Category: How To

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Fixing Windows with Knoppix

ExtremeTech has a chapter of Hacking Knoppix on their site about using Knoppix to fix Windows. Included is useful information on partitioning, making changes to Windows, and Backing up data.

You or someone you know will encounter a seemingly unfixable problem with a Microsoft Windows operating system environment at one time or another. When this occurred in the past, most users would reinstall their operating systems, sometimes wiping out significant amounts of data that was needed on the system. Now you can use Knoppix to (often) correct your Windows system problems without losing any data and save the time associated with reinstalling all of the operating system files and applications.

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Linux screensaver for Windows

IBM’s developerWorks has another thorough article about LiveCDs. This time it involves modifying LiveCDs and turning them into screensavers for Windows.

There is sufficient free and open source software available nowadays to enable Linux to install and run as a Windows screensaver. This article shows you how to construct an appropriate CD or DVD, and in doing so, demonstrates that the “free” and “non-free” sides of the software Grand Canyon are not so far apart after all.

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Open source desktop basics: Risk-free ways to get started, part 2

SearchOpenSource.com has an intro to Knoppix and LiveCDs aimed at the business PC user. The article explains what a LiveCD is and what it can do in an accurate and understandable way.

It’s easy to take Linux for a test drive. Some Linux versions have been tailored to run from a CD. You just put the CD into the drive, reboot your machine, and Linux will be up and running. No installation is required; nothing will have to be written to your hard disk. When you’re done, take out the CD and reboot your PC again, and you’re back in Windows.

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Breathing Life Into Older Computers

ASE Labs is currently being slashdotted for bringing us an article on reviving an old computer by installing Damn Small Linux. There is good information in this article, including what to do if the computer doesn’t have a CD drive.

While this laptop might seem old and out-of-date now, it is small and light. I needed something I could easily carry around, so I figured I would see what I could salvage out of this dinosaur. Windows would have a hard time running on this low-spec laptop, but there are many distributions of Linux that will work exceptionally well. The one we’ll be using today is Damn Small Linux.

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Taking Linux On The Road With Ubuntu – Linux To Go

Tom’s Hardware has a review of an interesting product, the Ubuntu H2. It’s a 3 GB USB microdrive that comes with a bootable DVD to install Ubuntu onto it, for the purpose of booting Ubuntu off the USB device.

Once Linux is ready to go, you need to make the computer boot from the H2 Micro USB Drive. Usually computers will either boot from a CD/DVD, a floppy disc or the system hard drive. However, as we want to use the Ubuntu H2 as a portable operating system, we need to get the system to boot from USB.

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Windows In Your Pocket

Tom’s Hardware has a detailed article about installing Windows XP onto a USB flash drive using Bart PE Builder. Adding software like Firefox and Nero is also described in this article.

All it takes is a minor error in the Windows Registry or a virus infection, and your operating system can become unbootable. But with a properly configured USB flash drive on hand, you’ll always have a compatible replacement no further away than your pocket or keychain.