Asus's original Eee mini-laptop (Click image to enlarge)

Asus's two-pound Eee mini-laptop first shipped last November, running Linux via a 4GB SSD (solid-state disk). It's now available with Windows XP as well, still running from the SSD. In addition, an upgraded version with a nine-inch screen, the Eee PC 900, will ship with XP this summer.

Still, the majority of Eees in consumers' hands are Linux versions. As a "how-to" posting on the Embedded Windows team's blog by Program Manager Paraq Garg explains, it's possible to boot these machines from a USB drive containing XPe. Doing so provides the occasional benefits of Windows without wiping the Linux installation. More importantly, it also gives valuable experience in creating XPe images.

According to Garg, the process begins via a download of the Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK), which includes the Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE). Usually used for troubleshooting and repair purposes, Windows PE is a pared-down Windows environment that can easily be run from a CD-ROM or -- in this case -- USB device.

A second step in the process is obtaining Microsoft's Windows Embedded Studio and, in particular, a tool called Target Analyzer. Once AIK and Target Analyzer (Tap.exe) have been obtained, the following steps need to be performed, using an Windows XP or Vista desktop computer that has a USB drive connected to it:

• Format the USB drive and make a bootable partition on it
  
• Use AIK tools to create a Windows PE image
  
• Copy the Windows PE image to the USB drive
  
• Copy Tap.exe to the USB drive

Now, continues Garg, the USB drive is connected to the Eee, whose BIOS needs to be set so the mini-laptop will boot via USB. Once this is done, the Eee will boot into Windows PE's command-line interface. At that point, Target Analyzer should be run, with a command such as tap.exe -o asus_eee.pmq

Windows PE uses Plug and Play to enumerate the hardware on a target device. Target Analyzer (Tap.exe) can then use its list of found hardware to create a .pmq file specific to the Eee. This will help make the eventual XPe image be as compact as possible, according to Microsoft.

The second-to-last step in the process is taking the .pmq file back to the desktop computer that was used previously. There, the .pmq file should be imported into Windows Embedded Studio's Target Designer. At that point, a custom version of XPe can be designed that not only includes the drivers required by the Eee, but also the desired XPe components.


The Asus Eee booting Windows XP Embedded
(Click to enlarge)
Source: Microsoft
Finally, the XPe image created by Target Designer can be copied to a bootable USB drive -- by reformatting the one used to host Windows PE previously, for example. The USB drive is then employed to boot the Eee into XPe, as shown above.

Further information

For more information about the process outlined above, see Paraq Garg's post on installing XPe on the Asus EEE, here. Earlier postings on how to run Target Designer from Windows PE, here, and on componentizing third-party drivers, here, will also be helpful.

---

Related stories:

• Asus ships mini-laptop, confirms Windows version
  
• Mini-laptop gets larger display, Windows XP
  
• Windows goes on a diet for mini-laptops
  
• Microsoft spares XP for low-cost laptops
  
• Does Windows XPe need a driver componentizer?
  
• Does Windows XPe really need 10,000 components?
  
• Caching device info in Windows XPe Target Designer
  
• Screencast shows how to add resources to Target Designer
  
• Windows XP Embedded USB boot