Win PE

[Steve]

We created Win PE CDs and were able to use Notepad.exe,
regedit.exe, etc. from the CMD prompt after booting to
the CD.

Since upgrading to Windows XP SP1 as the source, the cds
that are created will not allow us to execute numerous
Windows executables, returning the error, "System cannot
execute the specified program".
This occurs even when executing it from the drive\i386
\system32 folder.

As some executables work, e.g. Reg.exe, regsvr32.exe,
etc., it's clear that most of the OS is functional.

Any ideas as to what would cause this behavior?

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[Johan Arwidmark]

Windows PE does not support 16-bit applications, so make sure the
applciation is 32-bit (Microsoft did not include the subsystem for
Wow32 by default)

Many program need to store temporary data. In that case you should add
a ramdrive to your Windows PE Image.

It may also be a Windows PE Compilation issue (bldhives and oemmint)
You need to have Windows PE version 1.1 or later to compile Windows PE
CDs from Windows XP SP1 media and Windows PE version 1.2 if compiling
CDs from Windows Server 2003 media.

You really should be using Windows PE version 1.2 (check date for
OEMMINT.EXE and BLDHIVES.EXE, it should be 2003-03-25)

regards
Johan Arwidmark

Windows User Group - Nordic
http://www.wug-nordic.net

 

[Steve]

I have upgraded from 1.0 to 1.2 in order to build XP
SP1a. The files for XP SP1a are in place. The 1.0 cd and
XP with NO SP would run regedit or notepad from the
command line. Is this possible with the 1.2 build of PE?

 

[Johan Arwidmark]

Yes it works. You can run regedit and notepad from a Windows PE 1.2
Build from Windows XP SP1 media.

I've used this configuration on more than 30 different hardware
configs and never had any problem building working Windows PE 1.2
images from Windows XP SP1 media.

What tool are you using to create the Windows PE 1.2 image? Are you
using the mkimg.cmd script (which then runs bldhives and oemmint) or
are you using Bart Lagerweijs pe-builder?

regards
Johan Arwidmark

Windows User Group - Nordic
http://www.wug-nordic.net

 

[Steve]

I run the following to create the ISO.

oscdimg -betfsboot.com -n -h c:\pesource
c:\isofiles\XPSP1PE.iso

Same command I have used to created the pre SP1 builds?

Files in PEsource are a direct copy from the 1.2 PE CD.

 

[Johan Arwidmark]

When customizing Windows PE you should compile the pesource directory
using mkimg.cmd batchfile, not directly copying from the original
Windows PE 1.2 media

Here is a step-by-step procedure

In the example the CD-ROM drive is F:

1. Insert the Windows PE 1.2 CD

2. Copy the contents of the F:\WinPE folder to a directory on disk
(for example c:\tools).

3. Inset the Windows XP SP1 CD

4. Go to a command prompt, type
cd /d c:\tools
mkimg F: c:\mywinpesource c:\mywinpe.iso

5. If you like to do it in two parts (first creating the structure and
then the iso) use these commands instead
cd /d c:\tools
mkimg F: c:\mywinpesource
oscdimg -betfsboot.com -n -h c:\mywinpesource c:\mywinpe.iso

The latter approach gives you the option of adding more stuff to the
pesource driectory before creating the .iso (you can of course also
use tools like Magic-Iso to insert more files to an existing
iso-image)

regards
Johan Arwidmark

Windows User Group - Nordic
http://www.wug-nordic.net