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WinPE has the following limitations
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. From a WinPE computer, you can directly access servers and shares across the network, based on the required network credentials. However, you cannot access any files or folders located on a WinPE computer from another location on your network. Distributed File System (DFS) name resolution is not supported. The tested methods of gaining network connectivity to file servers are TCP/IP and NetBIOS over TCP/IP. Other methods, such as the IPX/SPX network protocol, are untested. WinPE requires a VGA-compatible device and uses a screen resolution of 800 by 600 pixels. If WinPE cannot detect video settings, the default screen resolution is 640 by 480 pixels. WinPE is too large to fit on a floppy disk. For more information, see Size of WinPE. Because of anti-piracy concerns, you can only build a customized version of WinPE from the Windows XP Professional CD or the Windows XP 64-Bit Edition CD. You cannot build a custom version of WinPE from Windows XP Home Edition or any member of the Windows 2002 Server family of operating systems. Windows APIs That Are Not Supported on WinPE.
To minimize its size, WinPE includes only a subset of the available Win32 APIs, including I/O (disk and network) and core Win32 APIs. If a Win32 API subset is exposed based on a service running under Win32, it may or may not be available under WinPE.
The following categories of functions of the Win32 API set are not present in WinPE. For more information on these categories, see the Microsoft Platform SDK (http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp).
Windows Multimedia
Still Image
OpenGL
NetShow Theater Administration
Windows Shell
Access Control
Power Options Printing and Print Spooler
Window Station and Desktop
Terminal Services
User Profile
Tape Backup
Placing a Bootable Version of WinPE on a Hard Disk:
You can only place a 32-bit version of the Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE) on a hard disk. Before you begin, you must format the destination hard disk and install the Recovery Console on this hard disk.
To install the Recovery Console:
Place the Windows XP Professional CD in the CD-ROM drive, denoted as cd_drive.
Run cd_drive\i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons.
Now you can place a customized bootable copy of WinPE on this hard disk.
To place WinPE on a hard disk
On the destination hard disk, create a directory called C:\Minint. You must name the directory "Minint".
If you have not already done so, follow the procedure in To create a custom version of WinPE on the topic Creating a Customized Version of WinPE.
When you have completed this step, the customized WinPE files are in build_location, which does not need to be physically located on the destination hard disk.
Copy all of the contents of build_location\i386 to C:\Minint.
For Example:
xcopy C:\Build.x86\i386\*.* /S C:\Minint where C:\Build.x86 is build_location.
Copy Winbom.ini from build_location to the root of the destination hard disk.
For Example:
copy C:\Build.x86\Winbom.ini C:\
where C:\Build.X86 is build_location.
On the destination hard disk, change the read-only attribute for C:\Cmdcons xtsetup.sif to read/write.
For Example:
attrib -r C:\Cmdcons xtsetup.sif
On the destination hard disk, copy C:\Minint xtsetup.sif to C:\Cmdcons.
For Example:
xcopy C:\Minint xtsetup.sif C:\Cmdcons
Restart the destination computer. On the Boot menu, select to boot to the Command Console. The computer will boot using WinPE.
Creating a Customized Version of WinPE
The Windows XP OPK CD is a bootable copy of the basic 32-bit version of Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE). However, you may want to create a version of WinPE for 64-bit computers, or configure WinPE to use a different set of drivers. To support these needs, the OPK includes a collection of scripts and utilities that enable you to build a version of WinPE customized and tuned for your factory environment.
To create a custom version of WinPE, run the provided tools against the Windows XP Professional CD or the Windows XP 64-Bit Edition CD.
Important:
Because of piracy concerns, you can only build a customized version of WinPE from the Windows XP Professional CD or the Windows XP 64-Bit Edition CD. You cannot build a custom version of WinPE from Windows XP Home Edition or any member of the Windows 2002 Server family of operating systems. A custom version of WinPE is still subject to the conditions listed on Limitations of WinPE. Basic Process: Building a Custom Version of WinPE Building a custom version of WinPE takes several minutes. This process creates a directory structure of the WinPE files and optionally creates an image file that you can burn to a CD-ROM. To create a custom version of WinPE Create and name a directory on your hard disk, specified by build_location. Place the OPK CD into the CD drive, denoted as cd_drive. Copy cd_drive\Winpe\*.* to build_location. Copy Factory.exe and Netcfg.exe from the cd_drive\Tools\platform directory into the build_location directory.
If you are building a 32-bit version of WinPE, the value of platform is x86. If you are building a 64-bit version of WinPE, the value of platform is ia64. Remove the OPK CD from the CD drive.
If you are building a 32-bit version of WinPE:
Place the Windows XP Professional CD in the CD drive.
– or –
If you are building a 64-bit version of WinPE:
Place the Windows XP 64-Bit Edition CD in the CD drive.
If you are building a 64-bit version of WinPE, place a floppy disk in the A:\ drive of the computer. This disk is used for temporary storage during the build process of the 64-bit WinPE. Navigate to build_location.
Run the following command:
Mkimg.cmd source_directory destination_directory [image_name]
source_directory
Specifies the location of the CD for the 32-bit version of Windows XP Professional. If source_directory is a CD-ROM drive, you only need to specify the drive letter. If source_directory is a network path, the path must be to the parent directory of the \i386 directory.
Note
Do not include a trailing slash in source_directory.
destination_directory
Specifies the path where the files necessary to create the image are temporarily stored. If this
directory does not already exist, Mkimg.cmd will create it.
image_name
Optional; specifies the path and file name of the ISO image file that contains this customized version of WinPE, if you are placing this version of WinPE onto a CD-ROM. For more information, see Mkimg Command. You can also use Oscdimg to create an .iso file. If you create an .iso image file, you can burn this version of WinPE to a CD. You can also place the customized version of WinPE on a hard disk, as described in Placing a Bootable Version of WinPE on a Hard Disk, or on a Remote Installation Server (RIS). Although not explicitly discussed in this guide, you can also place WinPE on bootable media other than a CD or a hard disk.
Important
To configure the WinPE CD so that it boots from the CD every time, if the WinPE CD is present in the CD-ROM drive, remove the \i386\Bootfix.bin file from the WinPE directory structure before you create an .iso file.
Building a Bootable 64-Bit WinPE CD
You can build a 64-bit version of WinPE from a computer running a 32-bit operating system. However, building a 64-bit WinPE CD requires one additional step. You must copy the file Setupldr.efi to a floppy disk, then use the Dskimage tool to make an image of the floppy disk. After you create an image of the 1.44 MB floppy, pass that image file into Oscdimg as an argument, in the same way you would pass Etfsboot.com.
For example:
copy C:\Build.ia64\ia64\Setupldr.efi A:
dskimg A: .\Efisys.bin
oscdimg -b.\Efisys.bin -n C:\Build.ia64 C:4_winpe.iso
Example:
For example, if build_location is C:\Build.x86, the following command-line creates an ISO image called x86winpe.iso using C:\Winpe.tmp as a temporary storage area.
C:\Build.x86\Mkimg.cmd E: C:\Winpe.tmp C:†winpe.iso
Commands in the Startnet.cmd File
When you create your own version of WinPE, it uses the commands in the default version of Startnet.cmd. There are more commands in the default version of Startnet.cmd than the factory -winpe command located in Startopk.cmd.
The commands in the default Startnet.cmd file are as follows:
regsvr /32 /s netcfgx.dll
factory -minint
netcfg -v -winpe
net start dhcp
net start nla a:\floppy.cmd
Instead of using the factory -winpe command, this version of Startnet.cmd includes the factory -minint command followed by a netcfg command. This sequence of commands allows for more flexible control over installing and starting network services. For more information on the specific functionality of these commands, see Factory Command-Line Options and Netcfg Command-Line Options. Floppy.cmd is an optional sample file which you can safely remove entirely from Startnet.cmd. It can contain any commands normally run at a command prompt, such as starting applications or opening additional command windows that run scripts.
Extensions of the Basic Process: Further Customizations of WinPE You may choose to further customize this version of WinPE in one or more of the following ways before burning it to a CD or copying it to a hard disk. Include a specific Winbom.ini file or Startnet.cmd file You can include a generic Winbom.ini file in a custom WinPE installation that specifies basic information about connecting to your network, formatting the hard disk, and running basic hardware diagnostics. You can include a generic Winbom.ini file in a custom WinPE installation. Factory uses this file if another Winbom.ini is not located in the floppy drive. After using the settings in [WinPE.Net] to establish network connectivity, the Factory tool can use the NewWinbom entry to point to another Winbom.ini file located on the network. You can also create your own version of Startnet.cmd to run a specific set of commands, batch files, or scripts. To gain access to Windows Networking APIs, run the command netcfg -winpe from the WinPE command line, if this command is not already part of your Startnet.cmd. For more information, see Netcfg Command-Line Options. Include Hardware Diagnostics or Other Basic Tools If you have created any custom tools that are a core part of your validation process, before you preinstall the operating system, you may want to include these tools in your custom WinPE installation. Adding or Removing Network Drivers By default, all network drivers on the Windows XP Professional CD or Windows XP 64-Bit Edition are supported. When you create your own WinPE image, you can add or remove the network drivers or replace the network driver list. By keeping the set of drivers to a minimum, you reduce the time required for Plug and Play detection. Adding or Removing Mass-Storage Drivers To reduce boot time, you may configure a custom version of WinPE to load a limited set of mass-storage drivers, rather than load the entire set of mass-storage drivers that are natively supported in Windows XP. You may also configure WinPE to load additional third-party drivers. To control which mass-storage drivers are loaded in WinPE, customize the Winpeoem.sif file. Modifying this file changes the list of drivers that WinPE loads when it boots, which affects the boot time of WinPE. Changing the Winpeoem.sif file does not remove or add any files into the customized version of WinPE. If, in addition to reducing the boot time, you also want to reduce the size of your WinPE image, you must separately remove the unnecessary driver files from your custom version of WinPE. If you include any third-party drivers in the Winpeoem.sif file, you must manually add any required driver files to your custom version of WinPE. For more information, see Winpeoem.sif.
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