How to customize a Windows boot CD

What is the easiest way to make a Windows boot CD that can be customized?

Specifically I would like to run DriveSnapshot from a boot CD so that I can restore images from a USB drive. I tried UBCD a while ago but was never able to get it to work due to no USB support on the PC.

I know there are a lot of *nix based CDs out there, but Drivesnapshot needs to run on Windows. It works fine on a simple boot floppy but not many PCs have floppy drives anymore.

You can use BartPE for this. Find some good guides on setting it up here:
http://www.nu2.nu/bootcd/

You'll need a full XP retail license for this, and even then there's some question.

Did you try to follow the tutorial on the DriveSnapshot site: How to create a bootable CD/DVD?

Windows PE itself can do this too, and it's no longer encumbered by licensing restrictions. Despite being Vista-based, I've used it for deploying a few thousand XP images (and the PCs in question are still up and running over 2 years on).

Pros: you can load drivers while it's running, extremely good hardware support (USB out of the box), can run Win32 apps, very scriptable, supported by MS.

Cons: bit of a steep learning curve, needs 512 MB RAM.

Do a search for Windows AIK on www.microsoft.com and you'll be getting started. Their "Malware Removal Kit" instructions probably provide the best "how to" documentation.

I use UBCD4Win which is better than just the UBCD, this is based on the BartPE as well and it already has a lot of useful tools. What I like about it is that it also has a forum so you can see what other people have done and tried.

Check out UBCD4Win.com for more info.