Installing Windows XP from USB

You’ll be needing ample space on a USB storage device like a thumbdrive or external disk drive. 1 GB of storage will suffice. Possibly, you could access the setup files from a network share in which case you’ll only need a 256 MB thumbdrive, but I haven’t tried that.Personally, I booted off a 512 MB thumbdrive and put the Windows XP setup files on an external disk drive. So a combination will do just fine, but just make sure that you’ve got sufficient USB ports: all USB devices will need to be plugged in and stay plugged in while we’re booted into BartPE later on!

You’ll also need a bunch of software, including a valid copy of Windows XP. The other software components can be downloaded freely:

• Bart’s Preinstalled Environment (BartPE)
• Windows 2003 Server Service Pack 1

Q: Why Windows 2003 Server Service Pack 1? I want to install XP!

A: Well that’s exactly the trick, though it’s a bit technical. During booting, Windows resets the USB port and loses your boot device. That’s why an installation from USB normally fails. But by using Windows 2003 Server’s ramdisk feature in the early phases of booting, we circumvent that problem.

Don’t be mislead though: you’ll be installing Windows XP all the same. It’s just that we’ll be using two Windows 2003 Server files from the Service Pack to do it.

You can also perform a Windows 2003 Server installation using this exact same procedure, save that you’ll be needing to update to Windows 2003 Server Service Pack 1 instead of Windows XP SP2, below. That’s assuming, of course, that you’ve got a valid copy of Windows 2003 Server.

You will also need an already functional Windows system to prep the USB disk from. In addition, your target system (the one that needs reinstalling) should support booting from USB. Virtually all modern ones do though.

Finally, not all cheaper USB devices properly support being booted from. The BartPE forums have a partial list of ones that don’t.

Step One: Preparing the Windows XP Setup Files

For this procedure to work correctly, you’ll need Windows XP to be at Service Pack 1 or Service Pack 2. Many newer Windows XP CDs already have either one included.

You can check by inserting the CD-ROM and looking at the files in the top folder. There should be a file named WIN51P.SP1 or WIN51P.SP2. If you see either one, fast forward to step two.If there is no such file, or you’ve got a SP1 CD that you would like to update to SP2, proceed as follows:

1. Copy the Windows XP CD-ROM to a location on your hard drive. We’ll be assuming C:\winxpcd. I strongly advise you to use such a vanilla CD. Users have reported strange happenings with custom XP distributions.
2. Download the Windows XP Service Pack 2 Network Installation Package.
3. Unpack Windows XP SP2 by running WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU.exe -x. Note the -x parameter that will allow you to specify a location to unpack to. We’ll be assuming C:\winxpsp2.
4. Integrate SP2 into the setup files by running C:\winxpsp2\i386\update\update.exe /integrate:c:\winxpcd.

If your system needs special drivers to operate, this would be the time to include them (called “slipstreaming”). Doing so isn’t exactly trivial and should only be necessary if you, say, require non-standard SATA support. The process is beyond the scope of this article, but fortunately Google is your friend.

Step Two: Prepping BartPE

First we’ll prep the USB drive we’ll be using for booting. This is by far the largest step in the process, though it shouldn’t be difficult for anyone to follow. It requires a functional Windows system.

1. Install BartPE. We’ll be assuming that you install to C:\pebuilder.
2. Unpack PE2USB to C:\pebuilder.
3. Unpack Windows 2003 SP1 by running WindowsServer2003-KB889101-SP1-x86-ENU.exe -x (that’s assuming that you downloaded the English version). Note the -x parameter that will allow you to specify a location to unpack to. We’ll be assuming C:\server2003sp1.
4. Create a folder named C:\pebuilder\srsp1.
5. Copy C:\server2003sp1\i386\setupldr.bin to C:\pebuilder\srsp1.
6. Expand and copy ramdisk.sys by running expand -r C:\server2003sp1\i386\ramdisk.sy_ C:\pebuilder\srsp1.
7. Start PE Builder from the Start Menu. Point “Source:” to the location of your Windows XP setup files containing SP1 or SP2.
8. Make sure the “Output:” is set to “BartPE”. If using SP2: go into the Plugins configuration dialog and enable “RpcSS needs to launch DComLaunch Service First – SP2 only”.
9. Hit “Build”.
10. When it’s done building, insert the USB drive you intend to boot from and run C:\pebuilder\pe2usb -f [drive:], replacing [drive:] with the location of your USB drive. This will destroy any data on your USB drive! The drive shouldn’t be partitioned any larger than 1 GB. If it is, then repartition it using Computer Management in the Control Panel.
11. Copy the Windows XP setup files to the USB drive (or another USB device if you have insufficient space left). You’ll only need the i386 folder.

If no errors occured in the process, you should now be all set to boot from USB!

Note: it’s possible to use Windows 2003 Server as the operating system to boot from, but I don’t recommend it. Many of BartPE’s included utilities won’t work properly.

Step Three: Configuring the BIOS

You should now reboot and go into the BIOS configuration to boot from USB. Instructions for doing so wildly from system to system, but generally entail the following:

1. Reboot the system.
2. While booting (before Windows starts loading), get into the BIOS configuration screen by hitting something like F1, F2, Delete or Escape. Hotkey instructions are generally provided on the screen.
3. Go to the section that contains your boot devices.
4. With your USB drive plugged in, the USB drive should be listed. If it isn’t, your system might not support booting from USB. Assuming that it is supported (as is the case with virtually all modern hardware), promote your USB drive to the primary boot device.
5. Exit from the BIOS configuration, saving all changes.

If you’re completely new to BIOS configuration, BIOS for Beginners over at Tom’s Hardware might be a good primer. Be aware though, that you can seriously screw up your system by providing incorrect settings!

Step Four: Booting into BartPE

Assuming that you properly configured your BIOS and your USB device supports booting, BartPE should now load. Depending on the speed of your USB device, this may take a while.

If it isn’t working, then double-check the following before making a scene:

• Is your BIOS properly configured for booting from the USB disk? (Is the USB device listed and does it have top priority?)
• Have you correctly prepared the USB disk in step two? (Restart the procedure.)
• Does your USB stick properly support being booted from? (Try another one!)

Step Five: Prepping the Hard Disk

You need to make sure that your hard drive is partitioned and formatted properly. Especially if you’ve had Linux or some other operating system on it, you’ll need to repartition and format it. BartPE contains DiskPart for disk partitioning and A43 File Manager to format your drive.

If you are sure that your hard drive is set up properly (i.e. it has only run Windows, it contains a valid FAT or NTFS partition) then you can safe yourself the hassle and skip this step.

This procedure will destroy any data on the hard drive.

To repartition:

1. From the Go menu, navigate to DiskPart.
2. Enter the commands needed to repartition your drive. For example, try the following: select disk 0 (select the first disk), clean (purges the entire drive, essentially resetting it), create partition primary (creates a single partition from the entire disk), assign (assign the partition a drive letter), exit (quits DiskPart).

This procedure will destroy any data on the hard drive.

To format:

1. From the Go menu, navigate to the A43 File Manager.
2. Right-click on the target drive (e.g. C:) and click Format. Should be self-explanatory.

Step Six: Launching Windows XP Setup

With your drive all ready, you can now launch the Windows XP setup with a few custom parameters. Let’s assume that the files are available at D:\i386.

Plugging in a device now won’t work. Remember that all USB devices will need to be plugged in right from the start while using BartPE.

1. Run D:\i386\winnt32.exe /syspart:C: /tempdrive:C: /makelocalsource. Replace C: with the drive you want to install Windows to.
2. Proceed with the installation. When asked to convert the installation volume to NTFS, answer No. The setup program incorrectly believes that your USB drive (which is formatted as FAT) needs conversion.

The setup program will then silently close, which might make you think that something went wrong. Don’t worry though. Reboot your system, remove the USB drive(s) and – if all went well – you can now finish setting up Windows XP. Congratulations.

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Pakistan’s Software Industry Celebrates Achievements

Pakistan’s software industry recently feted some of its own success stories, handing out awards for various products. The achievements highlight Pakistan’s growth as a destination for outsourcing thanks to its skilled and relatively inexpensive labor pool.

The Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA) recently handed out its peer awards for the Pakistan IT industry. The awards provide an industry snapshot at a time when Pakistan has become the third most popular global IT outsourcing destination on RentACoder, an outsourcing marketplace. India and the U.S. are the top two outsourcing destinations.

Two factors account for Pakistan’s success: cost and quality. One year ago, IT and back office work in Pakistan was 20 to 25 percent cheaper than India.

“With the Pakistani Rupee depreciating and the Indian Rupee appreciating, costs are 25 to 40 percent cheaper,” said Imran Aftab of TenPearls, a business intelligence and software development company in Herndon, Va.

“The quality of services that a small to medium-sized U.S./UK customer would get out of a relatively untapped Pakistani labor force would be much higher compared to what is available in the saturated Indian market,” he told the E-Commerce Times. “This provides better value for customers.”

Communication and Digital Media Awards

Jehan Ara, P@SHA’s president, announced this year’s awards at a ceremony at the Marriott Hotel in Karachi on Friday, Oct. 31.

Jugaari won the award for best communication application for Jaadu, which enables users to remotely access their Mac or PC from an iPhone or iPod touch.

Pixsense won the award for the best digital media and entertainment application. Pixsense allows mobile operators to enable video/photo uploading and sharing from a variety of mobile devices.

PostAmazers was the runner up in the digital media category for its animated superhero, Commander Safeguard. PostAmazers operates the largest animation and post-production studio in Pakistan.

Produced as a mascot for Proctor & Gamble, Commander Safeguard serves as a marketing vehicle for Safeguard soap. Commander Safeguard has been renamed ‘El XXXXX’ for Latin American markets. El XXXXX is reportedly more popular in Mexico than SpongeBob SquarePants.

A competing animation studio is Anivista, a subsidiary of Systems Limited, Pakistan’s oldest IT outsourcing company. In the U.S., Systems Limited operates as Visionet Systems and provides business intelligence, application development and maintenance services in four verticals: apparel supply chain management, banking, mortgage and insurance.

E-Learning, Health Applications and Logistics

In the e-learning category, UltraLearn received an award for its Silverlight-based mashup-maker for educational environments. The mashup-maker combines text, videos, wikis and images.

CureMD won the award for the best software application in the healthcare industry. CureMD provides consolidated medical records management systems and knowledge-base tools.

The award for best logistics software application went to Lumensoft.biz for its Candella retail-management software.

In the financial applications category, TPS won for IRIS, its new transaction processing and middleware system for banks. TPS provides software for banks in 25 countries.

Plexus received a merit award in the financial applications category for its feature-rich investment management system. Plexus also produces lease management and credit management software.

Call Center, Brand Development and Workplace Awards

The award for best call center and BPO operation went to Ovex Technologies. Ovex operates seven facilities and employs more than 900 people and is largely owned by En Pointe Technologies.

Nuvica.com won P@SHA’s best workplace environment award. Applications and network testing company Kraysis won an award for its performance testing services.

Kalsoft was recognized for brand development, based in part on its business process management (BPM) and modeling tools. Kalsoft also has a currency conversion platform, money transfer system and a hospital management suite.

Other Companies to Watch

Two other companies to watch are Bumpin and Technosoft. Bumpin is a contextual chat service that offers widgets to Web site operators that show who is visiting a Web site. Bumpin emphasizes real-time text chatting.

Started by Dr. Umar Saif, a professor at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Bumpin is in now in beta and may ultimately be offered for sale to a party that can commercialize it.

Technosoft is a case study in a pure-play software services company with expertise in three verticals (healthcare, finance and insurance) but without a strong marketing department. Technosoft highlights the major challenge facing high technology companies in Pakistan: great technical skills but weak international marketing capabilities.

Additional Information on Pakistan

The Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) provides news and information on its Web site. PSEB is a government agency that funds ISO and CMMI certification and training activities. It helps companies set up development facilities and call centers in Pakistan.

The Pakistani consulates in Los Angeles and New York and the embassy in Washington D.C. have commercial counselors who serve as initial points of contact for U.S. companies seeking to do business in Pakistan. The Los Angeles consulate’s commercial office is headed by Shahid Ashraf Tarar, who specializes in the tech sector.

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Project planning in detail

• Strategy – Develop a project strategy that meets your goals and objectives as it relates to the materials and equipment acquisition and delivery to jobsite to maintain your project schedule.
• Development of a procurement schedule – Working within the framework of your overall project schedule, develop a procurement schedule taking into account long lead items, any liquidated damages and/or letter of credit issues and requirements. Working backward from the required date on site, determine when purchase orders must be placed taking into consideration factors that influence your ability to meet that required onsite date.
• Preparation of Request for Proposal forms and packages – If you do not already have Request for Proposal forms and packages, then you will need to ask any company to do this all to develop them for use on the project.
• Develop a project execution plan – This plan is an extension of your strategy. It is the road map for completing your project on time and minimizing costs of completion.
• Develop reporting requirements and timing – In order to know where you are in the successful execution and completion of your project, you will need information in the form of reports to assist in maintaining control and keeping upper management informed.

You can ask Visionet Systems for your all project planning and management.

Visionet is a full service mortgage consulting and business process outsourcing company that delivers products in the best-of-breed philosophy. Using a combination of consulting, metrics-based technology solutions and business process outsourcing, Visionet Systems helps lenders identify and remove inefficient processes to improve profitability.

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USING THE INTERNET EFFICIENTLY – A BSIC GUIDE

The first common mistake when referring to the Internet is that word. ‘Internet’ is the name given to all of the computers connected together in a network around the world, which form the Internet. The Internet has two main applications which people use, these being the World Wide Web (WWW) and E-mail (Electronic Mail). Firstly we will talk about the World Wide Web, so read on!

The World Wide Web (the web) is a collection of pages hosted on the Internet. These pages are held on servers (big computers) all over the globe. There are several tips and tricks which you should bear in mind as you browse the web.

Every day the Web becomes more and more sophisticated. With the rise of digital media, such as photos, music and video being available on the web, the pressure put on the network is growing rapidly. Sites such as YouTube host many thousands of videos, which can be requested at any time from anywhere in the world. These kind of websites use tremendous amounts of Bandwidth (how much data is being sent down the phone lines), and therefore can affect the speeds of the web.

Slow websites can often put people off from visiting, and may cause you to lose your patience and give up on the Internet all together. However, there are several ways of trying to ensure that you get the most out of the Internet, and in the shortest time possible!

Pictures, sounds and animations (such as those made in Flash) can slow down the speed of a website. If you are looking for fast responding websites, always check to see whether there is a ‘Text Only’ version of the website. If you don’t require the pictures on a website then you will often notice how much quicker the text only pages are to load.

My next piece of advice is… DON’T DOUBLE CLICK! Links on websites should only be clicked once. As long as the status bar at the bottom of your browser shows that the page has begun to load, clicking again will only slow the process down. If you click a link on a website more than once, even a double click, causes massive delays to pages downloading. This is because, when you click on a link, a request is sent to the web server for that website for the page to be loaded, if you click on the link again, another request is sent, and everything which has already been loaded from your first click is lost, and you have to start waiting again! Remember, web links only need clicking once!

If you’re following all of the above steps, and webpages are still appearing slowly then it may be worth upgrading your computer / Internet connection or both, in order to make your Internet experience more enjoyable. Faster connections mean less download time, and you’ll notice a real difference in pages with pictures and video content!

If you’ve got the hang of using the Web itself, you’re probably thinking “OK, I know what I’m doing, but how do I find what I’m looking for?” Search engines are the most popular choice for finding what it is that you’re after. Some of the most popular ones are Google, Yahoo and MSN. Here is a piece of useful advice for using search engines: Before clicking on a link (in a search engine), take a look at the URL, or ‘web address’ (this usually starts in HTTP://WWW.). In search engine results, this is usually displayed below the description of the result, or can be seen by hovering your mouse over a link. The URL will then be temporarily shown in the Status bar at the bottom of your web browser. Refrain from clicking on links which point to URL’s which are obviously comparison websites, where the information you have searched for is displayed with suggested links, or sponsored links. This often results in double the time being spent actually trying to find what you’re looking for.

Search engine results can be hit or miss, but the majority of the time, you will have little success in finding what you’re looking for using a search engine. Another way to find information is by using directory services, these include Google Directory and Dmoz. These directory websites are arranged by category and often include a search facility too. They effectively categorize websites so that you don’t waste time searching by keywords, but by what you’re looking for. After familiarizing yourself with these directories, you will probably find that they will save you lots of time on search engines!

Thankfully, speeding up your email usage is a lot simpler. There are some golden rules. These include; unless it is essential do not send large attachments. They take a long time to leave your machine, and they bug the recipient as they take a long time to download too. The second pointer is, don’t fill your emails with smileys and graphics, as these add to download and upload times. Again, if your system takes a long time to download mail, consider a faster Internet connection. If you are looking to create yourself an email address for the first time, free services are available from Gmail, Yahoo and Microsoft Hotmail as well as numerous other providers.

I sincerely hope that this article has helped increase your Internet efficiency, and wish you many happy years of Internet browsing!

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What is .NET?

.NET is the Microsoft Plan for connecting and sharing information, resources, systems and devices through Web Services for making more effective communication and collaboration between communities and people online.

.NET technology provides fast, efficient and easy to build, deploy and manage the secure solutions over the network using Web Services.

What are Web Services?

Web Services are reusable web applications that can be accessed over the internet from computers using different operating systems working together and exchanging information. There are 4 commonly used standard protocols for accessing and developing web services:

1. XML, Extensible Markup Language
2. XML, Extensible Markup Language
3. WSDL, Web Services Description Language
4. UDDI, Universal Description Discovery and Integration

Working example of XML Web Services:

1. Client-to-Client: Clients or devices can apply web services to share the data anywhere anytime.
2. Client-to-Server: XML Web Services can share data between servers and desktop computers or smart devices connected via the internet.
3. Server-to-Server: XML Web Services provide a common interface between existing applications within independent servers.
4. Service-to-Service: XML Web Services collectively provide more complex data operations.

What is .NET Passport Service?

.NET passport is a Web-based Service of Microsoft .Net technology that provides the facility of fast and easy signing in to Web Sites. .Net Passport Service authenticates a user with a single set of sign in credentials on number of web sites participating in .Net Passport authentication services. It has reduced the need of remembering different login passwords of number web sites and made it easy for users.

Benefits of Web Services

Web Services enable the applications to share the data across different hardware platforms and operating systems. Few of the benefits of Web Services are:

1. Ease of connecting with affiliate partners and make easy collaboration and communication between business partners.
2. Provides more personal and integrated experience to end users who use smart devices like mobiles, PDAs or even PCs.
3. Revenue increment directly by enabling your business to make rich Web Services for others.
4. Easy development without wasting time and money.

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BUILDING A FOUNDATION FOR PROJECT SUCCESS

Step 1 – Clearly Define the Project

During project initiation phase, it is imperative that key stakeholders have a clear understanding of what the project goals are and how success will be measured. The first step in defining the “what” of the project is to develop a scope statement. The scope statement outlines the justification for the project, its products, objectives, deliverables and serves as the basis for future project decisions. The Scope Statement can be as short as a few sentences or as long as a couple of pages. Of course, the scope statement will not be as detailed as the overall project plan, but should contain enough detail to help define the work required to complete the project. A well-written scope statement will become the primary input to the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).

Step 2 – Spend Quality Time with your Project Experts

Stakeholders often expect accurate estimates even before the project team has had an opportunity to assess, evaluate, and plan the work. At this stage pin point accuracy is not realistic but reliable estimates are very possible when the right people are involved in the process. To achieve this, it is essential that knowledgeable resources actively participate in the cost and schedule estimating processes. You must include the people who will be actually performing the work on the project or those who have experience with the type of project being estimated. In most cases, the project manager does not have the insight of those doing the work and team members are far more likely to endorse the plan if it reflects their own input.

Step 3 – Project Management Tools

On the down side, we do not always practice what we preach as it relates to the principles of project management planning. However, with the availability of the internet, public libraries and local bookstores, you will easily be able to find the latest information and valuable pointers on how to proceed. These sources will remind you of the the “Best Practices” that you learned in the classroom that tend to fall by the wayside when things get rushed as often happens during difficult or long projects.

When best practices are combined with the support of your group of experts you will be well on your way towards improving your projects success. By repeatedly following these tactics you will continue to deliver results that are consistent and measurable.

Lastly, one of the greatest resources for project information and direction that we often overlook comes from similar projects that you or your colleagues have done in the past. No matter how good or bad the outcome of a project, there will always be something valuable that you can take away and apply on your current or next project. So no matter how badly you want to forget a bad experience, keep the records in a safe place. You never know when you might be able to turn a bad past project into a future successful one.

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