Encyclopedia knowledge What is Windows P E

Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE) translates directly literally as "Windows Preinstallation Environment".

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Microsoft released on July 22, 2002, the original explanation is: "Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE) is a minimal Win32 subsystem with limited services, based on the Windows XP Professional kernel running in protected mode. It includes the minimum functionality required to run Windows Setup and scripts, connect to network shares, automate basic processes, and perform hardware validation. In other words, you can think of Windows PE as a mini operating system with minimal core service. Microsoft introduced such an operating system is because it has a unique system features, if you want to explain in a word, I think compared with WIN9X/2000/XP, the main difference between Windows PE is: it can customize the production of its own bootable copy, Keep the minimum operating system volume while maintaining the core services you need, and it is the standard 32-bit Windows API system platform. Of course, now it may be difficult to understand, there is no relationship, let us examine it carefully.

Windows PE Overview

Even if there is an explanation, you must still be on this new concept of the mini operating system confused, it doesn't matter, here I will demonstrate the whole process of its operation, I believe you may have a general understanding after watching. The Windows PE CD that most people get (including this ISO mirror on my hand) should be a "Windows XP OPK" disc, which means the Windows XP OEM Preinstallation Kit CD. In fact, the Windows XP OPK CD is a bootable copy of the Windows PE 32-bit version, which means that the CD is already a Windows PE-defined operating system, and we can use it directly to boot the system. First look at this CD directory structure, a total of 352MB, is not some big? In fact, since this is a copy (at least a lot of drivers), the size is determined by the custom production at that time, if Windows PE 32-bit non-customized version, its image on disk is about 120MB.

1. Boot Windows PE

I consider the network environment and other issues, the main use of the environment is the VMware virtual machine and Virtual PC VMS, but these two virtual machine environment and the actual PC environment almost no difference (that is, if you do not know the virtual machine is OK, when it is on the real PC directly running).

Set the BIOS to CD-ROM boot and start the system, press any key boot from CD on the screen to boot from Windows PE on the optical drive. If your storage device driver is not supported, press the F6 key at startup to load the driver for the special device. When booting to the desktop, the system will do some such as adjust the resolution of the work, and finally open the default CMD command line interpretation tool, you see, is the real graphics operating environment OH.

You can see the desktop is empty, do not expect to be able to take the mouse point to point to, after all, what is an application is not installed, and even though the CD with the executable command line tools are limited, but obviously can add themselves, to see what this is? Yes, we are most familiar with the minesweeper game (now know the head of the bar, hehe), take the mouse to play first, this is the author from the familiar WinXP operating system added (the method is very simple, with the ISO tool directly copied into the image file just can be).

So let's go back to the cmd command-line tool. The default directory is \i386\system32\, and enter the command line "dir *.exe/w" to see which programs are available to run. Let's take a look at the operation of the Windows PE features that are meaningful to individual users.

You can see both 32-bit and 64-bit operating system tools in the disc image, and for individual users, you can use it to direct a machine without any system installed and implement many of the features of the 32-bit system on it, which comes later.

2.Windows PE support for the network

Dir When we saw the ping command, familiar with the command of the reader should know that only install the TCP/IP protocol to use, then regardless of 3,721, first ping yourself to try it, in the cmd type "ping 127.0.0.1", enter the Fix, This is obviously a ping pass, which proves that the TCP/IP protocol is actually running. Try another command on the disc ipconfig, type run, and see that the IP address is automatically assigned. Since the network is indeed connected, let's actually use it (there may be many friends from the Windows system to contact the computer will be overwhelmed with the operation, in fact, it is not so difficult to imagine, you can use the command tool in CMD "/? "parameter to query the specific use method, if your machine is originally installed XP, then in the Help Center query is more convenient, more experiments, Master command line after you will find a lot of convenience."

Now my physical and virtual machines have become a virtual network, using the NET command in the disk image, type "net view" into the virtual machine to see the connected server, the server "xq-b6qas26953 EC" shown here, the name indicates that the virtual machine has connected my physical machine over the network. A folder named Tuku on my physical machine has been shared, so type "net use E:\XQ-B6QAS26953EC\TUKU", which means that the shared directory Tuku on the physical machine is mirrored as the e-drive on the virtual machine, and the shared directory can be accessed freely in the virtual machine after success , you can use this to do remote installation work. NET command also has a lot of parameters, you can look up and try more, before you can play Windows PE powerful network environment features, if simply access to the server, the above two command parameters are basically enough. But remember that the machine with Windows PE can access the machines of other operating systems, but the reverse operation is not possible, this is due to the limitations of Windows PE itself, we will talk about this problem later. The fact is that the network environment can be used after Windows PE is started.

3. Create, delete, format, and manage NTFS file system partitions with Windows PE

This function is very practical and convenient for individual users. But many friends in Dir after the complain, how only format.com, no fdisk ah, there is no way to partition it. In fact, this is a misconception that Windows XP has a dedicated command-line tool for Disk Management DiskPart.exe, which is a text-mode command interpreter that allows you to manage objects (disks, partitions, or volumes) by using scripts or direct input from a command prompt, Windows PE is of course also used for DiskPart.

Type "DiskPart" in cmd mode and enter into the DiskPart command line explanation. Type "list Disk", which shows two hard disks, disk 0 and Disk 1, respectively. Type "SELECT Disk=0" to execute, meaning to select the specified disk and transfer focus to this disk, the next action is for it (the following is the same, before using the DiskPart command on a disk, partition, or volume, you must first put the object list and then select the object to give focus to, Any of the DiskPart commands you type will operate on the object only if it has the focus. Type "detail disk" to see the details of disk 0, now Disk 0 is an active partition C, in the form of FAT32, with a capacity of 16G. Below we have the actual operation to divide disk 0 into two extents, NTFS formatted 8G primary partition C and FAT32 format 8G logical partition D, and disk 1 to the entire FAT32 format partition e to demonstrate Windows PE management of the disk:

(1) Execute "SELECT Disk=0" and turn focus to disk 0. Execute "SELECT partition 1" To move the focus to partition activity C on disk 0.

(2) Execute "delete Partition" to delete the original partition C.

(3) Execute "create partition primary size=8000" carriage return, set up a new 8000MB primary partition on Disk 0, the focus will automatically go to the newly established partition.

(4) Follow the "create partition extended" carriage return and set the remaining disk space on Disk 0 as an extended partition.

(5) After completing the previous step, execute the "Create partition Logic" carriage return and create the newly created extended partition as a logical partition.

(6) So far, we have created an active partition C disk 0 to have a primary partition and a logical partition, but the two partitions do not have a drive letter, perform "select partition 1" to focus on the primary partition 1, and then perform "Assign Letter=c", Assign the drive letter C: to the primary partition. Perform an "active" carriage return to set the primary partition as active so that it can boot the system.

(7) Next Execute "select Partition 3" To move the focus to the logical partition, the "Assign" carriage return, meaning the system assigns the next available drive letter to the logical partition, because the drive letter D, E are occupied (d is disk 1 partition occupation, E is the drive occupied), So the system assigns F to the logical partition. But it doesn't matter, we don't care about the order of the drive letter, here we end the operation on Disk 0, and the remaining goal is to convert the active partition D of disk 1 to partition E.

(8) Perform "Select Disk 1" To move focus to disk 1, execute "SELECT partition 1" To move focus to active partition D.

(9) Because the D partition of disk 1 is the active primary partition, set its drive letter to E, obviously to re-establish it as a non-primary partition of the drive, then it will not occupy the drive letter D and give it to disk 0 logical partition. Execute "Delete Partition" to delete the original partition D, perform "create partition extended" to make all disk space on disk 1 as an extended partition.

(10) Complete the previous step and then execute "create partition logic" to create the newly created extended partition as a logical partition.

(11) Finally execute "Assign" automatically assigned the drive letter, the system still assigns D to it (but after the machine restarts the system will automatically adjust the logical partition that allocates D to disk 0, the logical partition of disk 1 will use drive E, and the optical drive will be postponed to F, Reboot the system these changes will be implemented automatically).

(12) Now that we have re-partitioning the hard drive on the machine, execute "exit" to exit the DiskPart command-line interpreter tool and then execute "format c:/fs:ntfs" to format the disk 0 primary partition you just created as a partition of the NTFS file format. Format d:/fs:fat32 "," Format f:/fs:fat32 "Formats the partition D, F, and our final operation is complete.

(13) After completing the "exit" Restart the machine, you can go to "DiskPart" again to see if the partition is correct.

The above operations basically include creating, deleting, formatting, and managing the disk, and if you read the Help instructions carefully, make sure you don't want to use FDISK to manage the disk after mastering its powerful features. In fact, if you are using Windows XP, this knowledge is very useful. In addition, the most convenient place for the "DiskPart" tool is the support script, which is not explained in detail here.

We've already practiced the basics of Windows PE, and should be able to appreciate the convenience of Windows PE, but as mentioned above, Windows PE is a limited-functionality mini operating system that uses Windows PE correctly. Of course, you should also understand some of its limitations.

1. To prevent it from being used as a pirated operating system, Windows PE automatically exits and restarts after 24 hours of continuous use.

2. You can access servers and shares directly from a Windows PE computer over the network. However, you cannot access any files or folders on the Windows PE computer from another location on the network. Windows PE obtains a network connection to the file server through TCP/IP and its NetBIOS, and does not support other methods (such as the Ipx/spx Network protocol).

3. Because anti-piracy is involved, you can only build a custom version of Windows PE from the Windows XP Professional CD. You cannot build from a Windows XP Home Edition or any member of the Windows 2002 server operating system family.

4.Windows PE is too large to be placed on a floppy disk. Windows PE includes only a subset of the available Win32 APIs (including I/O (disk and network) and core Win32 APIs). If a service running under Win32 is based on a subset of Win32 APIs, it is available in Windows PE for specific analysis. This is not a detailed list of Windows PE does not support the API, anyway rundll32.exe and shell.dll and so is not supported, want to play under Windows PE quake friends or give up.

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Many friends see here whether or not there is a harvest, it will be sure to think of Windows PE in the end what the role of their own, here may summarize one or two.

1. Easy-to-use start-up tool tray

Through the narrative just now, you can see that Windows PE startup is very fast, and the boot environment is not high, most valuable, although the name of the startup disk, its function is almost equivalent to install a Windows XP "command line version"-Don't forget the network support OH. Therefore, for personal computer users, as long as they burn on a CD, you can safely solve problems such as initializing the system, and for small network environments (such as Internet cafes, etc.) users, this feature is particularly useful.

2. Interesting hard disk use features

Custom Windows PE can be placed not only on those removable storage devices such as CDs, but also on hard disks. Because many friends think that it doesn't make sense to put a custom version of Windows PE on a hard disk. Putting Windows PE on the hard drive should be the most interesting place, and without saying that your operating system is damaged and unable to enter Windows PE on the startup hard disk can be easily repaired, the key is due to Windows PE on the hard disk, so the Windows It is possible to install the application in a PE environment. Oh, aside from the digression, here's a look at how to put your custom Windows PE on your hard drive (you can only place the 32-bit version of Windows PE on your hard disk).

The first step is to install the Recovery Console:

(1) Place the Windows XP Professional CD in the CD-ROM drive, specifying it as cd_drive.

(2) Run cd_drive\i386\winnt32.exe/cmdcons in the command-line CMD window.

Then place the Windows PE custom bootable copy on your hard disk, as follows:

(1) on the target hard disk, create a directory of "C:\Minint" (the directory must be named "Minint").

(2) Copy all content under Windows PE "root \i386" to C:\Minint.

(3) Copy the Winbom.ini from the Windows PE root directory to the root of the target hard disk.

(4) on the target hard disk, change the read-only property of "C:\Cmdcons\txtsetup.sif" to read/write.

(5) on the target hard disk, copy "C:\Minint\txtsetup.sif" to "C:\Cmdcons" to overwrite.

(6) Restart the target computer. On the boot menu, select Boot to command console, and the computer will boot with Windows PE.

3.Windows XP OPK CD's Job

It says we actually got an executable copy of Windows PE, the Windows XP OPK (Windows XP OEM Preinstallation Kit) CD. From the name all know its original job is to facilitate the OEM work. If you open the disc in a Windows operating system environment, it will automatically run autorun to install a "Windows Installer Manager" Toolkit for your system. With it, you can easily create a Windows installation image with your computer manufacturer's OEM logo. While this is the main job of the Windows XP OPK CD, obviously it doesn't make any sense to us personally, and of course it's a good idea to use it if you want to put your own unique imprint on the Windows installation CD on your hand and dazzle it when you install it on a friend's machine. Of course, their "imprint" is not as simple as the OEM logo, in fact you can also arbitrarily set the software that Windows PE carries, and can be set to run when Windows PE starts; Ideally you can even add a Windows-like version to your custom Windows PE Explorer's graphics shell--not specifically designed for vendor OEMs?

[edit this paragraph] Windows PE Technology

To make Windows PE as versatile as possible, Microsoft has designed it to be lightweight, powerful, and flexible. These features are described in more detail in the following sections and then describe the limitations of Windows PE.

Lightweight

Windows PE must be as small as possible so that it can be stored in removable media, such as CDs and USB flash drives, and must be able to be started quickly and fully stored in the computer's memory. The exact size of Windows PE varies depending on how the image is customized, but when compressed in WIM format, it typically takes up less than a few megabytes of space. The 64-bit version of Windows PE is larger, and its size is increased by using a language pack or application custom Windows PE image.

To help minimize the use of memory, you can run Windows PE from a compressed image. In other words, you can compress Windows PE within the WIM file and run it from memory without decompression. As a result, you'll benefit from compression, whether you're storing an image on disk or when you load it into your computer's memory.

To minimize disk storage, the WIM format stores only a single instance of multiple duplicate files. Therefore, if you have a WIM file with two Windows PE images, only the files shared by two images will be stored once.

Powerful

Although Windows PE is designed to be small, it contains a number of core features of Windows Vista. Because Windows PE supports WIN32 (just like Microsoft windows XP and Windows Vista), most Windows applications can run in Windows PE. This means that developers in the IT department can use tools such as Microsoft Visual Studio to create WIN32 applications that run on Windows PE.

Windows PE also supports multi-threaded and multitasking, so you can run multiple tools at the same time. This feature saves time and resources that need to be used to validate and test hardware and software images when using other technologies. Windows PE can also run batch files, Microsoft Visual Basic Scripting Edition (VBScript) scripts, Windows script Host (WSH) scripts (if optional WSH components are installed) , HTML Applications (HTA), and Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects (ADO). Because Windows PE provides a temporary space based on RAM, Windows PE can run applications that require the ability to write temporary files to the hard disk (with no available hard disks).

Note: Some applications, such as games, cannot run on Windows PE, but this is not the design intent of Windows PE. Windows PE does not currently support the Microsoft. NET Framework.

Flexible

If Windows Vista contains drivers for your computer hardware, your hardware will also be able to use Windows PE, because Windows PE includes most Windows Vista drivers. You can also add new drivers to a Windows PE image. In an enterprise environment, you can add each driver that is required for any computer in your organization to a separate Windows PE image so that the image can be shared with your computer.

For computers that use special hardware, you can install a driver after Windows PE starts and immediately use the hardware without restarting the computer. For example, if you start Windows PE and find that it does not contain the correct network driver, you can insert a CD that contains the driver you want, and then use the Drvload command-line tool to inject the driver so that you can connect to the network. This feature is achievable because Windows PE can run directly from the computer's RAM, as described later in this section.

Although Windows PE includes a number of built-in features, many tools and features are optional to make Windows PE as lightweight as possible. For example, WSH is not included in the standard Windows PE image. But if you need WSH components to run scripts, you can easily add them. Similarly, you can add troubleshooting tools, such as Tracert or your own custom tools, to a custom Windows PE image. You can also use the same offline image editing tool to install update content and service packs to keep Windows PE up-to-date.

Most operating systems, such as Windows XP or Windows Vista, need to run from the hard disk. You can start Windows PE from a variety of boot media or networks (for example, using WDS). Windows PE supports X86, X64, and IA64 architectures, so you can use the same preinstallation and troubleshooting environment on all of your organization's computers. Windows PE can connect to the IPV4 network (used by most organizations and on the Internet), and can connect to the IPV6 network. You can change the startup settings for Windows PE by editing the text-based Unattend.xml file.

Although you can run Windows PE directly from your hard disk or from removable media, you can also choose to run Windows PE directly from memory. If you choose to run the Windows pe,windows PE boot loader from memory, you will first create a virtual RAM disk in memory. The boot loader then copies the compressed version of Windows PE to a RAM disk. Finally, the boot loader installs the RAM disk as if it were a disk drive, and starts Windows PE. Loading Windows PE from RAM provides additional flexibility because you can remove Windows PE media after Windows PE starts. Therefore, you can load Windows PE from a CD, and then replace the CD with the second CD that contains the tool or driver. When you run Windows PE from memory, it supports writing temporary files to the virtual RAM disk, which is not available for read-only media (such as CDs).

[edit this paragraph] Limitations of Windows PE

Because Windows PE is designed to be as lightweight, powerful, and flexible as possible, it has the following limitations:

? The computer must have a minimum of up to MB of RAM.

? Windows PE is not intended to be available on a floppy disk, but you can write a Windows PE image to a bootable CD.

? Windows PE requires a display device that is compatible with the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) and will use it to determine the maximum screen resolution that is supported. If Windows PE cannot detect video settings, it will use the resolution of 640x480 pixels.

? Windows PE supports Distributed File System (DFS) name resolution only for stand-alone DFS roots.

? You cannot access files or folders on a computer that is running Windows PE from another computer. In other words, Windows PE does not provide server functionality.

? Windows PE supports both IPV4 and IPV6, but it does not support other protocols, such as the Inter-network packet Exchange/sequential packet Switching (ipx/spx) protocol.

? The drive symbol assignment between sessions is not fixed. After you restart Windows PE, the drive symbols are assigned in the default order.

? Windows PE does not support the. NET Framework.

? Because Windows on Windows is not supported, 16-bit applications cannot be run in the 32-bit version of Windows PE, and 32-bit applications cannot be run in the 64-bit version of Windows PE.

? To prevent Windows PE from being used as a universal operating system, Windows PE is automatically restarted after the initial boot program starts for 24 hours.

In addition, Windows PE has only a subset of the Windows Vista WIN32 application Programming Interface (API), which includes I/O (disk and network) and core Win32 APIs. Applications that require any of the following Win32 APIs will not run in Windows PE: Access control, NetShow Theater Administration, OpenGL, power management options, print and print spool systems, still images, tape backups, Terminal Services, user profiles, Windows stations and desktops, Windows multimedia, and Windows shell.

[edit this paragraph] Windows PE 2.0 vs. Early technology

If you have ever used MS-DOS or previous versions of Windows PE as a deployment or troubleshooting tool, you may be interested in how Windows PE improves these technologies. The following sections discuss how Windows PE improves the use of MS-DOS or previous versions of Windows PE.

Comparison of Windows PE 2.0 with MS-DOS boot disks

You can use Windows PE instead of an MS-DOS boot disk to perform the following tasks and to do it more smoothly in a shorter period of time:

? Create and format disk partitions, including NTFS file system partitions. Windows PE allows you to format disks using the NTFS file system without using a third-party utility. Also, the file system utilities provided by Windows PE can be scripted, so you can fully automate partitioning and formatting.

? Access the network share to run the troubleshooting tools and install the operating system. Windows PE provides network client functionality similar to Windows Vista. In fact, Windows PE provides the same network drivers as the network drivers that are included with Windows Vista, allowing you to access the network quickly and easily. In contrast, the process of customizing the MS-DOS boot disk to access network shares is always a waste of time and tedious.

? Load and access 32-bit and 64-bit device drivers for audio, video, motherboard chipsets, batteries, and other devices that use Windows Vista drivers. Windows PE provides the ability to load Windows mass storage, network connections, audio, video, and other types of drivers. If you use MS-DOS, you must find a 16-bit driver, customize the MS-DOS boot disk, and maintain different disks for different network adapters.

? Automated tasks. Scripting in Windows PE goes far beyond the capabilities of the MS-DOS boot disk. For example, Windows PE uses VBScript, a powerful scripting language that is easier to use than MS-DOS batch files. Windows PE supports gigabytes of memory on the system on which it is running and provides network connectivity support using the protected-mode Transmission Control Protocol (TCP/IP) stack./internet. By editing a text-based Extensible Markup Language (XML) file, you can easily add startup scripts or applications. If you have already created scripts for MS-DOS, you might be able to use them in Windows PE, otherwise you can easily import existing MS-DOS-based scripts into Windows PE.

? Run the WIN32 application. One drawback to using MS-DOS as a pre-install and troubleshooting operating system is that you can only run applications written specifically for MS-DOS. Because Windows PE supports most important Microsoft Win32 APIs, Windows PE can run most graphics and console-based Windows applications. In addition, because Windows PE supports multi-threaded and multitasking, you can run multiple tools at the same time.

Windows PE 2.0 vs. previous versions of Windows PE

For many Microsoft customers, Windows PE 2.0 will be the first environment they adopt. But if you've ever used Windows PE 1.0, you might be interested in understanding how Windows PE 2.0 improves. This section discusses notable improvements to Windows PE 1.0 for existing Windows PE users.

First, Windows PE 2.0 is based on Windows Vista components, whereas earlier versions of Windows PE are based on Windows XP or Microsoft Windows Server 2003. As a result, Windows PE 2.0 supports Windows Vista drivers and benefits from many improvements in Windows Vista (including improvements in anti-network attacks provided through Windows Firewall). As mentioned earlier, Windows PE 2.0 now supports driver injection, which allows you to load drivers before or after starting Windows PE. Now, if you start Windows PE and find that it lacks a required driver, you can load the nonstandard driver from removable media and immediately use the hardware without restarting the computer.

For more flexibility, especially when you create a preinstallation script, Windows PE 2.0 now includes Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) support for added content. Using WMI, you can perform most configuration or administrative tasks from a script or command prompt. For more information about WMI, go to http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnanchor/html/anch_wmi.asp.

In the past, many applications could not run in Windows PE 1.0 because they required temporary storage space, and Windows PE often started from non-writable media such as CDs. Windows PE 2.0 now supports most applications that require write operations on temporary files by providing up to MB of burning space in the computer's RAM. Whenever an application attempts to write to a temporary file (regardless of which folder), Windows PE redirects the changes to the in-memory burn space to emulate the hard disk. Of course, when you restart the computer, all changes are lost.

Encyclopedia knowledge What is Windows P E