Microsoft KB Archive/297176

= Description of Windows Preinstall Environment (WinPE) =

Q297176

Formal product support for Microsoft Windows XP will be available from Microsoft beginning October 25, 2001. Until then, you can consult with your counterparts, peers, and Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs) by using our online newsgroups. Access to the Microsoft newsgroups is available from the following Microsoft Web site: "http://communities.microsoft.com/newsgroups/default.asp"

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The information in this article applies to:


 * Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
 * Microsoft Windows XP Professional

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SUMMARY
Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE) is a minimal Win32 subsystem with limited services, based on the Windows XP Professional kernel that is running in Protected mode.

WinPE contains the minimal functionality that you need to run Windows Setup, pull an operating system from a network share, automate basic processes, and to perform hardware validation.

WinPE Features

 * A hardware-independent Windows environment for both x86-based and Itanium-based architectures with a small footprint on both the bootable media and in memory.
 * Network access and support for standard network drivers that may be required for copying images and test suites from a network by using Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). You can easily add or remove network drivers from a customized version of WinPE.
 * Support for all mass storage devices that use Windows 2000 or Windows XP drivers. As new devices become available, you can easily remove the unneeded drivers or incorporate additional drivers into a customized version of WinPE.
 * WinPE includes native support to create, delete, format, and manage NTFS file system partitions.
 * You can run hardware diagnostics by loading and testing specific hardware drivers.
 * WinPE includes Support for PXE protocol, which you can use to install images from Remote Installation (RIS) servers. If the network adapter in the computer includes PXE, the adapter can detect a RIS server and automatically install the WinPE image.

By having WinPE incorporated into a factory preinstallation process, you can import existing MS-DOS based tools to a subset of the 32-bit Windows APIs so that you can easily maintain these applications in a standard development environment, such as Microsoft Visual Studio. These hardware diagnostics and other preinstallation utilities can then use the same signed Windows XP drivers, therefore you no longer need to request 16-bit drivers from independent hardware vendors (IHVs).

You can use WinPE on both x86 and Itanium-based computers. For Itanium-based computers, you must build a 64-bit version of WinPE from the Windows XP 64-bit Edition CD-ROM. For more information, see Creating a Customized Version of WinPE.

WinPE Limitations

 * To prevent its use as a pirated operating system, WinPE automatically exits whatever shell it is running and restarts after a periods of 24 hours of continuous use.
 * A computer that is running WinPE can have a maximum of four network connections.
 * From a WinPE computer, you can directly access servers and shares across the network based on the required network credentials. However, you cannot access any files or folders that are located on a WinPE computer from another location on your network.
 * You cannot access any files or folders that are located on a Microsoft Dfs share.
 * The tested methods of gaining network connectivity to file servers are TCP/IP and NetBIOS over TCP/IP. Other methods, such as the SPX/IPX network protocol, are untested.
 * WinPE requires a VGA-compatible device and uses a screen resolution of 640 x 480 pixels, 256-bit color.
 * WinPE is too large to fit on a floppy disk. For more information, refer to the &quot;WinPE Size&quot; section in this article.

Windows APIs are not supported on WinPE
To minimize its size, WinPE includes only a subset of the available Win32 APIs, including I/O (disk and network), and core Win32 APIs. If a Win32 API subset is exposed based on a service running under Win32, it may or may not be available under WinPE.

The following categories of functions of the Win32 API set are not present in WinPE. For more information on these categories, see the Microsoft Platform SDK at the following Microsoft Web site: "http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp"
 * Windows Multimedia
 * Still Image
 * OpenGL
 * NetShow Theater Administration
 * Bitmap
 * Brush
 * Windows Shell
 * Access Control
 * Power Options
 * Printing and Print Spooler
 * Window Station and Desktop
 * Terminal Services
 * User Profile
 * Tape Backup

WinPE Size
The following table lists the approximate size of a non-customized version of WinPE:

These in-memory sizes are computed when networking services are running.

The size of a custom version of WinPE varies depending on the set of drivers that you choose to include or exclude. The on-disk size of the default WinPE configuration includes all inbox drivers, and many of these drivers are uncompressed.

The following table lists the approximate size of each directory on the 32-bit version of WinPE:

While WinPE is too large to fit on a floppy disk, you can place your customized version of WinPE on any bootable media, including a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, hard disk, LS-120 floppy disk, or a Remote Installation Server (RIS).

X86 Version
Create a folder on your hard disk and name it C:\build.x86.

Copy all the contents of the X86 OPK CDs WinPE folder to the new folder.

Copy the Factory.exe and Netcfg.exe files from X86 OPK CDs tools folder to the new folder.

Go to the C:\build.x86 folder.

Run the mkimg.cmd script with the required arguments. For example: "mkimg.cmd f: c:\winpe.x86 c:\x86winpe.img" In this example:


 * f: is the CD drive letter where the latest X86 Windows XP Business Edition CD is present.
 * c:\winpe.x86 is the folder in which WinPE folders need to be created temporarily for the image creation.
 * c:\x86winpe.img is the final image file which you want to record on the CD by using a CD writer.

IA64 Version
Note: Use both the X86 OPK and IA64 OPK CDs. X86 OPK CDs has the required image creation tools which you need to run on a Windows XP x86 machine. IA64 OPK CD has some binaries which we need to pickup for the IA64 WinPE image. Create a folder on your hard disk and name it C:\build.ia64.

Copy all the contents of the X86 OPK CDs WinPE folder to the new folder.

Copy the Factory.exe and Netcfg.exe files from IA64 OPK CDs tools folder to the new folder.

Go to the C:\build.ia64 folder.

Run the mkimg.cmd script with the required arguments. For example: "mkimg.cmd f: c:\winpe c:\ia64winpe.img" In this example:


 * f: is the CD drive letter where the latest X86 Windows XP Business Edition CD is present.
 * c:\winpe.ia64 is the folder in which WinPE folders need to be created temporarily for the image creation.
 * c:\ia64winpe.img is the final image file which you want to record on the CD by using a CD writer.

Additional query words:

Keywords : kbsetup kbtool

Issue type : kbinfo

Technology : kbWinXPProSearch kbWinXPHomeSearch kbWinXPSearch

Last Reviewed: September 5, 2001

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