I was looking recently at trying to install a cut-down version of Windows XP on my new 4GB Sandisk Cruzer Micro USB Pen Drive so I could install and run some of my favorite software applications on any PC.
See my post on Sandisk Cruzer Micro USB Pen Drive at SanDisk Cruzer Micro USB Drive 4 GB with U3 Software.
I found a great tutorial on Toms Hardware Guide that explains how to do this using your Windows XP CD and a couple of free software applications to format your USB Pen Drive and install the necessary Windows files from your XP CD.
The end result is a bootable copy of Windows XP on your USB Pen Drive. To run you need a PC that supports booting from a USB device and USB2 ports for best performance.
I was going to get started but then realized that I did not really want to have to boot into the cut-down Windows XP on the USB Pen Drive.
What I wanted was to be able to run a second copy of XP from the USB Pen Drive whilst still running the copy of XP on the host computer. Really, the whole point was I just wanted to be able to use my favorite software applications.
This got me thinking that maybe software installers should be able to install the applications into any directory on any drive without having to use the Windows Registry? This would make the mobility of our software much better and we would not always have to carry our laptop around with us, maybe just our USB Pen Drive that fits nicely in our pocket.
My USB Pen Drive runs the U3 software so maybe this could be extended to allow any software application to be installed or a new application was written that replicates the Windows registry and other Windows system files that are needed for most of the software applications today?
Does anyone know of such a software application or other solution that will let me install my favorite Windows Software on my USB Pen Drive? If you do please let me know.
