Daemonforce

No! O_o I am talking about Build 5308. This build is feature complete. This means that everything you see working in this build will work in the RTM builds. Unfortunately, I can agree with all Longhorn builds that I've touched since PDC03. I have never had a driver, emulation or even an AntiVirus problem when running Whistler. Ever since Longhorn, nothing I rely on has ever worked right. Expect an OS without a fixed Corporate Antivirus when it's on shelves. I'm done with it. If the virtual hardware problem is ever fixed, I'll consider Vista. Right now I don't believe there will be a change. I don't believe what's on that Symantec page either. =/

Host1: Windows XP Media Center 2005 Guest1: Windows XP Professional Guest2: Windows XP Preinstall Environment Guest3: Windows .NET Server 2003 Enterprise Guest4: Windows Longhorn Professional (HEC03) Guest5: D.A.R.C.I.E. (RIP Linux derivation) Guest6: Windows Vista Beta 2 Guest7: Windows NT 4.00 Server Host2: Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition I have half a gig of ram on this computer and I think I just exhausted my paging file for the fourth time today. x_X

lol filter filter....jaclaz made a funny! If the EWF works on Windows XP Embedded, it's possible it graduated from Windows 2000 Embedded or even Windows NT Embedded. There are several things I do that work in 2000 and XP and some things purely NT-Based will not work on NT Server. I have no idea why this is. I haven't tested the EWF at all, but I'm sure it would work on Windows 2000.

Three incredibly difficult steps: 1. Open Nero 2. Open the bootable image. 3. Hit burn. I'm glad you're still holding on to Nero 6. Nero 7 has nothing but problems and there are no major changes that make me want to switch. Exactly. I always see people running Nero Express. Well WTF is that?! No one actually uses that. The imaginary number of people that claim Nero sucks are either using Express or they're using Nero 7. OMGWTFBBQ! Are you trying to make a CD directory bootable? Open Nero Burning ROM. Select Bootable CD/DVD. Select the boot image related to your disc(In my case I make Windows CDs so I use Microsoft Corporation or Arnes Boot Record). No Emulation Sector Load: 4. Build your disc. Hit burn. Done. No! BAD GLO! o_O

The only AntiVirus you'll find that should be able to work on Vista is Symantec Antivirus 2005. It's mediocre at best and you're better off just using a write filter. You will not find a decent Antivirus that will work on Vista. This is the critical flaw of the entire NT6 platform and the reason I refuse to move to it.

words words words Nice pyramid... I agree that I like WINNT/LanManNT over 9X. In fact, when I started this multiboot project 6 months ago(wow it's been THAT long?! o_O), I swore that I would never add any legacy operating systems. Which means no 9X support. Sure there are old PCs that can't even boot CDs...Or support NTFS without a LLF or overlay...But that doesn't mean they'll reject NT. That's right. The oldest operating system I support is Windows NT Server. It's retired but I continue to support it because it's NT and it's possibly the smallest Windows NT footprint I've ever seen. Find me a copy of Windows NT business and I might change my mind on that. The bottom line is legacy. Legacy hardware stays while legacy software needs to go. Do you remember PDC03? Why was VisiCalc of all things running on Longhorn? I know we've come a long way and don't get me wrong, VisiCalc is great....But things like 16-Bit apps and old hardware like floppy drives are just something you wouldn't expect on a modern computer. Why? Because they don't belong there! Have you ever seen NTVDM and what it does? On second thought don't get me started on that. Simply, 16-Bit support needs to go. NOW! >.<' I'm starting to look at XP v64 and Vista and wonder...Oh wow...64-Bit binaries...Shweet. o_O Once again we're at that stage! Remember when the AT formfactor was taken over by ATX? Remember when 32-Bit chips took over the old 16-Bit hardcore computing? Now 64-Bit is coming through strong and I already see instances where I need a 64-Bit chip(emulation). Before you know it, 32-Bit binaries are going to be obsolete. Maybe a computer's POST screen will double in size soon? All kinds of stuff are about to change and it's all because we can now use something awesome. But where is Win9X in all this mess? Gone. We don't need that unstable crap that rejects our hardware. Yay for NT!

STFU B&! o_O **** Macs....First stealing my domains...now they're stealing my Wintendo project. Next they'll take my ability to make a carputer. No...They can't take THAT from me... Uhmmm....You can make a Wintendo if you're using a mini mainboard. The originals used embedded Via chips. This line of embedded devices was needed when making a PC inside a whiskey flask. I'll look up the original boards later. They shouldn't be too difficult for you to find, but I'll definitely be using these newer boards. I don't want to make one like the original all the way down to the old AMD K6 performance.

That's why I bought a KVM. =/

When 32-Bit processes are finally removed, I'm screwed. I don't think NTVDM is a good solution in a 64-Bit environment.

I used to rely on memdisk but when I finally ran the first test, about 60% of the bootable images I created would make the guest computer halt or reboot. I have NEVER had any problems when using Diskemu in place of memdisk.

You normally see it present in TXTSETUP.SIF. I'm not sure if PE 2.0 uses the same style as my XP build so if you're using that Vista loader when booting the disc, it's also possible you'll find a boot.ini on the drive root that uses /USENEWLOADER. What a mess. x_X

I've never tried putting bizarre characters in for registration. I'm not sure if the installation actually supports characters outside of what my keyboard provides, but I bet it's possible. Go to a command prompt and type edit. That text editor should take care of any registration anomalies present after installation. Open the saved result in a text editor like notepad and copy it to WINNT.SIF.

It would be nice if I could load a header with title information in CD Shell, but I'm probably better off doing everything manually. I currently have 5 full feature menus in CD Shell. By the time I'm done with it there will be 11 or 12. =/

It could be something in the registry that controls Explorer. I remember having to add an entire section called "User Shell Folders" just to get the Programs part of the start menu to open. There may be an entry in there that points to the startup group. =/

Get the 64-Bit chip! NOW! o_O When you have a revolution in the hardware market, go with it. I actually find situations where I need a 64-Bit chip now. I'm just as surprised as you are. =/

Don't use memdisk. My command uses Diskemu PQMAGIC.IMA and it runs just fine on any box. That includes vmware. =/

Does the WIM containing VistaPE contain winload.exe in \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\ ? If not then you need to make a new image or stop using the /USENEWLOADER switch when booting PE.

I know it's uneventful to a lot of people. I just want to prove it can run in PE and then I'm done with it. It's not part of a recovery plan because it's just too big to keep around. =/

Ok. You need some priorities. Look at BartPE. Now look at ERD Commander. Now look at BartPE again. Notice any differences when you start the network after waiting to load all kinds of stuff? Load the network FIRST! o_O It better be one of the first 3 things you load after Winpeshl because waiting to start the network after running those first commands is usually a bad idea when you need the network capabilities. As for your ramdisk, that's probably one of the bigger alarms going off more than anything to me. Why are you using a ramdisk in WinPE? Everyone needs to move on to what I'm doing and just integrate the Vista write filter. It gives you access all over WinPE and your only limit is writing up to 32MB. You are attempting to use far less than this amount. I think you'll like it. Ramdisk would always give me a bunch of crap when I wanted some things to load on startup or if there were some keys in the registry that needed to be processed at startup. It's just a mess when you don't have the advantage you need. As for Windows Server 2003, there are some bizarre problems reported when using it. I have no idea why.

I'd like to do this for my WinPE. Does vmware just support installing within vmware? Because that's enough for me. =/ I don't want to go to Virtual PC to do this because VPC sucks. I have nothing but bad experiences with it. x_X'

Am I the only one here that uses ASP.NET?

It wasn't until last night that I discovered these INFs. It's been so long since I've actually gone through the BSOI to get to Windows setup that I forgot the rest of the hives were created here. The INFs provide information regarding Windows preinstallation and are preserved at post-installation. In every NT instance, there is a system hive already built by the name of SETUPREG.HIV. This is what I depend on for primitive services in a limited environment. I actually mess with this when I want to add instructions to my build or if I want to install a write filter or something. But that doesn't apply to your situation since you boot the CD, go through the BSOI and reboot to get into setup. I just skip straight to preinstallation. More than anything, you'll want to open those INFs and add the information you want to your build. HIVECLS.INF = Classes Root. You see this section(SOFTWARE\Classes) appear in HKCR. HIVEDEF.INF = System Defaults (Sounds, power settings, appearance) HIVESFT.INF = This is the fun one. This is the SOFTWARE hive. Go nuts. HIVESYS.INF = These are additional entries for the system hive. Usually if you hardset anything in SETUPREG.HIV with anything at the root called CurrentControlSet and boot in protected mode, you'll get a stop error. This is here to fix that. HIVEUSD.INF = I've never really explored this one. It has to do with appearance and the control panel. This is probably why I don't like your update methods.

Uhmmm....No. From what I could tell I needed IE6 to install the rollup without problems. Unattend installs would keep giving me GDI and MSOE errors if I didn't. O_o

I use a US English Internet Explorer and I can tell you this can be fixed by forcing a bunch of registry entries into the classes section. I believe the complete solution would come out to around 1.83-1.88MB depending on how excessive German descriptions can get. I just went through hell manually installing Internet Explorer. =/

To answer the title, I must state that WinPE is already very small. I am making a True WinPE project and piecing together some things like Explorer, Networking, Internet Explorer, Undelete tools...I'm just making one WinPE that will fit all possible scenarios. So far I have been able to put this project on a pocket disc until now. Longhorn PE is 186MB in ISO format and Disk Commander is a little less than 6MB when based off Win2K. I don't believe Win2K ever had the MiniNT switch, so I can't really call that kind of environment a PE. My project started around 120MB so judge for yourself.