[killwin98]

Hello,
I'm using XBMC on my xbox, but I just bought a new computer with windows vista (without being able to downgrade to xp), and since vista takes up so many resources, and i would like to watch movies on my long flights, I would prefer if XBMC would run at startup instead of vista (on demand of course).

Is such thing possible?
Will it really save energy/battery life?
Is it possible to have it loaded from a USB-stick instead of creating a partition?

Many thanks!

[keithskaggs]

The short answer is no. The long answer is you might be able to dual boot into a streamlined OS, see this thread http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=34756

There might be other threads too, so search around.

Keith

[marlboroman1]

you could use "Live USB V2" I've not tried it myself as it doesn't play nice with ATI cards. If you don't have an ATI card I'd give it a go its based on Linux but the developers have tried to make as plugin and play as possible. I'm looking forwerd to V3 is in development which hopefully can support more hardware.

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=32853

[treefour]

The Live USB would be the way to go if at the moment you have an Nvidia card. I used version 2 for a bit and it basically worked great. I stopped because for some reason it wouldn't let me drop to a command line. I too am waiting for Ver 3 as it will have ssh included (hopefully) and then my problems are solved.

But as it stands the windows version is coming along nicely and is basically covering my needs without any real drama so I might stay with this one. You could try slimming down Vista with Vlite (that's what I did, I got it loading in about 35 sec) can still do most everything just got rid of most of the crap that I never use.

Decisions, decisions, I wish all my problems were this enjoyable :p

[killwin98]

The Live USB would be the way to go if at the moment you have an Nvidia card. I used version 2 for a bit and it basically worked great. I stopped because for some reason it wouldn't let me drop to a command line. I too am waiting for Ver 3 as it will have ssh included (hopefully) and then my problems are solved.

But as it stands the windows version is coming along nicely and is basically covering my needs without any real drama so I might stay with this one. You could try slimming down Vista with Vlite (that's what I did, I got it loading in about 35 sec) can still do most everything just got rid of most of the crap that I never use.

Decisions, decisions, I wish all my problems were this enjoyable :p

What do you mean? Is it really a hassle to do it? Will it load linux and only then XBMC?

All I really want is to open my computer to a lightweight program, that will be able to play xvid movies with srt subtitles.. Any other suggestions?

[BAG_Ass]

Using USB stick u got seriously slowing system boot to XBMC.

[mace]

that depends on your HW. Many Mainboards will only use usb 1.1 then booting from USB.
The better ones will use 2.0.

Found out about this when we started to use winpe at work.

[killwin98]

I have only USB 2.0
Would it work well for me?

[marlboroman1]

if you have a usb pen just give a go and find out. If you have nvidia hardware it should work out of the box. If it all goes horribly wrong then you not lost anything any way, as it wont be modifying vista in any way.

[mace]

Maybee. It's not a mater of having usb 2.0. It's a matter of the bios using 2.0 when booting and the only way to find out is to test

[killwin98]

Ok, thanks! I would try that!
But just before trying, is there a possibility to create a partition on the USB drive that would suit this purpose, and the rest of the space on the USB drive can be used for regular file transferring?