Google how to run Vista or Windows 7 from USB, and you'll probably find nothing (you'll find lots on how to install FROM usb tho!). I changed the registry keys like the manual method for XP after install (pre-install is .inf edits) and no joy. Might have been a CPU error, and may have worked otherwise, but I re-tried as follows.
Ingredients:
VMWare Player Windows 7 Beta DVD Toshiba 250G External HDD vdk (to mount vmdk image) Drive Snapshot usb_boot
I hope to edit this later, but basically, install Windows onto a virtual harddrive in VMware, mount with vdk in host os (my host was XP), Drive Snapshot it to file, Write that file to your USB device, and then use usb_boot (Does all those crazy registry edits for you with a batch file).
Also had to install the bootmgr manually, which you just run bcdedit or bcdconf or something like that. You can run it from your host OS once you mount the image.
If anyone reads this and I haven't updated yet and you want the details, please, leave a comment.
How well does it run? Ah, it's 667MHz what do you expect? I'm still waiting for my Windows Experience Index to calculate, it's taking awhile! :) I have bluetooth for module internets and haven't messed with anything, it's usable. You can go to classic theme to get lots of speed back, as well as turning off other eye candy and wallpapers, which I plan to do if I use it. It's more of a show-off, "Look what I can do" for now. I've never used anything newer than XP before so it's something new to toy with.
Not sure if it'll do this with a normal shutdown, but those registry keys seem to get overwritten sometimes and I'll have to re-run the usb_boot.cmd from XP to get back into Vista. XP never broke it's registry keys after I changed them... Might have been improper shutdown, only did 2 so far.. The usb_boot deal I found is suppose to run a service which fixes the registry keys periodically or something, so more on that later as well.
Well, it's running from USB and it's been stuck on Assessing Disk Performance for a bit!
Finally, scores--
Processor: 1.1 (wow, .1 above expected lol) RAM: 2.0 Graphics: 1.0 Gaming Graphics: 1.0 Primary hard disk: 2.9 (wow again, 1.9 above expected)
oops, NOTE- Graphics drivers weren't installed yet. Standard VGA still... Hard to connect to Windows Update over this slow proxied bluetooth, so again, maybe later...
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