Everything you wanted to know about WinPE

[scalar]

Windows PE is not a standalone CD by itself.

Windows PE is on a special CD called the Windows XP OEM Preinstallation Kit.

It is actually quite tiny, because all that is on the OEM Preinstall CD is a folder with about 1.8 meg of files.

You must have Windows XP Pro in order to get Win PE, because the files on the OEM Preinstall CD are just \"builder files\" pulling bits and pieces from Win XP to built a Win PE CD.

Here is what's in Windows PE:

Code: [Select]

G:\WINPE>dir
 Volume in drive G is XRMOPK_EN
 Volume Serial Number is BA28-A6CE

 Directory of G:\WINPE

08/29/2002  07:00 AM    <DIR>          .
08/29/2002  07:00 AM    <DIR>          ..
08/29/2002  07:00 AM            38,400 BLDHIVES.EXE
08/29/2002  07:00 AM            99,086 BUILDOPTIONALCOMPONENTS.VBS
08/29/2002  07:00 AM             2,096 CONFIG.INF
08/29/2002  07:00 AM            13,312 DEPEND.EXE
08/29/2002  07:00 AM             8,192 DSKIMAGE.EXE
08/29/2002  07:00 AM             2,048 ETFSBOOT.COM
08/29/2002  07:00 AM             2,536 EXTRA.INF
08/29/2002  07:00 AM             7,668 MKIMG.CMD
08/29/2002  07:00 AM            55,808 OEMMINT.EXE
08/29/2002  07:00 AM            75,776 OSCDIMG.EXE
08/29/2002  07:00 AM                 0 SAM
08/29/2002  07:00 AM                 0 SAM.LOG
08/29/2002  07:00 AM                 0 SECURITY
08/29/2002  07:00 AM                 0 SECURITY.LOG
08/29/2002  07:00 AM                 0 SOFTWARE.LOG
08/29/2002  07:00 AM               106 STARTNET.CMD
08/29/2002  07:00 AM                14 STARTOPK.CMD
08/29/2002  07:00 AM               167 WINBOM.INI
08/29/2002  07:00 AM         1,440,054 WINPE.BMP
08/29/2002  07:00 AM             1,224 WINPEDEF.INF
08/29/2002  07:00 AM             1,190 WINPEOEM.SIF
08/29/2002  07:00 AM            30,802 WINPESFT.INF
08/29/2002  07:00 AM            99,116 WINPESYS.INF
08/29/2002  07:00 AM            11,463 WPEMSCLI.INF
08/29/2002  07:00 AM             2,042 WPENB.INF
08/29/2002  07:00 AM            20,573 WPETCPIP.INF
              26 File(s)      1,911,673 bytes
               2 Dir(s)               0 bytes free

G:\WINPE>
As you can see, the Win PE builder files are actually ridiculously small. Of the 1.8 megs, 1.4 is used for a silly desktop wallpaer. So the actual size of the WinPE builder files is a mere 478k.

That's really all that stands between Win XP Pro and Windows PE. http://images.thetechguide.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif\' class=\'bbc_emoticon\' alt=\'\' />

[classified]

Scalar,

Does that mean that if I put the files listed on to a
bootable cd it should in theory boot into a PE enviroment?

Or does one need the OEM kit to create the installation?

[scalar]

No, it's more than those files. Some of the executables in the \WINPE folder dig through a Win XP Pro CD to make the custom boot image.

Here are what the various WinPE files are for:

• You run MKIMG.CMD to do the actual building process. Put you XP Pro CD in the drive, and tell MKIMG where to put the WinPE build directory and the final ISO image (if desired).
  
• DSKIMG.EXE makes a disk image of a floppy in drive A. What for? On ia64 we need to copy setupldr.efi to floppy and image it and use that as the boot image.
  
• OSCDIMG.EXE takes the build directory on your hard drive and turns it into a bootable CD, with the proper boot sector, boot loader, etc.
  
• ETFSBOOT.COM is really a copy of the CD boot sector. Used by OSCDIMG.EXE to put a bootsector onto the ISO image.
  
• BLDHIVES.EXE creates the custom registry files for WinPE using the registry files on the Win XP CD.
  
• CONFIG.INF used by BLDHIVES.EXE for making the customized WinPE registry.
  

Though FACTORY.EXE and NETCFG.EXE aren't in here, and aren't automatically put onto the ISO by MKIMG. It appears you need to manually install them from the OEM Preinstallation Kit Tools folder. (I need to read the documentation some more.)

[Guest]

So, does anybody know how bldhives.exe is actually working?
I am asking because normal users cannot use it, an admin
can use it only. But I cannot figure out why, and I need it.