The MiniXP project is based upon Dietmar Stoelting's "XPSP1 with full commandline and NTFS below 10 MB". MiniXP offers a number of enhancements to Dietmar's project with additional features and applications - it continues to boot (at this time) to a command line shell. It is possible to add the BlackBox Lean shell, however this will need to be started from the command line. See here for more details about Dietmar's original project(s).
MiniXP is not a Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE). WinPE's do not save any changes made to the running operating system - on reboot all changes are lost. In contrast, MiniXP is essentially a normal Windows XP with many of the components removed. At present the build size with all project scripts enabled, using XP Gold source files, is approximately 40 MB - this includes disk tools (DiskPart and Format), file copy tools (copy and xcopy), a text editor (notepad), a registry editor (regedit), a calculator (calc) and the Windows XP Task Manager. These applications can be extracted from Windows XP source files - many other third party tools can also be added. During my tests I noted the following build sizes when MiniXP was used to create Dietmar's original core files only -
MiniXP is a modular system. Any application compatible with Windows XP can theoretically be added to the MiniXP project - provided the relevant file dependencies and registry settings are added. One of the main advantages of MiniXP is having a writable system drive that does not have to be rebuilt every time an application needs adding.
This is my first Winbuilder project. I have tested the build process on Windows XP (32-bit - Service Pack 3), Windows 7 (32-bit - Service Pack 1) and Windows 8 (32-bit - Consumer Preview) host operating systems. My tests have been carried out using Winbuilder version 82, which has been included with the project download.
One of the major goals of this project is to provide a user friendly Winbuilder experience - I have therefore tried to keep the build process as simple as possible to avoid errors and unneccessary complications. I welcome feedback regarding the project.
Please note that MiniXP is an experimental system. Although I have been able to run Mini XP without any difficulty on a physical hard disk, I recommend that you test and use it on a Virtual Machine. I accept no responsibility for any problems that may occur if running it in a non virtual environment.
I plan to continue to monitor and contribute to the "XPSP1 with full commandline and NTFS below 10 MB" thread on reboot.pro and will endevor to add additional features to MiniXP as they are reported in the forum.
The Mini XP project can be used to add a number of additional applications during the build process. For a full list of .scripts included in the project see here. Alternatively, the project can be used to generate a set of Dietmar's core files without any alterations - this is recommended for testing new applications and developing project scripts.
If you have any questions then please read this documentation and refer also to the "XPSP1 with full commandline and NTFS below 10 MB" (here) and the MiniXP (here) discussion topics on the reboot.pro forum. Whilst I will try to respond to questions posted in the MiniXP thread, I will not answer questions already covered in the project documentation.