Portable fully functioning Windows XP on USB-Pen
I remember that i've read somewhere on the net that it is possible to run Windows XP from my USB Pen. I don't want to install from a USB, but being able to stick the usb pen anywhere and use it with a fully workable xp pro version. At my workplace we have VISTA with UNC and i can't use many of my applications that i need to do my job (im in sales and constantly on the run and don't have time to ask IT for every step).
Thanks.
Thanks.
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You could use a program like Virtual pc or Vmware to run an xp vitual machine inside vista and you could save the virtual machine on a usb key, however running the virtual machine from the key(which i believe is possible) would be a major performance bottleneck.
Than you can use virtual mashine approach - you have to be able to install/run the only application on your current computer - MS Virtual PC or Sun xVM virtual box or VMVare Player. Than you open one file(machine image) from your USB stick and you have your personal pc running with what OS you like(Win98, XP, Linux)... There are a lot of details but it could be your tool.
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Good. Good. Good. The "ball is rolling".... can the original OS System (in this case Vista) log/register or note that i have opened files on the VirtualMachine? Does anybody know what kind of "footprint" i leave on the Vista System? I don't want to leave traces of opened files on the main system.... ;-)
Unfortunately you can't run virtualisation software itself as portable application - it requires deep integration with OS including installation of custom drivers so administrative permissions will be required to install it on third party PC. Performance will depend on hardware support for virtualisation. VM images are several GB so portable hdd is much better.
Mostly no no traces. Only traces of VM support installation (Win7 has it preinstalled). All your files are inside virtual disk image file.
ASKER
Thanks ausmir for the quick, throughout answers.
You wrote: "Starting XP from USB stick hardly depends on BIOS and stick itself."
Do you mean that it doesn't matter if BIOS allows me to boot from usb? I don't understand if what you are saying is that i can boot from usb sticks, independently what the settings are in BIOS.
You wrote: "Starting XP from USB stick hardly depends on BIOS and stick itself."
Do you mean that it doesn't matter if BIOS allows me to boot from usb? I don't understand if what you are saying is that i can boot from usb sticks, independently what the settings are in BIOS.
Usb stick actually is not that simple - it has controller inside. There are several ways to show flash memory to external word through USB - device controller can emulate floppy,hard drive, cd... Each motheboard's BIOS has some level of support for each kind of emulated device. Boot from USB stick is sensitive to this two options - controller type and BIOS support. Time to time you can stuck with boot from THIS stick on THIS PC. It can be solved but it can be very time consuming. I think it's not the case for you.
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ausmir - that was awesome. Quick responses and professional! Thanks a lot my friend, i wish you the best of success. For the time being, i will test QEMU (from your last link) and let you know how it went!
Wish you well!
Wish you well!
ASKER
Going into testing modus...
ASKER
Just another comment i forgot. I've seen the many bootable applications/emulators for Windows XP (googling this is easy). I am contacting the experts, because these are not an option, because any decent IT department will disable booting from the usb ports. I need to login into my vista environment, plug in the usb pen and being able to go to that drive letter and work under the windows xp environment, installing, uninstalling programs etc.
This OS must run "side-by-side" with the actual one...
...i know i've read about it, but i've been searching my links/favorites/folders like crazy and can't find the reference/procedure to this.....