[Westwales] Linux with XP

[John Bailey]

> I have a couple of the worst infected boxes on defrag and will go ahead 
> with Install on Monday,

To go back to part of the original problem (and nothing to do with Linux), 
Bart's Preinstalled Environment <http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/> offers a 
good way of dealing with this kind of stuff - it'll build you a Windows 
environment booting and running off a CD or DVD (think Knoppix but 
Windows).  Bart's tools help you add your own applications (such as an 
anti-virus or spyware/malware remover).

> What i'd do with the window systems is to setup one PC perfectly (you'll
> need to do this once per type of machine as drivers etc will vary) and
> with the smallest windows partition you can get away with. Then boot a
> Linux liveCD and use dd to copy the partition to an image file onto a
> network drive or onto a DVD.
> Obviously if the hardware varies between machines this can be a problem,
> but i'd hope a school has lots of identical PCs???

If you're going to do something like this, be aware that you'll be cloning 
the SID for each machine - see 
<http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/NewSid.html>.  You should 
also look at using the 'sysprep' utility on machine before you take 
an image of it - this will cause the computer to re-build the 
driver database at next boot which is exactly what you want if the 
hardware's slightly different (you can get it to do other useful stuff 
too).  There's also a decent article from 
Symantec <http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ghost.nsf/docid/1999070716282425?Open&src=&docid=1999012209340925&nsf=ghost.nsf&view=docid&dtype=&prod=&ver=&osv=&osv_lvl=&seg=> 
which goes over some of this stuff in more detail - it talks about using 
'Ghost', but the principle's the same.

> my only experience with Windows was a nightmare three months in 1998, 
> that I prefer not to recall.

Well Windows has come quite a way since then.  Personally I think that 
malware/adware/viruses on Windows are for the most part avoidable - 
usually it's sloppy (or no) administration and/or the lack of sensible 
precautions like automatic updates for patched and virus signatures that 
cause problems.  I'm not a Windows or a Linux advocate.  I'm a 'best tool 
for the job' advocate.


Cheers,

John