WindowsPE

[adamvjackson 0]

Anyone have any info on WindowsPE? All I've found is this Microsoft page. I thought I had heard or read that it would be included with Windows Server 2003... Did I imagine that?

[DosFreak 2]

I don't have the retail ver of 2003 yet but I heard that it comes in the box with it. You can also aquire Windows PE when buying OEM equipment.

 

or if you buy ERD Commander 2002 then it is based off of Windows PE plus you get the ERD Commander tools.

[DS3Circuit 0]

Quote:

Anyone have any info on WindowsPE?

Maybe I can expand some thoughts on the page you found.

Windows Preinstallation Environment is a minimal operating system, based on the Windows XP kernel and contains the minimal functionality you need to run and automate Windows Setup.

WinPE lets you create (diskpart.exe) and format (format.com) disk partitions, and gives you access to both NTFS file system partitions (with some constraints) and your internal network. The environment supports all mass storage devices that use Windows 2000 or Windows XP drivers, and you can incorporate additional drivers as new devices become available.

Certainly one of the cooler aspects is to prevent its use as a pirated operating system, WinPE automatically exits whatever shell it is running and reboots after 24 hours of continuous use.

Hopefully, that shed some more light on the subject.

*Edit: And yes I believe Automated Deployment Services uses Windows PE*

[adamvjackson 0]

Quote:

I don't have the retail ver of 2003 yet but I heard that it comes in the box with it. You can also aquire Windows PE when buying OEM equipment.

Hopefully so. I am going to the local Windows Server 2003 launch event on Tuesday, so I can find out some info first hand. It wasn't included on the evaluation CD image, as I had speculated it would.

I was mostly interested in creating some bootable CDs with recovery utilities, hardware and network analsys tools, etc. similar to Knoppix.

Anyway, I'll be sure to report back to everyone what I do find out.

Thanks for your input.

[DosFreak 2]

Well the problem with PE is that many of the API's have been ripped out so that most WIN32 programs do not work.

 

Take Ghost for instance. It won't work with PE. So you'll have to get a PE compatible program that performs the same function. PowerQuest came out with the Deployment Toolkit or somesuch about a month or 2 ago but I haven't got my hands on it.

 

There was also a freeware programs call DrvImageXPPE but that has been discontinued. It works pretty well tho.

 

I've been working on getting around to booting with PE and backing up to my External USB/1394 drive's but I've been too busy. Using this scenario then you'd be able to backup your entire HD to your USB/1394 enclosure without the limitations and hardships of floppy booting and CDR's...plus PE would be much more compatible with different configurations.