Program for quick test boot disks

Quite a lot of people download or create bootable discs in CD / DVD / USB / FDD image format and there is a need to quickly check their performance before using it in practice. To do this, this program is written, in essence, being a superstructure over the QEMU virtual machine.



Its main advantages are:

• Full portability.
• Very quick start.
• No need to install any drivers.
• You do not need to understand the intricacies of the QEMU command line yourself (although the ability to edit it is present for advanced users).
• Most functions do not require administrative privileges (except for booting from physical hard drives where direct access to hardware is required).
• It is possible to emulate the presence of a second HDD in the system, for example, to test the installation.
• By default, the snapshots mode is enabled, when all changes on the disk are written to a temporary file.
• You can freely choose the type of processor from 486 to Core 2 Duo, as well as the type of platform - x86 or x64.
• There is a simple network emulation to check the initialization of network capabilities.
• Support for popular virtual disk formats (VMDK, VHD, VDI).

Well, minor flaws:

• Of course, the speed of emulation is not as high as that of commercial programs using kernel drivers and hardware virtualization.
• Imperfect support for modern operating systems.

But for the required tasks, these IMHO drawbacks are insignificant ...

You can download the program archive from here [3,7MB] (including the latest QEMU v0.12.4).
Source on AutoIt! attached!
Tips for improving the program are welcome.
')
The program was published on Habré at the request of its author Nomadic, who is not yet a habrowser ...