Customized Windows XP Live On USB Drive?

If this is wrong section, i apologize. I downloaded Windows XP Live USB edition. But i need to know if i can add additional applications to Windows XP Live such as antivirus. I also would like to be able to boot into MS-DOS to do scandisk, fdisk and all basic maintenance stuff.

I have also another problem. As i mentioned above i downloaded Windows Live XP, but having problems to boot from USB disk. It just won't boot, it just stalls and does nothing. I have a SanDisk drive of 8GB. When i insert it into USB port in Windows, 2 drives appear - 1st drive is system drive and 2nd drive is data drive which can have any data on it and also has utilities belonging to 1st system drive.

Maybe 2 drives is the problem? Maybe when computer boots from USB drive it boots from 1st system drive instead of 2nd where my Windows XP Live is?

If this is wrong section, i apologize. I downloaded Windows XP Live USB edition. But i need to know if i can add additional applications to Windows XP Live such as antivirus. I also would like to be able to boot into MS-DOS to do scandisk, fdisk and all basic maintenance stuff.

I believe that is a BartPE ISO booting on USB (FAT only), so yeah, wrong forum. You can do much better with LiveXP ISO booting from USB and NTFS is allowed. With either, you need to rebuild project from scratch to add programs or use portables which is my preference. You can run scandisk, format drives etc. from PE but if DOS is needed you can just add console and grub menu from USB.

I have also another problem. As i mentioned above i downloaded Windows Live XP, but having problems to boot from USB disk. It just won't boot, it just stalls and does nothing. I have a SanDisk drive of 8GB. When i insert it into USB port in Windows, 2 drives appear - 1st drive is system drive and 2nd drive is data drive which can have any data on it and also has utilities belonging to 1st system drive.

Maybe 2 drives is the problem? Maybe when computer boots from USB drive it boots from 1st system drive instead of 2nd where my Windows XP Live is?

What happens when you select USB device from boot menu? Is it listed there? Probably drive is setup incorrectly, I use Make_USB but RMPrepUSB is very nice. Careful when formatting the drive(s), all data is lost.

When i select USB flash from boot menu, it does nothing, the keyboard cursor is blinking and i wait endlessly. Nothing happens. Before i formatted USB flash with HPUSBFW.EXE - HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool

you need to rebuild project from scratch to add programs or use portables which is my preference

Oh no, not that. That means i will have to spend a lot of time on this... You mentioned "portables" what is it?

The USB storage device needs to be bootable. It will either be "partitioned" (with MBR and at least one partition) or "superfloppy" (entire device is a single filesystem) format. Which have you got? See amalux' recommendations.

"Portable apps" are applications which do not require much (if any) installation, which are specifically designed to be run on any computer (without being installed on that computer), typically from a USB storage device or a network share, as far as I know.

Oh no, not that. That means i will have to spend a lot of time on this... You mentioned "portables" what is it?

It's easy once you know what you're doing

You can try one of the pre-configured projects here or at the top of this page, everything is setup for you to start; you just need to supply a viable XP installation source and build it. The source must be XP SP2-3, retail (not OEM) and UN-modified to be sure it will work properly.

I generally prefer portables because they can be easily added or removed from existing boot disks without rebuilding. Adding scripts, the programs are built-in to the boot disk image and load every time, needed or not. Both have their place, programs you use all the time should be included in build and some programs need to be built in to work properly in PE. There's lots more information on this if interested, like how to automatically add shortcuts to your start menu, desktop etc. from these portable applications in PE.

What is the difference between LiveXP and W7PEX?
I want to know the list of apps in Portable Apps. Does it have antivirus?

LiveXP uses XP source (x86/64) and is based on PE 1x; W7PEX and Win7PE_SE use Win7 source and are PE 3x based. Both have their advantages/disadvantages; best to have both at the ready and testing will prove which is best in your situation.

W7PEX was my first attempt at getting ppAppsGenPE to work in PE 3x build. It's a nice project but suffers from certain limitations; scripts are not 'universal' between projects and builds only with x86 Win7 source. Win7PE_SE is the standard now, currently developed by ChrisR building on JFX great work and builds successfully from x86 and x64 Win7 sources for those that need/want that option. Only trial and testing will give you full understanding of differences.

Yes, there are good anti-virus available as portables

Are these antivirus portables updatable? I mean it is not news that antivirus database has to be regularly updated, but can portable antivirus be updated and its updated database saved on flash drive along with Windows XP Live?

I downloaded Windows XP Live USB edition.

Where from?

You mean you built your Windows XP Live USB edition, don't you?


Wonko

Are these antivirus portables updatable? I mean it is not news that antivirus database has to be regularly updated, but can portable antivirus be updated and its updated database saved on flash drive along with Windows XP Live?

Yes, some are, like DrWeb Scanner for PE; by default, updates are saved to Temp directory but you can extract the files for full control over where updates are saved and there's a ppApps version that is setup to keep updates on USB or wherever scanner is run from. Another is the McAfee scanner which offers update from interface etc.

Also of interest to you might be: http://virusremoval.pro/