Can a net book be configured to work like a livecd ???

Ok so unless you can be absolutely sure that the USB drive can be physically made READ ONLY booting up as READ ONLY is unacceptable as it would simply be an illusion of security.

 

I don't know whether this will solve your problem; but BitDefender Internet Security installs with a rescue mode that is essentially a live cd, (linux,) that is loaded off of the Win7 start menu (without loading Win7), to allow for virus checking and removal without loading the operating system and without the need to load a cd or dvd. The file loaded is "bdr-im01.gz", has a size of 44.7 MB, and includes an internet browser. Most likely you could configure various live cds to load from the WIN7 start menu in a similar manner given a reasonable amount of research and study, or perhaps with help from various experienced users here.

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What is this "Win7 start menu" that does not need Windows 7 to load? Do you mean the Windows Boot Manager?

 

Thanks for catching that. Windows Boot Manager or Boot Menu is what I should have said.

It also occurred to me, in a similar line of thought, that during the initial steps of installing Linux Mint, the user is given the option to run linux mint from install dvd, without installing Mint. Given that, it seems the following link that gives instructions for directly booting ISO images for many Linux distros would allow running Linux Mint from user's HDD without installing Mint -- http://askubuntu.com/questions/340156/install-ubuntu-from-iso-image-directly-from-hard-disk-of-a-system-running-linux

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Actually Boot Menu usually refers to the BIOS, but anyways back to the topic at hand.