By
Ed Tittel,
published on January 29, 2009
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: winpe, winre, bootable | Themes: Windows Tech Talk, Software
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: winpe, winre, bootable | Themes: Windows Tech Talk, Software
Contents
- 1. USB Flash Drives
- 2. A Recipe for a Bootable WinPE/WinRE UFD
- 3. Creating the WinPE image
- 4. Prepping Your UFD
- 5. Creating and Managing the WinRE Image File
- 6. When to use WinPE and WinRE
- 7. Table 1: WinPE and WinRE Commands and Programs
7. Table 1: WinPE and WinRE Commands and Programs
WinPE and WinRE commands and programs
| 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 |
| erase | Yes | Yes | Deletes one or more files |
| exit | Yes | Yes | Closes command window environment (reboots WinPE, closes WinRE command window) |
| find | Yes | Yes | Search for input text string in one or more target files |
| format | Yes | Yes | Format hard disk, UFD, or floppy disk |
| ftp | Yes | YesX | Invoke command line File Transfer Protocol client services |
| ftype | Yes | Yes | Use to display filetypes or to manipulate files by type |
| ipconfig | Yes | YesX | Display or manage Windows TCP/IP configuration |
| md | Yes | Yes | Make new directory (same as mkdir which is not listed here but works) |
| more | Yes | Yes | Manages screen output in screen-size chunks |
| mountvol | Yes | Yes | List, create, or delete a volume mount point |
| move | Yes | Yes | Move files, renames files and directories |
| net | Yes | YesX | A whole family of network service and function controls |
| netsh | Yes | YesX | Another whole family of network service and function controls |
| nbtstat | Yes | YesX | Display statistics related to NetBIOS over TCP/IP traffic on the network |
| netstat | Yes | YesX | Display general TCP and UDP connections, port assignments, and activities |
| path | Yes | Yes | Show or manipulate contents of the Windows path variable |
| pathping | Yes | Yes | Send an orderly sequence of PING commands to all nodes on a network path |
| ping | Yes | Yes | Send an ICMP echo request to some target address to assess reachability and response time |
| popd | Yes | Yes | Changes to directory specified in the pushd command (command extensions must be enabled) |
| print | Yes | Yes | Provides access to print services from the command line |
| prompt | Yes | Yes | Changes command prompt shown in the command window to solicit input (command extensions must be enabled) |
| pushd | Yes | Yes | store desired directory target for popd (command extensions must be enabled) |
| recover | Yes | Yes | recover readable data from a damaged or defective disk drive |
| reg | Yes | Yes | command line registry editing/inspection tool |
| regedit | Yes | Yes | Both WinRE and WinPE will open the built-in Windows Registry Editor |
| regsvr32 | Yes | Yes | use to register or unregister OLE and ActiveX controls, important for troubleshooting |
| rem | Yes | Yes | inserts a text comment into a batch or script file |
| ren | Yes | Yes | same as rename; use to rename files or directories |
| replace | Yes | Yes | replace one or more files in a source directory from a target directory |
| rmdir | Yes | Yes | delete directory (also rd) |
| robocopy | Yes | Yes | robust file copy for Windows offers wide range of copy controls/checks |
| route | Yes | YesX | inspect and manage the contents of TCP/IP static routing table |
| rundll32 | Yes | Yes | manages relationships between DLLs and devices on a PC; important troubleshooting tool |
| set | Yes | Yes | inspect, add, alter, or delete global environment variables |
| setlocal | Yes | Yes | inspect, add, alter, or delete local environment variables |
| sfc | Yes | No | system file checker; use with /verifyonly to check Windows OS files |
| start | Yes | Yes | opens a separate window to run a program or command |
| subst | Yes | Yes | use to associate a path with a virtual drive letter |
| time | Yes | Yes | view or set current time |
| title | Yes | Yes | sets title for command window |
| tracert | Yes | YesX | traces all routers between sending and target Internet hosts |
| type | Yes | Yes | writes contents of target file to command window display |
| ver | Yes | Yes | displays Windows version in use (6.0.6001 for Vista SP1) |
| verify | Yes | Yes | verifies accuracy of file copies upon completion |
| vol | Yes | Yes | display or alter disk/volume name |
| xcopy | Yes | Yes | tool for copying multiple files and entire directory structures |
Note: yesX in the WinRE column means the command interpreter recognizes the command, but because WinRE doesn’t load network drivers, it do
- Previous page When to use WinPE and WinRE
- Next page Common uses for WinPE and WinRE
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.
Nice guide. Never knew about it. Thanks.
when I saw this I thought it was going to be a review of Bart's PEBuilder... It's saved my a$$ many times. Far superior to WinPE...
How about a comparison/companion article? or an article on tools gearheads & techies find indespensible?
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.
"I usually grab Imagex.exe and the Package Manager using the commands shown in the next screen capture."
Hmmm... I don't see a 'next screen capture' showing the commands used to get imagex and Package Manager.
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.
Show us howto "use imagex to grab the Windows RE image from the Vista-installation media." Thanks.
Yes please follow up on the last few comments, I am stuck in that spot.
Thanks.
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/archiv [...] -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.
thanks suigi!
There's another option I've found to be a lifesaver for disaster recovery. I can't afford to lose access to my business laptop, but I also am lazy and tend not to back things up, so I do 3 things:
1. I synchronize two laptops using Microsoft's free Windows Live Sync. This synchronizes specified folders, even through firewalls. I used to use FolderMatch or Syncback SE manually, but Live Sync is completely automated and works over the internet or home network. This makes sure I always have two copies of my data. It also protects against laptop hardware failures to some extent, although since I don't have all the exact applications on both computers, it's not a complete solution.
2. To protect against outright disk failures and boot problems, I always clone my laptop drive. It's cheap insurance for $50 for a 120GB drive. Use DriveClone (drive must be the same size) or Acronis (can size partitions down or up) and make a clone of your "golden" image. Typically, this is a "virgin" install of all my apps, with updates. I keep the clone in a safe place, and if I ever have a disaster, I just pop the virgin drive in, and recover my data from my backup laptop.
3. For email, which contains a lot of my critical data, I use our corporate Exchange server which automatically gets backed up. Because we have size limits, I keep my own archive instead of relying on Exchange. At the end of the year on New Years Eve, I take my entire Inbox, Sent Items, Calendar, and Contacts for the year and store them to a shared Live Sync folder. This keeps my .OST file down to a manageable size, and keeps my infrequently accessed archives in a safe place.
I may have to try this, just to see how it compares to the product I just purchased... Active@Boot Disk. It's basically the same idea, but a lot easier and it comes with some tools that look very handy, including a password changer, disk-clone, etc. I'm not advertising for them, I only just installed it yesterday. Typical Murphy's-law kind of thing, right after I buy something, I find a free version. I suspect the free version wouldn't eventually have given me what I wanted, but I'm wondering after reading some of your comments, how would I install an application to the PE version? I tried on one app and since there's no registry to change, I get an error. I recall reading somewhere about how to get around that, but don't remember where.
Great article, can't wait to try it out. Always nice having multiple ways of doing a similar task. Often one tool won't work for some reason, where another one does just what you need it to.