Does the 32 bit version actually work on 64 bit PE without the WOW64?

 

I don't think so.  I suppose that I could update the script to copy the 64-bit version of UltraDefrag,  Unfortunately they are packaged separately, so I would have to change the source directory layout to put both versions under the same direcotry.

File Name: UltraDefrag
File Submitter: Erik_FL
File Submitted: 13 Mar 2017
File Updated: 24 May 2017
File Category: App scripts

Script for Winbuilder 082 to add the UltraDefrag disk defragmenter.

The 32-bit version is used for both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows PE, since it is compatible with both. Download the required 32-bit portable files from Source Forge.

Click here to download this file

File Name: Paragon-HDM15
File Submitter: Erik_FL
File Submitted: 13 Mar 2017
File Updated: 24 May 2017
File Category: App scripts

Script for Winbuilder 082 to add Paragon Hard Disk Manager 15 Professional. Requires files from Paragon HDM 15 Recovery Media. Create the Paragon Recovery Boot Media first, using their Boot Media Builder. Then copy the files from the Paragon Software folder in the resulting ISO image to a folder.

Please note that there is a bug in the full scale launcher where it loads the boot configuration data hive into the registry and then complains that the boot disk (usually C) is locked. I provided a batch file to unload the boot configuration data registry hive. The batch file must be used AFTER starting the full scale launcher for the partition manager. The batch file may be used without harm any time that the program complains about not having exclusive access to a disk drive. If I find a batter work around I will update the project script.

The hotcore driver is included, although that driver should not be required in most cases. Your Windows PE should include the Volume Shadow Service, and you will probably not back up the ram drive running the PE OS. Also, you must still have exclusive access to restore a partition. VSS and hotcore are only useful to back up in-use partitions.

The Universal Image Mounter that mounts a virtual disk as a drive letter is not supported in the Windows PE environment. It is possible to mount virtual disk images within the program but not as a normal Windows disk drive letter. Use the file transfer wizard rather than Windows Explorer to transfer files out of a virtual disk image.

Finaly, I want to express my thanks to Arvy who created the script for Hard Disk Manager 12, that I used as a basis for creating this script.

Click here to download this file

Here is a link that explains how to replace the CMOS battery.  Unfortunately you have to disassemble the laptop a lot to do that.

 

http://replies.guru/...id54KZKdnBQMcVU

My laptop recently started freezing on boot when i leave it a longer time powered off. For example, if i turn it off in the evening and power it on in the morning it never boots from the first time. It freezes before the bios screen appear and i have to power it off and turn it on again. And sometimes it boots successfully from the third or forth time.
But if i power off the laptop and after few minutes turn it on it boots normally. So, the problem happens if i leave the laptop a longer time powered off.
What does it mean? Is it a problem with the bios or some hardware part is failing, maybe the hard disk?

 

Check to see if your laptop has a small coin sized battery inside for the clock and CMOS (settings storage).  I have seen the symptom you have when the CMOS battery is going bad.  With power off overnight the battery discharges enough to lose the CMOS settings.  When you leave power on for a while the battery has a chance to recover (it is not used when power is on).  On some laptops you have to open a door on the bottom or fold the keyboard up to access the battery.  Check online for information about your laptop and CMOS battery replacement.  This is very likely to be your problem if the laptop is old.

 

Here are a few other things that can cause the computer startup to hang during Power-On Self Test (POST).

 

The hard disk may be going bad.  The BIOS may have a hard disk time-out (30 seconds or more).  Try waiting a long time (a minute or more) when the computer appears to hang.  If the computer eventually gets through the BIOS then you will probably get some kind of disk error instead of the normal boot loading.  You can set the hard disk-time out to be lower (10 seconds) or use software to look at the SMART failure data from the hard disk.

 

The SODIMM modules (memory) may be plugged into sockets.  Make sure that the memory modules are seated securely and the contacts are not dirty.  You can temporarily remove the memory modules to check the contacts.  Remove the laptop battery before removing the memory modules.  You may also be able to run the computer with one half of the memory modules installed.  That will tell you if the memory is failing.  After using the laptop for a while switch memory modules with the other half you removed.  If the laptop behaves differently then the memory could be failing.

 

Computer keyboards sometimes fail with a stuck key.  That can cause the BIOS to hang.  Troubleshooting this is difficult because you may have to temporarily disconnect the keyboard, leave the computer off overnight and then try to boot without the keyboard.  You should get a keyboard error instead of a BIOS hang.  Disconnecting the keyboard is difficult because you have to partly disassemble the laptop.

 

Graphics chips in laptops go bad because of excessive heat.  If your laptop has a separate nVidia or AMD/ATI graphics chip it could be failing.  In that case you may eventually see graphics problems during normal use.  Sometimes chips become temperature sensitive and stop working when they are at room temperature.  After applying power for a while they warm up enough to start working.

 

The main-board could have bad solder connections or a broken foil trace that goes bad when the laptop is completely cold.  Usually this kind of problem happens when the laptop is hot or you tap or flex the laptop case.  Still this kind of problem could cause the symptom that you see.

 

If you have anything plugged into USB ports or other connectors on the laptop, disconnect those.  Your BIOS startup could be waiting for a USB device, network boot, or some other external device.

 

When your laptop hangs, try pressing Ctrl Alt Del.  If that resets the laptop then the BIOS is probably waiting for something.  If that does not work then the BIOS is not running because the hardware stopped working.

File Name: Windows Automated Installation Kit Tools Script
File Submitter: Erik_FL
File Submitted: 03 Oct 2015
File Updated: 03 Oct 2015
File Category: App scripts

This is a script to add the Windows Automated Installation Kit tools to Win7PE_SE.
The PATH variable is updated so that you can run the tools from the command prompt. This will allow you to use DISM and IMAGEX plus other WAIK tools.
You must download the WAIK files (not included). Specify the path to the WAIK files.

Click here to download this file

File Name: WinHlp32
File Submitter: Erik_FL
File Submitted: 03 Oct 2015
File Updated: 24 May 2017
File Category: App scripts

Microsoft Windows XP Help (.hlp) viewer.
This is the Windows XP version that should work with most .hlp files.
This version has NO security restrictions and is vulnerable to exploits!
Do not use to view remote content, web pages or untrusted .hlp files.

Click here to download this file

File Name: Disk Probe
File Submitter: Erik_FL
File Submitted: 03 Oct 2015
File Updated: 24 May 2017
File Category: App scripts

Disk Probe allows you to view and modify hard disk or file sectors. It is from the Microsoft NT Resource Kit.
The program can edit physical disks, Logical Volumes (partitions) and files.
Data can be displayed in hexadecimal, ASCII and as decoded MBR, NTFS or FAT boot sectors.
If you want to display the help file you need WinHlp32.exe.

Click here to download this file

I forgot to mention one other imporant Linux issue.  There are basically three graphic adapter suppliers, nVidia, AMD/ATI and Intel.  The open source drivers for these adapters are very limited.  So it is almost required to install the third-party drivers from one of these manuafturers.  What they decide to do with their graphics hardware and drivers will largely impact Linux distros.  Right now that mostly limits what versions of kernel and X-Windows can be used.  If you have older hardware you need older Linux distro versions.  Newer versions of graphics drivers also don't support older hardware.  So, this is creating much the same environment as Windows, where driver availability forces hardware and software upgrades.

 

Microsoft's decision to layer OpenGL on top of DirectX instead of keeping the side-by-side OpenGL drivers also hurt Linux. It demoted OpenGL to become just another of the many available graphical APIs.  Software developers responded by pretty much abandoning OpenGL for any new Windows applications.  So, almost all high-performance graphical applications use DirectX.  That shuts out Linux unless it emulates the modern versions of DirectX.

 

KDE has been a good example of what happens when trying to use more advanced graphics capabilities on Linux.  It's a compatibility nightmare.

i wonder if 32bit cpu are still made for pcs..? beside that why wanting some remote solution if he travels and have shops ..?

plus working remotely means no money right after working...

post links of your businesses , website ...that should help to help...

 

Yes, unfortunately.  There are two reasons why 32-bit CPUs are still around.  One is the cost.  The other is the power requirements (and heat).  You are less likely to see 32-bit CPUs in desktops than laptops and embedded devices (media servers, tiny PCs, etc.)

 

Really, there wasn't a big need for 64-bit software.  Mostly that was a marketing driven change because Microsoft chose not to fully support Physical Address Extension in 32-bit versions of Windows.  Linux supports that to allow 32-bit software to access 64 GB of RAM instead of 4 GB. Intel also was not making 32-bit chipsets that supported over 4 GB of RAM because of marketing reasons.  So, AMD caught them both asleep at the switch and released a 64-bit X86 compatible CPU (another marketing decision). Intel and Microsoft both really wanted to keep 64-bit on server versions of hardware and software (to charge more of course).

 

Back to the topic.  Keep the hardware as standard as possible.  It may pay to replace or upgrade some machines.  UEFI has it's problems but it has a lot more support for doing things when there is no OS.  UEFI is sort of a minimal OS by itself.  I haven't looked, but it is possible that companies have developed UEFI applications to do some of the things that you want.

I agreee that Linux distributions are a good thing and a useful resource for everyone.  But let's also look at some of the problems that are hurting Linux.

 

The desktop environments of Linux have fractured into many opposing standards with their own incompatible APIs.  GNOME is now more than one GNOME, although many programs still work well with that or other desktop environments.  KDE has become very complex and is in danger of being too dependent on "systemd" and other monolithic software. Unity is another competing desktop and the popularity of Ubuntu makes it hard to ignore. As a Linux user I find it frustrating because programs require different desktop environments and libraries.  It's hard to figure out what Linux distro to choose.  I've been using Slackware for a long time but KDE is too complicated and XFCE does not provide enough applications to be useful.  As a programmer it is even harder to decide which desktop environment to use if I want to write an application.  As bad as Microsoft is with their constant redefinition of the APIs and development tools, they support backward compatibility nearly forever.  Of course that adds to the bloat   But, I can still write applicatoins with Windows 2000 era tools and MFC and they will run on Windows 10.  Try that with old Linux applications and you find that things have changed a lot.

 

The other problem with free open source software is what I call "abandonware".  Sure, you can find a thing like "dmraid" to support RAID controllers other than Intel's.  However, when you look closely it is outdated, not being maintained, and no new RAID controllers are being added.  The "replacement" called "mdadm" only supports Intel's RAID and has no provision for any users to add on their own metadata even if they can figure out what is needed.  There is a lot of software available to run on Linux that is basically so outdated that it is (or will soon be useless).

 

It's not all bad, of course.  Look at GRUB.  I do like the legacy GRUB better for my older systems.  But, I have to admit that GRUB was redesigned well to address the new boot requirements and provide flexibility for adding new functionality.  It's a bit complicated, although I'm not sure how that can be avoided with today's array of different boot environments.

 

Every Linux distro uses a different approach to package management.  That makes it hard to avoid rebuilding everything from source.  The biggest problem IMHO is drivers for hardware.  Since every distro uses different versions of the kernel and differnt ways of updating software, there is no way to release a binary file for a driver that will generally work on most Linux distros.  Hardware and software companies do not like releasing source, and that is a reality.  So, one may have to choose their Linux distro based on what the hardware supplier supports.  As hardware diverges further from the old "IBM PC compatible" unwritten standard, custom drivers are required for much more of the hardware.

 

Finally we have things like Systemd that are very corporatized software projects that give single organizations too much control of what goes into Linux distros.  Even if the software is all well written software with enough flexibility to meet the needs of most distros, it invites all of the problems of monopolistic environments. We need well defined open standards for a lot of people to develop smaller, more independent packages, not proprietary mega-packages.  One reason that I use Slackware is that I can choose how I want the system to be initialized and what services and libraries to use.

 

I'm not too optimistic about alternate Windows compatible operating systems.  So far WINE is the most capable and it still isn't very good at running many applications.  For example, I can't run recent Quicken versions, nor can I run my older Eudora (for Windows) email client.  Maybe, I'm not good at tweaking the settings, but I usually end up with weird looking fonts, windows that don't repaint properly or go transparent and other strange incompatibilities.  Of course it's Microsoft's fault (in part) but that's what one has to deal with to make something Windows compatible.

 

So, where do we go from here?  I think LInux distros need to cooperate and agree on some standards that will make applications more compatible with more distros.  There will still be plenty of room for innovation even with standards in place.  If the distros don't define standards, then large developers will define the standards to suit their goals.  Unfortunately, defining a standard is almost a guarantee that Microsoft will do something different.  I think .NET and MONO are a good example of how a well adopted standard causes Microsoft to do something else to shut out the competition.

 

If I sound like I'm a Linux hater, I'm really not.  I use Linux.  I like Linux.  Linux does lots of things for me that I can't do with Windows.  I want Linux to stay around and get even better.  That will only happen if the problems are dealt with.  If I'm lucky I'll get to retire soon and can become on of those free software developers.

If you haven't read this Microsoft tutorial, then start there.
https://technet.micr...4(v=ws.10).aspx
NOTE: One thing missing from the tutorial is to add the locale setting in the boot configuration if you want the fancy boot splash screen. Also, if you copy the boot configuration from the DVD you may want to disable the "Emergency Management Services (EMS)" in the boot configuration.

 

Windows PE still assigns drive X: to the boot volume even when running from a hard disk. Drive C: is usually assigned to the first primary partition that is not Windows PE. You can change the drive letter by editing values for the registry key "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices".  However you also have to change all the shortcuts and other registry settings that use "X:".  If some things that you want to use require a drive C: then you may want to create a C: mount point that is aliased to X:.

 

Under the "Build" folder in the project settings, make sure that you have check marked the "Run all programs from RAM" setting and you DO want to select the option for Build Model "In RAM". You want all the programs copied into the BOOT.WIM "RAM" image even though you will be extracting that to a hard disk partition.  The "In RAM" setting really means "in the BOOT.WIM image".

 

Building with any option other than "In RAM" splits up the files between the ISO filesystem on the DVD/CD and the BOOT.WIM image. You don't want to do that.  The only reason to not use "In RAM" is if you need to run some files directly from the DVD/CD. Usually that is because there is not enough RAM to load the RAM disk image.  You then have to leave the DVD/CD in while running the system and avoid using programs that might eject the DVD/CD.  NOTE: You can still extract a huge BOOT.WIM ram disk image to the hard disk even if you can't boot the RAM disk image beceause of RAM limitations.

 

Assuming that you build everything in RAM you only need the X: drive letter assigned (done automatically by Windows PE).  If you build some programs to run from the DVD/CD (not In RAM) then you might need a drive Y: pointing to those files.  You can copy the drive Y: files to the hard disk from the ISO filesystem of the disc.  Just make sure to clear the read-only attribute. Windows treats "System" and "Read Only" flags for folders as "customized folder" flags.  I'm not sure what you have to change to assign drive Y: to a hard disk instead of the DVD/CD.

 

Make sure that you have a driver for your hard disk controller installed in Windows PE. You might not if you are booting some other DVD/CD to copy the BOOT.WIM files to the hard disk.

 

Please post more information about exactly where the system crashes and what messages are displayed.

 

I ran into another intermittent problem trying to use Windows 7 PE with the Paragon Hard Disk Manager 12 software.

Sometimes drive C: is in use and cannot be dismounted even though I have not booted from disk C. I found out the problem is because the BCD registry hive is loaded by the Paragon software, and then it never unloads the hive.

The only solution that I've found is to use the registry editor to manually unload the "HKLM\BCD00000000" registry hive while the Paragon software is running. Unloading the hive before running the software has no effect, since the Paragon software loads the hive again when it starts.

 

It turns out that part of the above problem is because Paragon uses a different version of their software for the boot discs than the normal windows application.  I had to copy "explauncher.exe" from the boot disc to the files used for building my Windows PE disc. Then the program does not load the BCD registry hive.  I still have a problem because Windows PE accesses drive C and keeps it mounted.  I have to use "chkdsk /f /x c:" before I can back up drive C:.  If anyone has a suggestion about what services or options to disable in the Win7 PE build to avoid accessing drive C, I would appreciate them.

 

I'm trying to decide if I should upgrade to Paragon HDM 15 but so far I've had terrible problems building custom boot CDs with Paragon's software.  Their standard boot disc usually works, but it has all sorts of modified files and tricks to make their software work with Windows PE.  Building your own boot disc is just asking for trouble.  The disc may work one day and then it won't work the next time doing something slightly different.

 

I have better results building with Windows XP PE and the GPT loader plus hotcore3 driver.  I guess it's because Windows XP mostly leaves drive C alone. I still haven't gotten VSS to work but hotcore3 works fine and I usually don't need it because drive C can be unmounted.

I ran into another intermittent problem trying to use Windows 7 PE with the Paragon Hard Disk Manager 12 software.

Sometimes drive C: is in use and cannot be dismounted even though I have not booted from disk C. I found out the problem is because the BCD registry hive is loaded by the Paragon software, and then it never unloads the hive.

The only solution that I've found is to use the registry editor to manually unload the "HKLM\BCD00000000" registry hive while the Paragon software is running. Unloading the hive before running the software has no effect, since the Paragon software loads the hive again when it starts.

PAR.7Z is for Eric.

Thanks. I'm looking at the files and comparing them to what I have. One difference that I've noticied is my help files are here.

programresourcehtmlHelp

The main help file is this one.

HDM12ProHelpe.htm

The contents of the above file are what display when I click the help tab in the advanced mode of the program. Instead of running the JavaScript in that file it just displays the file as text and seems to ignore the HTML and JavaScript tags.

I noticed that your "layout.ini" and mine both have this setting.

HELP_FILE_NAME = ""

Are you creating your Windows PE system using the Paragon Boot Media Builder? I am not using the Boot Media Builder. If I use the Paragon Boot Media Builder then I have no problems. It is only when using BartPE or WinBuilder that I have problems.

Also, if you are using Paragon's Boot Media Builder, how are you customizing it? It looks like you have a custom "ExpLauncher.ini" file.

https://skydrive.liv...789320E3247!320

new.7z

Thanks for the information. I am particularly interested in the contents of the "ini" files and "xml" files for the Paragon Software. Would you be willing to post them or provide downloads of those files?

The help problem is strange, because the help tab in the program is not running the JavaScript. It seems like it can't find the JavaScript interpreter or some part of QT that handles the scripting. I've tried moving DLLs around and editing the various INI or XML files. So far only removing the "MiniNT" registry key fixes the problem. I'm using Paragon Hard Disk Manager 12 Professional. I also get the same results using a copy of the files from the Paragon supplied boot DVD. I can't tell if the boot DVD has "MiniNT" defined or not, since I can't run a command prompt or any other programs.

Paragon is actually who told me to delete the "MiniNT" registry key. When version HDM 2010 PRO came out they told me to delete that key when I could not get the program to run (it just would hang). I later found out that I could use the "Dont_Eject" parameter and work around the program hang. The program hang is caused by the fact that Paragon's software does a CD eject if "MiniNT" is defined. If I run the programs from the boot CD, then the CD ejects while the program is loading and the program hangs. Adding "Dont_Eject" as a parameter to "launcher.exe" solves the hang problem. After that I also noticed the help would not work unless I removed the "MiniNT" key.

I'm thinking that the "MiniNT" key changes some default paths for files in Paragon's software. The trouble is that there are a lot of empty or missing parameters in the INI and XML files. The files are not documented by Paragon. I've discovered some of them by looking at files on the Paragon boot DVD. Others have been posted by people, though I don't know where they found the information.

If you have a Windows PE system it should normally have "MiniNT" defined. That key is defined because of a boot manager parameter "/minint". Among other things, having the "MiniNT" key makes the SYSTEM registry hive temporary. Changes to the SYSTEM hive are not saved when "MiniNT" is defined during booting.

How Paragon's sofware uses "MiniNT" is a mystery to me. Surely Microsoft did not intend programs to test for "MiniNT" to be absent on a Windows PE system. If anything, programs should expect MiniNT to be defined in Windows PE. This doesn't appear to be an intentional attempt by Paragon to cripple their software on Windows PE, because it behaves too inconsistently. It doesn't cripple major features of the program and seems to work differently on different Paragon software.

I guess I should mention that most of my testing has been done on Windows XP PE. I am just starting to use Windows 7 PE. Some of my computers have only 512MB of RAM. Also, I have not figured out how to install a Windows 7 PE system to the hard disk unless it boots from RAM. Most of my computers don't have enough RAM to boot from a RAM disk. I am looking for a batch file or some other way to install Windows 7 PE (files) to a hard disk partition.

The Paragon software may work better if you delete this registry key.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\system\currentcontrolset\control\minint

You can test that by deleting the key using the registry editor before you start the program.

I created a batch file to delete the registry key and launch the program. Put the batch file in the "program" foldeer with "launcher.exe".

@ECHO OFF
reg delete hklm\system\currentcontrolset\control\minint /f
start /min launcher.exe %1
REM reg add hklm\system\currentcontrolset\control\MiniNT /ve
exit

So far as I can tell, Paragon has made changes to the program to run in a Windows PE environment, but then later decided not to use those changes. So, if the "MiniNt" registry key is defined, the program does not work correctly. I believe that Paragon's own boot CD deletes that registry key.

You may also have better results running the entire program from a RAM disk. If you're using WinBuilder, select the options to boot from RAM disk, and to put all programs in RAM disk. There are a number of "INI" files that you can edit to change things such as log file paths, but unfortunately they are un-documented.

I have purchased the "professional" version of the Hard Disk Manager many times, and am getting frustrated because each new version works worse on Windows PE. Paragon has provided no support for Windows PE and very little support for other problems.

I am still using the 2010 version of the software. It provides a lot more details about what the program is doing, transfer rates, progress and compression. All of that was removed in the 2011 and 2012 versions because it was sometimes incorrect. You may want to try the software from 2010 to see if it works better for you.

The second help problem that I found is that the Express Launcher help does not work.

I had to add a line to "ExpLauncher.ini"

HelpFile=.\..\html\Help.chm
HelpContentHide=0
HelpViewer=chmview.exe
UseEjectCD=1

Unfortunately that only fixes the help in the Express Launcher. In the advanced mode, you must still delete the "MiniNt" registry key to get the help to work.

Batch file to run program.

@ECHO OFF
reg delete hklm\system\currentcontrolset\control\minint /f
start /min %SystemDrive%\Programs\HDM12\Program\launcher.exe %1
REM reg add hklm\system\currentcontrolset\control\MiniNT /ve
exit

You must pass the "Dont_Eject" parameter to the batch file, just like when running the EXE file directly.

X:\Programs\HDM12\HDM12.bat Dont_Eject

I found out that the help problem is another strange side effect of the "MiniNT" registry key. If I delete the "MiniNT" registry key then the help works. Paragon's official boot DVD may delete the "MiniNT" registry key. It is difficult to tell since that is a completely captive system. One can't access the command prompt.

So, I'm back to the messy batch file solution that deletes the "MiniNT" registry key before starting the program. So far that is the only way that I've gotten the program to mostly work correctly on Windows PE.

This is a bit off topic, but I'm wondering if any of you are able to use the help in the Paragon software. I only see a script of some kind on the "Help" tab, rather than the help index. I think I may have gotten it to work with earlier versions, but I don't remenber what I did exactly. It might require Windows Scripting Host or some other scripting language.

Also, Paragon has removed the detailed progress information. I was hoping to find that in the logs, but apparently the log function is not working with WinPE either.

Any suggestions or information will be appreciated.

Paragon have officially announced that they will no longer provide a Windows PE boot disc for the product. They do provide some kind of batch file for use with WAIK, but I haven't tried it to see how well it works. There is a PDF document available from Paragon that describes how to build the disc using WAIK. In the long run this might be good for those of us who build our own. Perhaps the configuration details will be better documented by Paragon.

Somehow the 2% was changed to 3%, now changed back to the correct 2% as below...

If,%pCheckBox2%,Equal,True,Add_Shortcut,Desktop,,,,,"Dont_Eject","%PE_Programs%\%ProgramFolder%\%ProgramICO%"

ALL Working now.

That was my fault

I am using a slightly different script than you, so my checkbox is numbered 3. Your checkbox is numbered 2. I'm glad that you got it working.

Add the "Dont_Eject" parameter before the comma just before the icon path. Do not add or delete any commas.

Add_Shortcut,StartMenu,%pTextBox1%,,,,"Dont_Eject","%PE_Programs%%ProgramFolder%%ProgramICO%"
If,%pCheckBox3%,Equal,True,Add_Shortcut,Desktop,,,,,"Dont_Eject","%PE_Programs%%ProgramFolder%%ProgramICO%"

You also have to change the file "programExpLauncher.ini", or copy that file from the Paragon boot CD. It has a modified version of the file.

Name_6=Open Advanced Interface
Hint_6=Advanced partitioning and hard disk management
Execute_6=".launcher.exe"
Params_6="Dont_Eject"
Visible_6=0
Href_6=1
Iconpath_6=launcher_small.png
After_execute_6=Switch

I found out why I'm having a problem with Paragon Hard Disk Manager 12 Professional, and found a better solution.

The problem is because Paragon Hard Disk Manager 12 Professional ejects the CD from the drive when the "MiniNT" key is defined in the registry. That causes a problem because the program is being loaded from the CD ROM (in my case).

The solution to the problem is to add a command line option when running "launcher.exe" or "explauncher.exe".

For example:
launcher.exe Dont_Eject
explauncher.exe Dont_Eject

I also found that Paragon's express launcher menu has the same problem and does not use the "Dont_Eject" parameter.
I modified the menu file for the express launcher, "programExpLauncher.ini".

Change these lines.
Name_6=Open Advanced Interface
Hint_6=Advanced partitioning and hard disk management
Execute_6=".launcher.exe"
Visible_6=0
Href_6=1
Iconpath_6=launcher_small.png
After_execute_6=Switch

Change to this.

Name_6=Open Advanced Interface
Hint_6=Advanced partitioning and hard disk management
Execute_6=".launcher.exe"
Params_6="Dont_Eject"
Visible_6=0
Href_6=1
Iconpath_6=launcher_small.png
After_execute_6=Switch

The only script change that I made was to the shortcuts.
Add_Shortcut,StartMenu,%pTextBox1%,,,,"Dont_Eject","%PE_Programs%%ProgramFolder%%ProgramICO%"
If,%pCheckBox3%,Equal,True,Add_Shortcut,Desktop,,,,,"Dont_Eject","%PE_Programs%%ProgramFolder%%ProgramICO%"

I added the "Dont_Eject" option to the shortcuts.
This solution works for me with Windows 7 PE 32-bit and Windows 7 PE 64-bit.

Arvy, perhaps adding the "Dont_Eject" option will not cause any problem with other versions of the Paragon software. It seems to be necessary when loading the program directly from the CD-ROM. You may want to consider adding it to the script. I think that the Paragon software assumes a "MiniNT" system will be running from RAM and defaults to ejecting the CD on launching of the software. Depending on how fast the CD is ejected it may cause the program to hang.

All users of Paragon products should also be aware that they have recently announced termination of their redistribution agreement with Microsoft for their own pre-packaged WinPE "rescue and recovery" package. Apparently they'll be providing some kind of WinPE self-building alternative in the future (presumably requiring a full WAIK download by the user) but the details remain somewhat unclear at this point. See this thread in the Wilder Security forums.

I certainly hope that Paragon will do better at answering questions from their paying customers trying to build their own Windows PE systems. This is also an unfortunate decision because newer hard disks will require using at least Windows 7 PE to support the 4K sector size. I would happily continue using my Windows XP PE system except for that reason. Sometimes I feel a bit foolish for buying the software when I get better help from people outside of Paragon.

FIrst, thank you Arvy for all your hard work on developing a script for Paragon HDM 12.

I am using a slightly different version of software, called Paragon Hard Disk Manager 12 Professional. Unfortunately, because I purchased that version, Paragon does not easily support running in Windows PE. I ran into two problems using the script that you posted.

Here are the two problems.

• The software will not start up unless I delete the following registry key.
  hklmsystemcurrentcontrolsetcontrolminint
• The software will only run on a 32-bit x86 version of Windows PE and not a 64-bit x64 version.

If you attempt to run Paragon Hard Disk Manager 12 Professional with the registry key defined, or on 64-bit it will hang, and also usually hangs the Windows desktop (explorer).

This is actually not something new. I have the same problems trying to run versions 11 and 2010 of the "professional" version with Windows PE. I have been using Windows XP PE, but I observed the same problems trying to run on Windows 7 PE.

To work around the problems I start the software using a batch file.

@ECHO OFF
reg delete hklmsystemcurrentcontrolsetcontrolminint /f
start /min %SystemDrive%ProgramsHDM12Programlauncher.exe
REM reg add hklmsystemcurrentcontrolsetcontrolMiniNT /ve
exit

Your WinBuilder script is very helpful, since I have never used WinBuilder before and have not written any scripts for it. I am going to work on modifying the script to work with the "professional" version of Hard Disk Manager 12. I posted something here, not as a criticism, but hopefully to help others who have purchased the software. The features for the purchased version of the software state that it supports Windows PE, but I have not been able to get any help from Paragon to make that work (other than their locked down boot disc that comes with the software).