Calling All Users of CD\DVD Boot!

re: Calling All Users of CD\DVD Boot!

Brad Jennings — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 18:54:01 GMT

I'm using CD Boot to boot a Windows PE image I built from the Windows XP Embedded Studio disks. I had a problem using TAP.EXE on the booted image because TAP doesn't run on Windows Vista. If the tools are compatible with the Bootable CD, that would be great.

re: Calling All Users of CD\DVD Boot!

Punit Java — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 02:33:28 GMT

Hey Brad,

When I talk about CD/DVD boot support, it is with reference to the Windows OS. Windows PE is a lightweight version of the OS designed for deployment scenarios, and will support on CD/DVD as well as USB boot for the forseeable future.

With respect to TAP.exe, it should run on Vista OS provided you are using a version shipped with Feature Pack 2007 or later. With earlier versions of tap.exe there was an OS versioning check that we removed.

Hope this information helps.

re: Calling All Users of CD\DVD Boot!

EmbeddedDoD — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 23:22:34 GMT

Hi, Punit; I work on an embedded system that is on a DoD-secured network; moving material (such as a new XPe image) from an unclassified system to a classified target system can only be done via readonly media such as CD or DVD; a USB memory stick is explicitly not allowed. So, being able to boot from a CD enables us to create a new image, put it on the CD, then boot the target device from the CD and copy the new XPe image onto the target. It's a small image, CDs do just fine.

Other industries may have similar requirements that certain data transfers can only go one way, and using bootable readonly media is an acceptable part of that process.

Thanks for your work on CD-bootable XPe; it's a good help.

re: Calling All Users of CD\DVD Boot!

Embedded — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 02:30:31 GMT

Hi EmbeddedDod,

With the release of Vista came a new set of tools for deploying OS images. Your scenario sounds like it would be a good match for Windows PE, which as I mention above is a lightweight OS that is capable of booting off a CD.

WinPE also allows you to load your own custom drivers, scripts, etc. which you can use to copy the bits onto, and configure the classified target system.

You can find the toolkit here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=C7D4BC6D-15F3-4284-9123-679830D629F2&displaylang=en

Feel free to e-mail wecrt@microsoft.com if you still have questions.

Cheers,

Punit