moka5

Optimizing a new Windows LivePC

Submitted by Constantine Sap... on September 25, 2006 - 8:42am.

To do the install, you will need a Windows Install CD. Most computers today come with a recovery CD but not an install CD, so you will likely NOT be able to use any CD that came with your computer. You will also need a product key.

To create a Windows LivePC, start the LivePC Engine and click Create at the bottom. An "Edit LivePC Configuration" page should appear in your default web browser.

You will want to change the following fields:

  • Virtual Machine Name -- give your LivePC a name like "Fred's Windows"
  • Guest OS Type -- select the type of Windows your installing, likely XP Professional
  • Minimum Memory MB -- set it to 256
  • Enable network mounted user files -- checking this will enable you to access your LivePC's My Documents folder even when the LivePC is off
  • Consider making the system disk smaller if you are creating this LivePC on a USB drive

You can now create the LivePC by clicking Create.

The LivePC engine will list your newly created LivePC. Ensure that the Windows install CD in your computer's CD drive and click the Play button on LivePC engine to start the LivePC. The LivePC should boot into the Windows installer.

Some decisions you'll have to make in the installer include:

  • Windows will ask you what partitions to create and what size to make them. Create an NTFS partition.
  • Windows will ask your for an Administrator password. Don't use any valuable passwords that you're using elsewhere.

After rebooting and installing, Windows will ask you some more questions.

  • It will ask you how you connect to the Internet. Tell it you connect to the Internet through a LAN
  • Don't activate the copy of Windows just yet. You may want to reinstall if something gets botched.
  • A username for the user you will normally log in as. Feel free to use your regular username.

Installing VMware Tools

VMware Tools comes with the drivers and utilities needed to optimize your Windows LivePC. You can find the VMware Tools here. Extract the windows.iso file.

Installing and configuring the moka5tools

More information on installing the moka5tools can be found at the Installing and Configuring moka5tools Quickstep.

Separating System and User State

If you plan on publishing the LivePC for others to use, and you wish to be able to update the LivePC so others can pick up the most up-to-date version, you need to separate the system and user state.

To do this, simply move the user profile to a 'persistent' virtual hard drive, specifically:

  1. edit your LivePC Configuration
  2. add a new drive, set 'persistent' to true
  3. start the LivePC, inside the LivePC it should now see the new drive
  4. let us call the normal login user 'user X'
  5. log in as an administrator user, someone OTHER THAN 'user X'
  6. edit this registry entry below to point to your new drive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
  7. for example, it could be 'E:\Documents and Settings'
  8. copy the profile for 'user X' to new location
  9. restart the LivePC, log in as 'user X'
  10. test it out: as 'user X', try to put some file on the desktop, and double-check that the new file now goes to the new drive
  11. your LivePC is now ready for publish and share with other users!