Windows XP Mode – Boot From An ISO Instead Of XP

We set up a user’s Windows XP Mode a while back, ran updates and left it until it was needed.

One thing we neglected to do was to keep a record of the XPMUser local admin account.

Now, the setup process for Windows XP Mode takes a fair amount of time, so we dropped an ISO of ERD Commander onto the machine (our clients have MDOP) and hooked it into the Windows XP Mode VM.

One catch however was this: How do we boot from that ISO?

The answer was found after some searching here:

• Windows Seven Forums: How to Boot from a CD or DVD in a Windows Virtual PC

Essentially, we disable the Integration Features in the VM’s settings, reboot, and hit the DEL key until we get into the VM’s vBIOS. We can then change the boot order for the task at hand, make the password change, and set things back once into the OS.

Total time spent was about 5-10 minutes.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

MDOP - ERD Commander V6 - x86 or x64?

A bonus for having Software Assurance on all of our Windows Vista installations is the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP).

One of the kewlest tools in the MDOP pack is ERD Commander. It is a product that gives us low level access to the OS to bring about repairs or changes to get things working when things break.

It was also quite expensive prior to Microsoft's acquiring of Winternals.

There is a small caveat when working with the new version of the product: The OS architecture installed on the machine we are using to create the ERD utilities disk is the architecture that goes onto the disk.

That is, when creating the rescue tools disk from a Windows Vista x86 based machine, the rescue disk created will be x86 based and only work on x86 OS based machines.

If the rescue tools disk is created on a Windows Vista x64 based machine, then the rescue disk will also carry the x64 architecture and only work on x64 OS based machines.

Check out ERD Commander ... it is an absolutely amazing product with some awesome tools. It has saved our client's bacon many a time!

Many of those tools are not known very well either ... since most people are looking for BartPE disks for certain tasks when the tools for those tasks are actually available right here on the ERD Rescue Disk and not requiring any build finagling to get working ... if they have SA on Vista that is! ;)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack Links

These links should have been with the last post! :D

Microsoft Desktop Optimization:

• Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack for Software Assurance Page
• Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack - Tools
• Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack On-Demand Webcast
• Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack for Software Assurance - Wipro TCO White Paper
• MDOP on Microsoft Downloads

A snapshot of the toolset included in MDOP:


The above PDF is here: Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

MDOP 2008 Available for download for Open Licensing Clients

This update must have appeared relatively recently, as we did not see it until we logged in today:

MDOP 2008 Download

The big thing for us and what was our current Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) 2007 edition was the discovery of not being able to work with a Windows Vista installation that had a lost local admin password. The user had set things up so that once they were configured they did not need the admin account for any changes.

Booting to ERD Commander 2005 (a part of MDOP 2007) to change that admin password led us to the message that ERD Commander could not find any supported operating systems!

The MDOP 2008 download is a compressed file that upon extraction we could see:

ERD Commander 2005 plus two new files for 2008

Prior to running the Recovery Tools setup, the following files will be needed:

• Install Debugging Tools for Windows 32-bit Version
• Install Debugging Tools for Windows 64-bit Version (note Itanium version too)
• Download Windows Symbol Packages (if required)
• Debugging Tools for Windows - Overview page

We ran the x64 version of the MSI file as this workstation is running Windows Vista x64.

Here are some highlights from the install routine:

1. A Windows Vista DVD will be required to create the image:


• 

  Vista DVD required. ISO will not work.

2. Note that if the ERD setup is being run on x64 architecture, then the DVD for the image must also be an x64 based Vista OS.


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3. The setup will ask which tools need to be installed onto the bootable disk, we left the default which was the complete set.
4. Setup will ask for the Windows Debugging tools. Note the default folder location setup requests:


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5. Once the above files have been downloaded and installed, the folder location will actually look like this:


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6. The Standalone System Sweeper will request a definition download which we allowed. Note that the download may take a few minutes.
7. We are then presented with a request for additional drivers to be installed into the WinPE environment:


• 
8. Because we work primarily with Intel products, we made sure all of the regularly used RAID and NIC drivers were extracted and ready to install:


• 
9. We are then presented with the opportunity to add any additional files and folders that will be accessible once we boot to WinPE:


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10. Remember that any additional drivers and utilities that would be made available must be in the x64 flavour to work. We have a couple of bootable flash drives, one for x86 and one for x64 WinPE. We use them to install our lab images onto our lab systems. So, we pulled some of the necessary utilities from them to this WinPE setup too.
11. The ISO image will be generated to a folder we select.
12. Once the ISO image has been completed, we are presented with the option to burn it to a DVD.

The ERD Commander utility has more than paid for our Windows Vista Software Assurance. It provides us with a simple way to get into any system, whether DC, domain member, or standalone, to change the admin password. Thus we do not have to go through the pain of trying to figure out the plethora of other "admin password change solutions" out there.

There are also a huge number of additional utilities included with Windows Vista Software Assurance. It is well worth the expense.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.