UberGerbil wrote:I should also point you to
this thread.
zzz wrote:bthylafh wrote:Hiren's Boot CD.
This.
I thought that still contained some non-free software and therefore fell into the peg-leg-and-parrot category of violating forum rule #1?
There's a few shareware packages on it (debatable, IMO), but it looks like the only notable yo-ho-ho stuff is a modified version of WinXP that one can boot from[1]. It's definitely a lot cleaner than it used to be, and I wouldn't touch it back then.
If you can get a copy of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (probably have to have a licensing agreement with MS for this) it's got a descendant of the old ERD Commander for your liveCD needs. I used to recommend the Ultimate Boot CD for Windows instead, but the project has been on hiatus for nearly two years now and while you can update some of the utilities yourself, it's a pain in the butt.
IMO some sort of Windows liveCD with built-in fix utilities is a must because some malware just can't be dislodged otherwise without a nuke-from-orbit.
[1] we have a site license for Windows, and I chose to interpret it as allowing this sort of thing since those computers have Windows anyway.