Windows in a bootable CDROM for a disabled girl? [modified]
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Hello all, Today I've received a friend that has made me a question that I would like to be able to solve. He has a sister that is slightly mentally disabled. That boy has a Pentium 2 computer that would be enough for the needs of his sister. She wants to surf the web, view some films, listen to music and almost nothing else. It seems that she usually destroys the operating systems that she use, not the first day, but it usually happens each month or similar... I would like to prepare that P2 computer in order to boot from a CD that would have a fully set up Windows 98 with Internet Explorer and Media Player with the latest codecs. She should be able to install programs in the Hard drive, but she would have to install them each day. The hard drive should be used in order to store data only. Each time I search for bootable windows CDROM I find how to prepare the setting up cdroms for any windows OS in the market, but this is not what I'd like to do. I would like to do something like preparing a virtual machine and automatically boot it at the start up. Could you give me an advice on how to do that? As always thank you in advance. /EDIT: Changed the icon to question...
[www.tamelectromecanica.com][www.tam.cat]
modified on Wednesday, January 14, 2009 2:20 PM
Why not just image the machine and then restore the image every time she destroys the install? I would donate (buy) the license to image it. Then nobody has to worry about having a CD, memory speed and all that other stuff that can be irritating with bootable OSs.
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Well, she is slightly mentally disabled so it seems that sometimes she don't know exactly what is doing... her brother has told me that the OS should be fully reinstalled/refreshed each time as he has to do it manually almost each week...
Hmmm...I would suggest Windows XP running in limited user mode but that might actually make her more frustrated as a lot of things don't work correctly. Is she doing anything more than web browsing? Would running XP and IE in a kiosk type mode work? This would change the OS so that it boots in to IE running in full-screen kiosk mode rather than the explorer shell. The drawback is that I believe all she would be able to do is browse the web.
Scott Dorman
Microsoft® MVP - Visual C# | MCPD President - Tampa Bay IASA [Blog][Articles][Forum Guidelines]
Hey, hey, hey. Don't be mean. We don't have to be mean because, remember, no matter where you go, there you are. - Buckaroo Banzai
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Yes, moreover I'm a little bit worried on if she would be capable to handle Linux or not... I've asked his brother (my friend) and he has told me that it would be better a Windows OS as it is what she is "used" to... Thank you for your feedback Jim!
You could probably customize a distro with themes, icons, etc to look close enough that she *might* be OK in terms of getting things to work. My biggest concern would the audio though. Every linux distro I've dealt with at home, including Ubuntu, has had incredibly flaky audio performance. Your friend is probably right though. Good luck, it's certainly a noble task!
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! Real Mentats use only 100% pure, unfooled around with Sapho Juice(tm)! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! VCF Blog
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Hmmm...I would suggest Windows XP running in limited user mode but that might actually make her more frustrated as a lot of things don't work correctly. Is she doing anything more than web browsing? Would running XP and IE in a kiosk type mode work? This would change the OS so that it boots in to IE running in full-screen kiosk mode rather than the explorer shell. The drawback is that I believe all she would be able to do is browse the web.
Scott Dorman
Microsoft® MVP - Visual C# | MCPD President - Tampa Bay IASA [Blog][Articles][Forum Guidelines]
Hey, hey, hey. Don't be mean. We don't have to be mean because, remember, no matter where you go, there you are. - Buckaroo Banzai
This is also a nice idea... Well, she also likes to listen to music and to view videos, but I don't know if a small web page could do that for her... I'll think of it. Thank you!
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Why not just image the machine and then restore the image every time she destroys the install? I would donate (buy) the license to image it. Then nobody has to worry about having a CD, memory speed and all that other stuff that can be irritating with bootable OSs.
I would like to avoid any job for her brother, but anyway, it is indeed a good idea Rex. I've know the DriveImageXML program that works like charm (it is similar to norton ghost and acronis true image) and it is free for home use. I'll take a look at it. Thank you for your question/suggestion! :rose:
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This is also a nice idea... Well, she also likes to listen to music and to view videos, but I don't know if a small web page could do that for her... I'll think of it. Thank you!
Hmmm...it's possible that a directory listing type page would work. She would see the list of files (music/video) and click the link, which would then launch media player.
Scott Dorman
Microsoft® MVP - Visual C# | MCPD President - Tampa Bay IASA [Blog][Articles][Forum Guidelines]
Hey, hey, hey. Don't be mean. We don't have to be mean because, remember, no matter where you go, there you are. - Buckaroo Banzai
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Hello all, Today I've received a friend that has made me a question that I would like to be able to solve. He has a sister that is slightly mentally disabled. That boy has a Pentium 2 computer that would be enough for the needs of his sister. She wants to surf the web, view some films, listen to music and almost nothing else. It seems that she usually destroys the operating systems that she use, not the first day, but it usually happens each month or similar... I would like to prepare that P2 computer in order to boot from a CD that would have a fully set up Windows 98 with Internet Explorer and Media Player with the latest codecs. She should be able to install programs in the Hard drive, but she would have to install them each day. The hard drive should be used in order to store data only. Each time I search for bootable windows CDROM I find how to prepare the setting up cdroms for any windows OS in the market, but this is not what I'd like to do. I would like to do something like preparing a virtual machine and automatically boot it at the start up. Could you give me an advice on how to do that? As always thank you in advance. /EDIT: Changed the icon to question...
[www.tamelectromecanica.com][www.tam.cat]
modified on Wednesday, January 14, 2009 2:20 PM
See this: http://www.codeproject.com/Lounge.aspx?msg=2880285#xx2880285xx[^] Didn't want to hijack the thread since it's partially off topic.
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! Real Mentats use only 100% pure, unfooled around with Sapho Juice(tm)! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! VCF Blog
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You could probably customize a distro with themes, icons, etc to look close enough that she *might* be OK in terms of getting things to work. My biggest concern would the audio though. Every linux distro I've dealt with at home, including Ubuntu, has had incredibly flaky audio performance. Your friend is probably right though. Good luck, it's certainly a noble task!
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! Real Mentats use only 100% pure, unfooled around with Sapho Juice(tm)! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! VCF Blog
I'll take a look, from now on, I've received plenty of great ideas to look at. Thank you again Jim!
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Hmmm...it's possible that a directory listing type page would work. She would see the list of files (music/video) and click the link, which would then launch media player.
Scott Dorman
Microsoft® MVP - Visual C# | MCPD President - Tampa Bay IASA [Blog][Articles][Forum Guidelines]
Hey, hey, hey. Don't be mean. We don't have to be mean because, remember, no matter where you go, there you are. - Buckaroo Banzai
Yes... this would be a very nice way of doing it... Thanks Scott!
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Yes... this would be a very nice way of doing it... Thanks Scott!
You're welcome...but don't thank me yet. Make sure it will actually work and solve their problem first. :)
Scott Dorman
Microsoft® MVP - Visual C# | MCPD President - Tampa Bay IASA [Blog][Articles][Forum Guidelines]
Hey, hey, hey. Don't be mean. We don't have to be mean because, remember, no matter where you go, there you are. - Buckaroo Banzai
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Thank you, but if it is a command line parameter, it must be an OS loaded before... and that OS can be destroyed by anyone... I'm looking for a most roughed solution... Something that start a Windows OS from a CDROM.
On the virtualization front, you could configure the VM to be automatically launched from a highly locked down *nix user account. Assuming it works as advertised (I never actually tried it) BartPE is probably the least complex option to configure.
Today's lesson is brought to you by the word "niggardly". Remember kids, don't attribute to racism what can be explained by Scandinavian language roots. -- Robert Royall
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See this: http://www.codeproject.com/Lounge.aspx?msg=2880285#xx2880285xx[^] Didn't want to hijack the thread since it's partially off topic.
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! Real Mentats use only 100% pure, unfooled around with Sapho Juice(tm)! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! VCF Blog
Thank you very much Jim... I think you are giving the :bob:pians a lot of work... (and dangerously you are speaking of programming in the lounge :-D ). Now being serious: it is very nice to see how the people here in CP reacts. Thank you again!
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This could be an option... I'm afraid that in a Pentium 2 computer... 2 Windows would be too much, but a keyboard hook on the main OS with a service looking for the VM OS would be enough to do what you are proposing, but again... I think that the "guest" OS (I think that is the guest) would run really slow there... Thank you for your feedback!
yeah, that's probably too old to run a windows VM usablely fast. My k62-350 had trouble running some dos games in a VM, media player's going to be a much heavier load.
Today's lesson is brought to you by the word "niggardly". Remember kids, don't attribute to racism what can be explained by Scandinavian language roots. -- Robert Royall
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Thank you very much Jim... I think you are giving the :bob:pians a lot of work... (and dangerously you are speaking of programming in the lounge :-D ). Now being serious: it is very nice to see how the people here in CP reacts. Thank you again!
Joan Murt wrote:
and dangerously you are speaking of programming in the lounge
Oh we can surely talk about programming in the lounge, just not ask programming questions. At least I hope that's the case.
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! Real Mentats use only 100% pure, unfooled around with Sapho Juice(tm)! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! VCF Blog
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On the virtualization front, you could configure the VM to be automatically launched from a highly locked down *nix user account. Assuming it works as advertised (I never actually tried it) BartPE is probably the least complex option to configure.
Today's lesson is brought to you by the word "niggardly". Remember kids, don't attribute to racism what can be explained by Scandinavian language roots. -- Robert Royall
Yes, my fault here, I've thought always on having a windows as the main OS... it could be a really small Linux distro (extremely limited/locked even without GUI) with the VM installed... Really a nice idea... Too much used on thinking of Windows... :rolleyes:
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Joan Murt wrote:
and dangerously you are speaking of programming in the lounge
Oh we can surely talk about programming in the lounge, just not ask programming questions. At least I hope that's the case.
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! Real Mentats use only 100% pure, unfooled around with Sapho Juice(tm)! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! VCF Blog
:laugh:
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Hello all, Today I've received a friend that has made me a question that I would like to be able to solve. He has a sister that is slightly mentally disabled. That boy has a Pentium 2 computer that would be enough for the needs of his sister. She wants to surf the web, view some films, listen to music and almost nothing else. It seems that she usually destroys the operating systems that she use, not the first day, but it usually happens each month or similar... I would like to prepare that P2 computer in order to boot from a CD that would have a fully set up Windows 98 with Internet Explorer and Media Player with the latest codecs. She should be able to install programs in the Hard drive, but she would have to install them each day. The hard drive should be used in order to store data only. Each time I search for bootable windows CDROM I find how to prepare the setting up cdroms for any windows OS in the market, but this is not what I'd like to do. I would like to do something like preparing a virtual machine and automatically boot it at the start up. Could you give me an advice on how to do that? As always thank you in advance. /EDIT: Changed the icon to question...
[www.tamelectromecanica.com][www.tam.cat]
modified on Wednesday, January 14, 2009 2:20 PM
Might want to try some kiosk software such as Deep Freeze[^] or Clean Slate[^].
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Yes, my fault here, I've thought always on having a windows as the main OS... it could be a really small Linux distro (extremely limited/locked even without GUI) with the VM installed... Really a nice idea... Too much used on thinking of Windows... :rolleyes:
Without hardware virtualization it doesn't matter much, you're looking at at least a 2x slowdown in the virtual OS, maybe 4-10x or more in an pathological case.
Today's lesson is brought to you by the word "niggardly". Remember kids, don't attribute to racism what can be explained by Scandinavian language roots. -- Robert Royall
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Hello El Corazon! I've thought on that as the first possible option... I've used Linux distro's even in Pendrives... But I'm a bit worried of that girl trying to use something that she don't know... She is a little disabled and changing anything can make it even more difficult for her... It seems she loves to use the computer to hear music and watch movies... and some times she surfs the web, but I'm not sure if she will be capable to become used to the change... Anyway, now I know the name of what I'm searching for: "live CD"... Thank you!
then here is my 2 cents... don't fight the complexity of cd boots. setup the machine ecactly as she is accustomed. when it is ready image it with bartpe&driveimagexml or seagate tools (or equivalent maxtor utility) and leave the image backup and tools boot such that th computer can be re-imaged to exact state. This way you minimize the effort for all.
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb) John Andrew Holmes "It is well to remember that the entire universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others."
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Hmmm...I would suggest Windows XP running in limited user mode but that might actually make her more frustrated as a lot of things don't work correctly. Is she doing anything more than web browsing? Would running XP and IE in a kiosk type mode work? This would change the OS so that it boots in to IE running in full-screen kiosk mode rather than the explorer shell. The drawback is that I believe all she would be able to do is browse the web.
Scott Dorman
Microsoft® MVP - Visual C# | MCPD President - Tampa Bay IASA [Blog][Articles][Forum Guidelines]
Hey, hey, hey. Don't be mean. We don't have to be mean because, remember, no matter where you go, there you are. - Buckaroo Banzai
Scott Dorman wrote:
Hmmm...I would suggest Windows XP running in limited user mode but that might actually make her more frustrated as a lot of things don't work correctly. Is she doing anything more than web browsing? Would running XP and IE in a kiosk type mode work? This would change the OS so that it boots in to IE running in full-screen kiosk mode rather than the explorer shell. The drawback is that I believe all she would be able to do is browse the web.
doesn't help if she shuts down the computer mid-disk-write often.
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb) John Andrew Holmes "It is well to remember that the entire universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others."