In the beginning Microsoft created the 360 and the NXE. Now the 360 was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the NXE, and the Spirit of the hypervisor was hovering over the signed code. And then TeamFSD said, "Let there be Freestyle," and there was Freestyle. And TeamFSD saw that the Freestyle was good, ahahahaha just kidding, sorry I couldn't resist...

This is my first ever in-depth tutorial for anything period, so I apologize in advance if I tend to ramble and my paragraph structure is less than chaotic at times, I felt that this is pretty straight forward and I am very descriptive so pictures didn't seem necessary, anyway I hope to help educate people in need above all else so feel free to leave feedback and suggestions, I plan to write many more so encouragement and criticism would be appreciated

A few things to note before I get started:

This tutorial assumes you have the latest 12611 Freeboot image flashed to your Nand, everything in this tutorial will use only the latest versions of all mentioned software.
We will be using Freestyle Dash 2.0 RC 1.7 as the default dashboard, and setting it up to auto-boot on startup. I will refer to Freestyle Dash as FSD from here on.
This tutorial assumes you have at least a 20GB sata 2.5" hard drive attached. It can be the official Microsoft Hard Drive or any sata 2.5" hard drive of your choosing.
(taking the Hard Drive enclosure apart and replacing the internal HDD is easy, you just need a couple of Torx screwdrivers)
Understand that the internal hard drive performs better and faster than an external USB drive so for best results We will run FSD and homebrew apps from the internal HDD.
We will be formatting the internal hard drive when we begin, so if you need to backup any files such as profiles and save games, do so before we begin.


The next step is to obtain and prepare the software we will be using. I have created a custom XeXMenu ISO that has everything you will need and more, you can download it here: Multiupload.com - upload your files to multiple file hosting sites!

After downloading, extract and burn the ISO to a disc

This Custom ISO contains:

Jtag Apps

Dash Launch - Used to auto-boot Freestyle Dash at Startup
Freestyle Dash - An alternative dashboard for Jtagged xbox 360s
Hacked Xbox1 Emulator - The necessary files to play Xbox1 games
HDDXFixer - Used to create the HDDX partition needed to play Xbox1 games
NXE2GOD - Used to convert NXE installed games to GOD containers
Optional Media Update - allows your 360 to handle various media files
Xell Launch - Used to launch Xell manually
XeXMenu - A utility application for Jtagged Xbox 360s used for various functions
XM360 - Used to patch XBLA content for use with Jtagged Xbox 360s
A pre-prepared launch.ini for dashlaunch - a necessary file to use Dash Launch


PC Apps

Auto Xbins - Used to auto-connect to Xbins
GUI Format - Used to format large hard drives to FAT32
ISO2GOD - Used to convert game ISOs to GOD containers
Kai Engine - Needed to use Xlink Kai
LeFluffie - An app used to re-sign savegames, modify profiles and gamerscore and more
Modio - Another App used to re-sign savegames, modify profiles and more
Quickboot - Used to create quickboots
Xbox Image Browser - Used to extract files from game ISOs
YarisSwap - Used to unlock content for Jtagged Xbox 360s

I take no credit for the apps and software contained on this disc, I did not write any of it, the collection has many authors, I merely modified the original XeXMenu Live ISO to include the additional content.


Lets begin by setting up your console settings in 10 easy steps.

1: Attach your hard drive to your Jtagged Xbox 360, plug in your video cord, power supply, and a controller. Do not plug in any external USB hard drives at this time.

2: Power on your Jtagged Xbox 360. If you are already using dashlaunch to autoboot XexMenu or FSD, hold the right bumper to boot into the NXE dash.

3: Once the NXE has booted, go to System Settings, then select Console Settings. Select Language and Locale, Set your correct language and Location, then exit back to Console Settings.

4: Select Clock, then select Date and Time. Set your correct Date and Time then exit back to Clock Settings.

5: Select Time Zone and set your correct Time Zone, then exit back to Console Settings.

These options must be setup correctly for FSD to function properly. You may also want to take this time to make any other changes to your other system settings such as Display and Audio. When you are done, Go back to the main Menu.

6: Select Console Safety. Turn Console Safety ON. You will have to create a passcode if one is not already set.

7: Select Ratings and Content. Activating Console Safety changes the default settings for Ratings and Content, so now we're going to correct those changes. You may change them however you see fit, but I recommend setting Ratings to All and Content to Allowed, then exit back to Console Safety.

8: Select Xbox Live Access. Set this to BLOCKED, then exit back to Console Safety.

9: Select Xbox Live Membership Creation. Set this to BLOCKED, then exit back to Console Safety.

10: Select Save and Exit.

Your console is now effectively blocked from accessing Xbox Live.

Next we will format your Jtagged Xbox 360's attached hard drive. You will need to write down your console serial number and have it ready, you can find your console serial number under system info in the Console Settings section. From the Main Menu, select System Settings, then Memory. With the hard drive highlighted, press Y to format the drive. you will need to enter your serial number to proceed. Once it has finished formatting the drive, exit back to the main menu.


Now We will install all of the Jtag related software, including FSD to the hard drive, and Install and configure Dashlaunch to auto-boot FSD at startup

1: Insert the custom XeXMenu disc and launch it.

2: When prompted to sign-in to a profile, just hit B to exit without signing in, or create a new profile and sign in. You will be presented with XeXMenu.

3: Press the right bumper once to access Devices. By pressing right and left on the Dpad at this screen, you can cycle through the available devices.

4: Cycle over until the contents of the disc are displayed.

5: Highlight the folder labeled Jtag Apps and Tools, and select it by pressing A. You should now see 3 folders: Apps, Content (the content folder contains the optional media update), and Freestyle. You should also see a file labeled launch.ini.

6: Now we will copy all of this to the root of your hard drive. To copy a file or folder from the disc to the hard drive in XeXMenu, highlight the file or folder, then press Y to open the submenu and select Copy. then press right or left to cycle to your hard drive, then press Y and select paste. Do this with each folder and finally with the launch.ini file.

7: Now cycle to your hard drive, select the folder labeled Dash Launch, then select the folder labeled Installer. Scroll down to the default.xex and select it. It will launch the Dash Launch Installer, in a few seconds you should see some text at the bottom of the screen that says Press A to install or Update Dash Launch. Press A to begin installation.

8: It should write a few things to the flash then locate the launch.ini that you copied to the hard drive. It will now say press A to update or B to skip. Press A to update.

9: Here are the different options it will ask you to confirm, and the appropriate button to press for each option:

Would you like to change settings? Press A for yes.
Do you want to be able to relaunch from miniblade in NXE dash? Press A for yes.
Do you want to enable FBDev's ping limit patch? press A for yes.
Do you want to enable mojobjo's content unlock patch? Press A for yes.
Do you want the console to freeze on fatal errors? Press B for no.
Do you want the console to reboot on fatal errors? Press A for yes.
Do you want to enable ability to region spoof with RB on game launch? Press A for yes.
When a default item is set and you are playing a video, exit back to NXE? Press B for no.
When you are playing an XBLA game and use the exit option, exit to NXE? Press B for no.
Do you want to remove the ability to go to system settings via miniblades? Press B for no.

10: At this point it should say writing file... success, then it will say flashing done, press A to shutdown. Go ahead and press A to shutdown.


Part 2


Now go ahead and turn your Jtagged Xbox 360 back on, it should startup then boot straight to FSD. For now we are only going to change one setting in FSD and that is the fan speed. from the main menu, press down on the Dpad to go to the utilities menu, select Settings. Scroll down and select System Settings. Scroll down and select Fan Settings. Press right on the Dpad to adjust the fan speed to where you want it then press B to exit. I recommend 100% as this will set the fan speed to max and help keep your Xbox as cool as possible. Hopefully reducing your chances of getting any RROD errors. It will be a little noisy but 100% is safe for stock fans and Talismoon fans (no it wont burn out the LEDS) , it will not burn up your fans or wear them out, the stock fans are actually 12V fans, so they can handle it just fine. Setting your fan speed low may make it quieter, but is dangerous and should not be done. It is your xbox, so do as you please, but again I recommend 100% speed to be safe. For anyone who has done the 12v fan mod, it is not necessary to make any changes to the fan speed settings as it will have no effect. Anytime you are in FSD, click the right thumbstick to open the status bar, this will allow you to monitor your temps and see any activity in FSD such as scanning and downloading.


Now we will fix the HDDX partition and copy the necessary files to enable you to play Xbox1 games.

1: From the Utilities menu in FSD, select file manager. It will display all of the connected devices.

2: Select HDD1.

3: Select the Apps folder.

4: Select the HDDXFixer folder.

5: Highlight the default.xex and press A to launch HDDXFixer.

6: In a few seconds you will be presented with some text. Just follow the instructions saying and say yes to any confirmation messages. It will tell you when it has finished.

7: You need to restart your Xbox for the partition changes to finalize.

8: Once you have restarted your Xbox, return to the File Manager and Select HDD1 in the left panel.

9: Select the Apps folder

10: Select the Hacked Xbox1 Emulator folder. You should see a folder labeled Compatibility.

11: Press right on the Dpad to move to the right panel in File Manager.

12: Select the HDDX partition

13: Press left to go back to the left panel.

14: With the Compatibility folder highlighted, press X to select it, the folder should turn green.

15: Hold the right bumper and press A. It will ask if you're sure you want to copy. Say yes. Once the operation has completed, press B to exit the copy screen.

16: Now go to the left panel and press B to go back to the contents of the Apps folder.

17: Use the X button to select the following folders: Dashlaunch, HDDXFixer, and Hacked Xbox1 Emulator.

18: Hold the right bumper and press B to delete these folders, you do not need them anymore, and if you ever need them again, they are on the custom XeXMenu disc. You do not have to delete them if you don't want to, but I recommend deleting them to avoid them being used by accident by someone who doesn't know what they're doing and screwing anything up.



Now We will setup your folders and FSD settings and scan paths. This is the area that causes people the most problems and is commonly setup wrong or poorly and causes FSD to scan and/or run slowly and poorly. This part can be setup many different ways and some people prefer their own methods and folder structures because they are comfortable with the way they have it setup or are just plain lazy. Now I have experimented with this a LOT to find the most efficient and fast settings and scan paths etc. You may choose to do it my way or make changes, but I bet you that my way while requiring more effort on your part, is better and faster and will leave you with less headaches in the future. With that said, lets continue.

I am going to try to explain this part with several possible setups in mind, I do not use an external USB hard drive, except to transfer games and content to my internal
drive. I have a 1TB hard drive attached to my Jtag and I find it scans and runs much smoother and faster than an external USB setup. It is plenty of room to store a ton of
games and content. But this may not be enough room for some people. The folder structure will be the same tho essentially.

So lets talk about setting up an external USB hard drive to store games and content. First of all, in order for your Jtagged Xbox 360 to recognize and use a USB hard drive,
it must be formatted to FAT32. A lot of people have issues with this as large hard drives can be difficult to format to FAT32 if you don't understand the process. To make it easy, I have included a PC App on the custom XeXMenu disc called GUI Format. It can be used to quickly and easily format a hard drive to FAT32. Once the drive is formatted, we have to setup some folders to organize our games and content.

These are what folders I recommend to create on your Internal hard drive or external USB hard drive:

Xbox Classics
Xbox 360 GOD
Xbox 360 XEX
Homebrew
EMUS
XBLA

I have 2 different Xbox 360 folders because there are 2 different formats that games can be installed. The 2 formats are GOD and XEX. Each has its own pros and cons.


The GOD Format

The GOD format is more convenient for most people, games can be installed from a disc via the NXE dash, then converted to GOD containers using NXE2GOD, or they can be converted directly to GOD containers from an ISO using ISO2GOD from your PC. Both of these GOD methods are quick and relatively easy to do. The downside is that the games cannot be modified and unless you manually create folders with the Game title, then move the GOD containers into these folders, they won't be labeled and will require searching and matching title IDs to manage the games. They also require a deeper scan depth in FSD if left in their original folder structure. Here is what a GOD format game installed via the NXE dash patched with NXE2GOD and left in its default folder structure and location will look like. I will use the new Test Drive Unlimited 2 as an example.

HDD1/Content/0000000000000000/49470804/00007000/08E4294A5AE13A903BAF

This is the actual file that is launched to start the game, but the game files are actually stored in another folder inside the 00007000 folder called
08E4294A5AE13A903BAF.data

So if left in this location, the scan game path you would have to add to FSD to allow it to find this game would be: HDD/Content/0000000000000000/ with a scan depth of 2
because it would have to scan the 49470804 folder, then the 00007000 folder in order to find the 00007000/08E4294A5AE13A903BAF file. (do not setup the scan path yet, this is just an example)

with that in mind, if you installed 100 games using this method, FSD would have to scan 200 folders to find the games and add them to your library.

Games converted to GOD from ISO using ISO2GOD would also traditionally be placed in the: HDD1/Content/0000000000000000/ folder.

Again, as you can see, these games would require extra steps to locate if you wanted to delete them or back them up/transfer to another location.


The XEX Format

The XEX format is a popular format for game modders because the games files can be manipulated easily, also the games would be installed in their own folder using the Games title as the label. Games can be installed from a disc using FSD's Copy DVD function, or extracted from the ISO using Xbox Image Broswer from your PC. The downside to this format is that depending on the discs contents, these methods of installing the games can be long and even sometimes prone to lock up the file manager as the games sometimes consist of tens of thousands of files. Here is what a game installed using one of these methods would like like when installed. Again I will use the new Test Drive Unlimited 2 as an example:

HDD1/Xbox 360 XEX/Test Drive Unlimited 2/default.xex

So the scan game path you would add to FSD to allow it to find this game would be: HDD1/Xbox 360 XEX/ with a scan depth of 1 because it would have to scan the Xbox 360 XEX folder in order to find the default.xex file. (do not setup the scan path yet, this is just an example)

Again with that in mind, if you installed 100 games using this method, FSD would only have to scan 100 folders to find the games and add them to your library. So they would be found and added in half the time of the GOD installed games.


Now that you understand how the different formats work, I will show you how to place them on your hard drive/s to minimize scan depth and time, and have them neatly organized.

For GOD format games, I would either install the game from a disc via the NXE, then use NXE2GOD to convert them to GOD format, or use ISO2GOD from my PC to generate the games original folder structure, then move the necessary files from that location to a newly created folder with the games title. So using Test Drive Unlimited 2 as an example once again, this is how I would do that.

Create a folder for the game at HDD1/Xbox 360 GOD/Test Drive Unlimited 2/

Then move the contents of the 00007000 folder found at HDD1/Content/0000000000000000/49470804/00007000/ to the newly created HDD1/Xbox 360 GOD/Test Drive Unlimited 2/ folder

If using ISO2GOD, you would simply substitute the first location with the location of the GOD format game on your PC. Then delete the 00007000 folder from
HDD1/Content/0000000000000000/49470804/ since it would then be empty.


Part 3


Doing this could take awhile depending on how many games you have, and how you install them, so it is up to you if you'd rather wait longer for scanning and save yourself the trouble of organizing the games like this, but if you want your games organized neatly and you want FSD to scan quickly, take the time. I personally never install games from disc, I use ISO2GOD so organizing the games then transferring them to a USB drive or FTPing the games to the Xbox is easy. I only install games using the XEX format if I want to mod them, like Call of Duty Black Ops for example. The default.xex can be replaced with a hacked default.xex to allow cheats like unlimited ammo and god mode etc.

XBLA can be installed the same way, by creating a folder for each game with the title then transferring the game to that folder. For example: HDD1/XBLA/Aegis
Wing/22A577908CBB1AA2BC3B0D138F5D636EC6563CA158

So the scan game path you would add to FSD to allow it to find this game would be: HDD1/XBLA/ with a scan depth of 1 because it would have to scan the Aegis Wing folder in order to find the 22A577908CBB1AA2BC3B0D138F5D636EC6563CA158 file. (do not setup the scan path yet, this is just an example)

XBLA games installed like this will cut the scan depth and time significantly from the usual method as it will potentially cut out hundreds of folders from the equation.


Moving on, So now you know where to put your Games, the other content is self explantory. Place Homebrew in the homebrew folder, Emulators in the EMUS folder etc.

Now to setup FSD settings. It is very important to change the settings BEFORE adding game paths to scan. FSD's default settings are fine, except for 1 thing in my opinion.
The number of screenshots downloaded by default for each game. I recommend turning this number down to 2-4 or disabling screenshots entirely. I personally use the "cover flow" visual display for my games, so I just disable screenshots altogether. Do this by lowering the screenshot count in Marketplace Options. It will cut the time required to download all of your games artwork drastically. Also make sure to set your Marketplace locale correctly, or FSD won't retreive the artwork for your games. Other than that, you can setup the rest of the settings to your liking. Make sure to make any changes to content and scanning settings BEFORE saving any game paths.


Now we will setup your game paths.
To setup and save a game path (using Xbox 360 GOD folder as an example):

1: Go to the utilities Menu

2: Select Settings

3: Select Content Settings

4: Select manage Game Paths

5: Press Y to create a new game path

6: Select HDD1 or USB depending on where your content is located.

7: Select Xbox 360 GOD folder

8: Press Y to select this location

9: check the boxes marked Xbox 360 next to retail/dev kit (check the boxes next to the appropriate content when adding paths for XBLA, Homebrew etc.)

10: Set the scan depth

11: press X to save the game path

Once the path is saved, FSD will scan that location and start downloading artwork for any content found. Again remember DO NOT DO ANYTHING while it is scanning and
downloading artwork, just set the controller down and walk away. Once it is done, add another path. Then walk away.

The Scan Paths to add to FSD and the depth of each path if you use my method are as follows:

HDD1/Apps/ scan depth 1
HDD1/Xbox Classics/ scan depth 1
HDD1/Xbox 360 GOD/ scan depth 1
HDD1/Xbox 360 XEX/ scan depth 1
HDD1/Homebrew/ scan depth 1
HDD1/EMUS/ scan depth 1
HDD1/XBLA/ scan depth 1

If your games are stored on a USB external hard drive just substitute HDD1/ for USB/ and remember to always plug your USB external hard drive into the same USB port or you may have problems such as duplicate games.


Once all of the paths have been added and all of the artwork is done downloading, I recommend restarting your Xbox. While it is unlikely that FSD missed anything, this will
allow it to scan again, and give you an idea of how long the scanning will take each time you start your Xbox. Although the second time will obviously be much faster since FSD will have already downloaded all of the artwork. Once it is done scanning, go to your library to check and make sure that your games and content show up properly. If all is well, now would be the time to disable auto scanning at startup in the settings menu if you'd like. Obviously you will have to run the manual scan whenever you add additional games or content.


Now we will setup a quickboot for FSD, so that you do not need to restart your Xbox to go back to FSD from the NXE dash. I could have included a quickboot in the custom XeXMenu ISO, but I thought it would be good to teach you how to create quickboots for your Apps and Games. Quickboots are small files that are placed in your content folder

that will add a "quickboot" to the quicklaunch menu in the miniblades when you press the guide button. This is very useful for launching Apps and games quickly without having to switch back and forth to the dashboard. The latest version of Quickboot is included on the Custom XeXMenu disc, so pop it into your computer, navigate to the PC apps folder and:

1: Launch Quickboot

2: Enter Freestyle Dash as the title

3: Enter a description, I just put Freestyle Dash but you can put whatever you like

4: Enter the path for Freestyle: HDD\Freestyle\default.xex (An easy way to find the path to something is to use your FTP client to navigate to the xex then copy the location)

5: Click on the XEDEV picture if you want to choose a different Icon

6: Click Build Quickbuild

7: Select a location to save the quickboot file to on your PC

8: Transfer the quickboot file to your Xbox at: HDD1\Content\0000000000000000\CODE9999\00007000\ (you will need to create this directory)

9: Use the new quickboot by pressing the guide button, go left one blade, scroll down to quicklaunch, go right to the ALL tab then launch the quickboot, (note - if used from
FSD, it will just restart FSD)

10: Create as many quickboots as you want


Well thats all that I can really think of at the moment for a fresh Jtag, if you followed my instructions, your Jtag should be running great and be up to date.

Please leave feedback and suggestions, I can handle criticism, and I don't mind pointers for better tutorial writing, I just want to help you guys out after all.