B 1.69Beta3 now available

E2B v1.69Beta2 contained some embedded Microsoft boot files in the NTBOOT files such as bootmgr, ntdtect and ntldr. It also appears that VBOOT is a commercial product of VMLite and so cannot be distributed. These have now been removed in Beta3 for legal\copyright reasons.

This means that the NT5 NTBOOT functions are not supported (e.g. XP PE1, NT5 and VBOOT booting).

Easy2Boot 1.69Beta2 (experimental) now supports Win7/8/10 .VHD and .WIM files

Previously, you could add .VHD files to your Easy2Boot USB drive, but these would only work for XP/PE1 if the VHD had a WinVBlock or FiraDisk driver added.

The v1.69Beta2 version now supports Win7/8/10 .VHD files and Win7/8/10 .WIM files. It uses Chenall's NTBOOT. No need to make .imgPTN files for simple MBR booting of WindowsToGo/WinPE.