Windows VistaPE / 7 / 8

[Vicenarian]

Ok, so I built myself a custom VistaPE (http://www.vistape.net/) disc a while back that has come in really handy...but since Windows 7/8 have arrived, I haven't bothered to check if someone has come out with an equally good bootable environment based on those OSes.


So, out of curiosity, is there anything comparable (or better) than VistaPE that uses Windows 7/8 as the base OS? I'd really love to have something I could fire up from my USB drive, and then troubleshoot/work offline with.

Edit: to clarify, some type of Windows PE environment that includes Explorer, or at least another similar graphical shell

 

[BillMoney]

windows 7 would be PE 3.0 and 8 is PE 4.0.

I have seen only one PE with Win 8 so far most seem to be XP (Bart's) or 7PE as far as stuff on tpb or similar sites.

I still use Mini XP off of Hiren's for my PE environment

 

[fabs]

Hi,

I use Win7PE_SE and Win8PE_SE. They both use Windows Explorer as shell. I prefer Win8PE because of its native USB3 support.

You can find them here :
Win7PE_SE : http://w7pese.cwcodes.net/Compressed/

Win8PE_SE : http://w8pese.cwcodes.net/Compressed/index.php

Enjoy

 

[Xander]

Thanks, Fabrice.

Can anyone confirm that a Win8PE would be able to read GPT? Common sense says yes but.... that doesn't always work.

 

[DocGreen]

Pretty sure Win7PE SE does, so Win8PE should as well...

 

[fabs]

No problem with GPT hard drives so far.

Win7PE is fine with it too.

 

[PC Ops]

Thanks for sharing Fabs!
Rep added

 

[Artiste1]

Hi Fabs,

Thank you for the links, Hiren's has been my trusted rescue system.

I look forward to creating the Win 7 & 8 builds.

 

[glricht]

Just tried both Win7PE_SE and Win8PE_SE (thanks for the links Fabs!). Created the ISOs using the default options and then tried both on a Dell Dim E521 running Vista HP SP2.

Both ISOs booted up fine and I like the default interface. Both start up significantly faster than USB4WIN. Inserted a USB flash drive containing a bunch of tech tools and both OSes recognized the drive OK. So far, so good!

However, tried to run HitmanPro and it scanned PE's root drive ( X: ) and not the customer's C: drive; but it eventually crashed with a software exception before the scan finished.

Also tried ComboFix and it failed saying it wasn't in Admin mode (no change when I explicitly ran it as Administrator or via an Admin Command prompt).

AutoRuns worked fine.

Tried MBAM and it installs just fine, but like HitMan Pro, it would only scan PE's root drive ( X: ).

I hope I'm doing something wrong that's preventing the malware tools from running as needed.

 

[DocGreen]

Just tried both Win7PE_SE and Win8PE_SE (thanks for the links Fabs!). Created the ISOs using the default options and then tried both on a Dell Dim E521 running Vista HP SP2.

Both ISOs booted up fine and I like the default interface. Both start up significantly faster than USB4WIN. Inserted a USB flash drive containing a bunch of tech tools and both OSes recognized the drive OK. So far, so good!

However, tried to run HitmanPro and it scanned PE's root drive ( X: ) and not the customer's C: drive; but it eventually crashed with a software exception before the scan finished.

Also tried ComboFix and it failed saying it wasn't in Admin mode (no change when I explicitly ran it as Administrator or via an Admin Command prompt).

AutoRuns worked fine.

Tried MBAM and it installs just fine, but like HitMan Pro, it would only scan PE's root drive ( X: ).

I hope I'm doing something wrong that's preventing the malware tools from running as needed.

You have to run custom scans and specify that the programs should scan the Offline OS drive (C. Some of them will likely still scan parts of the PE to look for memory-resident viruses, etc. If you're using D7 from the PE, make sure you're working from the "Offline" tab.

 

[tf76]

I just found Make_PE3 which is much easier to build a portable OS onto a USB with apps.

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/143529-make-pe3-program-to-create-portable-windows-7-pe/

Also check out Britec09 on youtube. He made a quick tutorial on how to use.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0eslpRmznE


Regards,

 

[Easy Pc Repair]

I just found Make_PE3 which is much easier to build a portable OS onto a USB with apps.

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/143529-make-pe3-program-to-create-portable-windows-7-pe/

Also check out Britec09 on youtube. He made a quick tutorial on how to use.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0eslpRmznE


Regards,

Thanks for the tip for this. I have followed all the instructions to get this to work but can't seem to figure out a way to get any Anti- Virus scanner to work. Would you happen to know how to get this to work? I have gotten portable apps such as d7 and Fabs Autobackup to work with this method but it would be great to have a working scanner as well thank you in advance!