How to overlay the E2B F1 Help text onto your wallpaper background

The E2B F1 Help menu is determined by the F1.cfg file, one for each language.

When you select one of the Help menu topics, the text is displayed on a plain (usually black) background. This is because the help text fills the whole screen and may get confused with the background picture in some situations (as you can see in the example below).

You can modify the F1.cfg file so that the text is overlaid on top of the current wallpaper by adding a few lines under each 'title' menu entry.

You can download the E2B v1.83 English F1.cfg file which includes these lines in all 'title' menu entries from the Alternate Download Area - Languages folder here.

You can quickly test it by adding the F1.cfg file to the \_ISO folder (but don't leave it there because it will override any language setting or normal F1.cfg file - if you want to use it permanently, make a new language folder). For more info about the F1 help menu and making a new language folder, see here and here.

P.S. The wallpaper shown above is called 'SultryWoman' and is in the  Alternate Download Area - Themes folder here. There are other wallpapers in the Themes folder too or you can download more from https://wall.alphacoders.com/  (choose 4:3 format and then reduce them to 800x600 using Paint and save as .bmp).

E2B v1.84c Beta available

v1.84c 

1. Parrot+persistence sample .mnu file added. 
2. New feature: if user presses u key during early booting to Main menu, the grub4dos USB 2.0 driver will be loaded. 
3. Change to SDI_CHOCO Sample_MyStartup.cmd so that -y and unchecksummed packages are accepted. 
4. Add 'Download URLs' folder to \_ISO\docs\ folder. 
5. Add Win7 SDI_CHOCO XML files. 
6. Fix SDI_CHOCO.cmd so does not pause if installing Win7. 
7. Add E2B_WINHELPER_&DW.zip for Zalman\IODD. 
8. Fix problem of F1 Help menu title not displayed (all languages). 
9. Sample WinNTSetup diskpart script files added to \_ISO\docs\E2B Utilities\WinNTSetup folder
10. Fix bug - if animated icon in menu, then XP+DPMS install is broken (asks for floppy disk).

I have found that if you have an animated E2B icon (or any animated icon) on the menu, this causes the installation of XP+DPMS to fail. Setup will prompt you to insert a Firadisk floppy disk and you cannot get beyond this point.
This was caused by the animated .bmp files being loaded as a virtual floppy (fd3) which interferes with the two other virtual floppies used by DPMS. This bug is fixed in this v1.84c Beta version.

Using a combination of WinNTSetup and DPMS, it is possible (I think!) to install XP onto a system that contains only USB 3.0 ports and a SATA or RAID HDD (from an unmodified MS XP SP3 ISO). The system's firmware/hardware needs to be XP-compatible however (many modern BIOSes are not).  The process is a bit messy though! See http://www.easy2boot.com/add-payload-files/windows-install-isos/winntsetup/ for more details.

The file E2B_WINHELPER_&DW.zip contains E2B_WINHELPER_&DW.RMD. This file can be loaded by a Zalman or IODD drive so that it will appear as a E2B 'Helper' Removable Flash drive. This means you do not need to carry a separate Flash drive with your Zalman/IODD drive.

How to set up multiple backgrounds in E2B (video by Liu Evan)

A guy named Liu Evan has posted a YouTube video on how to make wallpaper backgrounds and how to have a different background for each E2B menu.

He has also made some background templates available for you to download, so you can create a 'semi-transparent' square and merge it with the background bitmap using PhotoShop (though I guess you could use gimp or Paint .Net too) on which the E2B menu can be written, as shown below.

The E2B page which describes how to set up multiple backgrounds is here.

Free Paragon Backup and Recovery 16 (until Nov 2016)

https://www.paragon-software.com/home/brh/download.html

You can build a WinPE Recovery ISO using this too (to get the ISO creation option you need to install MS WAIK WinPE support).

Original source DavesComputerTips.

Change the WinPE console font/size/position/minimize/hide, using the SetConsole utility

When running scripts, etc. using the Windows console terminal window, you often want to change it's appearance. To change the size of the window, we can use a command such as:

mode con: cols=160 lines=60

However, changing the font that is used, especially if running WinPE, is a lot more tricky, especially as we cannot reboot after changing the registry.

Whilst looking for a solution, I found the handy SetConsole utility.

Easy2Boot v1.84a Beta available

Beta v1.84a

• Parrot+persistence sample .mnu file added. 
• New feature: If user presses u key early when booting to E2B, the grub4dos USB 2.0 driver will be automatically loaded. 
• Add 'Download LiveCDs' url + some others to a new \_ISO\docs\Download URLs folder. 
• Change to SDI_CHOCO Sample_MyStartup.cmd so that -y not required and unchecksummed packages are accepted. 
• Add Win7 SDI_CHOCO XML files. 
• Fix SDI_CHOCO.cmd so does not pause if installing Win7. 
• Add E2B_WINHELPER_&DW.zip for Zalman\IODD.

The Download LiveCDs.url points to a convenient web page where you can quickly find many liveCDs.

I have now tested SDI_CHOCO with Win7 and made a few tweaks as well as adding some XML files for Win7.

Note that Chocolatey automatically installs DotNet4 (which takes 10-20 minutes!) on Win7.

It seems Chocolatey now requires the packages to be checksummed and many are not. I have added some configuration lines into the Sample_MyStartup.cmd file which disables this checksum requirement and also added an option so that -y is not required (so just choco teamviewer will work automatically). if you already have a MyStartup.cmd file, you will need to add in these lines.

If you have a IOD2531 or 2541, you can load the E2B_WINHELPER_&DW.RMD file into it, and it will emulate a WINHELPER E2B USB Removable media flash drive (cool!). See my previous blog for details. If anyone owns a Zalman disk caddy, please try this file and let me know if the whole hard disk is write-enabled after it is loaded and what model/firmware you tested it on (the HDD is write-protected on the VE200, which is no good for E2B!).

Using E2B with Zalman\IODD disk drive enclosures (is the IODD 2531 the best USB HDD enclosure for E2B?)

As you know, E2B keeps its menu folders under the \_ISO folder.

The folder name of \_ISO was not a random decision on my part, it was chosen because the drive emulation disk enclosures made by IODD and Zalman both use the \_ISO folder to store payload files.

Keep reading to see how you can use the features of these devices to enhance E2B!

For those of you that don't know, with these HDD enclosures, you can select one or more payload files, and they will be emulated as a USB device.

Zalman ZM-VE200


For instance, if you select Ubuntu.iso, then any system that the HDD enclosure is connected to, will 'see' a USB CD/DVD drive containing the Ubuntu ISO file contents, just as if it were accessing a real CD/DVD drive containing a real CD\DVD (except much faster)!

Now, I recently purchased a Lenovo IdeaPad 300, and decided to try my old Zalman ZM-VE200 out on it. I found that IdeaPad 300 did not respond too well when trying to boot from an ISO loaded as a virtual CD into the Zalman VE200. It looked like the Zalman could not load the ISO quickly enough on power-on, so the IdeaPad BIOS did not detect it (even when using an SSD HDD).

Since the Zalman ZM-VE200 is USB 2.0 and therefore not very fast, and also had this issue, I decided to purchase a new emulation HDD enclosure. My choices were:

Unencrypted - IODD 2531 (SATA3) or Zalman VE300 (SATA2) or Zalman VE350 (SATA3 compatible)
Encrypted     - IODD 2541 (SATA3) or Zalman VE400 (SATA2) or Zalman VE500 (SATA3 compatible)

I have read some Amazon reviews that the Zalman VE350 is a poorer-quality version of the VE300 and the VE500 is a poorer-quality version of the VE400 as they are made by a different manufacturer (not IODD). The Zalman documentation is poor. It does not mention support for VHD, RMD, DSK for instance even though I think they are supported by the Zalmans.

Install Windows for UEFI booting from E2B in MBR mode (using WinNTSetup)

If you have an E2B USB hard disk and you want to install Windows onto a UEFI-system, it can be a bit of a pain the make the .imgPTN file and get it working. Especially if you want to use SDI_CHOCO.

However, you can install Windows from an E2B USB drive using WinNTSetup by JFX. This way you do not need to modify the ISO or create a .imgPTN file or modify the boot.wim files, etc. to perform a UEFI\GPT installation. Also a WinHelper USB Flash drive is not required.

This means you can boot from a Win8/10 Windows Install or WinPE ISO and then use WinNTSetup to install Windows from any ISO on the E2B drive.

• There is no need to UEFI-boot from the E2B USB drive
• No modification of ISOs required
• No .imgPTN file or modification of boot.wim is required
• No WinHelper USB Flash drive required
• You can use SDI_CHOCO XML files

There are many videos on YouTube about WinNTSetup, if you want to see it in action. You can even boot to one of the DLC WinPE ISOs which already contains WinNTSetup, instead of booting from a Windows Install ISO.

Tip: JFX has revised v3.8.7 Beta 4 so that you can run diskpart scripts using CTRL+SHIFT+D (see tools\diskpart folder).

For instructions see the WinNTSetup page on the E2B site here.

A persistent parrot

Kevin asked me how to add persistence for Parrot linux.

Parrot speaks to you when it loads!

Since  this is based on Ubuntu, I simply modified the Ubuntu_2016_Persistence.mnu file.

I have added a copy of Parrot_3.1.1_Persistent.mnu to the Alternate Downloads Area - mnu files - linux folder, if you want it.

Booting USB drives using Virtual Box (VMUB tip)

In case anyone is still living in the Stone Age and is using QEMU to test their bootable USB drives, this is just a short blog to make sure you are aware of DavidB's utility VMUB (Virtual Machine USB Booter) for use with Oracle Virtual Box.

I wrote a previous blog about it here. There is also a YouTube video.

I use VMUB all the time because it is much quicker than using QEMU and it can boot a variety of different Virtual Machines (including MBR 64-bit, UEFI 32-bit and 64-bit booting).

The VMUB utility gives much better results than using a manually created .vmdk file for your USB drive because VMUB also dismounts the USB drive before running VBOX. This eliminates some of the problems that you get when using a simple .vmdk file with VBOX.

VMUB tip (use the CTRL key)

If you are designing and testing a new menu system for E2B (or making a custom CSM menu for .imgPTN files) then here is a handy tip:

E2B v1.83 released

• Bugfix for grub4dos so does not absorb key presses before menu is displayed. 
• Make_E2B_USB_Drive (run as admin).cmd now checks for more versions of bootmgr (whitelist has new additions). 
• Warning message if try to use .imz file extension (you need to convert to .ima). 
• Added sample .mnu files for Remix OS x86 with persistence (thanks Sergio!). 
• Small changes to German language files (thanks Frettt). 
• Add fmt_ntfs.sh script and udefrag utility to docs\linux_utils folder - can now make and maintain an NTFS E2B drive under linux. 
• Update FreeDOS floppy image to allow access to NTFS files under FreeDOS (E2B drive = C: ). 
• Updated SDI 'Snappy' executables.

Available on website or Alternate Download Areas.

E2B v1.83d Beta now available

Version 1.83d is a 'Release Candidate'.

Please let me know if you spot any issues ASAP. I will probably release it as v1.83 release version in a few days.

Are fingerprint sensors really secure?

Many years ago when fingerprint sensors first started to appear on the market, it seemed a really useful security feature.

The company I worked for (RM plc) made PCs, notebooks and tablets for schools. The use of passwords was a common problem in schools. The password needed to be long enough and complex enough to be secure, but also easy to remember. Also, the crafty kids would often watch a teacher type in their password and so learn their admin password. The kids would also forget their passwords, which meant that teachers or the IT admin guys were constantly having to reset their passwords and create new ones for them. Kids would write down their password and other kids could find them and copy their homework, etc. Passwords were a real headache.

So fingerprint scanners seemed to present an ideal solution and as everyone's fingerprint is unique - so it is foolproof, right?

Windows command line TAB auto-completion tip

I came across this tip yesterday. You can specify a file using wildcards and then use TAB auto-completion in a Windows command shell.

For instance:

If you are working at the Windows cmd shell and want to edit a .txt file (for instance), type

notepad *.txt

You can now press the TAB key until you see the file you want.

This works with more complex wildcards to such as  p*.t* and with network shares too.

RMPrepUSB v2.1.732 now available

I have updated RMPrepUSB to use the new version of mke2fs. It now asks you to specify  ext2, ext3 or ext4 format when you use the Create Ext2/3/4 FS button.

This makes it more convenient to create ext3 or ext4 files. I will remove the mke2fs files from Easy2Boot as there is no need for them now.

For persistence files with E2B, I recommend ext3 because ext2 files can become easily corrupted. I suggest you avoid ext4 because grub4dos may not be fully compatible with ext4 and I don't think there is much advantage over ext3 (but I might be wrong!).

Download here.

E2B v1.83c Beta available

v1.83c - changes from 1.83a in bold

• bugfix grub4dos 0.4.6a so does not absorb key presses before menu is displayed. 
• Make_E2B_USB_Drive (run as admin).cmd now checks for more versions of bootmgr (whitelist has new additions). 
• Warning message if try to use .imz file extension (need to convert to .ima).
• Add \_ISO\docs\E2B Utilities\Format_as_ext3_or_ext4 folder for re-formatting ext2 persistence files as ext3 or ext4 under Windows. (removed from 1.83 release version)
• Add sample .mnu files for Remix OS x86 with persistence (thanks Sergio!). 
• Small changes to German language files (thanks Frettt). 
• Add fmt_ntfs.sh script and udefrag utility to docs\linux_utils folder - can now make and maintain an NTFS E2B drive under linux.

Note that I have discovered (thanks to a post by Shiv Manas on Google+) that the udefrag linux utility will make files on an E2B USB drive contiguous (provided you have enough free space on the drive). This means that linux users can make and maintain an NTFS E2B USB drive. See ReadMe file in the linux_utils folder for more details.

E2B v1.83a Beta available

v1.83a 

• bugfix grub4dos 0.4.6a so does not absorb key presses before menu is displayed. 
• Make_E2B_USB_Drive (run as admin).cmd now checks for more versions of bootmgr (whitelist has new additions). 
• Warning message if try to use .imz file extension (need to convert to .ima).

Available from Alternate Download Areas as usual.

Anyone tried the SDI_CHOCO feature yet?

Convenient way to run MS-DOS utilities directly from an NTFS E2B drive

If you have several different DOS utilities (to flash a BIOS perhaps or run a DOS-based diagnostic) which are provided as .exe or .com files, then you may have trouble adding it to an NTFS E2B USB drive.

Usually, you would have to make a DOS-bootable floppy disk image or perhaps make a bootable USB flash drive and then 'capture' the flash drive as a FAT32 .imgPTN file using the MPI Tool Kit (MakePartImage). Actually, E2B will try to boot to IO.sys or Kernel.sys, so you do not have to 'SYS' the floppy image, just ensure that the correct boot files are present inside the image file.

Today, I found some DOS floppy disk images which contained NTFS drivers on a Russian site (www.bootdisk.com seems to not provide free downloads any more). This means that all you have to do, is copy your DOS utilities to a new folder on your NTFS E2B USB drive, boot to the floppy disk image and then run the DOS utility straight from the NTFS E2B drive.

Note: The FreeDOS floppy image included with E2B v1.83+ now includes a DOS NTFS driver, so you can access an NTFS E2B USB drive as drive C:. Because FreeDOS is used and not MS-DOS 8.0 however, long filenames are not displayed correctly and so it is not quite as good as the DOS4NTFS.IMZ image.

Add a 'factory' recovery partition using Aomei One Key Recovery

Whilst looking at the Aomei Backupper utility (horrible name!) in a previous blog, I saw the free Aomei One Key Recovery product on the Aomei website and decided to try it today.

The website has a lot of 'Chinglish' sales talk and very little information about how it works. Here are the main points for you techies!...

E2B v.1.82 is now released

v1.82 2016-08-13

• New grub4dos 0.4.6a 'E2B.cfg missing' bug fix + others. 
• SDI_CHOCO (automated driver and apps install for Win 7/8/10) added. 
• Support for WSUS Offline update in SDI_CHOCO added. 
• New Win8/10 SDI_CHOCO XML files (+ some older XML files re-named). 
• Fix for Windows Setup refusing to install to internal hard disk if using E2B HDD+WINHELPER flash drive combination, with some systems. 
• Install from XP ISO hang/reset grub4dos bugfix. 
• Small tweak to \_ISO\e2b\grub\menu.lst to remove extra screen clear. 
• Improve LOADISO.cmd routine when searching for virtual Win7/8/10 ImDisk DVD drives. 
• Added two new bootmgr versions to 'whitelist' for VHD booting.
• Update script now lists the files that are updated by robocopy

Download E2B v1.82, unpack to a new folder and then use the \UPDATE_E2B_DRIVE.cmd script to update your E2B drive.

Read more: http://www.easy2boot.com/download/e2b-version-history/

Note: I just noticed that the new version of grub4dos has a small bug. It soaks up key presses, so if you press Ctrl+U whilst the Main menu is loading, E2B does not go straight to the Utilities menu. You have to wait for the Main menu to display before you press Ctrl+U. Hopefully this will be fixed by the developers in the next version of grub4dos. P.S. Fixed in v1.83.

Which free Disk Backup software to use?

I was interested in finding a free offline disk backup and restore utility that I could boot from E2B and quickly make a full 'bare-metal' disk backup or restore of any (Windows) system.

I found a good article on a Raymond.cc blog post here, which tested 20 different backup utilities, but many were not free.

I decided to quickly test some of these using a Windows 10, Lenovo IdeaPad 300 notebook containing an SSD internal drive (13GB of files) and booting from an E2B SSD in an Inateck FE2007 USB 3.0 drive caddy. Well, I didn't want to spend days using spinny-things and slow USB 2.0 drives, did I?

My results tallied fairly well with the Raymond-site results (see the nice tables of free software further down this page).

My results (booting from E2B) were:

YouTube video on SDI_CHOCO feature in Easy2Boot v1.82

There is a live demo near the end of the video.

Full automated Windows 10 install + a few drivers + Teamviewer in 12 minutes.

Simple to set up the E2B drive.

Once you have added the Driverpacks to your E2B drive, you can use E2B+SDI_CHOCO to install any version of Windows 7/8/10 Install ISOs. Just add the Windows ISOs and choose one of the ***SDI_CHOCO.XML files.

'INACCESSIBLE BOOT DEVICE' error from Windows 10 - and you won't believe the cause (I didn't)!

In the last few weeks, my Asus Z87 Haswell PC has started to display the dreaded 'Inaccessible boot device' BSOD error on start-up (it was the more friendly Windows 10 graphical version with QR code).

Now the PC was actually starting to boot. I would get the spinning circle of white dots and I could see the HDD LED blinking. Then the HDD LED would stop flashing, and after displaying 30 seconds or so of more spinning dots, I would get this blue screen error.

The thing was, if I rebooted the PC a few times, it did eventually manage to boot, so I continued to use the PC for a few weeks and just put up with this issue. I tried the Windows Troubleshooter and the Repair option and also ran BCDBoot manually, but it didn't fix it.

A few days ago, I fitted a new 2TB Hitachi SATA HDD drive to my system for extra storage, so I decided to investigate this issue further (also I was now getting the BSOD error more often!).

Since I had just connected a new SATA HDD, the first thing I did was to disconnect it, but I kept getting the same BSOD.

Next I disconnected all the SATA HDDs (2) and the single SATA DVD drive, I just left the first Samsung 500GB SATA SSD boot drive connected.

The result was a perfect boot into Windows 10. I tested this several times, switching the system off and on again - all perfect!

So, the problem was due to one of the SATA drives that I had disconnected. I re-connected them back one-by-one until the problem re-appeared.

And you'll never believe the cause!

And the culprit was (drum-roll....)

How to run an SDI_CHOCO install using a .imgPTN Windows Install file

I have now added instructions to the E2B website on how you can automate a Windows 8.1/10 install using the SDI_CHOCO feature from a .imgPTN file.

This means you can perform both an MBR or UEFI installation with an unattend.xml file and use the automated SDI driver installer + install apps using choco + add WSUS Offline updates automatically.

If you have an E2B Removable drive, it is quite easy. Just add a \Unattend.xml file to the inside of the .imgPTN file. The XML file must contain a Specialize section which runs \e2b\Stage1.cmd (see the example XML files in the e2b folder for examples).

If your E2B USB drive is a fixed-disk (hard disk) USB drive, you will need to modify the boot.wim file (or simply add a small Removable Flash drive that contains the correct files - but don't use a WINHELPER flash drive or the XML file will be erased by E2B!).

I have added the required files to the MPI Tool Kit v0.067 (Note: use the new version dated 2016-08-08, if you downloaded it yesterday, you may not have the \e2b\Stage1.cmd and Stage2.cmd files!).

Using a .imgPTN file is tricky because once the E2B USB drive has switched to the .imgPTN partition image, the E2B partition (and all the SDI, DRIVERS, APPS, WSUS folders, etc.) are no longer accessible!

I get around this by automatically switching the partition back to the E2B partition when the Specialize phase is reached. Stage1.cmd is inside the .imgPTN partition and copies the files to the target hard disk, Stage2.cmd then runs from the target hard disk and switches back the E2B partition to allow access to the CHOCO_SDI folders.

You can find the instructions at the bottom of this page.

Note that the XML file needs to be named \Unattend.XML if it does NOT contain a WindowsPE configuration pass, or \AutoUnattend.xml if it does contain a WindowsPE pass.

P.S. It seems the first release of the Windows 10 Anniversary install ISO has the same bug as the Windows 10 TH2 first release - internet access does not work in the Specialize pass! I fix this by running and then killing msoobe.exe. This sets up the network stack and host name correctly. Microsoft fixed this bug in the later TH2 versions, but they seem to have regressed when they released the Anniversary edition!

If you want to install choco apps in the Specialize pass, then you will need internet access. If you only install choco apps using MyStartup.cmd, then you can add a NoInternet.tag file to prevent SDI_CHOCO from trying to run msoobe to fix the internet connectivity.

MPI Tool Kit v0.067 released plus E2B v1.82h Beta available

The MPI Tool Kit now supports a MyCSM.cfg menu configuration file, so that you can use the E2B_Editor GUI utility to design your own custom CSM menu. It also supports GFXBoot menus. You can add files to the CUSTOM folder in the MPI Tool Kit and any .imgPTN file you make in future will have your custom menu. For instructions, see here. Download from the Alternate Download Areas.

Sample MyCSM.cfg file with (nasty-but-small-file-size) pink jpeg wallpaper.

Also, E2B 1.82h Beta is released. It includes the latest grub4dos 0.4.6a which has three bugfixes and SDI_CHOCO. This is a 'release candidate' and will be fully released as the official v1.82 in a few days - please try it and feedback if you find any issues. SDI_CHOCO allows you to easily completely automate the installation of Windows 8.1 or 10 using an unaltered Microsoft Install ISO and automatically install drivers, Windows Updates and applications.

P.S. If you have previously donated or contributed in other ways to E2B and don't like the new Easy2Boot website page format (and all the ads!), please contact me for a way to get the original www.easy2boot.com site layout.

No-More-Ransom - A useful Anti-Ransomware website

www.nomoreransom.org looks like a useful anti-ransomware site where you can find decryption tools, information and advice.

The “No-More-Ransom” website is an initiative by the National High Tech Crime Unit of the Netherlands’ police, Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre and two cyber security companies – Kaspersky Lab and Intel Security – with the goal to help victims of ransomware retrieve their encrypted data without having to pay the criminals.

P.S. If you found this useful, please tick one of the Reactions boxes below.

Upgrading Win7 to Win10 still works! + weird 'Unable to install Windows to the hard disk' issue solved.

I was playing around with PSUs yesterday and temporarily 'borrowed' the PSU from my old Dell Inspiron 530 to test it with another system.

Dell Inspiron 530

After confirming that it worked on the other system, I replaced it back in the Dell 530 when I realised that the 250GB hard disk in the Dell was actually running Windows 7 (the Dell was originally installed with Vista, but I later installed Windows 7 Ultimate many years ago using a Retail product key).

I decided this would be a good chance to see if the Windows 10 Upgrade offer was still working, so I booted from my E2B drive (an Inateck FE2007) to a Windows 10 Pro TH2 VHD, typed in the Windows 7 Product Key (which I had obtained using ShowKeyPlus previously) - and voila! I had one activated Windows 10 Pro system.

So as of 2016-08-05, I can confirm that you can still use a Win7 retail product key to activate Windows 10.

Problems installing Windows 10!

I decided to do a fresh install of Windows 10 from an ISO file using my E2B hard disk (FE2007 + Samsung SSD) and a 'Helper' USB flash drive. As you may know, if E2B is on a hard disk, we need to add a Removable USB drive so that Windows will 'pick up' the AutoUnattend.xml file from the Removable drive during Setup and that we can make ImDisk run and load the ISO as a virtual DVD drive. The FE2007 hard disk enclosure has three USB 3.0 ports built in, so the flash drive is always connected to the E2B hard disk.

So, I booted to E2B and selected the Windows 10 ISO (actually the latest 'Anniversary' version) and got to the Disk\Partition selection screen as usual. BUT I then got stuck on a problem - Setup refused to install Windows onto the internal hard disk!

Every time I got the message:  'We couldn't create a new partition or locate an existing partition'.

Easy2Boot v1.82g Beta available

This v1.82g Beta includes SDI_CHOCO and the new grub4dos (beta) version which fixes the "E2B.cfg missing" error which a handful of users have experienced on certain systems containing certain partitions.

I have also renamed the E2B Win8 and Win10 XML files. When you perform an E2B Update, it will delete the old v1.81 XML files and add the new ones. If you have previously installed an SDI_CHOCO beta, I suggest you first delete all the old .XML files (that are E2B ones) and then do an Update.

As usual the download is available in the Alternate Download Areas.

Any feedback welcome.

Has the free Windows 10 upgrade really finished?

According to a Martin Brinkman blog post here, you can still get the free Win10 upgrade.
If this is true, can you also do a clean install of Win10 and use a Win7 or Win8 Product Key? Presumably the same activation process will still work as before and the trick of simply booting from a USB drive to Win10 will still work.

P.S. 2016-08-05 I booted to Win10 TH2 Pro on a Windows 7 Ultimate system today and used the Windows 7 Ult key to activate it - it worked fine!

grub4dos - good news, very good news and not so good news!

YaYa has fixed two bugs in grub4dos 0.4.6a

1. Issue #122 - Replacing strings in a file using cat --locate=xxx --replace=yyy sometimes didn't work
2. Issue #119 - grub4dos crashes when it access certain partitions (this is the “\_ISO\e2b\grub\E2B.cfg is MISSING!” issue)

Bug #122 has a workaround and this has been added into E2B v1.82 so that we can use older versions of grub4dos if we need to (useful for testing different versions, etc.). The bug was only found due to the new SDI_CHOCO feature in v1.82 and so did not affect previous versions of E2B.

Bug #119 is great news. Many people have helped in investigating this bug but a special thanks to Norbert who spent a lot of time to prepare a Virtual Machine in VBox which allowed the developer (YaYa) to see the problem and enabled him to fix it!

The not so good news, is that I discovered a new bug to do with certain types (joliet?) of XP ISOs crashing when accessed (e.g. using a cat command on a file inside the ISO). The bug report is Issue #123 and affects grub4dos 0.4.6a versions after 2016-04-10 (so does affect E2B v1.81 which used 2016-07-04 and E2B v1.80 which used 2016-04-26, but not E2B v1.79 which used 2016-03-26). A genuine MS XP3 ISO does not seem to be affected though and it only seems to happen with some ISOs on some systems (TBD). Hopefully, YaYa can find the problem and fix it. Then we will have a new version of grub4dos with all the major outstanding bugs fixed.

2016-08-04 - YaYa has fixed the bug. Next version should have all fixes!

Add Parted Magic 2016 with SAVE feature to E2B

Here is the .mnu file for the PMagic 2016 ISO with the SAVE feature supported.

SDI_CHOCO page now added to E2B website

The SDI_CHOCO feature allows you to fully automate a Windows install + install drivers + applications + Windows updates completely unattended.

Once you have it set up, when a new version of Windows is released, just copy the new Windows Install ISO onto your E2B USB drive and use that instead of the old ISO! No need to change anything else.

See here for details.

You can have multiple configurations for different systems or configurations. You can install your own custom drivers or applications too.

For instance, a full Windows 10 installation with drivers and a few applications can take about 12 minutes from first boot to the E2B USB drive to the final user Desktop (watch the video).

Hope it is not too confusing!

P.S. If you found this useful, please tick one of the Reactions boxes below.

How to activate Windows 8/10 automatically

You can use the following cmd script to get the OEM key which has been programmed into the BIOS by the manufacturer and then activate Windows with it automatically. Of course, the OS must match the OEM key (e.g. Windows Home OS <> Windows Home Product Key).

AutoActivate.cmd  (run as admin)

@echo off
pushd "%~dp0"
set PKEY=
get_win8key.exe > WINKEY.txt
set /p PKEY=<WINKEY.txt
if not "%PKEY%"=="" (
echo Activating using key %PKEY%
cscript //NoLogo %systemroot%\system32\slmgr.vbs /ipk %PKEY% > act.log
cscript //NoLogo %systemroot%\system32\slmgr.vbs /ato >> act.log
type act.log
)

popd

get_win8key.exe can be obtained from here. It also works on Windows 10 systems.

P.S. after downloading get_win8key.exe - right-click on the file - Properties - and tick UnBlock. Otherwise Windows Powershell may refuse to run it.

How to automate the installation of Windows and Lenovo drivers using SDI_CHOCO

Here is how I modified SDI_CHOCO on my E2B drive so that instead of using Snappy to install generic drivers, it installs all the correct official Lenovo drivers and applications.

New user files are created by the end user to modify the install behaviour, so updating E2B to the latest version will not delete these new files because only the original E2B files are updated.

If you have several different models of PCs and Notebooks to install, then the XML file and SDI_CHOCO folder structure should be duplicated, renamed and modified accordingly, for each different model.

Easy2Boot v1.82SDIf Beta now available

Version 1.82f does not install any choco applications by default now (i.e. Google Chrome and TeamViewer are not installed by default).

I think that v1.82 is getting good enough for release now, so please test and provide feedback.
I am still waiting for a grub4dos bugfix though.

E2B v1.82SDIe Beta with WSUS Offline Update support

This new version includes support for the WSUS Offline Update utility.

You can download and extract WSUS Offline Update to the \_ISO\WINDOWS\INSTALLS\wsusoffline folder of your USB drive and then run updategenerator.exe - pick the OS's you want to support - e.g. Win 8.1 x86 & x64, Win 10 x86 and x64 - and then download the updates (this may take quite a while!).

Easy2Boot v1.82SDId Beta available

The v1.82d Beta version has a few new XML files added for Windows 8 and 10 ISO installs:

• Win10_Choose_a_key_SDI_CHOCO.xml
• Win8_Choose_a_key_SDI_CHOCO.xml

These allow you to do a manual install of any Win8/10 ISO and choose the Product Key that you want to use (i.e. the same as the default Option 0 choice, but it also runs the SDI_CHOCO install, so it will install drivers and applications). These two new XML files do not contain any other configuration settings and are not 'automated'.

There is also a new E2B feature for Windows 8 and Windows 10 (and 2016) installs from an ISO. 

E2B v1.82SDIc Beta now available

This new version just has a few changes to improve the SDI_CHOCO.cmd script if you want to use WiFi instead of Ethernet to connect to the internet during installation.

If anyone has tried the new Snappy+Chocolatey XML files yet, please let me know how you got on!

Have you discovered the surprise yet (clue: you will need to test using a notebook or PC with speakers!)?

E2B 1.82 SDI Beta b version now available (Snappy+Chocolatey)

This is a new, slightly tweaked version of the previous SDI+Choco version. It is available in the Alternate Downloads Areas as usual. Read the previous blog post for how to get it working.

It now includes sample XML files for Win 8.1 Pro, Win 8.1 Home, Win 10 Pro and Win 10 Home for both USA and English International versions of the ISOs.

• For 'English' ISOs use the 'US' XML file
• For 'English International' ISOs use the 'UK' XML file

You can remove the E2B USB drive when you see the CAPS LOCK and SCROLL LOCK LEDs lit.
I have added better logging and tidied up the cmd scripts a bit.

There is a little surprise added too - leave a comment when you find out what it is!

Note: If you have modified any of the original E2B files in the \_ISO\WINDOWS\INSTALL folder (naughty, naughty!), then when you update E2B with this new version, it will obviously overwrite your modified files. So rename any folders you want to keep first. if you have some Driverpack downloads in the SNAPPY folder, they will not be affected when you update.

E2B is Snappy and Chocolatey!

E2B v1.82SDIa_Beta is available for download in the Alternate Download Areas.

Once you have downloaded and added the driverpacks, you will be able to perform a fully automated install of Windows with all drivers and any apps you want too, using an unmodified MS ISO and one of the xxxxxxx_CHOCO_SDI.XMl files on your E2B USB drive.

E2B progress report

I recently received a nearly new pre-owned Lenovo 300 IdeaPad i5 2TB 8GB notebook. It was a refurbished laptop which I won on eBay (exdemolaptops if you are interested). One of the main requirements for me was a bottom hatch that allows me to quickly swap the hard disk and of course, USB ports!
It has one USB 3 port and two USB 2 ports. I swapped over the 1TB spinny-thing for a 120GB SSD so that I could do Windows Installs as quickly as possible for testing the new Snappy+Choco version of E2B. A completely automated Win10Pro install, including installing 19 drivers and 2 applications takes under 15 minutes.

Thankfully, CSM and UEFI-booting are easily selectable (via Fn+F12) and booting to E2B is really fast on the USB 3 port too!

Automatically install drivers with Snappy Driver Installer

Today I discovered Snappy Driver Installer (SDI). It has been around for a while but I had not heard of it before.

If you don't have all the DriverPacks it needs, SDI will download them via torrents, but it can take a while...

You can download this utility to a USB drive and just run it from any Windows system (XP->Win10, 32-bit or 64-bit). It will look at your hardware and current Windows drivers and then search for a better driver within it's Driverpacks and then install it. The downloads are in 'Driver Packs'. A full download will take 13GB of drive space if you want all the driver packs, or it can be asked to download just the ones you need.

The nice thing about SDI is that you can also run it from the command line and it can be automated.

So using SDI and a few scripts, I added some new folders to my Easy2Boot USB drive.

The folder structure on the E2B USB drive is currently:

\_ISO\WINDOWS\INSTALLS
      \APPS - contains installers and scripts to execute them
      \DRIVERS\904HA\WIN1032 - contains scripts and special drivers to copy to HDD
      \SNAPPY    - contains the SDI files
      \CONFIGS - contains main .cmd file specified in RunOnce portion of XML file

Add post-install files to a Windows Install (using an unaltered MS ISO)

I have added a bottom section to my previous blog here, detailing how you can inject files and folders automatically into a Windows Install (7/8/10) by using an entry in an XML file. The .iso file is not modified at all. All files are copied from the E2B USB drive.

This means that as well as a fully automated install using an unattend.xml file, we can also cause it to transfer over any files we like (e.g. drivers, apps, registry tweaks, etc.) from the E2B Removable USB drive, without needing to modify the original MS ISO in any way.

It also allows us to add in a \Windows\Setup\Scripts\SetupComplete.cmd file, if required and even run a StartUp.cmd file for first user logon.

The next version of E2B will include a test sample XML file (\_ISO\WINDOWS\WIN10\Auto_WipeDisk0_Win10ProUK_setupcomplete_demo.xml), with some dummy .cmd files which happen to be in \_ISO\e2b\firadisk, so you can test and modify it for yourself if you wish.

This means you can use the same ISO to install different models of PCs with different drivers and applications just be selecting the correct XML file. Your E2B drive can contain folders for machine-specific drivers and different folders for applications, so that you can copy over only those folders that you need.

Of course, how you install the drivers and apps from a cmd file is usually the tricky part, but I leave this up to you!

Add Gentoo + Persistence to E2B

Here is how to boot from a Gentoo ISO file with persistence.

I used the livedvd-x86-amd64-32ul-20140826_gentoo.iso download.

The cheat code needed is in the form aufs=/dev/sdX3  where X is the USB drive.

Since the USB drive number will vary from system to system, we have to try to guess what Gentoo will assign the USB drive as!

Instructions

Bug in E2B v1.81 - Please update to v1.81A (bugfix in MAKE_E2B_USB_DRIVE (run as admin).cmd script)

A bug was reported in the v1.81 MAKE_E2B_USB_DRIVE (run as admin).cmd script which causes it to prematurely abort if  C:\bootmgr is not found. After copying over the files, the script checks the size of bootmgr and then copies it to the E2B drive if it is a compatible version - unfortunately if C:\bootmgr does not exist then the script just aborts, and so it does not install grub4dos, leaving you with an unbootable E2B USB drive ('bootmgr is missing' error).

This is now fixed in E2B v1.81A.

The E2B menu will still display "v1.81" because only the make script is affected.

Easy2Boot v1.81 is now released

QR code contains the URL of 'List of tested payload' page on E2B website.

Version 1.81 contains 3 bugfixes (in bold) and a few tweaks...

As always, just download and extract E2B to an empty folder and run the \UPDATE_E2B_DRIVE.cmd file to update all your E2B drives.


v1.81 2016-07-09

• New grub4dos \grld 0.4.6a 2016-07-04 (grub4dos USB driver may now work better?)
• $$AddWin2Main.mnu bugfixes for direct booting of Windows Install ISOs from Main menu. 
• Bugfix for .isope path problems and + make work if iso on 2nd partition (note: .isoPExxx extensions only work correctly on Removable Flash drives, otherwise convert to .imgPTN files). 
• SWITCH_E2B.exe v1.0.12 bugfix for syslinux booting (also supports .imgptn*2* as well as .imgptn*23* extension for special users - .imgptn*2* is NOT supported by E2B though!).

Which USB 3.0 SATA disk drive enclosure is best for E2B (six enclosure shoot-out)?

USB 3.0 controllers are designed to operate at fast speeds, so it makes sense to buy a USB 3.0 drive enclosure, even if you are going to connect it to a USB 2.0 port. Because I do a lot of work with USB drives, I mostly use a USB 3.0 drive caddy containing an SSD hard disk for maximum speed. I also use a UASP HDD enclosure to get the best possible speed with an SSD drive under Windows.

However, for booting a wide range of systems with E2B, a UASP HDD drive may not be the most compatible option...

Creating fully unattended XML answer files for Windows 10 Install ISOs for E2B

I detailed in a previous blog here, how to create and modify an XML file to fully automate the installation of Windows 7 and 8.

The process is identical for Windows 10. You need to specify a Product Key in the XML file (same as Win8), although not all ISOs may need it (e.g. some MSDN or Volume Licence ISOs).

The process is:

Adding 'multiboot' WinPE ISOs (such as GeekSquad MRI_5_10_2.ISO) to E2B

If you have an ISO file which contains bootmgr and boots to WinPE, then you can use it with E2B by renaming the file extension to .isoPE or .isoPE01. This only works if you have a Removable E2B USB drive (you should convert the ISO file to a .imgPTN file if your E2B USB drive is of the 'fixed disk' type).

Note: There was a bug in previous E2B versions when using .isoPE and .isoPE01 file extensions (the blue LOADISOPE.cmd console window stopped with an error and the ISO was not loaded). You will need a recent version - e.g.  E2B v1.81 Beta from the Alternate Download Areas (see side bar).

However, if you use the .isoPE file extension, it will cause E2B to immediately load and run bootmgr and so the ISO will boot straight to WinPE and you won't see the non-Windows boot menu, if one was present inside the ISO.

Make a basic Easy2Boot MyE2B.cfg configuration file.

If you already have an E2B USB drive, you can easily update it by downloading the latest version of E2B and then run the UPDATE_E2B_DRIVE.cmd script.

Newer versions of E2B have a new version of the MAKE_E2B_USB_DRIVE (run as admin).cmd script, so that when you make a new E2B USB drive, it also asks you some questions about how you want to configure E2B - e.g. language, keyboard, if you want the file extension to be displayed in the menus and if you want the rotating E2B logo to be displayed (with Boiler Plate or QR code).

If you have already made your E2B USB drive, you can run the same script to create a new \_ISO\MyE2B.cfg file by running the \_ISO\docs\Make_E2B_USB_Drive\Make_MyE2B.cfg.cmd script. It will ask you to select a USB drive and then will run through the same questions that MAKE_E2B_USB_DRIVE (run as admin).cmd asks.