19 replies to this topic

[Haiphong]

Hello Everybody,

First, Congratulations for "VistaPE 012". It works very fine for me !!! I have a question about "Boot.wim" ?

1) How can I expand "Boot.wim"
2) How to insert missing files in it ? For sample, missing ".dll" used by some Portable Programs !!!
3) How to compress it after Modifications as New "Boot.wim" ?

What Program have I to use ? And what are the Syntax ?

Thanks very much for your help.

See you soon !!!

[Arvy]

Extracting files from a WIM image is easy. You can do that much with 7zip. But, if you want to work with and customize your own, you really need something like IMAGEX that is included in the Microsoft WAIK package. You can even get a GUI for it if you want one here.

MS TechNet (or just Google) will give you more than you ever wanted to know about WIM and IMAGEX. Good starting place here.

[Haiphong]

Extracting files from a WIM image is easy. You can do that much with 7zip. But, if you want to work with and customize your own, you really need something like IMAGEX that is included in the Microsoft WAIK package. You can even get a GUI for it if you want one here.

MS TechNet (or just Google) will give you more than you ever wanted to know about WIM and IMAGEX. Good starting place here.

Hello Arvy,

1) Extract "Boot.wim" with 7-Zip ==> Well, it work.
2) But can I create new "Boot.wim" with "7-zip" or Have I to do with "GImageX"

Also, can I extract "Boot.wim" with "GImageX"

I'm not familiar with "GImageX". I do a try, but I can't open my new "Boot.wim" with "7-zip".
It seem not to work !!!

Thanks for your help.

[Arvy]

As noted above, for mounting and working with your own WIM customizations (other than merely extracting files), you need IMAGEX which is a part of the Microsoft Windows AIK package. The GUI (graphical user interface) is just an optional addon.

There are alternatives, but IMAGEX is probably the best documented for starting with and I don't want to add unnessary confusion. It was probably a mistake to mention 7zip. But, since I did, you can use it by right-clicking the .WIM file and selecting Open Archive from the 7zip context menu. Either that, or run the 7zip application, select the .WIM file in its file manager, and select Open from the file menu.

[allanf]

...
1) Extract "Boot.wim" with 7-Zip ==> Well, it work.
2) But can I create new "Boot.wim" with "7-zip" or Have I to do with "GImageX"

Hi Haiphong,

1. Why don't you simply use a filecopy line in your App script?

FileCopy,&#34;<path to your dll>&#34;,&#34;%TargetDir%\Windows\system32&#34;

It runs while VistaPE is building, and the dll file will go to final VistaPE 'boot.wim'.

2. If you need to make permanent changes to the 'boot.wim' in your Vista Source, you can use GImageX to '/mountrw' your Vista Source 'boot.wim' (I think that the default Image Index/'container' number used by VistaPE is '2'?), then use 'unmount /commit' to save changes.

Problem is, VistaPE may not copy the new dll file in Vista Source 'boot.wim' to the %TargetDir% => final VistaPE 'boot.wim'. Again, a new filecopy line in Script is needed!

3. To directly add the dll file to the final VistaPE 'boot.wim', you need to stop VistaPE building before create ISO and later Scripts. Then locate the final VistaPE 'boot.wim' (not sure where. Temp/ or /ISO or ?/), then use GImageX like above, then run make ISO and later Scripts.

Easiest by far is Option 1. VistaPE does all the work to uncompress/mount and commit/capture. BTW, I haven't tried Option 3.

Good Luck

[Haiphong]

Hello Arvy and AllanF,

Thanks for your Help !!! I bilieve that I understand how to do !!!

Thanks again !!!

[Brito]

All solutions above are excellent.

Maybe worth mentioning another tool: WimUtil - since it already comes included on the tools folder inside VistaPE

Direct download link from the beta version: http://vistape.net/b...ols/WimUtil.exe


Double click the exe to find the Command line parameters - also advice to run wimutil from a command prompt with raised privileges.

[Haiphong]

All solutions above are excellent.

Maybe worth mentioning another tool: WimUtil - since it already comes included on the tools folder inside VistaPE

Direct download link from the beta version: http://vistape.net/b...ols/WimUtil.exe


Double click the exe to find the Command line parameters - also advice to run wimutil from a command prompt with raised privileges.

Hello Nuno Brito,

I don't understand how to use this Program !!! I do a try, but it's a disaster !!! Can you give me a sample for VistaPE 012 "Boot.wim". I want :

1) Open an existing "Boot.wim"
2) Extract the contents of this
3) Insert some missing ".Dll", ".Sys", ".Inf", ".exe" and others
4) Then finally after all this modifications, compress this extract contents in a New "Boot.wim"

Thanks for your help !!!

[Brito]

It's simple once you know your way around the command line.

Let's say you are trying to mount boot.wim and you have boot.wim and wimutil.exe on the same folder.

You'd use the snippet below to load an image:

WimUtil.exe Mount boot.wim c:\Test /RW

and then unmount the image applying the changes:

WimUtil.exe UnMount c:\Test /Commit /DelPath

Do remember to do these operations as administrator with raised privileges or disable UAC.

Also took a small screenshot:

[Haiphong]

Hello Nuno Brito,

Work fine for me, as you see :


But I have this message :


After this line :

Wimutil unmount e:\test /Commit /DelPath

"ASUS EEE - Fichiers..." ==> is my modification.

Thanks for your help !!!

[allanf]

... Work fine for me...

... But I have this message :



After this line :

Wimutil unmount e:\test /Commit /DelPath

That is very good. I don't know about that error though.

@Nuno and others,

I do not see how it is possible to select the Image Index in 'boot.wim' or any other wim. 'boot.wim' contains more than one Image, so does WimUtil only mount and change the first, last, or another Image?

Maybe I can't see it because one screenshot is in Portuguese, the other in French? ...

Thanks

[risolutore]

how it'spossible to have multiple BootWIM image on the same media, for example, the one created by WinRE, the Other created by Ghost, the other created by Activeboot disk...
Is there eany chance to have them all working in multiboot? and how?

[allanf]

how it'spossible to have multiple BootWIM image ..

I mean to say that multiple images can be inside a single '.wim'.

Example: Vista's 'boot.wim' has at least two images inside - one is like 'windows pe 2.0', the other image inside also has 'setup.exe'. Only one image can be flagged as the boot image. Also, 'install.wim' has six or seven images inside - 'Vista Basic', 'Vista Home', 'Vista Business', etc ...

When mounting one Image from inside a .wim, it is necessary in imagex and other GUI Apps to specify the Image Index Number for the Image to mount. For WimUtil... ????? That is my question.

Regards

[Arvy]

@Nuno and others,
I do not see how it is possible to select the Image Index in 'boot.wim' or any other wim. 'boot.wim' contains more than one Image, so does WimUtil only mount and change the first, last, or another Image?

Both the WimUtil and IMAGEX executables accept the WIM "container" number as a parameter in their command line, but the postioning of that parameter is slightly different for each. If you examine the [MountVista-wimutil] and [MountVista-imagex] sections of the Standard-0-preconfig.script (VistaPE v.11) you will see how the respective mount commands are formulated using that script's "boot.wim container" and "install.wim container" scrollbox values.

[allanf]

...you will see how the respective command lines are formulated using that script's "boot.wim container" and "install.wim container" scrollbox values.

Yes. Thanks Arvy. I see.

I do remember earlier versions of VistaPE, where WimUtil did not specify an Image Index Number... I just had a look at v.9, and the Command for WimUtil to mount 'install.wim' was Index-less; for 'boot.wim', the Index was 2.

Looking at both Nuno's and Haiphong's screenshots, there is no Index Number. Either the 'boot.wim's that they have used contain a only a single Image, or WimUtil has a default selection. Just wondering.

[Arvy]

...
Looking at both Nuno's and Haiphong's screenshots, there is no Index Number. Either the 'boot.wim's that they have used contain a only a single Image, or WimUtil has a default selection. Just wondering.

WimUtil definitely defaults to image number one (/1). Running the executable with no parameters displays a help message that says so. Since some WIM files have only a single image, I'm quite certain that IMAGEX does the same, but can't find a quick confirmation reference offhand. The complete IMAGEX command line syntax is here.

BTW, just in case anyone wonders why I originally suggested IMAGEX, I just found it's comprehensive documentation very helpful as a newcomer myself. Nothing against WimUtil.

[allanf]

Arvy,

From testing, imagex does require an Image Index Number.



Regards

[Arvy]

I should have known. You can always count on Mickeysoft to be counterintuitive.

[allanf]

I should have known. You can always count on Mickeysoft to be counterintuitive.

Back to the topic...

I wonder if the image that Haiphong has amended is the correct one... that is, is it the boot image in 'boot.wim'? It's usually Image Number #2, I think. At least, that is the default in VistaPE.

WimUtil mount boot.wim e:\test /rw /2

[Arvy]

Bingo! You've almost certainly nailed a very likely problem.

As you say, WimUtil will mount its #1 default image unless its command line includes a different index number. But the VistaPE script, unless its preset option is changed, will mount boot.wim image #2. So modifying the wrong boot image is a very probable mistake for anyone to make.

Although I hate to take back my daily quota of "MS bashing", maybe they weren't so stupid after all in insisting on a specifed index number in all cases.