Request for a Bootable Explorer...

Hi there
your best bet is any one of many many different Linux distributions -- they can all READ and WRITE NTFS files (as well of course FAT / FAT32 files).

You can fit a decent sized BOOTABLE Linux distro with a full GUI (KDE / GNOME even) on to an 8GB USB stick EASILY.

If you don't want to compile your own Linux distro just download a LIVE CD version -- SUSE IMO is one of the best and there are instructions on making it bootable from a USB too.

http://software.opensuse.org/114/en

Here's how to get it on to a USB stick.

http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Live_USB_stick


Incidentally by having this type of device available you won't run into any problems as trying to delete files that are marked "In Use" when on windows.

Another possibility is to look at some of "The Ulimate Boot CD's" that are out there - these can also be made to boot from a USB stick too.


Ultimate Boot CD - Overview

An older method -- based on XP is the BARTPE type of disk -- this might have been upgraded - don't know.

Bart's Preinstalled Environment (BartPE) bootable live windows CD/DVD

Tis can also boot from a USB and I'm sure there might be some sort of W7 version around -- I haven't used this for a while -- I find booting a decent Linux system from a USB stick is the best way to go for this type of application.

Cheers

jimbo

if you're looking for a real lightweight linux distro, you can't really go wrong with slitaz

download the live cd stable version - it's only 30 megabytes, but still manages to be very modern and cool!

it's very lite and is not a full suite with word processor, email client etc, but it's certainly got a file explorer - i don;t think it can handle 7zip files out of the box though - there is a 7zip version for linux that you can add.