Add 'SuperinSecureUEFI-Boot' to your E2B USB drive

There are two projects on GitHub which are of interest to USB-booters.
This was mentioned on reboot.pro recently and also pointed out to me by Alex G.

The first project (by thias) is a multiboot menu system based on grub2 called 'glim'. It automatically detects .iso files and builds a menu each time it boots (does it sound familiar?). It supports UEFI and MBR booting.

The second project (by ValdikSS) includes 'glim' and is a UEFI+MBR multiboot project which allows you to UEFI Secure Boot, UEFI-boot or MBR-boot and then run secure or unsecure payloads from the grub2 menu system.

The downside is that for Secure Boot, you have to register the bespoke grub2 efi file using a certificate that is provided. This adds the certificate into the NVRAM of the system UEFI firmware and so it 'changes' the target system.

Set the timeout so it autoboots if you like!

Use the GRUB Live ISO Multiboot menu entry...

I only added one ISO...

Comparison between UEFIinSecureBoot and E2B grub2 menu system v10

• E2B grub2 allows Secure Boot without using MokManager and so does not change the target system.
• Both systems can Secure Boot (using MokManager for insecureBoot) and run both secure and insecure ISOs and other non-EFI payloads.
• UEFIinSecureBoot should Secure Boot and run non-secure EFI payloads ??? (not tested).
• UEFIinSecureBoot can Secure Boot and access files on an NTFS partition, when Secure booted however, E2B grub2 can only access a FAT partition.
• Both systems can be expanded by adding more menu files.
• UEFISecureBoot uses a graphical grub2 theme menu, this type of menu runs very slowly on some systems (E2B grub2 menu system does not use a theme for this reason).

If you want to try this you can download the ready-made .imgPTN23 file here.

Instructions

E2B v1.B0g Beta now available (Make_E2B.exe now automatically creates 2nd partition if large USB disk)

v1.B0g is now available.

If you make a new E2B USB drive and the USB drive is larger than 128GiB, then the cmd script will now use Windows Diskpart to create a second maximum-sized partition. Note that if you have a >128GiB USB Flash drive (removable-type) then Windows 10 Build 1703 or later is required, otherwise you will just get the usual small 31K 2nd partition.

The filesystem choice is left up to Diskpart to decide - if the second partition is less than 32GB, it will be formatted as FAT32, if larger then it will be formatted as NTFS.

You can still make a single large first partition if you wish, if you run the .cmd file instead of the clicking the big red button in Make_E2B.exe.

Changes from the current v1.A0 released version are:

E2B 1.B0f available

The latest version is v1.B0f Beta version which has a few small bug fixes.
Check the Version History for details.

At least two pupils in the same school class will have the same birthday - probably! (the 'Birthday Paradox')

Our old Maths teacher always used to do this trick with every new class intake each year...

First, he would ask the question 'What are the chances that at least two pupils in this class have the same Birthday'?

After asking for our guesses, he would ask anyone in the class to raise their hand if they had a Birthday in January. Then he would ask each of the pupils who had raised a hand to shout out the day they were born on, e.g.Tom shouts '21st', Victor shouts '12th', etc. and then he would go on to February, etc. until someone else shouted out 'YES' if they had the same Birthday.

Theoretically, with a class size of 30 pupils, there is a 70% chance that two or more pupils in the same class will share the same Birthday (and probably the same birth-year as well). Our Maths teacher would tell us that he would explain this when we came to study probabilities, but he also said something else which peaked our curiosity...

He said that he had been doing this test for many years now and with many classes, and that he has found that the probability was actually much better than the theoretical 70% figure!

He would then ask if anyone could think of why this should be?

E2B v1.B0b Beta available (install windows 7 on modern USB 3 systems)

Download latest E2B v1.B0 Beta

• Bugfix in countfiles.g4b for windows ISOs with .iso324GB suffixes not being counted properly (the Windows folder had to have at least one .iso or .imgPTN file to be shown in menu - now it will work even if only one .iso32 or .iso4GB etc. file is present).
• ALT_ISO variable support added and \_ISO\docs\Sample mnu files\Windows\Install Windows 7 with USB 3 (WinNTSetup).mnu for installing Win7 on modern systems.

E2B v1.B0a Beta now available

This version (E2B v1.B0a Beta) has a few new features:

• Some new file extension suffixes are now recognised:
     NCQ (non-contiguous+quiet)
     QUIETP (redir+redirp)
     QUIET   (redir)
• .isoboot file extension now supported - will boot a non-contiguous linux iso using isoboot only

E2B v1.A9 is now released!

v1.A9 2019-02-19 Includes a new file extension override feature, a new WinNTSetup feature and a new filename sort prefix feature.

E2B v1.A9k Beta available (with new sort override prefix feature)

This version also has a new 'sort prefix override' feature,

As you know, E2B will alphabetically sort the menu entries.

This means that Mint.iso will always be listed before Ubuntu.iso unless you rename the Mint.iso file to zMint.iso.

However, the E2B menu will then list the file as zMint.iso, so then you need to make a .txt file (zMint.txt) so that the menu entry looks nice.

The new feature in E2B 1.A9k allows you to avoid having to make a .txt file - you just rename the payload file using a sort prefix override.

The new sort prefix override

E2B v1.A9h and v1.A9i

Note: Version 1.A9i has now been added.

1.A9h has the following changes from v1.A8:

1. New feature: can use extension override xxxxxx_.(override).iso in filename - e.g. hirens_.isowinvh.iso - override must start with _. and works for any extension. The extra _.fileext.xxx text is removed from the menu entry if EXTOFF=1 is set.
2. New feature: xxxxx_.WinNTSetup.iso now causes any Windows install ISO (except XP) to run WinNTSetup automatically and supports dual x86+x64 ISOs - you can also use your own batch file to automate WinNTSetup by using the STARTUP variable in a .mnu file (blog here).
3. Improvement: Make_E2B.exe now has graphical buttons.
4. Improvement: E2B_Editor.exe revised to add 4 extra options for centering menu text, etc.
5. Improvement: minor changes to \_ISO\e2b\grub\menu.lst for small speed improvements.
6. Improvement: remove countiso.g4b to speed up enumeration of Windows ISOs.
7. Improvement: .imgPTN code in QRUN.g4b now checks for grub4dos backup sector at LBA1.
8. Improvement: QRUN.g4b now detects HAIKU ISOs and suggests using the .HAIKU file extension.
9. Improvement: Windows Install ISO 'Repair only' prompt now changed to 'Repair\Setup' because pressing ENTER will now boot using WIMBOOT and so the ISO will be loaded as a virtual DVD and Setup will run without using an XML file.
10. Improvement: Util_Man.exe hack now launches control panel automatically.
11. Extra: added netrunner+persistence sample mnu file.
12. Bugfix: in QRUN.g4b for redir not suppressing all output if NOSUG is set.
13. Bugfix: fix QEMU_MENU_TEST bug when 9 or more drives in system.
14. Bugfix: TimeAccess.g4b sometimes miscalculated.
15. Bugfix: QAUTO.g4b and AUTOMN.g4b now does not use reserved memory at (md)0x230.

v1.A9i

1. Improvement: extension override now works for '32', '64', '3GB' and '4GB' suffixes so the menu entry is not listed in the E2B menu - e.g. Win10x64_.isodef64.iso - the menu entry is only listed on 64-bit systems.
2. Improvement: use --mem --top instead of --mem where the payload may be very large, e.g. Win10.vhdmem.

Microsoft have now blocked the Windows UtilMan.exe password hack... but you can still use it - if you know how!

Since about September 2018, Microsoft's malware detection software will attempt to detect if the UtilMan.exe file has been changed and will delete the 'bad' UtilMan.exe file.

This should mean that replacing the UtilMan.exe file with the cmd.exe file as a means of gaining access to a Windows OS without knowing any user password should no longer be possible and the E2B UtilMan Hack will no longer work.

However, if you boot to Windows in Safe Mode, it delays the removal of a 'bad' UtilMan.exe file by approx. 30 seconds and this is long enough for us to use it to run a cmd batch file and create a new ADMIN user account.

I have updated the UtilMan hack instructions now and revised the .cmd files in E2B v1.A8f Beta to work around the new protection.