catalogue
Overview of Windows PE 1. Start Windows PE
2.Windows PE's support for the network
3. Create, delete, format and manage
Limit # #
1.
2.
3.
4.
The role of Windows PE #
1. Easy to use starting tool tray
2. Interesting hard disk use function
3.3 work. Windows XP OPK CD
Windows PE technology # #
Lightweight and convenient
powerful
flexible
Limitations of Windows PE
WinPE feature
Comparison between Windows PE 2.0 and earlier technologies # #
Comparison between Windows PE 2.0 and MS-DOS startup disk
Comparison between Windows PE 2.0 and previous versions of PE
Overview of Windows PE 1. Start Windows PE
2.Windows PE's support for the network
3. Create, delete, format and manage
Limit # #
1.
2.
3.
4.
The role of Windows PE #
1. Easy to use starting tool tray
2. Interesting hard disk use function
3.3 work. Windows XP OPK CD
Windows PE technology # #
Lightweight and convenient
powerful
flexible
Limitations of Windows PE
WinPE feature
Comparison between Windows PE 2.0 and earlier technologies # #
Comparison between Windows PE 2.0 and MS-DOS startup disk
Comparison between Windows PE 2.0 and previous versions of PE
launch
Edit this section of the Windows PE overview.
The Windows PE CD that most people get (including this ISO image CD in my hand) should be the "Windows XP OPK" CD, that is, the Windows XP OEM pre-installation kit CD. In fact, the Windows XP OPK CD is a bootable copy of the 32-bit version of Windows PE. That is to say, this CD is already the operating system defined by Windows PE, and we can directly use it to boot the system. Let's take a look at the directory structure of this CD first. It's 352MB in total, isn't it a bit big? In fact, because this is a copy (at least containing many drivers), the size is determined by the customized production at that time. If it is a 32-bit non-customized version of Windows PE, its image on the disk is about 120MB.
1. Start Windows PE.
Considering the network environment and other issues, the author mainly uses VMware virtual machine and Virtual PC virtual machine, but there is almost no difference between these two virtual machine environments and the actual PC environment (that is, if you don't know about virtual machines, it doesn't matter, just run them directly on the real PC). Set the BIOS to boot from the optical drive and start the system. When "Press any key to boot from CD" appears on the screen, press any key to boot from Windows PE on the CD-ROM drive. If your storage device driver is not supported, press F6 to load the driver of the special device at startup. When booting to the desktop, the system will do some work such as adjusting the resolution, and finally open the default CMD command line interpretation tool. Let's see, it is a real graphical operating environment. You can see that the desktop is empty. Don't expect to point with the mouse. After all, no application is installed. In addition, although the executable command line tools on the CD are limited, it is obvious that you can add them yourself. Let's go back to the CMD command-line tool first. The default directory is \I386\system32\. Enter the command line "dir *. Exe /w "to see which programs can run. Let's actually study the operation of Windows PE functions that have practical significance for individual users. You can see 32-bit and 64-bit operating system tools in the CD image. For individual users, you can use it to boot directly without installing any system, and realize many functions of 32-bit system on it, which will be introduced one by one later.
2.Windows PE's support for the network
Try pinging yourself first. Enter "ping 127.0.0. 1" in CMD and press enter. Obviously, it can be pinged, which proves that TCP/IP protocol is really running. Try another command IPConfig on the CD again, type Run, and see that the IP address has been automatically assigned. Since the network is indeed connected, let's actually use it (there may be many friends who have been in contact with computers since Windows, but it's not as difficult as you think. You can use the command tool strip "/?" In CMD. Parameter to query the specific usage method. If XP is already installed on your machine, it will be more convenient to inquire in the help center. Experiment more and you will find it much more convenient after mastering the command line. Physical machines and virtual organizations form a virtual network. Using the net command in the CD-ROM image, type "net view" in the virtual machine to see the connected servers. The server "XQ-B6QAS26953 EC" shown here indicates that the virtual machine has been connected to my physical machine through the network. On my physical machine, a folder named TUKU has been shared by * * *, so I typed "net use e:\XQ-B6QAS26953EC\TUKU" again, which means that TUKU, the * * * shared directory on the physical machine, is mirrored as E drive on the virtual machine. After success, you can freely access the * * shared directory in the virtual machine, and then you can install it remotely through this. Net command has many parameters, you can refer to it and try it more, in order to play the powerful network environment function of Windows PE. If you simply access the server, the above two command parameters are basically enough. But what needs to be remembered here is that machines using Windows PE can access machines with other operating systems, but the reverse operation is not allowed. This is due to the limitation of Windows PE itself, which we will talk about later. Facts show that the network environment can be used after Windows PE is started.
3. Create, delete, format and manage
Using Windows PE to create, delete, format and manage NTFS file system partitions is very practical and convenient for individual users. But after dir, many friends complained. Why only format.com, not fdisk? There is no way to partition. Actually, this is a misunderstanding. DiskPart.exe, a command-line tool dedicated to disk management, is a text-mode command interpreter in Windows XP, which allows you to manage objects (disks, partitions or volumes) by using scripts or directly entering from a command prompt. Of course, Windows PE also uses DiskPart. Type "DiskPart" in CMD mode, and then press enter to enter the diskpart command line for explanation. Type "list disk" to display two hard disks, namely disk 0 and disk 1. Type "select disk=0" to execute, which means to select the specified disk and shift the focus to this disk, and all subsequent operations will point to it (the following operations are the same. Before using the DiskPart command on a disk, partition, or volume, you must first list the objects, and then select the objects to focus on. Any DiskPart command you type can operate on an object only when it has focus). Type "detail disk" to view the details of disk 0. Now disk 0 is the active partition C, with the format of FAT32 and the capacity of 16G. Let's divide disk 0 into two areas, namely, 8G main partition C in NTFS format and 8G logical partition D in FAT32 format, and change disk 1 into partition E in FAT32 format to demonstrate the management operation of Windows PE on disk: (1) Execute "select disk=0" and turn the focus to disk 0. Execute "select partition 1" to pay attention to partition activity c of disk 0. (2) Execute "Delete Partition" to delete the original partition c. (3) Execute "Create partition main size = 8000" and press enter to create a new 8000MB main partition on disk 0, and the focus will automatically shift to the newly created partition. (4) Then execute "create partition extended" and press enter to establish the remaining disk space on disk 0 as an extended partition. (5) After completing the previous step, execute "Create Partition Logic" and press enter to create the newly established extended partition as a logical partition. (6) At this point, we have created the original disk 0 and used the active partition C as the main partition and logical partition, but these two partitions have no drive letters yet. Execute "Select partition 1" to shift the focus to the main partition 1, and then execute "Assign drive letter =C" to assign drive letter c: to the main partition. Perform an "active" enter to activate the primary partition so that it can boot the system. (7) Next, execute "Select Partition 3" to shift the focus to the logical partition, execute "Assign" and press enter, which means that the system assigns the next available drive letter to the logical partition. Since both drive letters D and E are occupied (D is occupied by the disk 1 partition and E is occupied by the optical drive), the system assigns F to the logical partition. But it doesn't matter, let's ignore the order of the drive letters first. At this point, our operation on disk 0 is over, and the remaining goal is to convert the active partition D of disk 1 into partition E. (8) Execute "Select Disk 1" to shift the focus to disk 1, and execute "Select Partition 1" to shift the focus to active partition D. (9) Due to. Execute "Delete Partition" to delete the original partition D, and execute "Create Partition Extension" to establish all disk space on disk 1 as an extended partition. (10) After completing the previous step, execute "Create Partition Logic" to create the newly created extended partition as a logical partition. (1 1) Finally, "assign" is executed to automatically assign a drive letter, and the system still assigns D to it (however, after the machine is restarted, the system will automatically adjust the logical partition of disk 0, and the logical partition of disk 1 will use drive E, while the optical drive will be postponed to F, and these changes will be automatically realized when the system is restarted). (12) Now we have finished repartitioning the hard disk of the machine. Execute "exit" to exit the DiskPart command-line interpreter, and then execute "format c: /fs:ntfs" to format the newly established DISK 0 primary partition as a partition in ntfs file format. Similarly, after executing "format d: /fs:fat32" and "Format F:/FS:" (13), execute" exit "to restart the machine, and you can enter" DiskPart "again to check whether the partition is correct. The above operations basically include disk creation, deletion, formatting and management. If you read the help carefully and make sure that you have mastered the powerful functions of Fdisk, you don't want to use it to manage disks. In fact, if you use Windows XP, this knowledge is very practical. In addition, the most convenient place for the "DiskPart" tool is to support scripts, so I won't elaborate here.
Edit this paragraph limit
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We have practiced the basic operation of Windows PE function above, and we should be able to appreciate the convenience that Windows PE brings to individuals. But as mentioned above, Windows PE is just a mini operating system with limited functions. To use Windows PE correctly, of course, we should also understand its limitations.
1.
In order to prevent it from being used as a pirated operating system, Windows PE will automatically quit and restart after 24 hours of continuous use.
2.
You can access the server directly from a Windows PE computer through the network and enjoy it. However, you cannot access any files or folders on your Windows PE computer from other locations on the network. Windows PE obtains the network connection with the file server through TCP/IP and NetBIOS on it, and does not support other methods (such as IPX/SPX network protocol).
3.
Because anti-piracy is involved, you can only create a customized version of Windows PE from Windows XP Professional CD. It cannot be built from any member of Windows XP Home Edition or Windows 2002 Server operating system family.
4.
Windows PE is too big to fit in the floppy disk. Windows PE includes only a subset of available Win32 APIs (including I/O (disk and network) and core Win32 APIs). If the service running under Win32 is based on a subset of Win32 API, whether it is available under Windows PE needs specific analysis. I won't list the APIs that Windows PE doesn't support in detail here. In any case, neither rundll32.exe nor shell.dll is supported. Friends who want to play Raytheon's Hammer under Windows PE should give up early.
Edit the role of Windows PE in this section.
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Many friends will definitely wonder what definite role Windows PE has for themselves when they see whether there is any gain here. Here, I might as well sum up one or two.
1. Easy to use starting tool tray
From what I have just described, it can be seen that Windows PE starts quite quickly, and the requirements for the startup environment are not high. The most valuable thing is that although it is called a startup disk, its function is almost equivalent to installing a "command-line version" of Windows XP-don't forget network support. Therefore, for personal computer users, as long as they burn it on a CD, they can safely solve problems such as initializing the system; For users in small network environment (such as Internet cafes), this function is particularly practical.
2. Interesting hard disk use function
Custom Windows PE can be placed not only on removable storage devices such as CD, but also on hard disk. Because many friends will think that it is meaningless to put the customized version of Windows PE on the hard disk, but it is not. Putting Windows PE on the hard disk should be the most interesting place, not to mention starting Windows PE on the hard disk, which can be easily repaired even if your operating system is damaged and you can't enter. The key is that because Windows PE is on the hard disk, applications can be installed in the Windows PE environment. Ha ha, digression, let's take a look at how to put the customized Windows PE on the hard disk (only 32-bit version of Windows PE can be put on the hard disk). First, install the recovery console: (1) put the Windows XP Professional CD into the CD-ROM drive, which is designated as cd_drive here. (2) Run CD _ drive \ i386 \ winnt32.exe/CMDcons in the command line cmd window. Then put the customized bootable copy of Windows PE on the hard disk, as follows: (1) On the target hard disk, create a directory of "C:\Minint" (the directory here must be named "Minint"). (2) Copy all contents under Windows PE "root directory \i386" to C:\Minint. (3) copy Winbom.ini under the root directory of Windows PE to the root directory of the target hard disk. (4) On the target hard disk, change the read-only attribute of "C:\Cmdcons\txtsetup.sif" to read/write. (5) On the target hard disk, copy "C:\Minint\txtsetup.sif" to "C:\Cmdcons" for overwriting. (6) Restart the target computer. On the startup menu, select Boot to Command Console, and the computer will start with Windows PE.
3.3 work. Windows XP OPK CD
As mentioned above, we actually got an executable copy of Windows PE, namely the Windows XP OPK(Windows XP OEM Pre-installation Toolkit) CD. From the name, we all know that its original job is to facilitate OEM. If you open the CD in the Windows operating system environment, it will automatically run and install a Windows Installation Manager toolkit for your system. With it, you can easily create a Windows installation image with the OEM logo of the computer manufacturer. Although this is the main work of Windows XP OPK CD, it obviously doesn't make any sense to us personally. Of course, if you want to put your own unique logo on the Windows installation CD and show it off when installing it on a friend's machine, it is a good idea to use it. Of course, your own "imprint" is by no means as simple as branding. In fact, you can also set the software carried by Windows PE at will, and set these software to run when Windows PE starts. Ideally, you can even add a graphical shell program similar to Windows Explorer to the customized version of Windows PE-otherwise, how can you design it for OEMs?
Edit this piece of Windows PE technology.
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In order to make Windows PE as versatile as possible, Microsoft designed it to be light, powerful and flexible. The following sections will describe these functions in more detail, and then describe the limitations of Windows PE.
Lightweight and convenient
Windows PE must be as small as possible to be stored in removable media (such as CD and USB flash drive), and it must be able to start quickly and be completely stored in the computer's memory. The exact size of Windows PE varies depending on how you customize the image, but when compressed in WIM format, it usually takes less than 100 MB. The 64-bit version of Windows PE is larger. Customizing a Windows PE image with a language pack or application will increase its size. To help minimize memory usage, you can run Windows PE from a compressed image. In other words, you can compress Windows PE in a WIM file and run it from memory without decompression. Therefore, whether the image is stored on disk or loaded into computer memory, you will benefit a lot from compression. In order to minimize disk storage, WIM format only stores a single instance of multiple duplicate files. Therefore, if you have a WIM file with two Windows PE images, the file shared by the two images will be stored only once.
powerful
Although the design of Windows PE is very small, it contains many core functions 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 IT developers can use tools like Microsoft Visual Studio to create Win32 applications running on Windows PE. Windows PE also supports multithreading and multitasking, so you can run multiple tools at the same time. When other technologies are adopted, this feature saves the time and resources needed to verify and test hardware and software images. 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 temporary space based on RAM, Windows PE can run applications that need to write temporary files to the hard disk (even if there is no available hard disk). In order to minimize disk storage, WIM format only stores a single instance of multiple duplicate files. Therefore, if you have a WIM file with two Windows PE images, the file shared by the two images will be stored only once. Note: Some applications (such as games) cannot run on Windows PE, but this is not the design intention of Windows PE. Windows PE does not currently support Microsoft. NET framework.
flexible
If Windows Vista contains drivers for computer hardware, then your hardware will also be able to use Windows PE, because Windows PE contains most Windows Vista drivers. You can also add new drivers to the Windows PE image. In an enterprise environment, you can add every driver required by any computer in your organization to a separate Windows PE image so that the image can be used on your computer. For computers with special hardware, you can install drivers after Windows PE starts and use the hardware immediately without restarting the computer. For example, if you start Windows PE and find that it doesn't contain the correct network driver, you can insert a CD containing the required driver, and then use the Drvload command-line tool to insert the driver so that you can connect to the network. This function can be realized because Windows PE can run directly from the computer's RAM, as described later in this section. Although Windows PE contains many built-in functions, many tools and functions are optional to make Windows PE as light 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 to a customized Windows PE image, such as Tracert or your own custom tools. You can also use the same offline image editing tool to install updates 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 various startup media or networks (for example, using WDS). Windows PE supports X86, X64 and IA64 architectures, so you can use the same pre-installation and troubleshooting environment for all computers in your organization. Windows PE can connect to both IPv4 networks (used by most organizations and the Internet) and IPv6 networks. You can change the startup settings of Windows PE by editing the text-based Unattend.xml file. Although you can run Windows PE directly from hard disk or removable media, you can also choose to run Windows PE directly from memory. If you choose to run Windows PE from memory, the Windows PE boot loader will first create a virtual RAM disk in memory. Then, the boot loader copies the compressed version of Windows PE to the 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 delete Windows PE media after Windows PE starts. Therefore, you can load Windows PE from one CD and then replace it with a second CD containing tools or drivers. When running Windows PE from memory, temporary files can be written to virtual RAM disk, and read-only media (such as CD) cannot be used.
Edit the restrictions of Windows PE in this section.
Because Windows PE is designed to be as light, powerful and flexible as possible, it has the following limitations:? The computer must have at least 256 megabytes of memory. ? Windows PE is not suitable to be provided on floppy disks, but you can write the Windows PE image to a bootable CD. ? Windows PE needs a display device compatible with video electronics standards association (VESA) and will use it to determine the highest supported screen resolution. If Windows PE cannot detect the video settings, it will use a resolution of 640 × 480 pixels. ? Windows PE only supports distributed file system (DFS) name resolution with independent DFS root directory. ? You can't access files or folders on a computer running Windows PE from another computer. In other words, Windows PE does not provide server functions. ? Windows PE supports IPv4 and IPv6, but does not support other protocols, such as IPX/SPX protocol. ? The assignment of drive symbols between sessions is not fixed. After restarting Windows PE, the drive letters will be assigned in the default order. ? Windows PE does not support it. NET framework. ? Because Windows on Windows (WOW) is not supported, 16-bit application cannot run in 32-bit version of Windows PE, and 32-bit application cannot run in 64-bit version of Windows PE. ? To prevent Windows PE from being used as a general operating system, Windows PE will automatically restart 24 hours after the initial boot program is started. In addition, Windows PE has only a subset of Windows Vista Win32 application programming interface (API), including I/O (disk and network) and core Win32 API. Applications that require any of the following Win32 API will not run in Windows PE: access control, NetShow Theater Administration, OpenGL, power management options, printing and printing spoolers, still images, tape backup, terminal services, user profiles, Windows workstations and desktops, Windows multimedia and Windows shell.
Edit the WinPE function in this paragraph.
WinPE is a simplified version of Windows XP or Windows Server 2003. It can be directly activated on a CD or DVD. It is characterized by an activation screen of Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 and a simple graphical interface (GUI) during activation, and it can also run Internet Explorer. WinPE supports the network, but only comes with the following tools: command prompt characters, notepad and some maintenance tools for command prompt characters. The original intention of WinPE is only to facilitate enterprises to manufacture customized Windows XP or Windows Server 2003, so it is not and cannot be sold in the market. With the approval of Microsoft, other software companies can attach their own software to WinPE, so that they can run related programs when the computer is activated. These softwares are usually used for system maintenance. If the computer can't run normally, you can use the relevant system maintenance software to repair the computer. Maintenance software includes SymantecNorton Ghost, etc. The installer of Windows Vista is also based on WinPE. WinPE is mostly used by OEMs. For example, just like a brand computer suite just bought back, you don't need to completely install the operating system from scratch, but complete the installation. OEM manufacturers can customize the installation of drivers, modify the OEM trademark in my computer, and install auxiliary programs after installing the system. To put it simply, WinPE is used in a large number of computer installations (computers of the same specification) to achieve rapid and consistent installation. [ 1][2][3]
Edit this paragraph to compare Windows PE 2.0 with earlier technologies.
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If you have used MS-DOS or previous versions of Windows PE as a deployment or troubleshooting tool, you may be interested in how Windows PE can improve these technologies. The next section will discuss how Windows PE can improve the use of MS-DOS or previous versions of Windows PE.
Comparison between Windows PE 2.0 and MS-DOS startup disk
You can use Windows PE instead of MS-DOS startup disk to perform the following tasks, which can be completed more smoothly in a shorter 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 third-party tools. In addition, the file system utility provided by Windows PE can write scripts, so you can partition and format automatically. ? Access the network * * * Run troubleshooting tools and install the operating system. Windows PE provides network client functions similar to Windows Vista. In fact, the network driver provided by Windows PE is the same as that provided by Windows Vista, which allows you to access the network quickly and conveniently. In contrast, the process of customizing MS-DOS startup disk to access the network 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 function of loading Windows mass storage, network connection, audio and video drivers. If you use MS-DOS, you must find the 16 bit driver, customize the MS-DOS startup disk, and maintain different disks for different network cards. ? Automated tasks. The script function in Windows PE far exceeds the function of MS-DOS startup disk. For example, Windows PE uses VBScript, which is a powerful scripting language and easier to use than batch files of MS-DOS. Windows PE supports gigabytes of memory on its running system, and provides network connection support by using the protected mode transmission control protocol /Internet protocol (TCP/IP) stack. You can easily add startup scripts or applications by editing text-based Extensible Markup Language (XML) files. If you have created scripts for MS-DOS, you may 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 disadvantage of using MS-DOS as the pre-installation and troubleshooting operating system is that you can only run applications specially written for MS-DOS. Because Windows PE supports the most important Microsoft Win32 API, Windows PE can run most graphics and console-based Windows applications. In addition, because Windows PE supports multithreading and multitasking, it can also run multiple tools at the same time.