Windows LiveCD/LiveUSB |
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 Tue, 12 Aug 2008 11:04:17 +0000
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#1
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 Hak.5 Junkie  Group: Administrators Posts: 4,002 Joined: Tue, 11 Apr 2006 16:23:23 +0000 From: irc://England:6667 Member No.: 514  |
Ever wanted a livecd or liveusb version of Windows to carry around with you? Sure, there's USB versions of Windows floating around the torrent sites but their legality is questionable and who knows what kind of crap people have infected them with. Now you can make your own, and I did just that over the last few days...
Using WAIK (Windows Automated Installation Kit) you can build your own USB or CD based version of Vista using Windows Preinstallation Environment 2.1. What this means is that you'll have a very basic copy of Vista (did I mention it's free and legal?) on which to build your own live "distro" of Windows. I'll admit there are caveats, it won't run every app that ever ran on Windows (for example anything that requires .net Frameworks) but it will run a ton of apps, including many portable apps (mIRC, VLC, Firefox, etc - the basics) and it doesn't come with Explorer so you'll have to find your own desktop environment (I chose bbLean). Drivers can be injected but it seems a bit of a pain to get everything working though thankfully I've not had a problem with networking. To download the WAIK direct from Microsoft, check out http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...;DisplayLang=en and while I'd love to give a how-to I'm not going to be able to explain this particularly well. I might make an attempt in the near future, but in the meantime, here's a few starting points: http://blogs.technet.com/jamesone/archive/...windows-pe.aspx http://windowsconnected.com/blogs/joshs_bl...-0-usb-key.aspx http://grandstreamdreams.blogspot.com/2007...ot-dvd-wim.html http://www.svrops.com/svrops/articles/winvistape2.htm To give an example, here's a couple of screenshots of my effort so far:  
-------------------- Three faces of folly:
Rantatonic: Moonlit Rants Techtastic: The Moonlit Code Rosebud: Moonlit's Pen Collaboration: cmdline.org Let's talk about hex ba-by, let's talk about base six-teen! If thou canst not act gracious and, With such fine decorum, Thou should mind thy manner or, Kindly depart this forum. |
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Tue, 12 Aug 2008 11:06:18 +0000
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#2
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 Wait, What? Group: Root Admin Posts: 150 Joined: Fri, 09 May 2008 17:28:07 +0000 From: Williamsburg, VA Member No.: 9,885 |
That's dope moonlit...
Might have to play with that a bit! Matt |
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Tue, 12 Aug 2008 11:09:48 +0000
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#3
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 Hak.5 1337 Fan Group: Members Posts: 1,452 Joined: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 17:21:30 +0000 From: Dundee, Scotland Member No.: 5,669 |
I Think I will stick to my BartsPE Boot CD.
-------------------- Oh what a lovely picture you have drawn, I saved it to a special file called /dev/null
News about the latest Technology |
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Tue, 12 Aug 2008 11:32:02 +0000
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#4
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 Hak.5 Pirate Group: Members Posts: 305 Joined: Thu, 21 Jun 2007 06:15:07 +0000 From: Germany Member No.: 7,670 |
ParanoiaStick
-------------------- joerg@server:~$ cat /var/www/hak5/signature
cat: /var/www/hak5/signature: No such file or directory |
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Tue, 12 Aug 2008 12:26:06 +0000
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#5
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Hak.5 Junkie Group: Administrators Posts: 4,002 Joined: Tue, 11 Apr 2006 16:23:23 +0000 From: irc://England:6667 Member No.: 514 |
QUOTE (Joerg @ Tue, 12 Aug 2008 17:32:02 +0000)  ParanoiaStick Yeah, I had Putty on the original version for SSH tunneling, and I can write protect the SD card it's on... I was gonna try BitLocker but I'm not sure if I can do that with WinPE... Plenty of opportunities for paranoia-soothing tweaks though, I'm sure stuff like TrueCrypt would work too. Would work well for a hostile networking environment I think, it has minimal services and apps running, the device it boots from can be write protected, the OS runs from a RAM disk which means everything's gone after a reboot, SSH means a nice tunnel out to a known safe machine, disk encryption would be nice so if you lost the stick/card then your files would be safe or second best, file encryption for the stuff you'd rather not be found. -------------------- Three faces of folly:
Rantatonic: Moonlit Rants Techtastic: The Moonlit Code Rosebud: Moonlit's Pen Collaboration: cmdline.org Let's talk about hex ba-by, let's talk about base six-teen! If thou canst not act gracious and, With such fine decorum, Thou should mind thy manner or, Kindly depart this forum. |
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Tue, 12 Aug 2008 13:37:56 +0000
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#6
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 Hak.5 Uber fan +++ Group: Members Posts: 1,291 Joined: Tue, 11 Mar 2008 18:11:30 +0000 From: Tennessee Member No.: 9,434 |
thats a huge download.. still going to try it
-------------------- |
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Tue, 12 Aug 2008 15:37:20 +0000
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#7
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Hak.5 Pirate Group: Members Posts: 305 Joined: Thu, 21 Jun 2007 06:15:07 +0000 From: Germany Member No.: 7,670 |
@Moonlit: I installed an operating system on my sd card, but my laptop didn't boot from it (I assume the card isn't powered on bios/post). But it runs on my thumbdrive nevertheless.
For disk encryption I recommend dm-crypt/luks (linux) or truecrypt (windows). -------------------- joerg@server:~$ cat /var/www/hak5/signature
cat: /var/www/hak5/signature: No such file or directory |
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Tue, 12 Aug 2008 17:11:19 +0000
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#8
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Hak.5 Junkie Group: Root Admin Posts: 6,941 Joined: -- From: Hants, UK Member No.: 335 |
Yet another use for WAIK! This is damn nice though, sure beats ubuntu for system recovery.
-------------------- "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings,
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" |
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Sat, 23 Aug 2008 04:46:04 +0000
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#9
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 Hak.5 Zombie Group: Members Posts: 215 Joined: Sun, 02 Sep 2007 19:04:49 +0000 From: Essex - United Kingdom Member No.: 8,144 |
thats cool
i had so many issues with even trying to install xp from usb, so i might pass on this. -------------------- Custom Clear Blue Xbox360, 32" flat screen, PS2, DC.
iPhone 3G 16gb Jailbroken 2.2 2 22" screens on gaming pc - core2quad 3.7ghz, 6gb DDR2, 2x nVidia GTX 260 graphics, 1tb harddrive, MSI p7n diamond motherboard gaming laptop - Acer Aspire 6930 Gemstone blue 2.56ghz core2duo, 4gb ddr2, ati 3650 512mb graphics, fingerprint, webcam, touchpanel controls, bluray, bluetooth, hdmi, vga, 4xUSB, wifi, 16" screen, TV IN old laptop - Advent 7111 1.6ghz core duo, nvidia 7100go, 320gb hdd, 2gb ddr2 800 2 servers - 1 fileserver and 1 cs:s server 1 mac G4 800mhz Dual |
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Sat, 23 Aug 2008 05:59:41 +0000
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#10
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 Hak.5 Ninja Group: Members Posts: 664 Joined: Fri, 09 May 2008 23:02:27 +0000 From: Rockhampton, Australia Member No.: 9,890 |
God damn awesome!
-------------------- Linux Outlaws Forum member #490
http://identi.ca/swathe http://swathe-mumblingsofalunatic.blogspot.com/  |
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Sat, 23 Aug 2008 15:50:44 +0000
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#11
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 Hak.5 Pirate Group: Members Posts: 331 Joined: Wed, 14 Feb 2007 01:26:38 +0000 From: Las Vegas, NV Member No.: 6,186 |
I've always said live distros are training wheels and you have to take them off some time
-------------------- I wear a black hat
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Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:10:04 +0000
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#12
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Hak.5 Junkie Group: Root Admin Posts: 6,941 Joined: -- From: Hants, UK Member No.: 335 |
http://www.autoitscript.com/gimagex/
http://www.msfn.org/board/WinPE-2-Made-Eas...ma-t112503.html These tools make using WinPE2 far more simple. -------------------- "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings,
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" |
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Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:29:52 +0000
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#13
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 ... Group: Members Posts: 1,909 Joined: Wed, 08 Mar 2006 03:26:35 +0000 From: 162.45.0.0 Member No.: 307 |
I've not really had much use for making Windows portable as I can just use Windows XP Professional for Embedded Systems or Windows Vista for embedded systems and get better results for my needs.
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Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:57:05 +0000
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#14
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 Hak.5 Fan + Group: Members Posts: 57 Joined: Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:51:53 +0000 From: Liverpool, UK. Member No.: 10,502 |
Very cool, I am looking forward to giving this a go later on this week.
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Mon, 25 Aug 2008 14:09:50 +0000
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#15
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 The Random One Group: Members Posts: 797 Joined: Wed, 25 Apr 2007 11:43:50 +0000 From: Another plane of existance Member No.: 7,229 |
ill have to try this. if nothing else just as a way to recover or a way to run my stuff on a closed off box.
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Mon, 25 Aug 2008 19:51:53 +0000
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#16
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 Hak.5 Fan + Group: Members Posts: 43 Joined: Mon, 24 Oct 2005 21:03:26 +0000 From: MI Member No.: 171 |
I have been a big fan of the Windows ultimate boot disk project. Currently you have both the live windows os and knoppix on a DVD or put it on a USB. I am pretty sure you could get any live distro to work if you didn't want knoppix. It seems to have been built off of BartsPE. Do really remember has been a couple months since I made mine.
linky: http://www.ubcd4win.com/ you need to supply your own windows source and key so you can be legit if you want. |
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Tue, 26 Aug 2008 03:14:17 +0000
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#17
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 Hak.5 Junkie Group: Members Posts: 2,778 Joined: Tue, 27 Jun 2006 14:04:14 +0000 From: 192.168.0.100 Member No.: 1,220 |
QUOTE (metatron @ Mon, 25 Aug 2008 09:29:52 +0000) I've not really had much use for making Windows portable as I can just use Windows XP Professional for Embedded Systems or Windows Vista for embedded systems and get better results for my needs. I don't see you creating a tutorial on it. -------------------- QUOTE And why in Apple world does "off" mean "not really mate"? -- VaKo |
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Tue, 26 Aug 2008 11:24:32 +0000
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#18
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... Group: Members Posts: 1,909 Joined: Wed, 08 Mar 2006 03:26:35 +0000 From: 162.45.0.0 Member No.: 307 |
QUOTE (SomeoneE1se @ Tue, 26 Aug 2008 09:14:17 +0000) I don't see you creating a tutorial on it. I don't see why a should. If you want to do something learn it off your own back, don't expect to have it spoon fed to you. -------------------- |
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Tue, 26 Aug 2008 13:09:30 +0000
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#19
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Hak.5 Junkie Group: Members Posts: 2,778 Joined: Tue, 27 Jun 2006 14:04:14 +0000 From: 192.168.0.100 Member No.: 1,220 |
Just in case someone doesn't want to read the whole thing here's a summary.
Moonlit: Look Vista on a USB stick here's where to get more information on how to do it. Other Random People: Cool! Metatron: That's lame, my way's better! SomeoneE1se: Yeah? What's you're way? Metatron: Fuck you, figure it out yourself! -------------------- QUOTE And why in Apple world does "off" mean "not really mate"? -- VaKo |
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Tue, 26 Aug 2008 21:14:41 +0000
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#20
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 Black Ops Specialist and a nice guy. Group: Members Posts: 397 Joined: Sat, 10 Feb 2007 20:06:34 +0000 From: Australia Member No.: 6,073 |
 ...mmmm k i'd like to play with it...y not -------------------- setec-astronomy.dontexist.com
 ./chowned |
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