Universal NT Installer is a lightweight, fast, and versatile setup utility designed to deploy multiple Windows NT family operating systems — from NT 3.1 to XP — within seconds. It supports both modern and legacy systems, making multi-version Windows installation easier and more accessible.
- Supports a wide range of Windows NT versions: NT 3.1, NT 3.5, NT 3.51, NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP (x86 & x64) both vanilla and patched editions.
- Fast installation: Deploys OS setups in just a few seconds.
- Compatible with modern and legacy hardware: Supports IDE, AHCI, NVMe, and RAID controllers. Also contains USB 1.x/2.x/3.x and ACPI patches.
- Simple bash-based installation scripts: Designed for easy automation and customization.
- Modular design: Uses configuration files for editions, OS lists, and bootloader settings.
- Open Source: Licensed under GNU GPLv3 for maximum freedom.
- Cross-platform ISO build: Supports building bootable ISO images using syslinux (vmlinuz + core.gz) that work on both Linux and Windows systems.
- Bootable ISO creation: The folder contents can be directly converted into a bootable ISO file ready for USB or CD/DVD deployment.
- All operating systems used, including Windows®, are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. This product is not endorsed or affiliated with Microsoft Corporation.
- This project is in BETA stage. Not responsible for any data loss, damage, or malfunction. Use at your own risk.
- Installer only supports Legacy Boot/CSM mode. If you want to use the installer in a computer which does not support Legacy Boot/CSM mode, please look at the cool CSMWrap project made by FlyGoat. It enables CSM support even on UEFI Class 3 systems. But it's still beta and may not work.
- Readme file will contain more information in the future.
- Please don't hesitate to report any issues you find. I will try to fix them as best as I can, whenever I get free time.
- CPU: At least i486
- RAM: 68 MiB of memory
- Disk: MBR scheme and IDE/AHCI/RAID/NVMe controller supported by Tiny Core Linux
- Installation media: USB or CD/DVD at least 2.5 GiB
NOTE: For Windows XP x64, x86-64 Intel or AMD CPU is required!
- Controller: IDE or SATA (IDE) only
- IRQ Assignment: Disk controller must be assigned to IRQ 14
- Position: Primary master (channel 0, position 0) for PATA IDE, SATA first port (port 0) for SATA IDE
- Filesystem: FAT12 or FAT16 CHS
- Disk Layout: Entire partition must be within first 8.3 GB (CHS-accessible)
- Free Space: At least 60 MiB
- Controller: IDE or SATA (IDE) only
- Position: Primary or secondary master (channel 0 or 1, position 0) for PATA IDE
- Filesystem: FAT12 or FAT16 CHS
- Disk Layout: Entire partition must be within first 8.3 GB (CHS-accessible)
- Free Space: At least 60 MiB
- Controller: IDE, SATA (IDE) or AHCI
- Filesystem: FAT12, FAT16 CHS/LBA, FAT32 CHS/LBA
- Free Space: At least 70 MiB
- Patches Applied: UniATA, FAT32
- Controller: IDE or SATA (IDE) only
- Filesystem: FAT12, FAT16 CHS/LBA, or NTFS
- Disk Layout: Must reside within first 137.4 GB of disk
- Free Space: At least 140 MiB
- Controller: IDE, SATA (IDE) or AHCI
- Filesystem: FAT12, FAT16 CHS/LBA, FAT32 CHS/LBA, NTFS
- Free Space: At least 160 MiB
- Patches Applied: UniATA, FAT32, USB 1.x/2.0
- Controller: IDE or SATA (IDE) only
- Filesystem: FAT12, FAT16 CHS/LBA, FAT32 CHS/LBA, or NTFS
- Free Space: At least 650 MiB
- Controller: IDE, SATA (IDE), AHCI or NVMe
- Filesystem: FAT12, FAT16 CHS/LBA, FAT32 CHS/LBA, or NTFS
- Free Space: At least 980 MiB
- Patches Applied: ACPI, USB 1.x/2.x/3.x, AHCI, NVMe
- Controller: IDE or SATA (IDE) only
- Filesystem: FAT12, FAT16 CHS/LBA, FAT32 CHS/LBA, or NTFS
- Free Space: At least 1.5 GiB for x86, 2.2 GiB for x64
- Controller: IDE, SATA (IDE), AHCI, RAID or NVMe
- Filesystem: FAT12, FAT16 CHS/LBA, FAT32 CHS/LBA, or NTFS
- Free Space: At least 1.5 GiB for x86, 2.2 GiB for x64
- Patches Applied: ACPI, USB 3.x, AHCI, RAID, NVMe
- Drivers for booting: Successful installation cannot be guaranteed in all cases, as driver-related issues may arise.
- CHS and LBA: CHS (Cylinder-Head-Sector) addressing is required for early NT editions and mandates small partition sizes.
- Boot Partition: Must exist and be a primary, supported filesystem (FAT12/FAT16/FAT32/NTFS).
- exFAT Filesystem: Windows 2000 Patched and Windows XP Vanilla/Patched can read and write an exFAT partition but cannot boot from it because NTLDR cannot recognize exFAT partitions. So, you cannot install it to exFAT partition. However, you can create/delete/format exFAT partitions using Partition Editor/Formatter.
- A Linux or Windows environment capable of running ISO building tools supporting syslinux (e.g.
genisoimage,mkisofs,xorriso,mkisofs.exe). - Access to the required OS
.tar.gzarchives (see below).
The actual OS image archives (.tar.gz) are not included in this repository due to their large size. The ISO files can be downloaded from the Releases section.
Please extract these archives from the ISO files available in the Releases and place them inside the osfiles/ directory before running the installer.
To keep the repository lightweight, all .tar.gz files in osfiles/ are ignored by Git.
The installation process consists of booting the target PC from a prepared ISO file written onto a bootable USB drive or CD/DVD.
- Download the ISO file from the Releases section.
- Write the ISO to a USB drive (minimum 2.5 GB) using a tool like Rufus (Windows) or appropriate software on Linux.
- Alternatively, burn the ISO to a CD/DVD.
- Boot the target PC from the USB or CD/DVD media.
- Follow the on-screen instructions to install the desired Windows NT version.
No additional setup on the target PC is needed beyond booting from the prepared media.
If you want to build or customize the bootable ISO yourself from the repository files, follow the guidelines below.
You need to have ISO creation tools that support the syslinux bootloader such as:
genisoimageandmkisofs(preferred)xorriso(alternative)syslinux(for bootloader binaries likeisolinux.bin,vmlinuz,core.gz)
-
Clone the repository:
git clone https://github.com/ages2001/Universal-NT-Installer.git cd Universal-NT-Installer -
Download and extract the OS files:
- Go to the Releases page.
- Download any ISO file available.
- Extract the ISO using any archive manager (e.g.
7z,bsdtar, or a GUI tool). - Copy the contents of the extracted
osfiles/folder into your localosfiles/directory in the repository.
Example:
cp -r extracted_folder/osfiles/* ./osfiles/ -
Build the ISO:
Once the folder structure is complete, run:
sudo mkisofs -o ../Universal_NT_Installer.iso \ -b boot/isolinux/isolinux.bin \ -c boot/isolinux/boot.cat \ -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table \ -J -R -V "UNVNTINSTLR" .
This will generate
Universal_NT_Installer.isoin the parent directory using the current folder's contents.
For Windows users, an unofficial port of mkisofs.exe is available in tools like:
- Cygwin
- MinGW
- Standalone distributions (e.g. part of
cdrtools)
However, ISO generation on Windows using mkisofs.exe has not been fully tested with Universal NT Installer and may result in boot or file structure issues. For best results, we recommend using a Linux environment or WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux).
You may follow the similar steps as above in Linux/WSL to build the ISO.
- Use the ISO file from the Releases section.
- Minimum USB or CD/DVD size: 2.5 GB.
- For USB, tools like Rufus (Windows) or
dd(Linux) can be used. USB partition must be formatted with FAT16 or FAT32. - For CD/DVDs, use any standard burning software like UltraISO etc.
- Boot the target machine from the USB or CD/DVD to start installation.
This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3 (GPLv3) — see the LICENSE file for details.
“Universal NT Installer makes old and new Windows setups easy and fast, all in one place.”