How To Make and Use a Bootable WinPE Drive

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
chkdskYes
Yes
Checks layout and structure of Windows disks, with some repair capability
chknftsYes
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

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.

  • masterwhitman
    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.
    Reply
  • richwag
    Nice guide. Never knew about it. Thanks.
    Reply
  • 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?
    Reply
  • average joe
    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.
    Reply
  • "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.
    Reply
  • LightWeightX
    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.
    Reply
  • sdybas
    Show us howto "use imagex to grab the Windows RE image from the Vista-installation media." Thanks.
    Reply
  • jfutima
    Yes please follow up on the last few comments, I am stuck in that spot.
    Thanks.
    Reply
  • 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.
    Reply
  • jfutima
    thanks suigi!
    Reply