Make your disc more fully functional

You may not have time to try and fix your problem, in which case all you really want to do is get on with your work. If your data is stored on a flash drive, or your hard drive is still accessible, then the following plug-ins will help you keep working even when Windows itself is out of action.

OpenOffice

Plug-in: OpenOffice.cab
Download link: direct link, here
Additional files needed: download OpenOffice from here and install it

Description: If you need to write a document or work on a spreadsheet, presentation or database, then OpenOffice can let you do just that from your rescue disc. It’s compatible with Microsoft Office file formats, so you can continue to use Office in your daily life and only switch to OpenOffice when circumstances force you to.

   One annoyance is that there's no shortcut to the program placed on the Start menu - you'll need to click Start > Run, click Browse, then manually navigate the Programs\OpenOffice\program folder to locate the program you need. Choose quickstart to add the launcher to the system tray for fast and ready access to any of the programs. Click OK in the Run box to launch the program once selected.

Instructions: Download and install OpenOffice on your PC. Choose a custom installation if you only want the word processor (Write), spreadsheet (Calc), presentations tool (Impress), database (Base) or combination thereof.

   Now create a folder inside pebuilder3110a called addon. Inside this create another folder called Programs, and finally create a third folder inside Programs called OpenOffice (be careful to spell these exactly as shown here). Next, browse to Program Files\OpenOffice.org 2.1 and copy the contents of this folder into pebuilder3110a\addon\Programs\OpenOffice. To copy your own user preferences over plus avoid being prompted to register each time you run the program, browse to Documents and Settings\{User}\Application Data\OpenOffice.org2\user (where {User} is your user folder) and copy the contents of this folder into pebuilder3110a\addon\Programs\OpenOffice\presets, overwriting what's already there.

   Finally, open PEBuilder and click Plugins followed by Add. Browse to and select openoffice.cab. - verify the OpenOffice plugin is present and enabled; if not, select it and click Enable/Disable. Close Close followed by Exit.
 

Foxit Reader

Plug-in: pdfrd.cab
Download link: direct link here
Additional files needed: click here, click Download and choose the ZIP Package to save foxitreader.zip to your PC

Description: a PDF reader may appear to be a strange choice for your recovery disc, but many manuals and other documents are distributed as PDF documents these days, so it’s useful to be able to read them in case they offer troubleshooting advice or can help you with your work-related research. On a CD-based system like BartPE, Foxit Reader’s speed and small footprint make it the ideal choice for your recovery disc.

Instructions: browse to PEBuilder3110a\plugin and create a folder called PDF Reader. Open this and extract the file FoxitReader from foxitreader.zip to this folder. The plug-in was designed for an earlier version of the program, so you need to edit it to work properly. Start by double-clicking pdfrd.cab and copying all of its contents to the PDF Reader folder. Now double-click PDFReader.inf to open it in Notepad.

   First, you need to edit the [SourceDisksFiles] section - change lines two and three to the following:
PDF.ico=a,,1
FoxitReader.exe=a,,1

   Delete the files\preview2.dll=a,,1 line completely, then change other PDFReader.exe references to FoxitReader.exe in the file before saving it.

   To check it works properly, launch PEBuilder and click Plugins. PDFReader should be present and enabled - click Close and it should be ready to go. If you get an error message, review your changes.

Mozilla Firefox

Plug-in: various
Download link: click here followed by the Mozilla Firefox 2 link, then choose the latest build of the program (2.0.0.2 as of 04/03/2007)
Additional files needed: 7-Zip program (click here - it's free) to decompress the downloaded 7z file

Description: if you browse the Web with Firefox then you’ll want to use this instead of Internet Explorer.

Instructions: download and install 7-Zip, then right-click firefox-2.8.7z and choose 7-Zip > Extract Here. If you want to use your existing Firefox bookmarks, open Firefox and choose Bookmarks > Organise Bookmarks. Select File > Export, locate the recently extracted firefox folder and click Save, overwriting the original when prompted. Move the firefox folder into the PEBuilder3110a\plugin directory, then launch PEBuilder and click Plugins to verify the [Sherpya] Mozilla Firefox entry is present and enabled.
 

Screenhunter

Plug-in: Screenhunter_complete.zip
Download link: direct link, here
Additional files needed: none

Description: screen-capture tool - by default it’ll save to your RAMdisk, so remember to configure it each time you run it to save elsewhere. Launch the program manually from within BartPE: click Start > Run, choose Browse and open your BartPE CD, then go through Programs\ScreenHunter to find ScreenHunter.exe.

Instructions: download the zip file and extract the Screenhunter folder inside it to PEBuilder3110a\plugin, then launch PEBuilder and click Plugins to verify the Screenhunter entry is present and enabled.