Topic: [project] UXP - multiboot Install CD with DriverPacks & LiveXP
Hi everyone!
My first introduction to this project was this introduction from Bashrat:
I've started these DriverPacks because I wanted to achieve a Uniform UXPCD. Why in the world would you want support for all available hardware, I hear you thinking. Well, that's easy to explain: to be able to use these unattended Windows XP installation CD's on any computer (of course one that's capable of running Windows XP).
So in that thread at MSFN.org I asked how I could do that. Of course people were laughing at me (a quote: "I think you'd be naive to think you'd be able to fit the (latest) drivers of every device made since XP was launched, on the one cd").
And when I clicked on the link to learn more about this Uniform UXPCD - I've sadly noticed that MSFN had removed this important page: http://forum.driverpacks.net/viewtopic.php?id=1792
For those who don't know me - My experience is focused on boot disks based on Windows XP PE (Pre-Installed) environments and myself along with a talented group of people came a long way developing advanced tools to create these boot disks using all sort of available methods and even proposing new techniques to do things in a more efficient way.
One of our initial attempts was this project here: http://forum.driverpacks.net/viewtopic.php?id=1792
This is the reason why I've become so interested in supporting the effort of the driverpacks team since it unlocked the lack of hardware support to further expand the features found on these boot disks that we've been using so extensively over these last few years.
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So, in tribute to this goal I present here the uxp project in the hope to see this concept of the "uniform XP" alive and well.
It's a platform designed to automatically build a huge sized XP DVD with all sort of features desired by computer techs.
Simplicity is the goal as it allows newbies to get their results with a few clicks and be used as power tool for advanced administrators.
Users can use it to automate the process of including driverpacks, downloading updates with WUD and slipstreaming programs or tweaks with nlite.
As I've mentioned before, our area of expertise are boot disks and this special project comes with one of the finest boot disk ever made available for the XP PE environment - LiveXP.
For demonstration purposes, another project called WinRoot will create a XP PE boot disk sized in 5Mb.
Using multiboot provided by BCDW, users can select between installing Windows, running LiveXP for diagnostics/rescue of their machine or try out WinRoot for fun.
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What is the practical use for DriverPacks?
It will automate the steps of selecting a valid Windows XP source, creating a new copy of the source folders to where the driverpacks can be slipstreamed and create a new ISO image.
Right after these steps, a computer emulator (virtual box) is launched and imgburn runs right after to burn a new DVD/RW.
We can also add nlite, wud, Ryan VM or any other tool desired to perfect the install disk - the important part is that all these components are optional and can either be removed, run separately or all together.
With WinBuilder it also becomes simple to update scripts with newer versions and do all sort of operations needed to tweak windows files such as handling registry hives, modifying files and automating complicated/lengthy steps.
This way every newbie user will have a good platform to create their first "complete" install CD/DVD's without need for complications and for those who value customizations this becomes a very handy tool to quickly create very complex results and share them with others.
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Full screenshot presentation of this project can be found here:
http://winbuilder.net/e107_plugins/auto … ojects/uxp
This project was previously released on boot-land and msfn for beta testing purposes and further discuss improvements, please read them to know more details:
http://www.msfn.org/board/project-uxp-t113249.html
http://www.boot-land.net/forums/project-uxp-t3651.html
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I'm quite sure that very few projects ever got this far regarding the efficiency in combining several different tools into a single package and I'm now proudly presenting this project as a gift to the DriverPacks team.
From this moment forward I hope you consider this project as your own since you can do whatever you wish with this build platform as it is completely royalty free and all included third-party software is open source or freeware with respective permission to be distributed exclusively on the driverpacks.net site.
Our community on boot land is mostly inclined to develop boot disks as it is what we do best and I'm quite sure that here is where the experts regarding Windows Installs are found - so our attention will continue focused to a few other projects, but I'll always provide full support to teach other DriverPacks team members to modify the scripts and add more features and tools whenever you require.
Sorry for this lengthy post.
Hope you enjoy this free platform and long life to DriverPacks!!