Fellow Forum Members,
A clever fellow has written a great BartPE howto article that has been published in the Spring 2010, Vol 27, #1 issue of the 2600 Hackers Quaterly magazine. You can download the issue for free as a PDF from this website:
hxxp://72.52.208.92/~gbpprorg/2600/
This BartPE howto article has pumped up my juices and now I have a strong desire to setup a portable version of Windows XP Pro that I can bootup on any PC from a USB stick and/or a CD. I want to run FireFox, Irfranview, Gimp and OpenOffice.
The problem I'm having is that I can't get OpenOffice to work. Can anyone out there clarify for me the following:
1. Are all the portable apps such as Gimp, OpenOffice, FireFox, etc... available here on this website for download compatible with BartPe?
2. Besides BartPe I have also read up on other tools such as: UBCD4Win, WinBuilder, Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK), etc... What tool offers the path of least resistance to getting a bug free Windows XP environment that boots up from a USB stick and/or CD?
3. Can anyone out there point me to a website that will show me step by step the best way on how to setup a bug free USB bootup version of Windows XP?
Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
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all you can do is create something on the top of PE (preinstall environment) which will look as much similar as possible to the original XP.
BartPE was the initial attempt to do the job some years ago, today for more advanced work, winbuilder is often used. From there you can get all the tutorials how to proceed. But it is all not so simple, not just download and play. You need a collection of drivers for that, so to be able to run it on most hardware, thought this can not be guaranteed that it will run on any computer. Anyway, you need to build it from your copy of XP.
There are ways to install real XP on a portable drive, but this should not be confused with portable, since such installation is then configured to the host hardware during the install process.
Other way is to have some portable virtual environment (like virtual box) and have a copy of the windows installed in it. Does work sure, but it is then real windows and needs new activation, since almost all 'hardware' did change.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
1. Are all the portable apps such as Gimp, OpenOffice, FireFox, etc... available here on this website for download compatible with BartPe?
BartPE is not the same as Windows XP, though it is built using it as input, thus the answer to your question is No.
If you want a full version of XP on a USB stick check out the links in this posting: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?s=&showtopic=23862&view=findpost&...
BTW The link hxxp://72.52.208.92/~gbpprorg/2600/ is crap (even with http) and may indicate the OP is SPAM.
Ed
Ed,
Thanks for the post. I'm seeking to carry around a BartPE version of Windows on a USB stick as it's explained in the 2600 Magazine article. What is covered in the the BartPE magazine article seems to be a very cool if I could figure out how to make it work.
Moreover, the link I provided seems to work without a problem once I change it to "http". Another option is to Google "$2600 Magazine Information" and click on the link shown in the top position of the Google results page.
Once you see the $2600 page, you need to scroll 3/4 of the way down the page to see a link to the 2600 issue I have referenced. All the past issues since 1984 are downloadable as a PDF.
A better $2600 Magazine link would have been: http://72.52.208.92/~gbpprorg/2600/index.html#137 but the "article" it refers to:
9. BartPE: A Portable Microsoft Windows - How to create a fairly secure, and portable, Windows-like environment using Bart's Preinstalled Environment, by Peter Wrenshall
is nothing more than a link to the http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/ website, which a Google search for BartPE will pull up, and an email link for Wrenshall. No article, unlike its link for this article AJAX Hacking for the Discerning Pro Wrestling Fanatic
You will find the support of PEBuilder and BartPE on The CD Forum website: http://www.911cd.net/.
Ed
@binar
BartPE was the standard years ago for such things. The software to be included was then either made in modules or it was that one had to construct or download somewhere the modules and the PE-Builder was then able to include the modules into the CD compilation. There is some software that will run when executed from running BartPE, but not all. As said, it is not windows even it may look like it.
Apps which will run in it, are in general kind of 'built in' the BartPE CD during the build process.
If you take things like winbuilder, you may reach your aim much more faster then using the BartPE.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
Ottosykora,
Thanks for your post. What do you think is the best website to get up to speed with Winbuilder? I would like to find a Winbuilder webpage that will give me step by step instructions on how to setup a portable Windows XP OS designed to boot from a USB stick and that supports numerous apps. Any info will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
http://winbuilder.net/
is the website of the project, there you will find all infos and also a forum where you might get help.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland