Accidently made Windows XP a Frugal Installation

[rockedge]

I thought about it before but wrote it off as a wild idea. Then while working with @wiak 's KL_multi script I started the script in the wrong place and when it stopped realized I had set it up wrong and the script homed in on a Windows XP ISO which the script promptly turned into WinXP instance0, instance1.....

So now staring at these wondering if I can using some chain load technique to fool XP instance1 to boot using the WIndows bootloader still floating around this system (once was a Windows 7 machine).

Maybe impossible, but it was kind of funny suddenly seeing Windows exist in KL_multi form with instance1 being like 3000 bytes in size. Ever hear of a Windows installation being around 3000 bytes and boot? Perhaps soon........

[rockedge]

Don't think any Windows boot mechanism will deal with the symlinks that make up the instances

[wiak]

Don't think any Windows boot mechanism will deal with the symlinks that make up the instances

Fascinating scenario, but yes that's a problem.

[rockedge]

Looking at instance0 and instance1:

Screenshot.png (43.71 KiB) Viewed 517 times

instance1 = 3117 Bytes

Screenshot(1).png (41.58 KiB) Viewed 517 times

But now wondering if it's possible to boot instance0.............

[rockedge]

A side note: when a KL_multi Puppy Linux setup is saving persistence the save folder is being saved in instance0. Which can manually be moved to the instanceXX the save was initiated from.

Edit1: Could there be a trick to have the -set-root that will map and point to a sub directory in a partition? Some examples I have below that kind of display the form it might take.

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# Boot from Partition Boot Sector

title Bionic64-CE (uuid/Bionic64-CE) (sda1:PBS)
  find --set-root uuid () 13ec514b-7e2d-43e1-b18e-ed4daceba563
  chainloader +1

title EasyOS (sdc1/EasyOS) (sdc1:PBS)

  find --set-root uuid () 2A82-770F
  chainloader +1

title Boot from sdb (WD My Book 1110)
  map (hd1) (hd0)
map (hd0) (hd1)
  map --hook
  chainloader (hd0)+1

Would it take stuffing the Windows XP boot loader into the frugal directory?

[rockedge]

looking deeper at it, and found some information booting WinXP using Grub4Dos

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map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
map --hook
root (hd0,0)
chainloader /ntldr
boot

Much like the embedded grldr, it just scans the root of all drives until it finds the file, and then tries to boot it\shows a menu entry. There are more complicated ways to populate all instances of ntldr, but who has more than 1 instance of Win XP these day? 1 is pushing it

I adapted it from the following for bootmgr, so if it doesn't work, its because i missed something simple. I will add this. /bootmgr is useless without \boot\bcd, so for error checking in anything bootmgr related on HDDs, i add a check for both files. I know ntldr used to be a thorn in my side as it was a common file in the root of various things for a long time, and the wrong drive would often get flagged if i had another ntldr in the root of another drive. So it doesn't get picked up as a win install cd or etc, i would put a check in for /ntldr and /windows/explorer.exe or something.

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iftitle [find --set-root --devices=h /bootmgr && call set bootmgr=%@root^%] Boot BOOTMGR of Windows VISTA/WIN7/WIN2008 on %bootmgr%\n    Boot BOOTMGR of Windows VISTA/WIN7/WIN2008 on %bootmgr%    

chainloader %bootmgr%/bootmgr

[rockedge]

This looks interesting -> https://nsis.sourceforge.io/Main_Page

NSIS (Nullsoft Scriptable Install System) is a professional open source system to create Windows installers. It is designed to be as small and flexible as possible and is therefore very suitable for internet distribution.

Being a user's first experience with your product, a stable and reliable installer is an important component of successful software. With NSIS you can create such installers that are capable of doing everything that is needed to setup your software.

NSIS is script-based and allows you to create the logic to handle even the most complex installation tasks. Many plug-ins and scripts are already available: you can create web installers, communicate with Windows and other software components, install or update shared components and more.

windows-xp-boot-process

[geo_c]

Maybe impossible, but it was kind of funny suddenly seeing Windows exist in KL_multi form with instance1 being like 3000 bytes in size. Ever hear of a Windows installation being around 3000 bytes and boot? Perhaps soon........

This reminds me of a comment I made to @wiak awhile back on one of the KLV topics, where I said, "Now firstrib WindowsXP." And here you are about to do it.

[wiak]

https://www.windowdoor.com/blog/4-ways- ... -worth-it/
4 Ways Cheap Window Installation Isn’t Worth It

Breezes and drafts from poor fitting or poorly installed windows can make your home energy inefficient, which ultimately can lead to high utility bills, discomfort and problems

[wiak]

I thought about it before but wrote it off as a wild idea. Then while working with @wiak 's KL_multi script I started the script in the wrong place and when it stopped realized I had set it up wrong and the script homed in on a Windows XP ISO which the script promptly turned into WinXP instance0, instance1.....

So now staring at these wondering if I can using some chain load technique to fool XP instance1 to boot using the WIndows bootloader still floating around this system (once was a Windows 7 machine).

Maybe impossible, but it was kind of funny suddenly seeing Windows exist in KL_multi form with instance1 being like 3000 bytes in size. Ever hear of a Windows installation being around 3000 bytes and boot? Perhaps soon........

Maybe if you installed Windows to ext4 with available ext4 read/write drivers for Windows would allow symlinks to work and some mechanism for booting Windows from a subdir found; even that would be very interesting to see. However... how are you going to get save persistence for the different instances without some sort of overlay (layers) approach?

[wiak]

Maybe the following is a way forward (experimentally) to boot windows on other drive formats and maybe more possibilities thereafter? Windows standard bootloader drive format capabilities is otherwise a problem...

https://github.com/maharmstone/quibble

There is also the following, which makes me imagine multi instance type boots might become possible with Windows some day. Seems crazy to me that Linux can so all this overlay stuff so well, but I haven't heard of Windows having similar flexibility before at all: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windo ... ite-filter

UWF can protect most supported writable storage types, including physical hard disks, solid-state drives, internal USB devices, and external SATA devices. You can't use UWF to protect external removable drives, USB devices or flash drives. Supports both master boot record (MBR) and GUID partition table (GPT) volumes.

You can use UWF to make read-only media appear to the OS as a writable volume.

You can manage UWF directly on a Windows 10 device using uwfmgr.exe, or remotely using MDM tools with the UnifiedWriteFilter CSP or the UWF WMI.

You can update and service UWF-protected devices by using UWF servicing mode or adding file and registry exclusions to specific system areas.

On Windows 10, version 1803, you can use a persistent overlay to allow data saved in the virtual overlay to remain even after a reboot.

[rockedge]

On Windows 10, version 1803, you can use a persistent overlay to allow data saved in the virtual overlay to remain even after a reboot.

This is interesting.

Also looked over the TinyXP and the creator of it used NSIS (Nullsoft Scriptable Install System) to create a boot menu/system that can allow Grub4Dos to boot the TinyXP in several different forms or boot Linux.

It appears it would be possible to use the NSIS to build something that will boot Windows from the sub directory. Will need to continue to experiment with it a bit to figure it all out.