Microsoft has just released a developer preview of their upcoming operating system Windows 8. Users from all over the world can download the preview and install it on their systems. There is only one restriction with regards to the installation: You cannot update an existing copy of Windows, the Windows 8 installation requires a clean install.

I thought it would be perfect for my Acer notebook. It is fairly underpowered by today’s standards, and does not come with a DVD drive which I could use otherwise to install Windows 8.

The only viable option in this case is to install from USB keys, sticks or drives. Installation is a little bit difficulty, as it requires more preparation than just burning an ISO image to disk and putting that ISO into the DVD drive of the computer.

You need an USB key with at least four Gigabytes of free space. The first step is to format the key with the FAT32 file system. This is done by connecting the USB key to the computer, right-clicking its drive letter and selecting Format from the options. The Format window pops up where you need to make sure that Fat32 is the selected file system. Everything else can be left as is.

Wait until the formatting has finished. You now need access to the Windows 8 ISO or DVD. The developer preview is only provided as an ISO image. Check out Windows 8 Download for instructions or download the developer preview right here.

The easiest way to copy Windows 8 to an USB drive and make that drive bootable at the same time is to use Microsoft’s Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool. While designed specifically for Windows 7, it appears to work just fine to create a bootable Windows 8 USB key as well.

Just select the Windows 8 ISO when asked to pick an ISO image from the computer. Then select to copy the contents to an USB drive. The program will copy all files to the drive and make that drive bootable at the same time. You can download the Microsoft tool from here.

Install Windows 8

You plug in your USB key into the computer you want to install Windows 8 on. You need to tell the computer on first start to boot from USB and not from hard drive or another location. This is done in the Bios. You usually enter the Bios with F1, F1, Delete, Esc or another key that is highlighted on the screen on Post. Press that key and look for an entry that says Boot or Boot order and make sure that USB has the highest priority on the system. You can easily repeat the steps if the computer is not booting from USB.

The computer should pick up the installation files on the USB drive automatically and installation should commence.

Windows 8 has the following system requirements:

1 Gigahertz or faster 32-bit or 64-bit processor
1 Gigabyte of RAM for 32-bit, 2 Gigabytes of RAM for 64-bit minimum
16 Gigabyte hard drive for 32-bit systems, 20 Gigabyte for 64-bit systems
Direct X 9 graphics card
Update: It is also possible to install Windows 8 by mounting the ISO image directly on another Windows system. The instructions have been posted on Reddit (via):

If you want to install the Windows Developer Preview, but have no blank DVDs or usable thumb drives, fear not. It’s fairly simple. This assumes you are installing the preview on a computer already running Windows, of course.

Download the ISO file from Microsoft.
Mount the ISO using Daemon Tools, Clone Drive, or similar.
This is important. Do not use the autorun installer. The autorun installer only allows you to upgrade your existing Windows installation and will not allow you to install to a separate hard drive or partition.
Navigate to the virtual install disc and go to the folder called “sources”.
Run setup.exe and proceed as if installing Windows Vista or 7.

The Windows 8 developer preview is out for all to try, but installing it over your main Windows setup is a scary (and unrealistic) prospect. Here’s how to dual boot Windows 8 with your current Windows 7 installation so you can run them both side by side.
If you’ve ever dual booted a machine before, this shouldn’t seem too foreign. All you need to do is create a new partition for Windows 8, install it on that partition, and then edit your new boot menu so Windows 7 stays the default OS. Here’s how to do it.

Step One: Create a New Partition

Before you start, make a backup of your data—you’re going to be formatting drives and installing OSes, so anything could go wrong, and you don’t want to lose your whole system. When you’re ready, we’ll need to create some space for Windows 8 on your hard drive. Assuming you have at least 20GB of space free on your drive, you’re going to use Windows’ Disk Management to set partition those 20GB for Windows 8. Open the Start Menu and right click on the “Computer” option. Click “Manage”, and in the window that appears, click on “Disk Management” in the left sidebar.

Find your system hard disk in the graphical list that appears in the bottom pane. Right-click on it and then click “Shrink Volume”. Shrink it down so you have at least 20GB of space left on the end of the drive, and click OK. Then, click on the “Unallocated” block of that drive that appears and click “New Simple Volume”. Click Next on the next few windows until you get to the “Format Partition” window. Here, give it a volume label you’ll recognize (like “Windows 8″) and click Next. It should format the drive for you. Now you’re all set to install Windows 8.

Step Two: Install Windows 8

If you haven’t downloaded the Developer Preview ISO yet, head over to the Windows Developer Center and download it. Burn it onto a DVD using something like ImgBurn,or burn it to a thumb drive if you don’t have a DVD drive in your machine. Make sure your computer is set to boot from CD or USB, stick in your installation media, and reboot.

If you get a prompt to “Press any key to boot from DVD”, then hit a key on your keyboard. You should boot right into the Windows 8 installer. It actually looks almost exactly like the Windows 7 installer, so it should seem a little familiar. Just pick your language, hit “Install Now”, and choose “Custom” when asked what type of install you’d like to perform.

On the next screen, find your new partition on the list of drives. Make sure it’s the right one, because you’re about to write over whatever’s on it. Hit “Next” and let the installer do its thing. When you’re done, your computer should reboot into Windows 8. It’ll probably reboot one more time after it does, then you’ll be greeted with the Windows 8 Start screen. If you choose to enter a Windows Live ID here, make sure you have access to your email and can confirm your computer—otherwise it might not let you boot into it.

Step Three: Make Windows 7 the Default (Optional)

You’ll notice when you first boot up into Windows 8 that you’re presented with a new graphical boot menu that’ll let you choose between your Windows 7 and Windows 8 installations. Windows 8 will be the default, meaning if you don’t manually choose Windows 7 from the menu, your computer will boot into Windows 8 after three seconds of inactivity. Chances are, you don’t want to make Windows 8 the default quite yet, so here’s how to make Windows 7 the default.

On the boot menu, click on the button at the bottom that says “Change Defaults or Choose Other Options”, and hit “Choose the Default Operating System”. From there, you can pick Windows 7 from the menu. From now on, your computer will boot into Windows 7 by default, but if you feel like playing around with Windows 8 that day, you can just pick it from the boot menu. Enjoy playing with the developer preview, and let us know what you think in the comments.

Hiren’s Boot CD is a boot CD containing various diagnostic programs such as partitioning agents, system performance benchmarks, disk cloning and imaging tools, data recovery tools, MBR tools, BIOS tools, and many others for fixing various computer problems. It is a Bootable CD; thus, it can be useful even if the primary operating system cannot be booted. Hiren’s Boot CD has an extensive list of software. Utilities with similar functionality on the CD are grouped together and seem redundant; however, they present choices through UI differences. Hiren’s BootCD – All in one Dos Bootable CD which has all these utilities.

Download & Website: Hirens BootCD

All in One Bootable CD which has all these utilities:

Partition Tools
Partition Magic Pro 8.05 Best software to partition hard drive
Acronis Disk Director 10.0.2160 Popular disk management functions in a single suite
Paragon Partition Manager 7.0.1274 Universal tool for partitions
Partition Commander 9.01 The safe way to partition your hard drive,with undo feature
Ranish Partition Manager 2.44 a boot manager and hard disk partitioner.
The Partition Resizer 1.3.4 move and resize your partitions in one step and more.
Smart Fdisk 2.05 a simple harddisk partition manager
SPecial Fdisk 2000.03v SPFDISK a partition tool.
eXtended Fdisk 0.9.3 XFDISK allows easy partition creation and edition
GDisk 1.1.1 Complete replacement for the DOS FDISK utility and more.
Super Fdisk 1.0 Create, delete, format partitions drives without destroying data.
Partition Table Editor 8.0 Partition Table and Boot Record Editor
EASEUS Partition Master 4.1.1 Partition Resize/Move/Copy/Create/Delete/Format/Convert, Explore, etc.
USB Format Tool Format/make bootable any USB flash drive to FAT, FAT32, or NTFS partition.

Backup Tools
ImageCenter 5.6 (Drive Image 2002) Best software to clone hard drive
Norton Ghost 11.5 Similar to Drive Image (with usb/scsi support)
Acronis True Image 8.1.945 Create an exact disk image for complete system backup and disk cloning.
Partition Saving 3.71 A tool to backup/restore partitions. (SavePart.exe)
COPYR.DMA Build013 A Tool for making copies of hard disks with bad sectors
DriveImageXML 2.13 backup any drive/partition to an image file, even if the drive is currently in use
Drive SnapShot 1.39 creates an exact Disk Image of your system into a file while windows is running.
Ghost Image Explorer 11.5 to add/remove/extract files from Ghost image file
DriveImage Explorer 5.0 to add/remove/extract files from Drive image file
WhitSoft File Splitter 4.5a a Small File Split-Join Tool
InfraRecorder 0.50 An Open source CD/DVD burning software, also create/burn .iso images
FastCopy 1.99r4 The Fastest Copy/Delete Software on Windows
Smart Driver Backup 2.12 Easy backup of your Windows device drivers (also works from PE)
Double Driver 2.1 Driver Backup and Restore tool
DriverBackup! 1.0.3 Another handy tool to backup drivers
RegBak 1.0 a light-weight and simple utility to create backups of Windows registry files

Recovery Tools
Active Partition Recovery 3.0To Recover a Deleted partition.
Active Uneraser 3.0 To recover deleted files and folders on FAT and NTFS systems.
Ontrack Easy Recovery Pro 6.10 To Recover data that has been deleted/virus attack
Winternals Disk Commander 1.1 more than just a standard deleted-file recovery utility
TestDisk 6.11.3 Tool to check and undelete partition from Dos/Windows
DiyDataRecovery Diskpatch 2.1.100 An excellent data recovery software.
Prosoft Media Tools 5.0 v1.1.2.64 Another excellent data recovery software with many other options.
PhotoRec 6.11.3 Tool to Recover File and pictures from Dos/Windows
Active Undelete 5.5 a tool to recover deleted files
Restoration 3.2.13 a tool to recover deleted files
GetDataBack for FAT 4.0 Data recovery software for FAT file systems
GetDataBack for NTFS 4.0 Data recovery software for NTFS file systems
Recuva 1.32 Restore deleted files from Hard Drive, Digital Camera Memory Card, usb mp3 player…
Partition Find and Mount 2.3.1 Partition Find and Mount software is designed to find lost or deleted partitions
Unstoppable Copier 4.2 Allows you to copy files from disks with problems such as bad sectors, scratches or that just give errors when reading data.

Testing Tools
System Speed Test 4.78 it tests CPU, harddrive, ect.
PC-Check 6.05 Easy to use hardware tests
Ontrack Data Advisor 5.0 Powerful diagnostic tool for assessing the condition of your computer
The Troubleshooter 7.02 all kind of hardware testing tool
CPU/Video/Disk Performance Test 5.7 a tool to test cpu, video, and disk
Test Hard Disk Drive 1.0 a tool to test Hard Disk Drive
Disk Speed1.0 Hard Disk Drive Speed Testing Tool
S&M Stress Test 1.9.1 cpu/hdd/memory benchmarking and information tool, including temperatures/fan speeds/voltages
IsMyLcdOK (Monitor Test) 1.02 Allows you to test CRT/LCD/TFT screens for dead pixels and diffective screens

RAM (Memory) Testing Tools
GoldMemory 5.07 RAM Test utility
Memtest86+ 4.00 PC Memory Test
MemTest 1.0 a Memory Testing Tool
Video Memory Stress Test 1.7.116 a tool to thoroughly test your video RAM for errors and faults

Hard Disk Tools
Hard Disk Diagnostic Utilities
Seagate Seatools Graphical v2.13b
SeaTools for Dos 1.10
Western Digital Data Lifeguard Tools 11.2
Western Digital Diagnostics (DLGDIAG) 5.04f
Maxtor PowerMax 4.23
Maxtor amset utility 4.0
Maxtor(or any Hdd) Low Level Formatter 1.1
Fujitsu HDD Diagnostic Tool 7.00
Fujitsu IDE Low Level Format 1.0
Samsung HDD Utility(HUTIL) 2.10
Samsung Disk Diagnose (SHDIAG) 1.28
Samsung The Drive Diagnostic Utility (ESTOOL) 3.00g
IBM/Hitachi Drive Fitness Test 4.16
IBM/Hitachi Feature Tool 2.15
Gateway GwScan 5.12
ExcelStor’s ESTest 4.50
MHDD 4.6
WDClear 1.30
Toshiba Hard Disk Diagnostic 2.00b

HDD Regenerator 1.71 to recover a bad hard drive
HDAT2 4.53 main function is testing and repair (regenerates) bad sectors for detected devices
Ontrack Disk Manager 9.57 Disk Test/Format/Maintenance tool.
Norton Disk Doctor 2002 a tool to repair a damaged disk, or to diagnose your hard drive.
Norton Disk Editor 2002 a powerful disk editing, manual data recovery tool.
Hard Disk Sentinel 0.04 Hard Disk health, performance and temperature monitoring tool.
Active Kill Disk 4.1 Securely overwrites and destroys all data on physical drive.
SmartUDM 2.00 Hard Disk Drive S.M.A.R.T. Viewer.
Victoria 3.33e and 3.52rus a freeware program for low-level HDD diagnostics
HDD Erase 4.0 Secure erase using a special feature built into most newer hard drives
HDD Scan 3.2 HDDScan is a Low-level HDD diagnostic tool, it scans surface find bad sectors etc.
HDTune 2.55 Hard disk benchmarking and information tool.
Data Shredder 1.0 A tool to Erase disk and files (also wipe free space) securely

System Information Tools
PCI and AGP info Tool (1811) The PCI System information & Exploration tool.
System Analyser 5.3w View extensive information about your hardware
Navratil Software System Information 0.60.38 High-end professional system information tool
Astra 5.44 Advanced System info Tool and Reporting Assistant
HWiNFO 5.3.0
a powerful system information utility
SysChk 2.46 Find out exactly what is under the hood of your PC
CPU Identification utility 1.18 Detailed information on CPU (CHKCPU.EXE)
CTIA CPU Information 2.7 another CPU information tool
Drive Temperature 1.0 Hard Disk Drive temperature meter
PC Wizard 2009.1.911 Powerful system information/benchmark utility designed especially for detection of hardware.
SIW 2009-10-22 Gathers detailed information about your system properties and settings.
CPU-Z 1.52 It gathers information on some of the main devices of your system
GPU-Z 0.3.6 A lightweight utility designed to give you all information about your video card and GPU
PCI 32 Sniffer 1.4 (1811) device information tool (similar to unknown devices)
UnknownDevices 1.4.20 (1811) helps you find what those unknown devices in Device Manager really are
USBDeview 1.47 View/Uninstall all installed/connected USB devices on your system

MBR (Master Boot Record) Tools
MBRWork 1.07b a utility to perform some common and uncommon MBR functions
MBRTool 2.3.200 backup, verify, restore, edit, refresh, remove, display, re-write…
DiskMan 4.2 all in one tool for cmos, bios, bootrecord and more
BootFix Utility Run this utility if you get ‘Invalid system disk’
MBR SAVE / RESTORE 2.1 BootSave and BootRest tools to save / restore MBR
Boot Partition 2.60 add Partition in the Windows NT/2000/XP Multi-boot loader
Smart Boot Manager 3.7.1 a multi boot manager
MBRWizard 2.0b Directly update and modify the MBR (Master Boot Record)
Grub4Dos installer 1.1 an universal boot loader GRUB for DOS installer
MbrFix 1.3 To backup, restore, fix the boot code in the MBR

BIOS / CMOS Tools
CMOS 0.93 CMOS Save / Restore Tool
BIOS Cracker 5.0 BIOS password remover (cmospwd)
BIOS Utility 1.35.0 BIOS Informations, password, beep codes and more.
!BIOS 3.20 a powerfull utility for bios and cmos
DISKMAN4 a powerful all in one utility
UniFlash 1.40 bios flash utility
Kill CMOS a tiny utility to wipe cmos
Award DMI Configuration Utility 2.43 DMI Configuration utility for modifying/viewing the MIDF contents.

MultiMedia Tools
Picture Viewer 1.94 Picture viewer for dos, supports more then 40 filetypes.
QuickView Pro 2.58 movie viewer for dos, supports many format including divx.
MpxPlay 1.56 a small Music Player for dos

Password Tools
Active Password Changer 3.0.420 To Reset User Password on windows NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista (FAT/NTFS)
Offline NT/2K/XP Password Changer utility to reset windows nt/2000/xp administrator/user password.
Registry Reanimator 1.02 Check and Restore structure of the Damaged Registry files of NT/2K/XP
NTPWD utility to reset windows nt/2000/xp administrator/user password.
Registry Viewer 4.2 Registry Viewer/Editor for Win9x/Me/NT/2K/XP
ATAPWD 1.2 Hard Disk Password Utility
TrueCrypt 6.3 On-the-fly disk encryption tool, can create a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mount it as a real disk, can also encrypt an entire HDD/Partition/USB Drive
Content Advisor Password Remover 1.01 It Removes Content Advisor Password from Internet Explorer
Password Renew 1.1 Utility to (re)set windows passwords
WindowsGate 1.1 Enables/Disables Windows logon password validation
WinKeyFinder 1.73 Allows you to View and Change Windows XP/2003 Product Keys, backup and restore
activation related files, backup Microsoft Office 97, 2000 SP2, XP/2003 keys etc.
XP Key Reader 2.7 Can decode the XP-key on Local or Remote systems
ProduKey 1.38 Recovers lost the product key of your Windows/Office
WirelessKeyView 1.30 Recovers all wireless network keys (WEP/WPA) stored in your computer by WZC
MessenPass 1.27 A password recovery tool that reveals the passwords of several instant messangers
Mail PassView 1.52 Recovers mail passwords of Outlook Express, MS Outlook, IncrediMail, Eudora, etc.
Asterisk Logger 1.04 Reveal passwords hidden behind asterisk characters

NTFS (FileSystems) Tools
NTFS Dos Pro 5.0 To access ntfs partitions from Dos
NTFS 4 Dos 1.9 To access ntfs partitions from Dos
Paragon Mount Everything 3.0 To access NTFS, Ext2FS, Ext3FS partitions from dos
NTFS Dos 3.02 To access ntfs partitions from Dos
EditBINI 1.01 to Edit boot.ini on NTFS Partition

Browsers / File Managers
Volkov Commander 4.99 Dos File Manager with LongFileName/ntfs support
(Similar to Norton Commander)
Dos Command Center 5.1 Classic dos-based file manager.
File Wizard 1.35 a file manager – colored files, drag and drop copy, move, delete etc.
File Maven 3.5 an advanced Dos file manager with high speed PC-to-PC file
transfers via serial or parallel cable
FastLynx 2.0 Dos file manager with Pc to Pc file transfer capability
Dos Navigator 6.4.0 Dos File Manager, Norton Commander clone but has much more features.
Mini Windows 98
Can run from Ram Drive, with ntfs support,
Added 7-Zip, Disk Defragmenter, Notepad / RichText Editor,
Image Viewer, .avi .mpg .divx .xvid Movie Player, etc…
Mini Windows Xp
Portable Windows Xp that runs from CD/USB/Ram Drive, with Network and SATA support
7-Zip 9.07 beta File Manager/Archiver Supports 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2, TAR, RAR, CAB, ISO, ARJ, LZH, CHM, MSI, WIM, Z, CPIO, RPM, DEB and NSIS formats
Opera Web Browser 8.53 One of the fastest, smallest and smartest full-featured web browser

Other Tools
Ghost Walker 11.5 utility that changes the security ID (SID) for Windows NT, 2000 and XP
DosCDroast beta 2 Dos CD Burning Tools
Universal TCP/IP Network 6.4 MSDOS Network Client to connect via TCP/IP to a Microsoft based network. The network can either be a peer-to-peer or a server based
network, it contains 91 different network card drivers
HxD 1.7.7.0 Hex Editor provides tools to inspect and edit files, main memory, disks/disk images
Virtual Floppy Drive 2.1 enables you to create and mount a virtual floppy drive on your NT/2000/XP/Vista
FileDisk Mount Tool 25 to mount ISO/BIN/NRG/MDF/IMA images on windows.
Streams 1.56 Reveal/Delete NTFS alternate data streams
NewSID 4.10 utility that changes the security ID (SID) for Windows NT, 2000 and XP

Dos Tools
USB CD-Rom Driver 1 Standard usb_cd.sys driver for cd drive
Universal USB Driver 2
Panasonic v2.20 ASPI Manager for USB mass storage
ASUSTeK USB Driver 3
ASUS USB CD-ROM Device Driver Version 1.00
SCSI Support SCSI Drivers for Dos
SATA Support SATA Driver (gcdrom.sys) and JMicron JMB361 (xcdrom.sys) for Dos
1394 Firewire Support 1394 Firewire Drivers for Dos
Interlnk support at COM1 To access another computer from COM port
Interlnk support at LPT1 To access another computer from LPT port

and too many great dos tools
very good collection of dos utilitiesextract.exe pkzip.exe pkunzip.exe lha.exe gzip.exe
uharcd.exe imgExtrc.exe xcopy.exe diskcopy.com mouse.com
undelete.com edit.com fdisk.exe fdisk2.exe fdisk3.exe
lf.exe delpart.exe wipe.com zap.com format.com
deltree.exe more.com find.exe hex.exe debug.exe
split.exe mem.exe attrib.com sys.com smartdrv.exe
xmsdsk.exe killer.exe share.exe scandisk.exe scanreg.exe
guest.exe doskey.exe duse.exe move.exe setver.exe
intersvr.exe interlnk.exe loadlin.exe lfndos.exe doslfn.com

Cleaners
SpaceMonger 1.4 keeping track of the free space on your computer
WinDirStat 1.1.2.80 a disk usage statistics viewer and cleanup tool for Windows.
CCleaner 2.25 Crap Cleaner is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool

Optimizers
PageDfrg 2.32 System file Defragmenter For NT/2k/XP
NT Registry Optimizer 1.1j Registry Optimization for Windows NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista
DefragNT 1.9 This tool presents the user with many options for disk defragmenting
JkDefrag 3.36 Free disk defragment and optimize utility for Windows 2000/2003/XP/Vista/Windows 7

Network Tools
Angry IP Scanner 2.21 Scan IP addresses in any range as well as any their ports
CurrPorts 1.80 displays the list of all currently opened TCP and UDP ports on your computer
TCPView 2.54 Lists TCP and UDP endpoints, including the Local/Remote addresses of TCP connections
Winsock 2 Fix for 9x to fix corrupted Winsock2 information by poorly written Internet programs
XP TCP/IP Repair 1.0 Repair your Windows XP Winsock and TCP/IP registry errors

Process Tools
Dependency Walker 2.2 Checks for missing/invalid DLL/modules/functions for any exe/dll/ocx/sys.
IB Process Manager 1.04 a little process manager for 9x/2k, shows dll info etc.
Process Explorer 11.33 shows you information about which handles and DLLs processes have opened or loaded
OpenedFilesView 1.46 View opened/locked files in your system, sharing violation issues
Pocket KillBox 2.0.0.978 can be used to get rid of files that stubbornly refuse to allow you to delete them
ProcessActivityView 1.10 Detailed process access information read/write/opened files etc
Unlocker 1.8.8 This tool can delete file/folder when you get this message – Cannot delete file: Access is denied, The file is in use by another program etc.

Registry Tools
RegScanner 1.80 Tool to find/search in the Registry of Windows
Registry Editor PE 0.9c Easy editing of remote registry hives and user profiles
Registry Restore Wizard 1.0.4 Restores a corrupted system registry from Xp System Restore

Startup Tools
Autoruns 9.56 Displays All the entries from startup folder, Run, RunOnce, and other Registry keys, Explorer shell extensions,toolbars, browser helper objects, Winlogon notifications, auto-start services, Scheduled Tasks, Winsock, LSA Providers, Remove Drivers
and much more which helps to remove nasty spyware/adware and viruses.
Silent Runners Revision 60 A free script that helps detect spyware, malware and adware in the startup process
Startup Control Panel 2.8 a tool to edit startup programs
Startup Monitor 1.02 it notifies you when any program registers itself to run at system startup
HijackThis 2.0.2 a general homepage hijackers detector and remover and more

Tweakers
Dial a Fix 0.60.0.24 Fix errors and problems with COM/ActiveX object errors and missing registry entries, Automatic Updates, SSL, HTTPS, and Cryptography service (signing/verification) issues, Reinstall internet explorer etc. comes with the policy scanner
Ultimate Windows Tweaker 2.0 A TweakUI Utility for tweaking and optimizing Windows Vista
TweakUI 2.10 This PowerToy gives you access to system settings that are not exposed in the Windows Xp
Xp-AntiSpy 3.97.5 it tweaks some Windows XP functions, and disables some unneeded Windows services quickly
Shell Extensions Manager (ShellExView) 1.45 An excellent tool to View and Manage all installed Context-menu/Shell extensions
EzPcFix 1.0.0.16 Helpful tool when trying to remove viruses, spyware, and malware
RemoveWGA 1.2 Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications Removal tool
RRT – Remove Restrictions Tool 3.0 To Re-enable Ctrl+Alt+Del, Folder Options and Registry tools etc.

Antivirus Tools
Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool 7.0.0.290 (1811)

Free on-demand virus scanner from Kaspersky Lab to remove viruses.
Spybot – Search & Destroy 1.6.2 (1811) Application to scan for spyware, adware, hijackers and other malicious software.
Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware 1.41 (1811) anti-malware application that can thoroughly remove even the most advanced malware.
SpywareBlaster 4.2 (1811)
Prevent the installation of spyware and other potentially unwanted software.
SmitFraudFix 2.424 This removes Some of the popular Desktop Hijack malware
ComboFix (1811) Designed to cleanup malware infections and restore settings modified by malware
CWShredder 2.19 Popular CoolWebSearch Trojan Remover tool
RootkitRevealer 1.7.1 Rootkit Revealer is an advanced patent-pending root kit detection utility.
SuperAntispyware 4.30 (1811) Remove Malware, Rootkits, Spyware, Adware, Worms, Parasites (a must have tool)

Changelog:
+ BootCD Customizer to create custom bootable cd
+ RegBak 1.0
+ Grub4Dos installer 1.1
+ USB Format Tool
+ MbrFix 1.3
+ MBRWizard 2.0b (for windows)
+ Diskman 4.2 (for windows)
+ FileDisk Mount Tool 25
+ GPU-Z 0.3.6
+ Dependency Walker 2.2
- ace.exe rar.exe arj.exe unrar.exe
- PC-Config 9.33
- BootMagic
- PC Doctor 2004
- LapLink 5.0
- Lost & Found 1.06
- Partition Table Doctor 3.5
Program Launcher 1.3 (Autorun.exe)
BIOS Cracker 5.0
EASEUS Partition Master 4.1.1
DriveImage XML 2.13
Recuva 1.32
Memtest86+ 4.00
IBM/Hitachi Drive Fitness Test 4.16
IBM/Hitachi Feature Tool 2.15
Navratil Software System Information 0.60.38
Astra 5.44
CPU Identification utility 1.18
PC Wizard 2009.1.911
SIW 2009-10-22
USBDeview 1.47
MBRTool 2.3.200
TrueCrypt 6.3
ProduKey 1.38
WirelessKeyView 1.30
MessenPass 1.27
Mail PassView 1.52
Opera Web Browser 8.53 (with flash support)
7-Zip 9.07 beta
CCleaner 2.25
CurrPorts 1.80
OpenedFilesView 1.46
Unlocker 1.8.8
RegScanner 1.80
Autoruns 9.56
Silent Runners Revision 60
Xp-AntiSpy 3.97.5
Shell Extensions Manager (ShellExView) 1.45
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware 1.41 (1811)
SmitFraudFix 2.424
SuperAntispyware 4.30 (1811)
UnknownDevices 1.4.20 (1811)
Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool 7.0.0.290 (1811)
SpywareBlaster 4.2 (1811)
PCI 32 Sniffer 1.4 (1811)
PCI and AGP info Tool (1811)
ComboFix (1811)
Spybot – Search & Destroy 1.6.2 (1811)

Download & Website: Hirens BootCD

There are a lot of great tutorials on how to create a bootable USB drive from the Windows 7 ISO which Microsoft recently released. This is primarily a good solution for those of us with netbooks without CD drives. Unfortunately, a majority of these tutorials utilize a program called “diskpart”, which is a command line utility for managing partitions and disks. Here is an easier solution:

1. Ensure you have a USB Drive with more than 3GB capacity
2. Download and Install Daemon Tools Lite (or your favorite Virtual CD emulator)
3. Get Windows 7
4. Download and Install the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool
5. Download and Extract MBRWizard

Insert the USB Drive

Launch the HP USB Storage Format Tool. Select your USB drive for device. Select NTFS for File system. Check Quick Format. Click Start to format the USB drive.

Mount the Windows 7 Beta ISO with Daemon Tools (make note of drive letter it assigns)

Set the USB drive to be the active partition with MBRWizard: Open a command prompt (Start -> Run -> cmd) and navigate to the directory where you extracted MBRWizard. Execute the following command: mbrwiz /list.

You should see your USB Drive in the list. Make note of the disk numbers next to the drives. In the following example, the HP Mini hard drive is drive #0 and the USB Drive is drive #1.

Execute the following command to set the USB drive to active: mbrwiz /disk=1 /active=1 In my example, the /disk=1 corresponds on the drive number of the USB drive. Make sure yours matches. Answer “Y” to the confirmation

Execute another list to ensure the active status has been updated. The USB Drive is now ready to be set to be bootable.

In the same command prompt, execute the following command to set the USB drive to be bootable: e:\boot\bootsect /nt60 D: (E: is the drive letter of the Windows 7 Beta ISO and D: is the drive letter of your USB drive)

Copy the contents of the Windows 7 Beta to your USB Drive

Everything should be ready. Reboot your HP Mini 1000, and on the boot screen hit F9. Select your USB drive from the dropdown list.

If it doesn’t boot, check the following:

The USB Drive is formatted properly.

The USB Drive has all the contents of the Windows 7 Beta ISO (including hidden files)

The USB Drive partition is set to “active” (mbrwiz /list)

Via: Bwana