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I've been following this thread and thought i would add to it.
First, i found out how to auto insert the serial number for xp and 2k. Someone earlier mentioned how to do it but i thought i would confirm it works.
For instance, lets say you have a cd with win2k and winxp. The boot loader is XPROSECT, it loads the files in folder XPRO, which contains the minimum files needed. It then redirects to another folder that has the i386 files. All you need to do is make an unattend.txt file, rename it to winnt.sif, and put it in the XPRO folder, in this example. The XPRO folder should be around 8 megs or so.
Another thing i thought of is i made a cd that has the following:
win2k pro sp2
win2k server sp2
winxp home
winxp pro
The only way this fit is by using a shortcut. What you do is put in your xp cd, let's assume it's drive D. Then from a run box you type this:
d:i386winnt32.exe /noreboot
During the install choose new installation, once it's done look at your c drive, it'll have 2 folders like ~winnt_bt~ and ~winnt_ls~, one is 8 megs, the other folder is 200 megs or so. The 8 meg folder you would rename to XPRO or whatever you want. The other folder name to WinXPPRo or whatever you want. Using this method you shave hundreds of megs off the install. However this can only be used for a clean install, the 100+ megs your saving are migration files for upgrades. BUt this is fine by me, i only clean install. Using this method i was able to fit the i386 folder of win2k and winxp pro into a 500 meg iso, this leaves plenty of space for other stuff.
Another point to remember is if you make a cd with win2k or winxp, make sure there's an i386 folder on the root. Otherwise when you go into recovery console and use commands like format /FS:fat32 c:, itll ask for the path of autofrmt.exe or something.
Another idea i have is it takes awhile to boot from the cd, xp setup loads a lot of files before you get the first menu. You can edit setupreg.hiv and delete services you dont need. For instance i loaded setupreg.hiv using xp regedit, went into the currentcontrolset, and deleted the compaq and raid stuff. Using that file, it took half as long to boot from the cd. I dont use raid nor do i have a compaq, so it speeds things up.
For xp one thing i think should be added. XP only supports hard drives up to 137 GIGS. THere's a hotfix for bigger drives that uses an updated atapi.sys file, you might want to add this to any cd's made. After all if you burn a xp cd, then go out and buy a 160 gig hard drive, the cd will be worthless.
As far as the 4 gig limitation, fat32 has a size limit of 4 gigs. NTFS has no such limit.
One thing i would like to ask khauyeung, is if there's anyway to directly boot into recovery console from cd. I tried but had no luck.
Lastly, i just wanted to thank khauyeung. He really should get more credit than he does, he was one of the first to get into this multi boot cd's, and his tutorials are the easist i have found to date.
-gosh
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