Tech Guide

Installing XP with Flash Drive-II

2010-01-22T21:06:00.000-08:00

If you want to install Windows XP, but your notebook (or PC) has no CDROM, you should install Windows XP using USB Flash disk/Flash Drive/Thumb drive...
just follow this guide :

step 1:
Buy an USB Flash Drive (at least 2GB).Have a print out of this article.
so, now you have 2 computers, with CD-ROM support and without CD-ROM support

step 2:
Download this software pack (Komku-SP-usb.exe - Download) 1.47MB

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this software pack contains 3 application :

-BootSect.exe (Boot Sector Manipulation Tool)
-PeToUSB (http://GoCoding.Com)
-usb_prep8 (Prepares Windows XP Setup LocalSource for Copy to USB-Drive)

step 3:
Double click Komku-SP-usb.exe

a window will appear... and click Install

step 4:
Insert your USB Flash Drive.

Locate folder C:\Komku\PeToUSB\
double click PeToUSB.exe

a window will appear like this...

Destination Drive : select USB Removable
check on Enable Disk Format
check on Quick Format
check on Enable LBA (FAT 16x)
Drive Label : XP-KOMKU (or whatever you want)
then click Start

Click Yes to continue....

"You are about to repartition and format a disk. Disk: .... All existing volumes and data on that disk will be lost. Are You Sure You Want To Continue?"
click Yes

Wait a few seconds...

Click OK, and you can close PeToUSB window.

step 5:
Open Command Prompt ...
Click Start > Run > type cmd > click OK

On Command Prompt window, go to directory C:\Komku\bootsect\
how to do this?
first type this cd\ and press Enter

then type cd komku\bootsect and press Enter

the result...

Don't close Command Prompt window, and go to step 6...

step 6:
on command prompt window, type bootsect /nt52 H:

H: is drive letter for my USB Flash Drive, it may be different with yours...

and press Enter

the result... "Successfully updated filesystem bootcode. Bootcode was succesfully updated on all targeted volumes."

don't close Command Prompt window, and go to step 7...

step 7:
now type this cd.. and press Enter

then type cd usb_prep8 and press Enter

type usb_prep8 again... and pres Enter

step 8:
Your command prompt window will look like this

Press any key to continue...
usb_prep8 welcome screen will appear

Prepares Windows XP LocalSource for Copy to USB-Drive:

0) Change Type of USB-Drive, currently [USB-stick]
1) Change XP Setup Source Path, currently []
2) Change Virtual TempDrive, currently [T:]
3) Change Target USB-Drive Letter, currently []
4) Make New Tempimage with XP LocalSource and Copy to USB-Drive
5) Use Existing Tempimage with XP LocalSource and Copy to USB-Drive
F) Change Log File - Simple OR Extended, currently [Simple]
Q) Quit

Enter your choice:_

now, insert your original Windows XP CD, or Windows XP with sata ahci driver to your CD/DVD ROM
and back to Command Prompt window

type 1 then press Enter...
"Browse For Folder" window will appear, select your CD/DVD drive and click OK(If you don't have CD drive in your PC, download Power iso or demon tools and mound your XP iso file using those tool)

9

the result... "XP Setup Source Path" changed to G:\ (yours may be different)

now for point 2, if letter T is currently assigned to a drive in your computer, you must change it.... if not, leave it as it is
how to change it?
type 2 and press Enter...

"Enter Available Virtual DriveLetter"
for example you doesn't have drive S
so you type S and press Enter

back to usb_prep8 welcome screen...
now type 3 and press Enter...

"Please give Target USB-Drive Letter e.g type U" Enter Target USB-Drive Letter:
because my Flash drive letter is H
so, type H and press Enter...

after back to usb_prep8 welcome screen...
now type 4 and press Enter to make new temporary image with XP LocalSource and copy it to USB Flash Drive
please wait a few seconds..

"WARNING, ALL DATA ON NON-REMOVABLE DISK DRIVE T: WILL BE LOST! Proceed with Format (Y/N)?"
type Y and press Enter
please wait....
when format virtual disk complete, press any key to continue...

please wait... making of LocalSource folder is in progress...

when "Making of LocalSource folder $WIN_NT$.~LS Ready"
Press any key to continue...

"Copy TempDrive Files to USB-Drive in about 15 minutes = Yes OR STOP = End Program = No"
Click Yes, and wait...

"Would you like USB-stick to be preferred Boot Drive U: bla... bla..."
Click Yes

"Would you like to unmount the Virtual Drive ?"
Click Yes, wait a few seconds, and press any key....
press any key again to close usb_prep8...

Now, your USB Flash Drive is ready...

step 9:
Now, insert your USB Flash Drive/Flash Disk/Thumb Drive to your notebook
go to BIOS and make USB HDD (or USB ZIP in some other machine) as primary boot device....

then boot form your USB Flash Drive....
and select "TXT Mode Setup Windows XP, Never unplug USB-Drive Until After Logon"

After Hard Disk detected, delete all partition, create single partition... and install Windows XP on that partition...
and wait...

once text mode setup is complete, computer will restart....
this time select "GUI Mode setup Windows XP, Continue Setup + Start XP"

Continue Windows XP setup.... and Done!
Windows XP Installed....

Remember, you can use this tutorial to install Windows XP on all other computers.

Installing XP with Flash Drive-I

2010-01-22T20:46:00.000-08:00

How will it work?

As with most cool new techniques, there are a few catches. For starters, not every PC is capable of booting from a USB flash drive. For the most part, computers manufactured within the last two years are generally able to boot from a flash drive. Older systems may require a BIOS update, or might not be able to boot from a flash drive at all.

Preparing your Windows installation CD

One of the requirements for creating our bootable USB flash drive is a Windows XP with Service Pack 2 installation CD. If your Windows XP installation CD doesn't already include Service Pack 2, then you will have to make a CD that includes Service Pack 2 through a technique called slipstreaming.

Other requirements

In addition to your Windows XP installation CD, there are a couple of other things that you are going to need. For starters, you will need the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool. You can download this tool for free.
Another utility that you are going to need is Bart's Preinstalled Environment Bootable Live Windows CD / DVD, or BartPE for short. You can download this utility for free from the BartPE Web site.
In addition to the software requirements, you must verify that the PC that you will be using to create the Windows deployment has 1.5 GB of free hard disk space (minimum) and supports booting from a USB device. It is strongly recommend that the PC be running Windows XP Service Pack 2. Prior to Service Pack 2, Windows XP sometimes had trouble interacting with USB storage devices.

Formatting the flash drive

Now that you have all of the prerequisites taken care of, it's time to actually start setting up our flash drive. The first step in doing so, as strange as it sounds, is to format the flash drive. Windows will actually let you format a flash drive in the same way that you format a floppy disk. However, formatting a flash drive in this way will not work for this project.
Instead, you must format the flash drive by using the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool that you downloaded earlier. To do so, simply open the utility, select the device followed by the FAT file system option and click Start.
Once the device has been formatted, you must make it bootable. To do so, you must copy the BOOT.INI, NTLDR, and NTDETECT from the root directory of your PC's boot drive to the flash drive. These files are hidden by default, so you will either have to configure Windows Explorer to show hidden files (including protected operating system files) or you will have to open a Command Prompt window and use the COPY command to copy the files.
If you choose to use the Windows Explorer method, then open Internet Explorer and enter C: into the address bar so that you are looking at your local hard drive. Next, select the Folder Options command from the Tools menu. When the Folder Options properties sheet opens, select the View tab. Now, just select the Show Hidden Files and Folders and deselect the Hide Extensions for Known File Types and the Hide Protected Operating System Files check boxes. Click OK to continue.

Booting from the USB flash drive

Now that you have formatted your USB flash drive and installed the boot files onto it, the next thing that you must do is to configure your PC to allow you to boot from the flash drive. This is all done through the computer's BIOS Setup. I can't give you specific instructions for this part, because every computer is different. I can give you a few pointers though.
You can access your computer's BIOS by pressing a specific key immediately after you turn the PC on. The key varies, but it is usually either [F1], [F2], or [Delete]. Once you are in the BIOS Setup, you should verify that all of your computer's USB options are enabled. This might include things like support for legacy USB devices or support for USB 2.0. If there is a time out setting for USB devices, you should set it to the max to insure that the system doesn't time out while waiting on the USB device to boot.
Next, find the section on boot device priority. Normally, a USB flash drive (which is usually listed as USB-HDD, but may be listed as a removable device) will have a very low boot priority. If the USB flash drive's boot priority is lower than the hard disk (listed as HDD) then the only time the computer would ever boot off of the USB flash drive is if the system were to fail to boot from the hard disk. You must therefore rearrange the boot device priority so that the flash drive has a higher priority than the hard drive.

Configuring Windows

Now that we have finally made it through all of the prep work, it's time to start setting up Windows. As you have probably already guessed, the process of installing Windows to a flash drive is quite a bit different from your normal, run of the mill installation. There are a couple of reasons for this.
For starters, a full blown Windows XP deployment takes up over a Gigabyte of hard disk space. When you are installing to a flash drive, disk space is a scarce commodity. Even if you have over a Gigabyte of space on your flash drive, you probably don't want to use it all on Windows. It would be nice to have room to install a few applications. Therefore, you need to trim the excess fat off of Windows.
The other reason why the installation process is so different from the usual Windows installation is because Windows Setup is not designed to install Windows to a flash drive. You therefore have to configure Windows using an alternate method.
The PEBuilder utility that you downloaded earlier can take care of both of these issues. PEBuilder is designed to create a build of Windows XP (or Windows Server 2003) that does not take up as much space as a full blown installation. Once you create this new build, you can copy it to the flash drive. For right now, I will show you how to create a basic Windows build and copy it to the memory stick. Unfortunately, it's rather difficult to install applications once Windows is up and running. Therefore, after I show you how to create a basic Windows build, I will show you how to create a build that includes some applications.
Begin the process by opening PEBuilder. When you open PEBuilder, you will see a screen similar to the one that's shown in Figure A. Simply enter the path to the Windows installation files (the ones from your Windows XP with Service Pack 2 installation CD). Next, verify that the Create ISO Image and the Burn to CD check boxes are not selected and then click the Build button. PEBuilder will now create the new Windows build.

Figure A

You must use PEBuilder to create a Windows build that will work with a flash drive.

Now, it's time to copy Windows to the flash drive. To do so, you will have to use a special batch file that's included with PEBuilder. Open a Command Prompt window and navigate to c:\pebuilder313\plugin\peinst. Now, insert an empty flash drive into the computer's USB port and then execute the file PEINST.CMD. You will now see a menu appear as shown in Figure B.

Figure B

PEBuilder uses a batch file to install Windows onto a flash drive.

Type 1 and press [Enter] and you will be prompted to enter the path to the build that you have created. Enter C:\pebuilder313\BartPE. Now, type 2, press [Enter], and you will be prompted for the target path. Enter the drive letter that Windows has assigned to your USB flash drive. After doing so, the menu is updated as shown in Figure C. The menu now displays the source path and the destination drive. Type 5 and press [Enter] to install Windows to the flash drive.

Figure C

Use menu option 5 to install Windows to the flash drive.

How to use Matlab in Windows 7?

2009-12-02T09:16:00.000-08:00

The most common problem for tech-guys on upgrading the operating system is being unable to use Matlab.Same experienced same problem while switching from Windows Vista to Windows 7.I am using Matlab 2007a. First problem I encountered was while installing the Matlab.I tried to to start installation process but there was no response after license information widow.After changing Windows 7 background to classical theme I was able to install Matlab in Compatibility mode.But when I tried to run it I got full page of error information.After lot of brainstorming and web-research I found the easy way to install and use Matlab in Windows 7.

Step 1: Installation
To install Matlab 2007 on windows 7
1-Change Windows 7 Theme to the classic one (windows classic)
2-now the Matlab install will work correctly

Step 2:

To use Matlab with other windows 7 themes you have to change java used by matlab .

1- download JRE 1.5.0_19 or JRE 1.5.0_20 java version and install it.
https://cds.sun.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/WFS/CDS-CDS_Developer-Site/en_US/-/USD/ViewFilteredProducts-SingleVariationTypeFilter

http://java.sun.com/products/archive/

2- go to C:\Program Files\MATLAB \R2007a\sys\java\jre\win32 you will find a file named jer1.5.0_07 rename it to Original_jre1.5.0_07

3- go to C:\Program Files\Java you will find file named JRE 1.5.0_19 or JRE 1.5.0_20 , copy it to C:\Program
Files\MATLAB \R2007a\sys\java\jre\win32 and rename it to jre1.5.0_07

Now you can use matlab with all themes with help.

reference:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itproappcompat/thread/4dba5d57-3127-48f3-9461-eb1ef5d7c70e

Get free Antivirus, Antispyware and Antimalaware from Microsoft

2009-11-28T14:39:00.000-08:00

Microsoft Security Essentials - Microsoft Corporation

Microsoft has launched antivirus software software called Microsoft Security Essential(MSE).It is a freeware. MSE provides protection against viruses, spyware, rootkits, and trojans for Windows XP (x86), Windows Vista (x86 and x64), and Windows 7 ( x86 and x64), free of charge. So, it is one in all software for protection of your precious system.

MSE is a lightweight security app that people might turn to for a number of key reasons. It's easy on the system resources, it's easy to figure out how to use, it comes pre-configured, and it is free. It only works on legally licensed Microsoft computers. You can download the software from here.

Boot your PC with Flash Drive

2009-11-13T23:29:00.000-08:00

Creating Bootable Vista / Windows 7 USB Flash Drive

It would work for Windows Vista and Windows 7

You need

1.USB Flash Drive (4GB+)

2.Microsoft OS Disk (Vista / Windows 7)

3.A computer running Vista / Windows 7

Step 1: Format the Drive
The steps here are to use the command line to format the disk properly using the diskpart utility. You can format your disc by right clicking your USB Drive icon also.Don't do quick format.

Plug in your USB Flash Drive
Open a command prompt as administrator (Right click on Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt and select “Run as administrator”.Find the drive number of your USB Drive by typing the following into the Command Prompt window:

diskpart
list disk

The number of your USB drive will listed. You’ll need this for the next step. I’ll assume that the USB flash drive is disk 1.Format the drive by typing the next instructions into the same window. Replace the number “1” with the number of your disk below.

select disk 1
clean
create partition primary
select partition 1
active
format fs=NTFS
assign
exit

When that is done you’ll have a formatted USB flash drive ready to be made bootable.

Step 2: Make the Drive Bootable
In the same command window that you were using in Step 1:

Insert your Windows Vista / 7 DVD into your drive.

Change directory to the DVD’s boot directory where bootsect lives:

d:
cd d:\boot

Use bootsect to set the USB as a bootable NTFS drive prepared for a Vista/7 image. I’m assuming that your USB flash drive has been labeled disk G:\ by the computer:

bootsect /nt60 g:

You can close the command window now

Step 3: Copy the installation DVD to the USB drive
Copy all the files from your DVD to flash drive. After you’ve copied all of the files the disk you are ready to go.

Step 4: Set your BIOS to boot from USB

Different computer have different option for this.But usually pressing F2 or F8 during start-up will give you Bios option.

Microsoft Office 2010 - Free

2009-11-11T17:21:00.000-08:00

If you want to try Microsoft Office 2010 Beta you can click here and fill the survey.If you are selected to use Microsoft Office Beta you would be informed by email.

Office Starter 2010 includes Microsoft Word Starter 2010 and Microsoft Excel Starter 2010, which are great for basic tasks like writing letters, editing your resume, or creating a family budget.

If you're interested in participating in this exclusive prerelease test, simply complete our survey to find out if you meet the eligibility requirements.

Last time I participated in such offer, I got MS Office 2007 for free.

Upgrade edition Windows 7 Premium or Professional: $29.99

2009-11-08T18:31:00.000-08:00

Up to 85% off: The Windows 7 Academic Offer

Expires: January 3, 2010

Who’s eligible: College/university students (worldwide)

If you are an eligible university student who attends an educational institution in the United States, you can purchase an upgrade edition of Windows 7 Home Premium or Windows 7 Professional for $29.99. (That’s a huge savings from the regular price of $119.99 or $199.99, respectively.) You must be “actively enrolled in at least 0.5 course credit.” Full terms for the U.S. offer are here. Any college or university that gives you a .edu address qualifies, as do the eligible institutions on this list. If you don’t have a qualifying e-mail address, you can still apply by following these instructions. To apply in the United States, start here.

To upgrade , right click on My Computer and click anytime upgrade or go to Start

Limitations? The deal is one copy per student. Digital download is fulfilled through Digital River, or you can pay $13 extra for a physical disk. The offer is non-transferable, but the terms are curiously vague about whether you can sell or give away the software itself. This is not an academic or otherwise restricted license; it is the same upgrade package available via retail outlets.

Get Windows 7 for Free

2009-11-08T17:55:00.000-08:00

MSDN Academic Alliance
Expires: No expiration date
Who’s eligible: College/university students in technical departments (international)

If you are enrolled in a science, technology, engineering, or math department at an educational institution that belongs to the MSDN Academic Alliance, you can get free software for use in your studies. (There are also similar offers for students in visual, illustration, design, and art departments.) The program also extends to members of IEEE and ACM.
Apart from Windows 7 you can also get 32 bit and 64 bit version of other OS (like Windows XP and Windows Vista)for free. You can also get software like Office Project and Office Visio( ad many more for free)

Free Vista Recovery Disk

2009-08-20T12:05:00.000-07:00

The Windows Vista installation DVD includes more than just the files you need to install an operating system. There's also a recovery center which helps you deal with operating system problems. It can search for problems automatically, find system restore points, restore from backups, or fix a broken boot manager. The problem is that many, (if not most) home computer users don't have a real installation disc. What they have is a system restore disc provided by their computer manufacturer.Major computer manufacturers like Dell, Acer, HP, Toshiba, Lenovodon't give you a real Windows Vista installation disc but theygive a bundle what they call a "recovery disc".

Microsoft seems to have realized this problem, and have thankfully made a recovery disc for this purpose. It contains the contents of the Windows Vista DVD's "recovery center," as we've come to refer to it. It cannot be used to install or reinstall Windows Vista, and just serves as a Windows PE interface to recovering your PC. Technically, one could re-create this installation media with freely-downloadable media from Microsoft (namely the Microsoft WAIK kit, a multi-gigabyte download); but it's damn-decent of Microsoft to make this available to Windows' users who might not be capable of creating such a thing on their own.

You can download copy of the Windows Vista Recovery Disc for your convenience. It is a 120 MB download, and in the standard ISO format.

Windows Vista 32 bit

Windows VIsta 64 bit