Windows PE (Preinstallation Environment)Post Date: 2020-12-24 |
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ErikW
Newbie Joined: 26 Aug 2020 Online Status: Offline Posts: 22 |
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Topic: Windows PE (Preinstallation Environment) Posted: 24 Dec 2020 at 3:22pm |
Many people have never heard of Windows Preintallation Environment (Windows PE). Windows PE started out as a very limited standalone operating system that was used to install Windows. At first, that was simply MS-DOS, because Windows 3.xx ran on top of MS-DOS. Later, the MS-DOS mode of Windows 95, plus part of the actual Windows 95 system was used to install Windows. Now Windows PE is actually a subset of the normal Windows OS with some special settings or software not used for the normal Windows OS. Windows PE can do things that Windows cannot, and it has some limitations that aren't present in Windows. Probably the most important feature of Windows PE is that it can boot on almost any hardware. That is the primary reason that Microsoft created Windows PE, so that Windows can be installed and configured on nearly any set of hardware. Windows PE does not require activation or a CD key, and it will run for 72 hours after booting. NOTE: The Windows 10 fast startup feature does not work well if you are planning to boot other operating systems, including Windows PE. Fast startup essentially hibernates your PC without doing the normal filesystem cleanup of a normal hibernate. Trying to boot another operating system or repair your filesystem using a different OS can completely corrupt your Windows 10 filesystem. I recommend turning off Windows 10 fast startup in the power management settings if you plan to boot any other OS on your computer. If you don't turn off fast startup, then remember to always choose the restart option to switch to a different OS instead of choosing shut down. Reboot your computer at least once after changing the setting for fast startup. I'm not 100% convinced that using restart avoids all the problems with fast startup. On a fast SSD, fast startup is probably not necessary. How do you get Windows PE? Windows PE is part of the Windows installation media, so everyone who has a copy of the setup DVDs or thumb drives has a copy of Windows PE. There are legitimate places to download Windows setup media provided by Microsoft if that did not come with your computer. Is it legal to use Windows PE? The best answer that I can give is to read Microsoft's End User License Agreement (EULA) for Windows. I believe that it is legal to use Windows PE on the same computer where you installed a legal copy of the same version of Windows. Without Windows activation, there is very little to enforce the restrictions of the license. People using Windows PE or distributing it on a large scale, or in some way charging for services making use of it, should get legal advice. The Windows PE configuration included with Windows setup media is only useful for installing Windows. To make Windows PE useful for other things, you have to create your own configuration and add other software. Fortunately, Microsoft and other software developers have tools to allow configuration and customization of Windows PE. There is plenty of free software to conveniently create and modify Windows PE systems and the associated boot media. What can Windows PE do that is not possible in Windows? - Boot on nearly any hardware, or a class of similar hardware - Boot from a RAM disk using a WIM file containing the entire OS and software - Boot from read-only media - Boot without any hard disks present - Attempts to load many/multiple mass storage drivers during boot- Manually load additional mass storage drivers during boot - Access files and registry keys that a normal Windows OS can't - Access files and registry keys that are locked when Windows is booted - Directly access disk blocks/sectors including the boot partition What are some of the limitations of Windows PE? - Booting may be slow, especially through USB or from optical discs - Can only run continuously for 72 hours (unless patched) - Cannot load some drivers that require a system restart - Limited support for detecting plug-and-play hardware after boot - Limited desktop/graphical user interface may be missing some features - Usually does not remember user settings made after booting - Windows 10 PE can require up to 3 GB of RAM to be useful (except to install) - No virtual memory, and all software may be loaded in RAM at startup - You either leave the boot media in place, or have to load everything to RAM - Different or missing control panel and settings features - Some third party applications work differently or don't work at all - May need to use "portable" versions of some applications - Limited support for DirectX and audio devices - Does not enforce file and folder security of the normal Windows OS What can you do with Windows PE that makes it similar to Windows? - Boot Windows 10 on purely UEFI firmware (with no BIOS support) - Boot Windows to a graphical desktop (may be different than "normal").- Use mouse, keyboard, and some game controllers - Use the Windows file Explorer to create, copy, move, modify and delete files - Connect to Ethernet (if drivers are present for hardware) - Connect to Wireless (if drivers are present for hardware) - Access USB hard disks and thumb drives (requires USB drivers for hardware) - Access SATA and RAID disks (requires SATA/RAID drivers) - Access NVMe SSDs (Windows 10 PE only) - Edit the boot configuration using BCDEDIT - Repair Windows boot sectors - Edit registry settings (including normal Windows OS) - Create, delete and modify partitions - Defragment filesystems - Back up hard disks, partitions and files - Restore hard disks, partitions and files - Use Volume Shadow Service to access in-use files - Surf the internet using Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, etc - Play some simple games Here are some reasons why you might want to use Windows PE. You can use it as a standalone operating system to back up or restore your normal Windows operating system and files. By booting Windows PE, your backup software can have full access to all Windows files that might be locked when that Windows OS is booted. You can safely restore files that are normally locked or used by the Windows operating system. You can use it to perform maintenance such as checking filesystems or defragmenting filesystems. You can use it to repair Windows when Windows will not boot. Being able to load and examine the registry of the Windows OS, make changes, and examine system files can allow you to repair problems that automatic repair cannot. If you can't repair Windows, you can use Windows PE to copy your important files and even save the entire Windows registry to extract settings, license keys, etc. after reinstallation. You can create a pocket OS that will boot on many other computers, and use it as a secure system for shared or public PCs. Anything that you do with your standalone OS will be gone as soon as you reboot the computer.
You can have a "Swiss Army knife" bootable OS to help other people fix Windows problems or perform maintenance tasks. You have a number of choices to get started using Windows PE. You can find prebuilt Windows PE systems that have the most popular and useful software. Add your hardware drivers if they aren't already present. Build your own Windows PE system using tools that you can find on the Microsoft site, The Oven, Reboot.pro and other sites. Just search for "boot disks: or "Windows PE" to find a lot of different resources. To build your own Windows PE systems you will need to obtain a copy of a Windows setup DVD or flash drive. I recommend getting the Professional version or Windows, or an "all versions" DVD. You may need to convert the newer Windows ".ESD" source files to ".WIM" files, but you do that only once. Get programs such as WinBuilder or PEBakery that automate the process of building media based on your configuration choices. If you are ambitious, you can even create plugins (scripts) to install your favorite software if it isn't already supported. There are some premade configurations that you can start with, such as Win10 XPE. Post questions in the forums for those programs and projects if you run into trouble. It helps to have virtual machine software such as VirtualBox or VMWare to test your boot media. I've found that it is more convenient to set up an OS in a virtual machine to build the Windows PE systems as well. You will probably install software and use some system settings that you might not want for your normal Windows OS. Having the build environment in a virtual machine also allows you to get it running quickly on another computer if you are trying to work away from home or help out a friend. I use Windows PE as a standalone OS. I install it as a boot menu choice in my normal Windows OS boot loader. The entire standalone OS is a single ".WIM" file. I store that in a separate partition with a second copy of the boot loader. You can store the ".WIM" file in any NTFS partition, including the normal Windows OS partition. It takes somewhere between 500 MB and 3 GB depending on what you include. Microsoft uses Windows PE with some automated software for the recovery environment and to repair Windows. |
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