C
cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)
Vista is the first NT-based OS to ship with a maintenance OS...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maintenance_OS
.... as accessed by booting the Vista DVD (which is when you don't want
to be a victim of large-OEM "Genuine Advantage") and going to the
Repair section, Command prompt.
In addition, WinPE 2.0 availability has been liberalized.
However, in practice, these seem to limit what programs can do, in
terms of "admin rights". Generally, an app that needs "run as admin"
in Vista, won't work in Vista's mOS modes.
That rules out hard drive diagnostics like HD Tune, data recovery
tools that must access the disk below the file system, and most
antivirus scanners. In Vista64, it's worse; without the ability to
host Win32 programs, Vista64's mOS is very limited indeed.
Have folks worked with these contexts, and found solutions?
Coming from years of maintaining XP systems using Bart PE, a Bart
feature that I really appreciate is Paraglider's RunScanner plug-in.
What this does, is bind into whatever is shelled by it, and rfedirect
all registry access from that program to the inactive registry hives
within the HD installation, as if that installation was booted into
effect. This permits registry-aware tools such as MSConfig,
HiJackThis, Nirsoft's integration checkers, Regedit, and a variety of
registry-aware antimalware scanners to operate on the HD installation
without being at risk from malware that may be embedded in that.
This contrasts with the traditional approach of manually binding hives
to HKLM in "normal" Regedit, which results in these hives changing
thier paths. A scanner expecting to find and process HKLM\..\Run is
not going to switch to HKLM\ArbitraryNameOfHive\..\Run instead.
Does anyone know if this functionality is available for Vista?
As Bart stands, it won't access Vista's registry via RunScanner. It's
possible that a "Bart PE 4.xx" will follow to encompass this, or maybe
Paraglider or someone else will do a RunScanner for WinPE 2.0 that
will work with Vista's registry. Or maybe MS will cook something up?
Given how different Vista and XP are, and given that MS WinPE 2.0 is
at last available to mere mortals, perhaps building a "Bart 4" from
the ground up is not the best way to go. Better may be a plugin
framework (as exists on Bart) for WinPE 2.0?
There are a third set of design limitations that makes the mOS
component of the Vista DVD less useful, i.e.:
- a large amount of GUI and code has to be traversed to get there
- it won't let you get there unless it "sees" a Vista installation
Neither of those are good news in the context of suspect hardware,
failing hard drive, corrupted and at-risk file systems, etc. as they
increase the risk of things going wrong and collateral damage.
a match to see if what you are standing in is water or petrol.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maintenance_OS
.... as accessed by booting the Vista DVD (which is when you don't want
to be a victim of large-OEM "Genuine Advantage") and going to the
Repair section, Command prompt.
In addition, WinPE 2.0 availability has been liberalized.
However, in practice, these seem to limit what programs can do, in
terms of "admin rights". Generally, an app that needs "run as admin"
in Vista, won't work in Vista's mOS modes.
That rules out hard drive diagnostics like HD Tune, data recovery
tools that must access the disk below the file system, and most
antivirus scanners. In Vista64, it's worse; without the ability to
host Win32 programs, Vista64's mOS is very limited indeed.
Have folks worked with these contexts, and found solutions?
Coming from years of maintaining XP systems using Bart PE, a Bart
feature that I really appreciate is Paraglider's RunScanner plug-in.
What this does, is bind into whatever is shelled by it, and rfedirect
all registry access from that program to the inactive registry hives
within the HD installation, as if that installation was booted into
effect. This permits registry-aware tools such as MSConfig,
HiJackThis, Nirsoft's integration checkers, Regedit, and a variety of
registry-aware antimalware scanners to operate on the HD installation
without being at risk from malware that may be embedded in that.
This contrasts with the traditional approach of manually binding hives
to HKLM in "normal" Regedit, which results in these hives changing
thier paths. A scanner expecting to find and process HKLM\..\Run is
not going to switch to HKLM\ArbitraryNameOfHive\..\Run instead.
Does anyone know if this functionality is available for Vista?
As Bart stands, it won't access Vista's registry via RunScanner. It's
possible that a "Bart PE 4.xx" will follow to encompass this, or maybe
Paraglider or someone else will do a RunScanner for WinPE 2.0 that
will work with Vista's registry. Or maybe MS will cook something up?
Given how different Vista and XP are, and given that MS WinPE 2.0 is
at last available to mere mortals, perhaps building a "Bart 4" from
the ground up is not the best way to go. Better may be a plugin
framework (as exists on Bart) for WinPE 2.0?
There are a third set of design limitations that makes the mOS
component of the Vista DVD less useful, i.e.:
- a large amount of GUI and code has to be traversed to get there
- it won't let you get there unless it "sees" a Vista installation
Neither of those are good news in the context of suspect hardware,
failing hard drive, corrupted and at-risk file systems, etc. as they
increase the risk of things going wrong and collateral damage.
Running Windows-based av to kill active malware is like striking
a match to see if what you are standing in is water or petrol.