I have a number of plugins that work fine in BartPE for my Windows XP installation on my hard drive. I recently installed in place of the XP Windows 7 RC for evaluation purposes. Since I believed that my BartPE CD should be able to perform functions on my HD, independent of the OS on the HD, since one of the benefits of BartPE is that program can run independently from the CD in the Windows XP SP2 environment, I was surprised to find that some of the programs on my CD would no longer function. The programs in question are mostly security programs, such as superantispyware ahd hijackthis. I realize that these programs probably will not work in a Windows 7 environment, since Windows compatible updates are not yet available, but I thought that they are actually supposed to be running under an XP environment from the CD. When I try to run these programs from the CD, I get the following.

A browse for folder message in a popup box with all disks showing comes up.
In the box is a message to choose the windows directory.
When I try to choose the windows directory on the HD, an error message come up "No Windows Installation Found".

Apparently my global assumption that BartPE is a self contained environment to operate on the HD is not totally correct, and I will have to wait for Windows 7 compatable updates or these programs.

The global assumption is true: BartPE is a self contained environment.
Applications run at this environment.

This is a special case.
The main purpose is to read or change Windows files at hard disk.
If your security appllication search XP at hard disk, the application may fail at Windows 7.

Yes, all applications using OS specific setttings may require a update.
A new OS set new rules. Old applications may work or fail.

Thanks for your reply CDOB. I do not know if this has any bearing on this, but all programs that do not work with windows 7 on the HD use paraglider's runscanner. Is it possible that runscanner may also cause this? Having done some additional reading about runscanner, since my original post , the dialog box I am getting saying that it could not find a windows on the HD is a dialog box described in the runscanner notes. Perhaps Paraglider has some input, since the message is apparently from his plugin, runscanner.

Regards
bbersted

As far as I remember runscanner search file boot.ini.
Can you create a fake boot.ini for testing?

Runscanner does work with VISTA, but I'm not certain about W7.
There are alternative switches to use to find VISTA OS Directories.

Check http://www.paraglidernc.com for notes on usage.

Thanks for the information hilander999. I have read paraglider's notes, but it would help if you provided some specific information as to usage in vista, so I can try them in my windows 7 case.

Thanks again

You'll just have to play with it and see what happens. I don't test beta OS's.

I was referring to this switch in particular...
I

...BUT, I have never used it myself.

I'm guessing that your gonna have to wait until paraglider adds official support for W7.

/sd work with vista / win7 - thats the one I always use. If you use /sv you will need to supply a compatible version of bcdedit. Current released version does not differentiate between vista / win7.

If you don't use /sd or /sv then only boot.ini is scanned and you will not find any vista / win7 installations.

Does it work with XP also? And if so should we make that switch a default for all plugins?

/sd does work with XP and is already the default most of us use.

/t is the only parm I see used in the plugins using runscanner that I have and even the runscanner plugin itself with the exception of MigWiz which uses /cp and /t.

I'll rephrase it for you then....

When I am coding a plugin I use /sd.

When Win7 becomes mainstream, the rest of the community will see the need to use it too.

So where ever I have /t I should add /sd. Yes?

Yes you can ADD it to any plugins using runscanner if your trying to support Vista/Win7.

They are two entirely different things and are not related.

/t = TIMING (How long to delay the environment change)
/sd = Search Drive (For all instances of Windows)

From the current runscanner plugin:

0x2,"Sherpya\XPEinit\Programs","System Tools\Remote RegEdit","%ProgramFiles%\RunScanner\RunScanner.exe|/t 0 /ac /sd /m+ /y %SystemRoot%\System32\regedit.exe|%SystemRoot%\System32\regedit.exe"

In my BartPE plugins, namely runscanner, where do I put the . /sd. I tried to put it after the runscanner.exe in the runscanner.xml , but it did not get the desired result. While I believe that it is most likely that the /sd parameter should work for the Windows 7, since it works for others in vista, apparently this is not the correct place.

regards
bbersted

Edit the plugins of your security programs.

Every plugin that calls runscanner need to be updated to add the /sd parameter.

Thanks you all for your help. Thanks you particularly to paraglider for taking the time to set me straight on the proper use runscanner and the parameters. The scanning programs work fine for a Win 7 HD now with the use of /sd for each individual program.