windows on a USB

i'm interested in trying to run a copy of windows xp from a USB drive, and make any computer i use to boot from that USB. the reason why i'm interested in this, is because i often find myself playing GW and other games on my university's lab computers (don't worry, they don't mind me doing so). however, those machines automatically wipes out any changes done to the harddrive every time i restart it, so i cannot download driver updates to make the intel GMA run a little faster (there was a critical driver update that enables pixel pipelines for some GMAs. i believe the lab computers have that kind).

so the question is... is it possible? if it is... is it really beneficial?

some other info:
USB: some 1gb stick that i have
computer: intel pentium 4 HT, 1gb ram, intel GMA 945

First off you would be very lucky to get XP installed into a 1gig partition (usb drive....whatever...). Second, Xp is not portable, it will not like hardware changes and more then likely will not run at all without a ummmm "tweak".

The only thing that I have done relating to that is that I put Guild Wars on my pocket drive. It is a 6 GB drive and just plugs right into the USB port without needing a power source.

Hope that is a bit of help for ya...

Idk xp is large file and 1 problem I see is that your usb jumpdrive will be 2 small and that you will have to wait for it to download xp of usb so you lose about 20 minutes in setup and xp will reject being copied like mcafee cds
second it will still be the same as using cd only cd is fast becuase it downloads off usb then installs then setups so wont matter.
sorry if i misspelled something

well you can give it a shot ya i put a file to a game on my usb and it install over and over everytime i unplug usb so i would just us cd
less troubles if you have question pm me in guru

This is very possible. Using XPLite would be ideal. I run XP off a 32GB 266X CF card. Boot time, seek time, read/write and general access time, all superior to storage units with moving parts.

Give the specs of your 1GB USB stick, remember technology is not created equal. I can help determine if this is worth the time.

You may want to look at a Windows XP Live CD.

For what it seems you'd wish to use it for, it wouldn't really be useful. The environment variables are generally set into the registry and you may encounter several issues.

it's a pretty old USB key that i have laying around. as far as i know, it's a USB2.0 drive. i don't know much aside from that.

anyways, the main reason i want my portable windows is because the lab machines do not accept driver upgrades. well, actually they do, but since they reset all harddrive changes upon restart, and driver upgrades require a restart to work... you see the problem, i believe.

if one of you know of a way to get around this, i'll be glad to know about it

Personally, i wouldn't recommend running an OS from a flash drive. First of all it will be slower. Secondly, flash memory only has a finite amount of rewriting that can be done before the memory goes bad. It isn't too much of a problem with normal files but with all the registry entries being changes in windows it could shorten the life of your flash drive.

Aside from the size problems, running software from a CD and in turn a USB (especially an OS since it would constantly be sending/receiving data) would be VERY laggy.

Also take into account that the OS updates and changes from time to time, so your USB memory may get fradizzled (lol) or otherwise lose more free space than your original intention.

If the lack of driver updates is breaking something the school needs, notify the network/systems admin.

It may be more feasable in the long run to just run GW off the USB drive. I know it can be done for Guild Wars, but I don't know about other games.

But this is not possible with their 1GB flash drive.

I'd recommend a small portable HD over a flash drive. You can get a 10 GB drive pretty cheep.