Hurry - less than 100 days to go before the free Windows 10 upgrade expires!

There are now less than 100 days to go before  the free upgrade offer from Windows 7/8/8.1 to Windows 10 expires.

If you don't want to install Windows 10 just yet, why not just boot to a Windows10ToGo VHD from your E2B USB drive.

If you are repairing or re-installing Windows 7/8/8.1 systems, why not offer the customer a free Win10 upgrade activation so he/she is registered for free, even if they don't want to install Windows 10 just yet?

Using the latest version of Windows10ToGo (TH2 version), boot on any Win7/8/8.1 system, start the activation wizard and enter the Win7/8 Product Key that was used to activate that same system previously (you can use ProduKey or Magical Jelly Bean key finder on the system first, to display the old Windows 7/8/8/1 Product Key, if it is not on the COA label).

Windows 10 should then 'phone home' (internet access is needed) and activate the Windows 10 ToGo OS. If you have no internet connection, you can phone Microsoft to ask for an activation key (you will need to quote the long number displayed by the activation wizard).

Once this is done, then that system will be registered with Microsoft for Windows 10 and you can then install Windows 10 on it at a later date.

It does not matter if you use a 32-bit or 64-bit version of Windows 10, but you will need both 'Core' and 'Pro' versions so that you can activate the matching version on each of your systems.

To create WinToGo VHDs, see my previous blog post.
For details on obtaining Windows 10, and for ISO- and UEFI-booting, see here.

Various Hirens ISOs and Gandalf PE with Easy2Boot

I have been experimenting with various Hirens ISOs with E2B and came up with this table which you may find useful:

If Windows PE boots and loads all the Desktop icons correctly, you should get the number noted in the last column.

Run android x86 + >4GB persistence via UEFI & MBR (from an NTFS partition)

In a previous blog post, I described how you could MBR-boot to android x86 with a persistence file.

To UEFI-boot, we need to create a FAT32 .imgPTN partition image. However, this limits us to a <4GB data.img persistence file.

Here is how to have a >4GB persistence file and UEFI-boot by using an NTFS partition to hold the android boot files and persistence file.

Add archbang linux + persistence to E2B

The archlinux ISO must be installed, it is not a 'LiveCD', however archbang does come in LiveCD format. Here is the .mnu file for getting the ISO to boot with a persistent volume.

Files on E2B drive (FAT32 or NTFS or exFAT):
/_ISO/LINUX/MNU/archbang-010316-i686.iso
/_ISO/LINUX/MNU/archbang-010316-i686_persistent.mnu
/arch-rw-010316

GoldMemory test (and other memory tests to add to E2B)

I came across another memory test today. GoldMemory by Michal Tulacek is shareware and available in two versions, standard (limited 30-day free trial shareware <4GB) or Pro ($29 - at least 16GB).

Detect keyboard status and hide menu entries in E2B

We can detect the status of the keyboard using grub4dos to read the BIOS Data area.
For instance, we can tell if CAPS LOCK or SCROLL LOCK was on or not.

Here is a simple grub4dos batch file which will report the keyboard status as detected by the BIOS (not all keys may be reported accurately under a VM):

Run android x86 with persistence from E2B

android-x86-4.4-r5.iso can be added to your E2B USB drive, but to get it booting with persistence, we need to create a .imgPTN file as follows:

'How to add an animated GIF' YouTube video now available

I have added a 10 minute YouTube video on how to add an animated GIF to the Easy2Boot menu.

See http://www.easy2boot.com/configuring-e2b/animation/ for more info.

Let me know if you like these videos by ticking one of the Reactions boxes.
Feel free to suggest a subject for the next one!

Check the CRC of a payload file before running it in Easy2Boot

Nicolas asked me today about checking an ISO (for corruption?) before running it.

In E2B, you can hit SHIFT+CTRL+ENTER to ask E2B to calculate and display the CRC32 value of a payload file that is listed in the menu, but it is up to you to check that it is correct.

If you want to ensure that an ISO or other payload file is not corrupt (or infected?) before you allow E2B to run it, you can use this .mnu file for each payload file:


\_ISO\MAINMENU\RunMemTestCheck.mnu
==================================

# Check the CRC32 value of a payload file and run it if it is correct

iftitle [if exist /_ISO/UTILITIES_MEMTEST/MEMTEST.IMG.gz] Check and run a payload \n Get CRC32 value and run if correct
set ISO=/_ISO/UTILITIES_MEMTEST/MEMTEST.IMG.gz
# expected CRC32 must start with 0x
set EXP_CRC=0x1340BECC

echo Calculating CRC32 of %ISO% - please wait...
crc32 %ISO% > nul
set /A CRC=%@retval% & 0xFFFFFFFF > nul
pause --wait=3 %ISO% - EXPECTED CRC32=%EXP_CRC%, ACTUAL CRC32=%CRC%
if not %EXP_CRC%==%CRC% pause ERROR: CRC is not correct (%CRC% vs %EXP_CRC%)
if not %EXP_CRC%==%CRC% configfile (md)0x3000+0x50
/%grub%/QRUN.g4b %ISO%
boot

Just change the first few lines as required. If the payload file is large, it may take a while to calculate the CRC value. I will add this to the Sample mnu Files folder of the next E2B version (CheckCRC32_and_Run.mnu).

Over 1 million blog views!

I just noticed the total views counter for this blog has just passed 1 million!

Thanks for reading all my ramblings over the last few years!
Steve