Windows XP environment variables ?

[cnc2]

If your goal is to save space by re-using common binaries then you can create a VM image with VMware Workstation and then create a linked clone which shares as much as possible with the base image and only grows when there is a delta between the two VMs.

The problems I can forsee with multiple registries are:

1) Not everything is configured in the registry. As soon as an app configures something in both the registry and some other config file, you're done.
2) There are probably other services (other than ntloader) that are looking for the registry in a specific place.
3) If you install an app while using one registry instance then the app would not be installed in the other. You'd have binaries in \Program Files that were missing their runtime config in one of the registry hives.
4) Any kind of AV software is going to flag the modified ntloader.
5) While hacking on the system for your own enjoyment is fine you couldn't distribute this as binary editing and making modifications such as this violates the MS EULA.
6) Disk space is cheap. Windows XP can be installed in about a dollars worth of storage space so there's no huge financial advantage to saving space.
7) Following from point 6 you could achieve roughly the same effect you're going for more traditionally by having two small OS disk partitions and a third for applications and common data.

Sorry to be such a downer -- I'm only trying to save you frustration.

Thanks for the reply SuperJdynamite !

Well, I don't consider you as a downer, things must be said one time or another as long as it's constructive & hoping to succeed implies facing the truth.IMO.

1) it's alright for me most of config files are used for non critical config parameters like window position, app UI config ..etc & since they stay with binaries everything should work ok....IMO, not that critical !

2) Yes, there are & i'm tracking'em down, for now, I loaded each hive & modified the paths inside each hive, the BSOD takes longer to appear now, not just after the windows logo...I've disabled auto-reboot on system failure & now the registry can't load the SAM hive only, I think it's the last stage before a normal boot, because it's for user profiles....Help is needed here ! (or at least wish m luck)

3) I've already thought about this one & for me it's an acceptable constraint & the opposit would be worse than this.

4) For now, I don't have an AV on that disk, but I have one on the other disk, the modded ntldr was not flagged for now, but who knows, if I had an AV maybe it would...IMO it won't be flagged because the file size doesn't change(only the checksum changes) I hope the AV will just leave it alone as it does with the "crackmes"....in the worst case, if it's flagged I'll add it to the trusted list.

5) Yes, you're right on this one, I've thought about it & did my best to avoid it, but I have to choose between modding ntldr and doing multiple installs with the same registration key wich at some point will be banned (I'll try to contact MS & ask'em to make it official) the other solution is to use a corporate edition of XP but this is away from the common joe....maybe there's an other way that would be less elegant than this one, but will permit the use of an original ntldr.

6) Did I say I was looking for a finacial advantage ???, No ! I'm after performance !
Think about doing a defrag of a 200GB HD while you can just defrag 10GB or 20...time is money !

7) It'd require a partition for each OS installation...20GB for 10 installs that are different in ~40MB of registry hives...Wasting 400MB is ok, waisting 20GB is poor if you add the maintainance overhead, it'll be inacceptable.

Thanks !
cnc2.

[cnc2]

Hi guys & Happy new year !

Well, the NTLDR mod didn't work there's something else that can't locate the hives resulting in a BSOD.

I'll need to find an open source alternative for NTLDR in order to obtain the desired result.

Thanks !
cnc2.