I'm remastering Knoppix to act as a dedicated Windows Rescue CD. Here are my ideas so far on what it can perform on broken Windows PC's.

1. Backup client data to a network share or USB/Firewire drive using Samba
2. Blank out the administrative password using chntpw
3. Force a scandisk on next windows boot using ntfsfix
4. Restore data onto an NTFS drive using captive-ntfs
5. Test the PC's memory using memtest86
6. Test the PC's hard drive using Drive Fitness Test
7. Test the PC's hardware using Aida16
8. Undelete files from an NTFS partition using ntfsundelete
9. Resize partitions using QTParted
10. Have limited rescue tools in a console menu for PC's with low memory.
11. Have the ability to setup static IP's for sites with no DHCP or crossover cable connections.
12. Use icewm and nautilus as the GUI portion and place an XP theme on it.
13. Set expirations and login passwords on the CD itself
14. Use isolinux and memdisk to allow for booting other boot image files like DOS bootdisks

Although all of this can be done with the current Knoppix CD it cannot be done easily by a Microsofty tech

With the Microsofty in mind I've customized the GUI to resemble XP and placed all of the rescue tools under the start button. The rescue tools in the past were a set of scripts but for future portability I'm consolidating all of them into one script called "aioscript" (All In One script

The script can run the different functions by just setting the function after its name...for example...if you would like to reset the admin password to blank then just type:
Code:
aioscript ntpasswd
this calls the ntpasswd) function inside the script. So you get the idea.

The project is for my dept in the company I work for. Being that it can get any data and reset any admin password some security has been placed into the CD to avoid loss or misuse:

1. Expiration date using the time off of NTP servers
2. Username and passwords using /bin/login or GDM

Since there around 300 Microsofty's in my company I had to devise a way of distribution with customization...thats where the web came in...

Currently the old version of the RCD can be requested from our internal website. The website requires you to authenticate, once authenticated the website knows your email address, company ID # (HRID) and other little tidbits about the tech requesting...
The requesting tech can customize some features of the CD before compilation:
1. Username - extracted from authentication into the website, tech cannot change this.
2. HRID stamped into the bootscreen
3. Creation date stamped on the bootscreen
4. Account expiration - tech cannot change this
4. Password - given by the requesting client.
5. Other internal customizations for our dept.

Once requested the website ftp's a file with the clients info inside over to the Rescue CD Server...from there a cron job runs each minute to check if there is a request in its queue...once a request is entered the server then process' that info into an uncompressed copy of the CD then creates the ISO from it. This part is yet to be done so I may need some help
Once compiled the server will email the client stating that their CD is available for download, also another job is entered to lock the tech from being able to request another CD for 5 months and yet another email set to be emailed to the tech 5 months from creation date notifying the tech that they have 30 days to request another. The site is also able to email forgotten passwords to the techs

Obviously the current version right now is not releasable to this forum since there are alot of internal customizations done so it would work on our network environment but with my current rewrite hopefully I'll be able to release the "aioscript" for input, improvement and corrections...

The aioscript is written entirely in bash and requires the following on top of your base linux live-cd:

Samba
Captive-NTFS
expect
smbclient
ntfsprogs

I may be missing some things but thats the bulk of it...

Another thing I'm aiming to do with this release is to make every CD able to act as a distribution server. Just another script that will prep the hdd, ftp and mail and done

This is my first real linux project that I'm making public and wanted to gauge interest on it...so far 2 other member expressed interest...

I also consider myself an intermediate linux user and I'm sure you'll see that in my script so please be gentle on the criticism

I'll be posting the script as soon as I have a more complete version of it...

In the mean time if you have any ideas of what to add please post here.