Windows in a bootable CDROM for a disabled girl? [modified]
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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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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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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."
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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:
Joan Murt wrote:
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
find a good backup program that supports making bootable DVD backups. Then make one backup, teach him how to boot-restore it.
_________________________ 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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Joan Murt wrote:
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
find a good backup program that supports making bootable DVD backups. Then make one backup, teach him how to boot-restore it.
_________________________ 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."
I have just such a program. :-D
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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.
Acronis allows you to make a bootable CD/DVD to restore from. A basic XP install would fit on that and he simply inserts the CD and hits restore on the dialog.
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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
You could make a copy with the help of WinPE. (I am not much sure about how you can do it :)) Probably the following links will help you http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BartPE[^] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Preinstallation_Environment[^]
*jaans
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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
Will Windows Steady State meet your requirements? http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/sharedaccess/default.mspx You set up your PC, configure Steady State, and then it protects the OS from getting written to. Then on a system restart, all the OS files are back to how they were initially setup. You just need to configure Steady State on the OS partition, and then have the users data on another partition that is not protected. Hope this helps! :)
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Might want to try some kiosk software such as Deep Freeze[^] or Clean Slate[^].
I'm back! (went to sleep) another approach to solve the same problem... I'll take it a look also. Thanks Mike!
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Will Windows Steady State meet your requirements? http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/sharedaccess/default.mspx You set up your PC, configure Steady State, and then it protects the OS from getting written to. Then on a system restart, all the OS files are back to how they were initially setup. You just need to configure Steady State on the OS partition, and then have the users data on another partition that is not protected. Hope this helps! :)
It looks promising JTranter. I'll read it deeply. Thank you!
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You could make a copy with the help of WinPE. (I am not much sure about how you can do it :)) Probably the following links will help you http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BartPE[^] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Preinstallation_Environment[^]
*jaans
After all the received comments, it seems that BartPE would be a good solution... Thank you for the links!
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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
I work at a college. We use Microsoft SteadyState in our computer labs. Since we started using it we've had no problems with students messing up the computers. It allows windows update to work. It even works with antivirus programs and allows them to stay up to date. We only wish we started using it sooner. The best part is it's free.
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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."
I'll talk to her brother in order to see how would he cope with restoring the OS using DriveImageXML (I think it shouldn't be a problem here). This would be the easiest way to go... Well, I've received a lot of options from the :bob:pians so I'll have a lot of work trying them finding the best one. Thank you for your comments!
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I work at a college. We use Microsoft SteadyState in our computer labs. Since we started using it we've had no problems with students messing up the computers. It allows windows update to work. It even works with antivirus programs and allows them to stay up to date. We only wish we started using it sooner. The best part is it's free.
This is the second reference to this software that I've received... I'll look at it deeply... Thank you!
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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 install the os, set it up exactly the way she wants it to be, then make a Ghost image of it to a CD or DVD? Then when she screws up the OS, just do a restore from the image. That way you aren't limiting her to using the CD, and if needs be, all her favourites etc can be copied off before the next restore is done. Alternatively if you can find out how she manages to screw up the OS, then give her account restricted privileges so she cant do the same thing the next time.