1007 replies to this topic

[doveman]

I've just tried running XP Portable from my 16GB CF card (in an IDE adapter) and for some reason the performance was terrible and it took about 45 minutes just to install Net framework v2, as the progress bar would just sit there doing nothing for ages. Even accessing files on my HDD was really bad. I built Portable XP with all the options on the left ticked, except AMD AHCI driver which I already had installed in the source VHD. WinvBlock is installed and running.

I tested the CF with HDTune and it shows a steady 50-70MB/s and my HDD around 110MB/s, so it doesn't seem that it's running in a slow mode or anything (Device Manager shows UDMA6). If I boot the same IMG from HDD instead of CF, it all works fine and is nice and responsive and browsing the files on the CF works normally. I tried changing the Standard PCI IDE controller to the AMD IDE controller but that didn't make any difference.

Have you got any ideas why it might be acting strange when booted from CF? I hope we can find a solution to this or else it rather scuppers my plans

[wimb]

Good work wimb!

Though you will have to pry bblean/blackbox from my dead hands , I will throw this thingy on the table:
http://www.nymtec.co...top-lite-thingy
(for those peeps that like the "classic looks")


or:
Michelle:
http://www.nymtec.co...wnload-michelle



Wonko

Thanks

The Links are dead .....Michelle has vanished in the dark.

[Wonko the Sane]

The Links are dead .....Michelle has vanished in the dark.

They work perfectly here.
The "image" to the link seems like missing, but the file is there.
Download page for Desktop Lite Thingy:
http://www.nymtec.co...top-lite-thingy

Same for Michelle:
http://www.nymtec.co...wnload-michelle
I cannot link on the board to the direct link as the Author kindly asks NOT to do that:

Please do not link directly to these download links, only link to this page or NymTec.com.

Wonko

[doveman]

I've further tested by loading my XP Portable IMG from the CF but as a RAMdisk, and that seems to work OK (still seems a bit slower than from HDD as Filedisk, but no major delays/hanging).

There doesn't seem to be an issue reading the CF (as it boots XP Portable normally) or writing to it under XP Portable (from within XP Portable, booted as a Ramdisk from the CF, I then copied the 800MB IMG to the CF without any problems).

It seems that when booted from the CF as Filedisk, something is causing XP Portable to have problems accessing both the CF (or the system drive at least, which is an IMG on the CF) and the HDDs. I don't know if when I try to open a folder on my HDD, this causes Windows to read or write something to the C: System partition. If so, it could just be this it's struggling with (IE reading/writing the IMG which is on the CF), rather than actually having problems reading the HDD.

[wimb]

They work perfectly here.
The "image" to the link seems like missing, but the file is there.
Download page for Desktop Lite Thingy:
http://www.nymtec.co...top-lite-thingy

Same for Michelle:
http://www.nymtec.co...wnload-michelle
I cannot link on the board to the direct link as the Author kindly asks NOT to do that:



Wonko

In XP the Links are not working for me in IE8, but QtWeb Or Opera are OK for the given Links.
Reinstalled XP and now Links are working OK in IE8 as well

I have tested DesktopLite.exe and can use it (after Reboot) in XPCMD Image.
It is working in Mini XP of 120 MB, but I think I prefer the bblean Blackbox shell as it can work without reboot and has a real taskbar.

michelle shell is working OK in 120 MB Mini XP without the need to Reboot
However, Shutdown is not working and I miss a real taskbar.

[wimb]

Though you will have to pry bblean/blackbox from my dead hands , I will throw this thingy on the table:

(for those peeps that like the "classic looks")

How about the classic looks of this one .... in 128 MB Mini XP OS

 XPCMD-TASK.png   605.29K   29 downloads

[doveman]

Can anyone help me fix the problem when booting the IMG from CF as Filedisk?

[wimb]

Can anyone help me fix the problem when booting the IMG from CF as Filedisk?

Did you try to use Portable USB-harddisk e.g. Samsung S2 instead of CF card ?
Anyway the portable USB-harddisk is doing much better than USB-stick which is also definately to slow for this purpose.

[i]

Hi

Can you create a version of app that can remove everything, make image tiny and can add a special shell (like XBMC, that kicks out OpenElec's reduced size???) plus give users ability to start native win apps with ctrl+alt+del? I was following MiniXP but, i'm looking for all drivers (IR remote etc, fully loaded XBMC) as part of Grub4Dos menu. OpenElec 1.x is like below 100MB while OpenElec 2.x beta3 is above 100MB (all requiring 2 physical partitions), i was hoping to beat their size figure here....

Here is what i'm having in mind for manual way:

nLite-ing
manual removal of remaining (shell, etc with XPLite?)
drivers install
installing xbmc and making it the shell
FiraDisk and boom? but not sure if this will further give me space.... (to quick start the boot and finish within few seconds, lower then OpenElec)

[doveman]

Did you try to use Portable USB-harddisk e.g. Samsung S2 instead of CF card ?
Anyway the portable USB-harddisk is doing much better than USB-stick which is also definately to slow for this purpose.

No, but I need to run it from CF, not USB. It works fine from normal HDD, so I imagine it would also work fine from USB HDD.

EDIT: Just tried it from my USB HDD and it did indeed work fine.

[wimb]

Here is Mini XP 128 MB OS which has the look and the feel of XP

 XPCMD-72.png   642.34K   27 downloads

[i]

Here is Mini XP 128 MB OS which has the look and the feel of XP

 XPCMD-72.png   642.34K   27 downloads

Is it possible to reach below 50MB? after removing some core components (internet explorer, etc??)

[wimb]

Is it possible to reach below 50MB? after removing some core components (internet explorer, etc??)

IE8 is not part of the build
Between 100 and 50 MB will be possible when you remove Device and Disk Management and WLAN Internet,
but I consider that as essential parts of the OS.
The added extra's such as Picture Viewer, Paint and Wordpad and some extra build in Configuration Control Panels
don't increase the size that much.
Especially the desk.cpl control panel is quite handy to Set Resolution.

I will add some checkboxes that allow to skip unwanted components and in this way reduce size.

[wimb]

IMG_XPCMD_52.exe is available for testing.

Download - IMG_XPCMD_52

In case of XP WINDOWS folder as source (XP Installed in Image file or on partition):
- Explorer Shell is used as in XP with Configuration Control Panel
- XP OS about 130 MB with Device and Disk Management + WLAN Internet
- First time booting will take 30 seconds extra to create the Default User profile for the SYSTEM account

You might remove another 30 MB of files not strictly needed, but you loose a lot of useful functionality.

Thanks to misty and cdob we have with XP Setup Source:
- Added USB-mouse / keyboard support
- Added DISKPART support
- XP OS about 40 MB with limited functionality

[ericgl]

Wimb,
I've just tested IMG_XPCMD_52.exe.
I selected the "Windows Folder" option and created the IMG file.
When I tried to boot, it stopped during the boot process and complained that vgaoem.fon is missing. Perhaps its missing from your list of files?

Later I tried to create an IMG using the "XP Setup source" option (source was XP SP3 eng x86).
It booted fine. However, only the USB keyboard is working. USB mouse is NOT working (PS2 mouse is working).

NOTE: I also suggest to add "shutdown.exe" to the list of files to be included in the IMG. It's only 19KB.

[wimb]

Thanks for testing.

vgaoem.fon is not on the list of files to be copied, but is apparently needed in your case.
Try to add this file in filelist copy_xpcmd.txt in IMG_XPCMDXPCMD_SRC
Just remove the leading two chars ; and space so that next time vgaoem.fon will be added to the build.
Let me know if it works for you.
Was the USB-mouse already working (Installed) in the Source ?

My USB-mouse is supported, but may be for yours there is something extra needed .....
May be you can try with different USB-mouse or on other computer.



EDIT: I did not miss shutdown.exe but of course it can be added to the list.

[wimb]

I have Uploaded new version that also supports Update of Drivers in Device Management.

Download - IMG_XPCMD_52



EDIT:
AutoIt3 program PS.exe in system32 will search for PStartPStart.exe and start the first found PStart from C to Z
PStart Menu with Portable Apps is launched by typing PS in command window.

[i]

...possible when you remove Device and Disk Management and WLAN Internet,
...I will add some checkboxes that allow to skip unwanted components and in this way reduce size.

Cool about checkboxes, but WLAN and hardware config is indeed important (3rd party small config apps out there?). I think speed will further get hit because of NTFS compression

[wimb]

FreeCommander is a very helpful tool to determine what files are essential in XP.
I used it after booting with MiniXP OS 280 MB made with IMG_XP_Compact.exe

Then in FreeCommander when you try to move files from MiniXP to some folder on other drive
then the files that are in use in Mini XP will remain and FreeCommander will do a copy instead of a move.
Such essential files then get a hazy colour so that you know which files to keep.

After doing this procedure for all the files in the system32 folder
you end up with system32 folder containing the essential files. The OS size was then reduced to about 100 MB

I made a filelist by using command window at the root of the drive and giving:

dir /b /on /s /a-d > dir-XPCMD.txt

Later I used Dependancy Walker to find out which files were missing for a desired process.

Also Process Monitor turned out to be quite useful.

Open Device Manager and use Process Monitor and use R-mouse to Include Process Name = mmc.exe
Then in column Path all the essential files for that process appear.

For driver update in Device Manager we need according to Process Monitor the following system32 files
that were originally not yet belonging to the build (class installers) but were added in the latest version so that Driver Update is working now

MSIMTF.dll

newdev.dll

batt.dll

bthci.dll

mdminst.dll

mmsys.cpl

sdhcinst.dll

sti_ci.dll

wpd_ci.dll

I hope to get some more feedback about test results.
It will enable me to make further improvements (if necessary )

[doveman]

I'm trying to test whether booting an XP VHD from the Win7 Boot Menu will work better from the CF than an IMG from grub4dos.

I've built a BCD with a single entry on the CF with BootICE but when I boot to grub4dos and do "chainloader +1" or "chainloader /bootmgr" it says it's loading NTLDR and then shows me a menu with two entries (the second, grldr, is in the boot.ini on the CF). The CF doesn't even have NTLDR on it, not in the root at least.

If I select the VHD entry, it says "cannot find windowssystem32winload.exe" so I copied that and winload.efi to the CF and now it says "cannot find windowsconfig...". What files do I need on the CF to boot the Win7 Boot Menu and a VHD from there?

[MedEvil]

@Wimb
Very good explaination.
Thank you.

We should really start a development thread, where we all share our little tricks.

[wimb]

We should really start a development thread, where we all share our little tricks.

Thanks and a very good idea to start such a thread

[betrand]

Hi, Nice Work!

You might remove another 30 MB of files not strictly needed, but you loose a lot of useful functionality.

Thanks to misty and cdob we have with XP Setup Source:
- Added USB-mouse / keyboard support
- Added DISKPART support
- XP OS about 40 MB with limited functionality

Could IMG_XPCMD have a 0.05Gb image option?
Thanks
(I yet have to try IMG_XPCMD_52)

[wimb]

-
Update IMG_XPCMD - Program to make Mini XP Image file booting from Grub4dos Menu on HDD or USB

• Added - Autorun of PStart Menu with Portable Apps - Search from drive C to Z for PStartPStart.exe
  
• Added - All UsersStart Menu is copied by using the Common Start Menu registry setting
  
• Update - No need anymore to Select WINDOWS folder in XP Source Image file
  
• Changed - Program Version - latest version is 5.3

Download - IMG_XPCMD_53

[wimb]

This time a small Update:

- Added file WINDOWSsystem32mydocs.dll needed for Icons and setting My Documents
- Added registry file HKLM_systemdst_BOOT_HDD.reg to make USB Services Group=Base with Start=3 for Booting from HDD
(HDD Tweak is used when USB Tweaks is Unchecked and TargetDrive is HDD)

Download - IMG_XPCMD_53 - mirror