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Useful info for WinPEs, Wimboot and Compact installs

wimboot compact portables winpe

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#76 wimb

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Posted 30 December 2021 - 09:04 PM

Is this the Download Link for MSMG Toolkit 12 ?

 

Yes or better Official Download from MSMG Toolkit 12 as given by alacran - More Info in Compact Mode Installs

 

I think the MSG Toolkit will Offline Un-Install Windows Apps and Un-Install Windows Optional Features  :unsure: and you can Add stuff.

 

This way the install.wim and the Installation will be reduced.

 

But MSMG Toolkit on its own will not result in minimal UsedSize below 2 GB :unsure: as we know is possible for Mini-10x64.

 

MSMG Toolkit does not make use of Brute Force Reduction :unsure: as Win_Reduce is doing ....

 

But, certainly it will be nice to make comparison with the approach of MSG Toolkit and try to learn from their experience ....

 

So we can see if Online Win_Debloat is good replacement for Offline MSMG Toolkit .... More tomorrow last day of 2021 ....  :rolleyes:



#77 alacran

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Posted 30 December 2021 - 09:29 PM

This is the official page: https://msmgtoolkit.in/?i=1

 

I always have used this pack before installation, to remove all apps, of course used previous versions as this v12 was not available yet.

 

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#78 antonino61

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Posted 30 December 2021 - 09:38 PM

misinterpretation again - I would never dare think toolkit to be an alternative to our work (well, mainly urs and wimb's), but in conjunction with it, if it could spare some stress and toil. and then again, it does not take things off completely - it just takes off half or quarter. the solid work is being done by the debloater and reducer. so wimb is right again. what i did notice is that it logically takes off most of the thngs it promices to take off. but phisically, well, still a long way from the aim. i am still at pains trying to get edge off. I probably will with a run of win_reduce_trusted. as for the present version, a breakthru i did notice. I think we all agree on most, it is just a matter of wording and excitement if u look at it more closely. rather than brute force, though, it is inconsistent force that I would fear more (meaning coherence between logical and physical elimination - if I do not have internet explorer functioning, I don't want it in the registry either, probably because i am an idealist). 



#79 antonino61

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Posted 30 December 2021 - 09:50 PM

gee, all 40 something apps ... are still here - what the hell has it taken off?!?! all minuses where accepted, damn! I am taking them off now, and then win-reduce-trusted will be needed. at this point I hope that the toolkit's work has had some positive impact on registry size and congruence. Physically speaking, it has done so little. btw, but for the debloater, i would still have had my taskbar dancing.



#80 alacran

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Posted 30 January 2022 - 04:16 AM

Run Remote Regedit tool as TI from your VHD:

 

Remote Regedit is a very useful app that I have installed into my Win10XPE, this tool lets us remotelly (OFFLINE) edit the Registry of any attached VHD or offline OS (if booting from our PE). As we all know Win10XPE runs as Trusted Installer so this tool makes easier to edit even protected areas of the Offline Registry.

 

Well, I was missing this feature in my Mini-10 VHDs until today that I found the way to integrate it into my My Mini-10 VHDs, and also be able to run it as Trusted Installer.

 

Attached Remote_Regedit.7z file, Password = alacran

 

This is the content of the included README_FIRST.txt

Spoiler

 

Credits:

Paraglider for his RunScanner2 program (the base program to run Remote Regedit)
ChrisR for his RunScanner2_XPE and RunScanner2_XPE_File Scripts for Win10XPE.

 

Hope this can be useful for some users.

 

EDIT: Added a new TI link, added new Remove_Remote_Regedit.reg, edited README_FIRST.txt file to include changes, and Remote_Regedit.reg was edited trying to make it more compatible with Win_Reduce_Trusted program made by wimb.

 

@ wimb

 

This seems to me as a good candidate to be added to your Win_Debloat and/or Win_Reduce_Trusted programs as Remote Regedit is a great tool.

 

alacran

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#81 wimb

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Posted 30 January 2022 - 09:08 AM

 

This seems to me as a good candidate to be added to your Win_Debloat and/or Win_Reduce_Trusted programs as Remote Regedit is a great tool.

 

 

Remote Regedit is indeed a Great Tool  :)  that deserves to be integrated in Win_Reduce_Trusted

 

Thanks for sharing your development of Remote Regedit as Tool for Mini-10x64.vhd - It works great as you can see in attachment.

 

Attached File  Remote_Regedit_2022-01-30_095530.jpg   93.55KB   0 downloads


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#82 alacran

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Posted 31 January 2022 - 08:14 AM

JFYI

 

Post No. 80 was updated.

 

Run Remote Regedit tool as TI from your VHD:

 

EDIT: Added a new TI link, added new Remove_Remote_Regedit.reg, edited README_FIRST.txt file to include changes, and Remote_Regedit.reg was edited trying to make it more compatible with Win_Reduce_Trusted program made by wimb.

 

alacran



#83 wimb

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Posted 31 January 2022 - 08:34 AM

Post No. 80 was updated.

 

 

Thanks and OK, I will implement the changes



#84 alacran

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Posted 07 February 2022 - 05:32 AM

Delete/add new, or replace files or folders into an already made WIM file

 

I think this info related to delete/add new, or replace files or folders into an already made WIM file using the Wimlib-clc  program made by our fellow tokener, can be useful for some users, in the info quoted I'm replacing the WimBootCompress.ini file located in \Windows\System32\WimBootCompress.ini, into the WIM file, but same procedure applies for delete/add new, or replace other files or folders too, just selecting the respective options, use the attached photos as a guide.

 

From this post:

 

In an already captured WIM file, we need to first update the WIM file to replace that file by means of wimlib-imagex or wimlib-clc, in a separate procedure, before apply the WIM file, as I did to replace it with my proposed version of WimbootCompress.ini file, before the next apply process when running my tests.

 

Please see attached pictures.

 

Replace file.png
Update.png

 

NOTES:

  1. This procedure is very fast, as it only updates the new info in the WIM file without fully rebuilding it.
  2. Depending of the size of new info, this increases a few the size of the WiM file.
  3. If the user wants to optimize the size of the WIM file, after the previous procedure, selecting Export/Optimize Tab and the Optimize button, the WIM file will be rebuilded in place, saving some MB.
  4. Optimize in place does not take very long as the program uses the previous info during rebuild and only compacts the new info removing the holes (empty space) into the WIM file.

 

alacran


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#85 alacran

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Posted 22 June 2022 - 12:54 PM

JFYI

Just tested the following latest versions of grub4dos (MBR & UEFI):

grub4dos-0.4.6a-2022-01-18.7z 548K

grub4dos-for_UEFI-2022-03-28.7z 992K

Both worked very fine during testing them booting from USB, the testing environment was build using USB_FORMAT-63 by wimb, tested in MBR/CSM and UEFI environments (with and without Secure Boot enabled), all VHDs used were manually made having a FAT-16 (32 MB, to save space), Primary active partition and a secondary NTFS partition the rest of the space. The only exception is Mini-10x64-LZX.vhd, where primary active partition is FAT-32 (100 MB) made previously using VHD_WIMBOOT by wimb, page on Github

I also made use of ntloader by A1ive, but only to be able to boot WIM PE files from grub4dos MBR and UEFI versions, this only works if the PE is located on MBR Primary or GPT partitions, but not on a logical partition, and I can say it does a very good job on this task.

To use ntloader only thing we need to do is add to the root of our U-BOOT drive initrd.lz1 and ntloader files, the ntloader menu enties in grub4dos are very simple, in fact we can use same wim.lst file next to mentioned files, for both grub4dos MBR/CSM and UEFI versions, as I can confirm.

Nevertheless I decided to make two versions of wim.lst file, just to be able to add some other entries related only strictly to MBR or UEFI and avoid confusions for non advanced users.

I didn't use ntloader for anything else, as it has being proved (including by myself) it doesn't work fine for other tasks in some UEFI Bios, on this problematic UEFI Bios the VHDs don't Ramboot fine, there are alternative menu enties to overcome this, but also ntloader is not capable to boot a WinPE instaled in a VHD, so then IMHO I consider it is better to use grub4dos to boot/Ramboot VHDs.

I made also some modifications in both menu.lst, to call vhd.lst and wim.lst files, the MBR versions of them are located on the root of the drive, and the UEFI versions are located in \EFI\grub folder.

menu_Win_ISO.lst was moddified too, there was a typo in the command entry related to map --mem %iso_drive%/images/HDDR2013.gz (0xFF), also took the chance to add additional entries for some other useful ISO files I have.

Just in case some readers want to try this approach, to make things easier I attached here:

Additional U-BOOT menus.7z         Password = alacran

It contains U-BOOT.7z file NON encripted, that already have inside the 2 required ntloader files + all updated grub4dos MBR and UEFI program files + all new and modified menus.

 

NOTE: Additional U-BOOT menus.7z was reuploaded to include wim-2.lst file, an alternative option to use only for dificult UEFI Bios, just in case.

alacran

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#86 antonino61

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Posted 22 June 2022 - 05:14 PM

exuse me, Alacrán, I know for sure, at least so far, I am not gonna need to boot from usb; i still boot from vhd on hdd. anyway I have noticed from some posts above that there is a way of modifying and optimizing wim files (Delete/add new, or replace files or folders into an already made WIM file), which made me think of, say, installing new drivers, changing hardware, or any other instance that might crop up now and then. do u think it might stand me in good stead?



#87 alacran

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Posted 22 June 2022 - 06:29 PM

..... I have noticed from some posts above that there is a way of modifying and optimizing wim files (Delete/add new, or replace files or folders into an already made WIM file), which made me think of, say, installing new drivers, changing hardware, or any other instance that might crop up now and then. do u think it might stand me in good stead?

 

No, Wimlib-clc doesn't allow to integrate drivers to a WIM file.

 

To add drivers to a WIM file we have two options:

 

1.- Usual way is mount the WIM file with Dism or imagex, install the drivers using Dism and unmount commiting changes and rebuild the WIM, you can use the GUI program Dism Mount Service 210430  by Tokener.

 

2.- But also extracting the content (Applying it to a folder or to a VHD) with Wimlib-clc, install the drivers using Dism and then recapture using Wimlib-clc, as some examples: wimb's program  Make_PE  has an option to add drivers with DISM, to a PE Applied to a folder by wimlib-imagex, also his VHD_WIMBOOT program has an option to add drivers.

 

But if we already have that WIM installed on a VHD, the task is easier:

 

1.- You can ONLINE install the drivers in a running VHD and latter recapture it using Wimlib-clc.

 

2.- Also you can OFFLINE install drivers to an attached VHD using Dism and latter recapture it using Wimlib-clc.

 

But there are some rare cases of drivers that can't be installed OFFLINE, and for them the best option is:

 

ONLINE install the drivers in a running real PC or in a VHD, run Sysprep (optional but recommended for general use on other PCs), and latter recapture it using Wimlib-clc (faster and smaller WIM size) or Dism.

 

alacran


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#88 antonino61

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Posted 22 June 2022 - 07:15 PM

right u r, so at the end of the day, it is not really needed, and we r often better off using what we already have, including recapturing the vhd into a new wim. scrupulously wanting to make sure.



#89 alacran

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Posted 03 August 2022 - 01:57 PM

@ adric

 

From: http://reboot.pro/in...e=6#entry221529

 

 

It is in fact RunScanner from Paraglider.

 

You can go to this  post  for info and download it.

 

alacran

That has the same regscanner.exe (1.0.0.28) that I use. I launch it with the following parms similar to what you are doing:

 

D:\ThinApps\RunScanner64.exe /t 0 /ll /sd /y /m+  %windir%\regedit.exe

It works great launching and editing from W7/W8/W10(1607), but the regedit hook fails on an offline registry when launched from my W10 LTSC 21H2(19044) system. The systems I mentioned belong to my multi-boot setup and the offline systems can all be accessed by the current active system.

 

I'm at a loss right now how to get this working on LTSC.

 

 

I found 20H2 or newer don't have anything new or interesting for me, and also the Driver Signature Enforcement restrictions were hardened, then I decided to stay permanently in v20H1, where all seems to work fine. so I can't test the issue you have in your current OS.

 

I also found increased restictions in the Registry in every new version, so I suspect this could be the cause of the issue in your case, to avoid Registry restrictions it is better to launch Remote Regedit as Trusted Installer.

 

I suggest you to download the free and portable program PowerRun v1.6, just extract it into a folder and create a link in your desktop to run it.

 

Also download Remote Regedit from this  post, into the download you will find Remote Regedit TI link, just edit only this path as required and don't change anythig else.

 

E:\Aplicaciones\PowerRun\PowerRun_x64.exe "/WD:%SystemRoot%\System32\" "%SystemRoot%\System32\RunScanner.exe" /t 0 /sd /ac /m+ /y regedit.exe

 

Very possible this will solve the issue.

 

alacran



#90 adric

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Posted 03 August 2022 - 02:24 PM


I suggest you to download the free and portable program PowerRun v1.6, just extract it into a folder and create a link in your desktop to run it.

 

Also download Remote Regedit from this  post, into the download you will find Remote Regedit TI link, just edit only this path as required and don't change anythig else.

 

E:\Aplicaciones\PowerRun\PowerRun_x64.exe "/WD:%SystemRoot%\System32\" "%SystemRoot%\System32\RunScanner.exe" /t 0 /sd /ac /m+ /y regedit.exe

 

Very possible this will solve the issue.

 

alacran

Did you look at the image I previously posted below? :) I would like to contact Paraglider about this, but his last post on Reboot.Pro was back in 2020. I sent him a PM, but I doubt he will see it.

Anyone have his email?

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#91 alacran

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Posted 04 August 2022 - 01:07 AM

I didn't see that image before because it was not there when I quoted your post here, you edited your post and added it latter.

 

As final parameters I have:

 

/t 0 /sd /ac /m+ /y regedit.exe

 

And you have:

 

/t 0 /sd /11 /m+ /y regedit.exe

 

Try using exactly my same parameters.

 

alacran



#92 adric

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Posted 04 August 2022 - 09:30 AM

I didn't see that image before because it was not there when I quoted your post here, you edited your post and added it latter.

 

As final parameters I have:

 

/t 0 /sd /ac /m+ /y regedit.exe

 

And you have:

 

/t 0 /sd /11 /m+ /y regedit.exe

 

Try using exactly my same parameters.

 

alacran

I forgot to mention that I tried it with your parameters too. I even copied the required files to system32 so it would be the same as yours. Thanks for your time trying to solve this. I still have systems I can run this from. If you hear anything new about Runscanner post here. Again, thanks for trying to help.



#93 sharklodon

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Posted 22 March 2023 - 12:45 PM

Hi, 

 

 

Booting with a WinPe in my laptop, I get 8GB of boot (X:) drive. How could I reduce it?

My laptop has only 16GB of RAM and I want to keep more than 8GB.

 

Thanks & BR,

Shark







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