What Is Winpe? An introduction to the Windows Preinstallation Environment

[travstatesmen 0]

Ever wish that you could legally install an operating system that is as familiar as Microsoft Windows, without having to learn the arcane intricacies of Linux, and without having to pay the exorbitant licensing that Micro$oft charges? Did I mention doing it legally? I don't mean making use of any form of keygen, serial, crack, etc. Is this possible? How many old Pentium 2 systems with 64MB of RAM and an 8GB hard drive got stuffed into your back cupboard without an operating system license when Microsoft brought in the Microsoft Genuine Advantage program? Wouldn't it be great to dust them off and make use of them again using a Windows-based operating system that isn't going to cost more than the box itself is worth? In a nutshell, how can you get a Windows-based operating system legally without having to pay for it?

 

It is possible. And I am going to reveal the secret to you. What I am talking about is the Windows Preinstallation Environment, or WinPE. It is the cut-down, lean, mean version of Windows 2000, Windows XP Professional, or even Windows Vista, that is used during the installation phase of these operating systems, and which gives you that Windows-like interface BEFORE you have even installed Windows fully. Anyone who has installed any of these operating systems has used WinPE and probably didn't even know it!

 

Do you remember the old days of creating a DOS boot disk as a diagnostic tool, to help you if your operating system doesn't boot up properly? I used to have a whole collection of them, for all the different operating systems that I used, along with a selection of my favorite repair tools on individual floppy disks. These days I just use a bootable CD-R disk with the WinPE environment on it, which includes my antivirus, antispyware, registry editing tools, etc all on the same CD-R. And it boots up a copy of Windows straight from the CD-R disk! No further installation required. No messing around with dual booting. You could even have it run from a bootable USB thumb drive if you wanted to! How handy would that be? Your own operating system, with all your own applications and settings, stored on a USB thumb drive that you could plug into any computer and boot from it into a Windows environment! Any computer with a USB port in it could be yours! Another great trick is putting an RDP client, such as Microsoft Terminal Services Client or WinVNC onto your WinPE installation, and using that to access an RDP host session, given that you own the required CAL for this access (sorry, even this idea won't get you around the Microsoft licensing regime entirely).

 

Here is an Adobe PDF file hosted on the Microsoft website that gives a technical overview of the Windows Preinstallation Environment. Here is a step-by-step instructional guide on how to set up a bootable WinPE implementation on a USB thumb drive. And here is a Microsoft Technet document that explains the Windows Vista WinPE features. Sure, there are many limitations on such an operating system, and it's not the type of thing that you can use on all of your computers. For instance, you cannot use WinPE to print from the computer that it is installed on, as the print spooler subsystem isn't enabled. It doesn't support OpenGL or Windows Multimedia, so it's not a gaming platform. It automatically reboots after 24 hours (or 72 hours with Vista), so it is not a stable server platform. But for testing, for instance setting up a web server test bench, it is great! Care is needed in providing the appropriate device drivers, and generic drivers are preferable if you intend to use your implementation of WinPE on a variety of different computers, such as I do with my diagnostic CD-R.

 

Legally speaking, you need to own a fully licensed copy of the source operating system that you are creating a WinPE implementation of. The CAB files from your original installation CD are used to generate your WinPE implementation, so therefore you MUST have a valid license to use it in the first place. Also, you are still forbidden from using WinPE on more than one computer at a time unless you have multiple licenses. But this problem is overcome by making your WinPE installation portable. If it is built on a CD-R or a USB thumb drive, then you can only use it on one computer at a time anyway, whichever computer that CD-R disk or that USB thumb drive is connected to at the time. Just don't go making multiple copies of your WinPE implementation. Simple!

 

There are other ways of using WinPE out there, and one very popular one is called BartPE, created by Bart Lagerweij. It uses similar technology to WinPE, but it is much more flexible than WinPE is by itself. The Windows Preinstallation Environment is truly an admin's best friend!

Edited September 14, 2008 by travstatesmen (see edit history)

[Forbez 0]

And this is made by the REAL Microsoft? Why would they be giving out free operating systems?

[Saint_Michael 3]

I dunno sounds kind of lame to me though because why would you want a very trimmed down version of windows as a testing ground? It would make no sense to test hardware such as graphics cards, motherboards and RAM just to see if you can max them out or overclock them. I would have to know someone that actually works with this and tell me what it can all do instead of reading all that documentation.

[travstatesmen 0]

Yes, it is definitely the REAL Microsoft that is releasing this, Forbez. Do a Google search for WinPE site:microsoft.com and you will get results similar to my search, which returned about 8,270 occurrences just from the Microsoft website. This is honestly a Microsoft technology, which was originally released to OEM System Builders, IT Professionals, and corporate users, but has recently been released by Microsoft to the general public as part of the Windows AIK. It is designed to allow network administrators to use a "lite" version of the operating system for testing, repair, and system recovery. I used to use WinPE a lot when I was an OEM. It is also handy for doing computer forensic diagnosis. A copy of Norton Ghost on a WinPE boot disk is a great way to start a simple disk image for forensic analysis. Yeah, I guess it really depends on what you are looking for. It might not be your cup of tea, Saint_Michael, as it isn't a hard-core gaming platform that will support all the features of the latest video cards. But as a Windows-based OS that is free and can be used to get someone onto the Internet, even via an ADSL modem (with both Ethernet and USB support) it is quite sufficient for simple stuff.

Edited September 15, 2008 by travstatesmen (see edit history)

[Saint_Michael 3]

Well I am not much of a PC gamer, but as one who uses various software for web design, graphics, and web application design I would find it hard to use a trim down operating system that works like safe mode. Due ot the fact that their are very limited processes and if a person who is so brand new to computers, unlikely starts off with something like this and then wants to get a full version they will be in for a bit of a surprise. Sure I can understand for platform applications designing, and of course customized software such as a cash register for supermarkets and what not, thus my statement that I would have to see this at a non business level and for individual users like me.

[iGuest 3]

WINPE is only for authorized users...Read Microsoft End-User Legal Agreement (EULA) terms aconditions "ELIGIBILITY" section for more information. Failure to understand the license terms will get nd you into trouble. The technology is great but was designed for network and system administrators who manage, troubleshoot and install windows machines on a daily basis.  It's not for everyone.

 

 

-reply by cyrusrynlee