Windows

Using MultiOS-USB to Create Multiboot USB Drive

9 minutes to read

A multiboot USB drive allows its user to boot different ISOs without erasing the drive. Before I was aware of it, I had been using traditional bootable USB drive creation tools like Rufus, which would require rerunning the tool and erasing the drive every time I would like to boot a different ISO. A multiboot USB drive does not have this limitation. If I want to boot a GNU/Linux distribution’s installation ISO when I only have a USB drive on which a Windows installation ISO is already loaded, and if the USB drive supports multiboot, then I just need to copy the GNU/Linux distribution’s ISO to the drive, and the drive will allow me to choose the ISO I want to boot. The Windows ISO can still be booted and need not be erased, and an added bonus is that I can do this using just a file explorer or the cp command, instead of rerunning the bootable drive creation tool or running a complicated command. …

Slipstream Windows NT 4.0 SP6a into Installation Media

7 minutes to read

Microsoft has once released official Windows installation media with a service pack integrated, such as Windows Vista with SP1 and Windows XP with SP2. The process of integrating a service pack into the installation media is called slipstreaming. By using such a slipstreamed media, users need not install the slipstreamed service pack separately after they have installed Windows. For Windows NT 4.0 Workstation, the latest slipstreamed official installation media that can be found online only have SP1, whereas the latest service pack for Windows NT 4.0 is SP6a. This is unlike Windows 2000, XP, Vista, or 7, all of which have official installation ISOs with the latest available service pack slipstreamed. …

Run Windows 98 in Vanilla DOSBox

14 minutes to read

As a DOS emulator, DOSBox is theoretically capable of running DOS-based versions of Windows, like Windows 3.1, 95, and 98. Certainly, the compatibility list on DOSBox official website classifies Windows 3.1 and 95 as supported; but for Windows 98, it is just rated runnable – even lower than the intermediate playable tier. Perhaps for this reason, most people would just resort to other DOSBox forks that offer better support for Windows 98, like DOSBox-X, when they want to run this version of Windows. …

Refine Gentoo on Windows Subsystem for Linux

8 minutes to read

This article covers some information that can help perfect a Gentoo installation on Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) to maximize its performance, improve its interoperability with Windows, and even unlock new system capabilities. Originally, I had been planning to write a full Gentoo on WSL installation tutorial during September of the last year, but that tutorial was only halfway done before I had to move on for something more important in my real life, which is why I have disappeared from my personal site for almost another half of year (though you could find my development activities on GitHub if you looked at my profile). Now that I can enjoy a short break with some peace of mind, I have decided to at least complete that tutorial. But before I started, I happened to search for “Gentoo WSL” on Google out of curiosity. While I had been away, there was a new Gentoo in WSL article on Gentoo Wiki originally created on November 24, 2021. That article already covers the bulk of what I wanted to mention in my tutorial in a very concise way, and it is easy to find thanks to the fact that it is on Gentoo Wiki, thus I could no longer see the value of repeating the identical things in lengthy and verbose paragraphs on my personal site. …

Use Cygwin’s Shell or Git Bash in Windows Terminal

5 minutes to read

Recently, Microsoft has made the first stable release of Windows Terminal, a new terminal program for Windows 10. Windows Terminal allows you to add and use multiple shells, like Windows PowerShell, the old command prompt, and any shell in your Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) environments. It also provides way more features and customization options than the old Windows console host conhost.exe, which has been used for command prompt and WSL. …