A Bootable Windows Preinstallation USB stick can be a useful tool for any PC fix-it guy's toolbox. Here's how to make one and use it for maximum effect.
Table 1: WinPE and WinRE Commands and Programs
WinPE and WinRE commands and programs
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Name
WinPE
WinRE
Explanation/Notes
arp
Yes
YesX
The TCP/IP address resolution protocol maps between MAC and IP addresses
assoc
Yes
Yes
Manage associations between file extensions and file types/applications
bcdedit
Yes
Yes
Manipulate Windows Vista Boot Configuration Data store
bootcfg
Yes
No
Enables users to manage contents of the boot.ini file (Vista uses BCD but maps to boot.ini)
bootrec
No
Yes
WinRE’s premiere boot recovery tool (along with bootcfg)
cd
Yes
Yes
Change/list directory command
chkdsk
Yes
Yes
Checks layout and structure of Windows disks, with some repair capability
chknfts
Yes
Yes
Checks layout and structure of NTFS volumes at boot time
cls
Yes
Yes
Clears the command window
color
Yes
Yes
Lets users set foreground (text) and background color in the command window
copy
Yes
Yes
File copy command
date
Yes
Yes
View or set today's date
del
Yes
Yes
File delete command
dir
Yes
Yes
List directory contents
diskpart
Yes
Yes
Create, modify, and manage disk partitions at the command line
doskey
Yes
Yes
Command line editing, recall, and macro definition tool
echo
Yes
Yes
Repeats input text verbatim
endlocal
Yes
Yes
Ends localization of variables in a batch environment
Ed Tittel is a freelance writer, trainer, and internet consultant. His work has appeared on many sites, including Tom's Guide, Tom's Hardware, TechTarget, and more. He has also contributed to multiple books, including the "For Dummies" series, where he wrote about HTML, HTML4, XHTML, XML, and CCS. He was also series editor of the Exam Cram books until 2005.
What, no mention of BartPE or UBCD4Win (Ultimate Boot CD for Windows)? These are two projects that are vastly superior to Microsoft's method (both are built on WinPE but have expanded capabilities) and are far easier to use.
Vista's PE is far more advanced than XP's. The BartPE project is based of XP's PE. Barts is amazingly useful and I can't wait till they move to from PE 1.1 to PE 2.0.
Some "fairly new" systems will not boot from usb so always carry a cd version as a backup.
Good start to the guide until you get to the WinRE. In section 5, step 2, you describe using imagex and the secret is the number 2 argument however you do not give an example of the command. In the WinPE you use a 240 MB partition, then in WinRE you state you need at least 512 MB.
Good article, but it makes a few omissions and goofs here and there.
1. For using imagex to grab the WinRE image, check out this link:
http://blogs.msdn.com/winre/archive/2006/12/12/creating-winre-using-waik.aspx
2. "x64" won't work when you're using copype.cmd - it has to be "AMD64". Just replace all instances of x64 with AMD64 in this procedure, and it'll work.
3. For the image showing how to grab imagex and the package manager, click on the picture above the text to open up the gallery, then click one pic forward.