25 replies to this topic

[NightMan]

New version of VistaPE is out for public tests.

Download

[TheHive]

I was able to create a working PE. Tested VistaPE RC5 ISO on VMware 5.5.3 build 34685.
Great work! 2 steps to create ISO.

[paraglider]

Also worked for me on Vista under vmware workstation 6.0 build 36983. Built from WAIK.

[Dan Woods]

Hi Nightman,
worked for me perfectly and boots into Virtual PC 2007. Only error I encountered was when I selected to have a program UPX'ed and VistaPE complained about not having it in the tools folder. I downloaded it, placed it in the right spot and everything is working well now.

I love the GRUB bootloader and I just now noticed that you have entried for wpeinit and WinRE!

WOW! This is going to be a one stop CD for all my vista deployment and recovery needs! I love new stuff


Thanks again,
Dan

[Dan Woods]

Just tried explorer as a shell in and it works perfectly! Just need to figure out how to insert programs and decide whether or not to use this instead of bs-explorer. Probably end up doing both

I used diskmanager to create and resize some volumes and it seems to be working perfectly! I tried loading event viewer as an MMC snapin but that didn't work. I cant believe how much of this you got working so fast!

I see also there's entries for wpeinit and winRE. Truly amazing stuff, I cant beleve how much functionality you have going already!

I'll keep playing around with it (probably be up all night messing around with this) and will report back any bugs I see.

Thanks again for all your hard work and sharing this project.

[TheHive]

I see also there's entries for wpeinit and winRE.

Whats that?


Same result with Explorer shell and the mmc script. Working beautifully. Great work put into it.
It still needs some tweaks to for some things to work in Explorer shell but so far so good.

I was able to boot with 256MB of RAM using explorer shell. I was using about 220MB.

Tip for now if you wan to exit the shell use the Alt+Crtl+Del combo to get to the shell swapper. The Start - Shudown options are not working right now. Its so Awesome.

Is there a way to keep Windows Explorer windows to open in one Window. At the moment anytime you click on a folder it opens a new Window.



Explorer shell Screenshot. Not all options work. But its looking good.

[Dan Woods]

Hi Nightman,
I've done some testing with this today and had problems with a few plugins that I thought you might like to know about.

1 - Under "Programs - Security" I have duplicate entries for Keyfinder-PE and MS-Keys. One set of the icons doesn't work but the other does. This may be something I've done wrong tho

2 - Sala's Password renew does not create an icon anywhere in the start menu, but it does get copied to Y:\ and will run correctly.

3 - Lanspy - When launched, it gives a software exception error, which, when clicked says "exception in module lanspy at xxxxx "cannot create file y:\langspy\english.lng" access is denied followed by "Cannot create file "y:\langspy\addresses.txt. access is denied.

4 - Remote Desktop Connection. I had to copy the mstsc*.* files to scr\windows\system32\ in order to get the plugin to install (I'm not sure if this is what I was supposed to do or if this is what's causing the problem) It launches the GUI correctly and prompts for credentials as usual. However, when you try to connect it crashes with an applcation error.

P.S This is out of a virtual machine so maybe this is causing the problems?. I dont have real hardware to boot this with right now until work on Monday.

One more question:

How do I enable HWPnP, WPEinit and the "Windows Deployment Services Image Capture" mentioned in the "system" menu? Do I need to manually copy something from a BDD-2007 vista iso for the "Windows Deployment Services" part?

Thanks again!!
Dan

[Dan Woods]

Whats that?

Hi TheHive,
WinRE is short for windows recovery environment. VIsta has a really cool backup that will do a full system backup to one large .vhd file. This VHD can then be restored back onto a machine should it become corrupted or back on to a fresh hard drive in the event of failure. I tested on a workstation with about 8 gigs used and had a total backup time of around 6 minutes to USB 2.0. Real fast. You can also install it onto a hidden partition and have vista auto-boot to it in the event of failure using the SetAutoFailover function. (available as an F8 keystroke also)

Link with more info is here:
http://blogs.msdn.co...re/default.aspx

Cheers,
Dan

[TheHive]

Hi TheHive,
WinRE is short for windows recovery environment. VIsta has a really cool backup that will do a full system backup to one large .vhd file. This VHD can then be restored back onto a machine should it become corrupted or back on to a fresh hard drive in the event of failure. I tested on a workstation with about 8 gigs used and had a total backup time of around 6 minutes to USB 2.0. Real fast. You can also install it onto a hidden partition and have vista auto-boot to it in the event of failure using the SetAutoFailover function. (available as an F8 keystroke also)

Link with more info is here:
http://blogs.msdn.co...re/default.aspx

Cheers,
Dan

Sounds Great. Thanks. Vista has more stuff then I have read about.

[Brito]

Testing the latest release:

I use spaces on my pathnames - so it seemed to work fine until the part where it would finalize boot.wim - the $splash$ application just got hanged on the part where the space was on the path name.

Using a root folder without spaces worked just fine.

Tried the project without changing anything and it booted nicely - perhaps it would be a good idea to select virtual box by default to see the results immediately.

From msfn.net a member mentioned that it is possible to install virtual box silently using the /qn switch: http://www.msfn.org/...showtopic=92041 thunn also provided a modified MSI file, but since it's not allowed for distribution the best solution seems to be downloading from site.

My ISO was sized around 90Mb and booted fast.

Also noticed that v-box is only emulating 256Mb of RAM - great results..

While working I saw the lack of any icons on a43 - this was also experienced on xp based builds from other projects, the start menu also doesn't work as suposed since all entries are empty - this might confuse others to think that they should be having all those programs installed.

-------------

Next I've selected both explorer and mmc scripts, they still complain about a missing install.wim, was it supposed to be included on the waik or does it come by default only on vista install dvd?

-------------

About Active @ ISO burner, the script can perhaps add a few more functionality to ease the task of burning a ISO, here's something I tought you'd be interested to read:

Automation of CD-ROM ISO files burning process.

Active@ ISO Burner software accepts command line parameters to automate ISO images burning process:

"ISO-FILE" - first parameter is a full path to ISO image file to be burned
/BURN - if the first parameter is valid (ISO image exists) - burn process starts automatically right after program launch
/EXIT-IF-OK - if burning is successfully completed, program auto-exits. If errors detected - you will see error messages on the dialog (no auto-exit).

Example:

To burn ISO image file
[C:\Program Files\FreeDOS\fdbasecd.iso]
automatically from command line and exit the program after successful burning, run:

C:\IS Burner> IsoBurner.exe "C:\Program Files\FreeDOS\fdbasecd.ISO" /BURN /EXIT-IF-OK

http://www.ntfs.com/iso-burning.htm

[NightMan]

Next I've selected both explorer and mmc scripts, they still complain about a missing install.wim, was it supposed to be included on the waik or does it come by default only on vista install dvd?

you can use it ONLY with vista dvd, WAIK don't have explorer or mmc...

[NightMan]

Hi Nightman,
I've done some testing with this today and had problems with a few plugins that I thought you might like to know about.

1 - Under "Programs - Security" I have duplicate entries for Keyfinder-PE and MS-Keys. One set of the icons doesn't work but the other does. This may be something I've done wrong tho

fixed, thanks

2 - Sala's Password renew does not create an icon anywhere in the start menu, but it does get copied to Y:\ and will run correctly.

fixed

3 - Lanspy - When launched, it gives a software exception error, which, when clicked says "exception in module lanspy at xxxxx "cannot create file y:\langspy\english.lng" access is denied followed by "Cannot create file "y:\langspy\addresses.txt. access is denied.

try start it from boot.wim...

4 - Remote Desktop Connection. I had to copy the mstsc*.* files to scr\windows\system32\ in order to get the plugin to install (I'm not sure if this is what I was supposed to do or if this is what's causing the problem) It launches the GUI correctly and prompts for credentials as usual. However, when you try to connect it crashes with an applcation error.

network is working correct? can you ping server?

How do I enable HWPnP, WPEinit and the "Windows Deployment Services Image Capture" mentioned in the "system" menu? Do I need to manually copy something from a BDD-2007 vista iso for the "Windows Deployment Services" part?

HWPnP, WPEinit already included and working...
"Windows Deployment Services Image Capture" hm...try start \windows\system32\wdscapture.exe

[Dan Woods]

fixed, thanks

fixed
try start it from boot.wim...

network is working correct? can you ping server?
HWPnP, WPEinit already included and working...
"Windows Deployment Services Image Capture" hm...try start \windows\system32\wdscapture.exe

Hi NIghtman,
I'll try running lanspy from boot.wim as you suggested, thanks With HWpnp and WPEinit, I meant only that the program icons in my start menu are not "clickable". I dont know if they should be or not (I have only tried this so far in virtual machine and have not tested the HWpnp funtionality at all on real hardware) but will test further tomorrow.

As for remote desktop connection, network is indeed working and I assigned a static IP to the virtual PC and could ping across my network. I tried to connect to machines joined to a domain and to a workgroup and got the error in both cases. Not a deal breaker obviously but it would be nice if I could make it work

Thanks again,
Dan

[NightMan]

As for remote desktop connection, network is indeed working and I assigned a static IP to the virtual PC and could ping across my network. I tried to connect to machines joined to a domain and to a workgroup and got the error in both cases. Not a deal breaker obviously but it would be nice if I could make it work

i will try test it tomorrow at work...

[Dan Woods]

i will try test it tomorrow at work...

Hi Nightman, same here. It may be a problem with running in virtual PC. I've seen that cause strange errors in the past. EIther way, no biggy. Ive got all the rest of the functionality and remote desktop is only one small piece

Cheers,
Dan

[yahoouk]

Hi NightMan,
I tried this new version, no luck, unsuccessfully ended with following error.

"Can not mount WIM file. You must install "Windows Image Mini-Filter Driver" by Microsoft to you system. Exiting...

Exiting.."

my log file is here.  log.html   12.56KB   644 downloads
Thanks.

[dvdgorila]

I tried the new version and win pe loads up but i have a blank screen i can see the pointer but thats about it. I tried virtual pc and physical pcs. If i use the older version it works no problems.. any ideas what im doing wrong?
I have vista ultimate as the source and then click play.

[yogger]

I tried the new version and win pe loads up but i have a blank screen i can see the pointer but thats about it. I tried virtual pc and physical pcs. If i use the older version it works no problems.. any ideas what im doing wrong?
I have vista ultimate as the source and then click play.

I get the same problem, I've tried using both Ultimate and Enterprise. I either get the blank screen or a message Chainloader /bootmgr error 17: File not found.

Anyone have any ideas?

[NightMan]

yahoouk

I tried this new version, no luck, unsuccessfully ended with following error.

please more details, what system do you use, do you have WAIK installed in your system, do you use vista dvd or copy it to hdd?

try it, and write logo here...
 WimTest.rar   1.62KB   537 downloads

dvdgorila
first send your log, second try disable "2 - New Hives for VistaPE" script ....

yogger
log please ... i'm not clairvoyant

[yahoouk]

I think the Source is already shown in log.htm file.
The Source is Ultimate Vista 5600 version same as previous I tested version.
And I do nothing add, delete, edit, change anything on it.
I do not use WAIK source.

[dvdgorila]

Here is my log file.

I disabled hives but i get the same results.

Attached Files

•  log.html   1.06MB   865 downloads

[MedEvil]

Hi!
I'm about to download the WAIK to give VistaPE a spin.
Do i need the english WAIK or can i also use a german one?

[Brito]

Hi!
I'm about to download the WAIK to give VistaPE a spin.
Do i need the english WAIK or can i also use a german one?

Russian works fine so it should also be compatible for german..

[MedEvil]

Russian works fine so it should also be compatible for german..

Thanks!

[chival4ry]

I used diskmanager to create and resize some volumes and it seems to be working perfectly! I tried loading event viewer as an MMC snapin but that didn't work. I cant believe how much of this you got working so fast!

I experienced the resize of the DiskManager on v-pc2007rc.
By the way, Explorer will be likely to work fine on newer VistaPE.

Hi NightMan,
I tried this new version, no luck, unsuccessfully ended with following error.
( Can not mount WIM file. You must install "Windows Image Mini-Filter Driver" by Microsoft to you system. Exiting... )

Hi, yahoouk.^^

As NightMan`s words, copy vista_dvd to hdd.
Perhaps, the old vesions didn`t have this error, but the VistaPE_006_RC5 seems to have this one.
Namely, don`t mount vista_dvd.iso on virtual cd-roms(daemon-tools ...).

I tried the new version and win pe loads up but i have a blank screen.

Making a vistape.iso on vista, I had the same problem.
After I made a vistape.iso on xpsp2, the black wallpaper disappeared.

I think the Source is already shown in log.htm file.
The Source is Ultimate Vista 5600 version same as previous I tested version.
And I do nothing add, delete, edit, change anything on it.
I do not use WAIK source.

You had better use Vista RTM or Retail.