Windows In Your Pocket

Glossary: What Does It Mean?

Bart PE: This slimmed down version of Windows XP fits on a CD-ROM or a USB flash drive. If your PC won't boot from the hard disk, you can then use a CD or the USB to boot your machine. Bart PE is generated from the original files on the XP Setup CD and the program files for a number of system tools, using the PE Builder program from Bart Lagerweij. The author retains all rights to this software, but the program is free and may be used and shared according to the terms of the PE Builder license.

Boot device order: (aka "Boot device priority" in some BIOS')

This collection of BIOS settings determines which device provides boot information to a PC. During system start-up the PC loads the boot sectors from the first operational drive it finds in this list. On hard disks, this means it loads the Master Boot Record (MBR). This contains the boot loader, which ultimately loads the operating system.

FAT file system: The partition format on a hard disk derives either from a File Allocation Table or a Master File Table, and specifies which files are stored on which sectors. A FAT formatted drive can be up to a maximum of 2 GB in size.

Plug-in: This combination of an executable program's files and a configuration file serves as the installation driver for a system tool in the PE Builder environment. But the programs available when Bart PE is running are not installed after the fact as in a normal Windows runtime environment. The user must specify all such items before PE Builder generates the mini operating system known as Bart PE.

RAM disk: This software uses the main memory on a PC as a virtual drive. It provides a workaround for PCs that initialize USB flash drives as part of their boot processes. When such a workaround is needed, the PC boots from the RAM disk instead of the flash drive.