Will I be right in assuming that Hirens 13.1 is ok but Hirens 13.1 restored or 12.x restored are not?
NO, you would be wrong.
The difference is between completely pitch black and very, very dark grey.
Going from something containing 97.21% (faked number) to 13.98% (other faked number) of illegally re-distributed files is sure a nice improvement but until the number goes down to 0.0000000000% (please note the 10 decimal places after the dot, meaning 0 - zero ), it remains a violation of EULA and of most countries Copyright and Author protection Laws.
This link gives details of Hirens 13.1 contents. Is it not ok ? Does it contain anything otherwise ?
http://www.hirensbootcd.org/hbcd-v131/
Problems reading?
Mini Windows 98: Can run from Ram Drive, with ntfs support, 7-Zip, Disk Defragmenter, Notepad / RichText Editor, Image Viewer, .avi .mpg .divx .xvid Movie Player, etc. (Windows Commercial).
Mini Windows XP: Portable Windows Xp that runs from CD/USB/Ram Drive to repair/recover dead windows operating system. It has LAN and WLAN (Wireless) Network includes 300 WiFi/Ethernet card drivers and can also be customized easily to add your own drivers in HBCD\Drivers folder. Added some USB 3.0 and SATA Storage drivers and VBS/WSH scripting support. Supported keyboard layouts are: United States, United Kingdom, Turkish Q, Turkish F, Swiss German, Swiss French, Swedish, Suomi Finnish, Spanish, Slovenian, Slovak, Russian, Portuguese, Polish, Norvegian Norske, Netherlands Dutch, Latin American, Italy, Icelandic, Hungarian, Hebrew, Germany, German Switzerland Luxembourg, Francais Cavier AZERTY, Denmark Daenish, Bulgarian Phonetic, Bulgarian, Brazil Portuguese, Brazil Extended Portuguese and Belgium (Windows Commercial).
The redistribution of related files is FORBIDDEN by the Author or Copyright holder, which means that they are NOT Redistributable.
The miniXP is nothing much different from "our own" LiveXP, the difference is that if you use LiveXP or any other Legal Winbuillder .script/project or any other builder project like Bart's PE builder or UBCD4WIN you build from your own licensed files.
The whole point is that what a user does it is his/her problem (like using in a Commercial environment an app that is limited by personal use only), whilst re-distributing NON-redistributable files is committed by those that actually re-distribute it (by hosting the file), with the "complicity" of those that give links to such NON-redistributable software, or "promote" it, if later the user actually breaks other parts of the EULA (by using something he/she does not have a license for) it is again his/her problem.
Wonko