Hi! I have thought hard about where to put this thread, and as it is about Windows XP I thought I would post in here, but by all means feel free to move this to a more appropriate section if necessary!

Right, down to my query. would it be at all possible to make my own recovery shell (such as IBM's Restore & recovery)?

I know I would have to use Bart's PE Builder for the base of the load as the official shell from IBM is a Windows PE environment, and I have played around with PE Builder so I know what I am doing there.

I have thought about it and I would like to use a totally self-customised application(using AutoPlay Media Studio) for the rest of the process, and I am just wandering if i could just call the finished application 'explorer.exe' and replace the standard explorer with 1 that I have created, it would have included tools for partitioning, disc scanning, spyware & virus removal tools (all freeware of course) and my own custom Windows XP install options part, as well as backup & restore options for files on the hard drive...

What do you people think? would this work and how difficult would it be to make it all?

This would be a perfect project for me if it was possible as I love nothing better than messing around creating basic simple apps and I feel this would be really beneficial and aid in the installation and or fixing problems on my PC's.

Any tips, hints, comments and the like would all be very gratefully recieved!

Thanks for your time in reading and posting in advance

Arty.

WHY has this been moved into Windows PE section for?

I dont have Windows PE, only Bart's PE Builder which is totally different?!?!?!?

WHY has this been moved into Windows PE section for?

I dont have Windows PE, only Bart's PE Builder which is totally different?!?!?!?

Bart PE topics belong here as well. Bart PE is a customized version of Windows PE v1.x. I'm not much help with that version tho.

I have been using autoplay media studio as my main shell for some time now it works very well.