Windows PE 2.0 (aka Vista WinPE)

A number of WinPE enthusiasts have expressed concern that Daylight Savings Time (DST) is not supported in WinPE.  DST is the practice of setting clocks forward one hour in the spring and back one hour in the fall.  WinPE ignores DST, so if you are running your WinPE system during a transition period the time reported by the computer won't change (and will become incorrect).

Although we periodically hear complaints about this, we can't implement DST in WinPE for technical reasons stemming from the way Windows uses the BIOS clock to store time.  For historical reasons, Windows keeps the BIOS clock set to local time.  When it first runs after daylight savings time begins, Windows will update the BIOS clock with the new time and set a flag in the registry to mark that DST is enabled.  The prevents Windows from setting the clock forward more than once.

In WinPE, the registry does not preserve changes across reboots.  This leaves us with two choices if we insist on enabling DST.  We could either leave the flag unchanged, which means WinPE would set your BIOS clock forward every reboot for a period after the spring transition.  Alternately, we could set the flag permanently in the offline WinPE image, which would cause WinPE to set the BIOS clock backwards every reboot for a period after the fall transition.  Either option is less desirable than just not touching the BIOS clock at all, which is the solution we ended up with.

If the BIOS clock of a Windows computer is already in local time, why must you set the timezone of an offline WinPE image?  As it turns out, NTFS keeps its own timestamps in UTC, which it calculates by subtracting the timezone offset from the local time in the BIOS clock. If you fail to correctly set the timezone offset, your NTFS timestamps (such as file creation or modification) will be incorrect.

For more information about how Windows keeps time, see this entry on Raymond Chen's blog:

http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2004/09/02/224672.aspx

The smallest possible wim sizes can be achieved by following these steps:

1. Install only the optional components (OCs) you need
2. Use peimg /prep to remove the extra OCs you didn't install
3. Use imagex /export to recover the space left behind by the deleted OCs

The x86 en-us WinPE 2.0 winpe.wim packaged with the Windows AIK weighs in at about 160MB.  However, the WinPE boot.wim on the Vista DVD takes up only 122MB, and that includes the setup application.  The trick to getting it so small is to understand what takes up so much space in the first place and how you can use peimg.exe and imagex.exe to remove it.

The winpe.wim from the WAIK contains not only the base WinPE image, but also all the optional components.  Initially, these OCs are in a "staged" state: they are ready to install, but aren't usable until you use peimg /install to install the ones you need.  It's very rare that you will require all the OCs in a single image, especially all the font support OCs.  Installing only the ones you need rather than the whole set leaves a great opportunity for reducing the size of the image by getting rid of the leftovers.

Peimg can remove the remaining staged OCs from an image with its '/prep' command.  This safely deletes the part of the image that contains the staged OCs as well as the information required for servicing the image.  Running 'prep' is irreversible, so I always keep an unprepped copy of my image just in case I need to apply a hotfix to it or change my mind about what OCs I need later.

If you followed the common pattern of mount-customize-prep-unmount, you'll notice that the wim is not actually much smaller (it may even be larger).  The wim filter driver doesn't actually reclaim the space when files are deleted, it just marks it.  To actually see the benefits of prep, you have to use imagex /export to produce a new wim with all the space reclaimed.  Make sure you add the '/boot' flag so the new wim is bootable.

At the extreme of installing absolutely no OCs, this method produces a lean 97MB wim, an easy fit for a 128MB USB key drive.

How much bloat does each OC add?  I installed only one OC into a number of different images and subtracted the baseline above:

Hope you found this useful!  Next: peimg.exe tips and tricks, including a script to make /inf recursive.

Last Wednesday, Windows Vista was released to manufacturing. This means that the RTM version of the Windows AIK (Automated Installation Kit) will be released within the next couple of weeks. Why should you care? Because the Windows AIK contains the RTM version of Windows PE 2.0! Get ready! Stay tuned for a pointer to where you can download this. I'll post as soon as it's available.

Andy

James Bannan over at APC has posted a nifty review of WinPE 2.0 over at http://www.apcstart.com/site/jbannan/2006/08/1082/windows-pe-20-a-tiny-version-of-windows-for-system-maintenance. Next time I'd like to see him try out peimg.exe, which is the new WinPE offline customization tool.

You can try it out for yourself by downloading from http://connect.microsoft.com/ -- the RC1 WAIK package should be posted up there shortly -- hopefully within the next week.

- Andy

Hello again!

It's been a while since my last post. I just got back from TechEd in Boston, MA. Many thanks to all who attended my talk. During my presentation, I promised that when I got back to Redmond that priority #1 was ensuring that EVERYONE can download WinPE 2.0. Today is that day my friends...

WinPE 2.0 is packaged up in the Windows AIK, which is part of the BDD. I know that from this BDD annoucement that it isn't very clear that WinPE is in there. Trust me, it is! You can download this RIGHT NOW from http://connect.microsoft.com. Enjoy!

- Andy

The annoucement:

Now Available: BDD 2007 Beta 1 for Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office System

The Microsoft Solutions for Infrastructure & Management (MSIM) team is pleased to announce the Beta release of the Microsoft Solution Accelerator for Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) 2007.

BDD has changed the face of scaled desktop deployments, providing true end-to-end guidance and automation for all required processes. We are excited to announce BDD 2007 Beta 1 to enable Lite Touch deployments of Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system desktop images. Many things have changed in Windows Vista that will significantly ease deployment, including new out-of-the-box imaging technologies, XML-based migration scripts, new tools for image engineering (ImageX and System Image Manager), and new unattend XML format. As with any advancement in technologies, getting the maximum benefit requires understanding the tools and technologies, and BDD 2007 provides the depth of guidance and tooling to make the Windows Vista and 2007 Microsoft Office system deployment process predictable and scalable.

BDD 2007 is the best practice set of guidance and automation to optimally deploy Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system. BDD 2007 uses an integrated deployment workbench built using ImageX, System Image Manager, Windows PE 2.0, and Windows Deployment Services. The BDD Workbench enables you to build and manage multiple OS configurations, define network deployment points and network shares, inject drivers, attach language packs, and chain applications. It even helps generate ISO and WIM images using Windows PE. BDD 2007 also alleviates much of the scripting requirements of previous BDD versions by incorporating a stand-alone task sequencer derived from System Center Configuration Manager 2007.

The BDD 2007 Beta 1 release supports four primary Lite Touch deployment scenarios:

• New: Format the computer’s hard disk and install a new operating system (wipe-and-load) and applications.
• Refresh: Save all configuration information, remove the existing operating system, and install a new operating system and applications.
• Upgrade: Preserve existing applications and configuration information by upgrading the existing operating system.
• Replace: Save user data from the old computer. On the new computer, install a new operating system and applications and restore the saved user data.

This Beta release of BDD 2007 currently supports deployment of Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system Beta releases. Release versions of BDD 2007 will add support for Windows XP and share common tools with Windows Vista across both x86 and x64 platforms. Included tools and documentation are not feature complete and we strongly recommend following the release notes to get started. Zero Touch features will be available for the SMS 2003 OS Deployment Feature Pack Update to enable hands-free deployment of Windows Vista and 2007 Microsoft Office system desktops.

Where to Find the Solution

• BDD 2007 Beta 1 is part of the Windows Vista Tech Beta and TAP programs. It is also available as an open beta download. Visit http://connect.microsoft.com and apply for the Business Desktop Deployment 2007 (Beta) for Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system program.
• The Beta documentation will be available soon on Microsoft TechNet.

Please send your comments and feedback to cisfdbk@microsoft.com

Last month I presented some of the new Vista WinPE features at Techready 2 at the Seattle Convention Center on Jan. 10-11. Techready 2 is a Microsoft internal conference designed to get our employees, partners, and field sales reps up to speed on our new products.

It turns out that they booked a room to hold ~300 attendees for my session...but apparently this wasn't big enough! We had to present a second session to another packed house!

The highlight of the session was our first public annoucement that WinPE is now available to everyone...needless to say there was some applause here!

Looks like the buzz is getting out!

A blurry full house

Manu, our marketing guy...err product manager talkin' it up

- Andy

This blog, created by the WinPE product group, is the first step in an effort to help unite the existing WinPE community, and introduce people to WinPE who haven't used it.

Windows PE (Preinstallation Environment) is Microsoft's core deployment, diagnostics, and recovery technology. That's marketing speak. In technical speak, it's a special purpose, small-footprint operating system built from Windows components. It's about 100MB in a compressed image. It has Win32, scripting and networking support among many other features. You can boot it from a CD, a network (via a PXE server, preferably WDS), a hard disk, or a USB key.

For example, you can use WinPE to:

- Install Windows automatically

- Boot into a command prompt and fix your computer

- Run hardware diagnostics applications

Prior to Windows Vista, customers needed to have an SA (Software Assurance), OEM, or ISV license to obtain WinPE. However with Vista, these licensing restrictions are removed, and now everyone will have access to WinPE! We're very excited about the opportunity to help make installing and managing Windows applications easier for everyone.

We also have a host of exciting new features coming in the pipline, and we hope to get feedback from you! Ask lots of questions and post a lot! Stay tuned for more!

- Andy Zeigler, PM

- Richard Russo, Dev

- Layek Ali, Test