WinPE Progress Bar Dialog Box

[stircwazy]

I'm building a custom WinPE boot cd for use at work. I've got several custom application included in the CD and all work perfectly. However one annoying issue. I'm using Q-Dir as a windows explorer replacement, everything loads fine but we've found that when copying files there is no progress bar dialog box to indicate when the file copy/move is complete. A somewhat similar issue we had was related to mapping/disconnecting network drives. When you attempted to map/disconnect a drive via a windowed interface there was no dialog box. The fix for that issue was simple, include the file netplwiz.dll and register it on startup. I'm hoping for a somewhat similar fix, but have yet to be able to find anything.

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

Chad

[Tripredacus]

What are you using to do the file copy? Let's say you use XCOPY. You can use a script that shows an animation while the XCOPY process is running in memory, then when it is not running any longer, it can show a MsgBox. Both KIXSTART and AutoIT should be able to do this for you.

[stircwazy]

What are you using to do the file copy? Let's say you use XCOPY. You can use a script that shows an animation while the XCOPY process is running in memory, then when it is not running any longer, it can show a MsgBox. Both KIXSTART and AutoIT should be able to do this for you.

I'm using Q-Dir, a Windows Explorer replacement, to view drive contents and copy/move to and from different locations. I was hoping there was a simple fix, a dll to register, just like the drive mapping solution I mentioned previously.

[Tripredacus]

I'm not familiar with that shell, sorry.

[stircwazy]

I'm not familiar with that shell, sorry.

What would you suggest as a Windows Explorer replacement that would have a working progress bar dialog in WinPE?

[Tripredacus]

I've only used HTAs and Flash Projector apps as shells for WinPE.

[stircwazy]

I've only used HTAs and Flash Projector apps as shells for WinPE.

Examples? =)

All I really need to call this WinPE disk complete is an explorer interface with the progress bar. Everything else I've got to work by many many attempts and ton of research. This one however I haven't been able to get around.

Thanks for the help.

Edited January 20, 2009 by stircwazy

[Tripredacus]

There is an HTA example in my sig.

As far as the Flash one, I can't provide you with that. I made a demo Projector and loaded it into my winpe.wim. It works fine, being totally capable of managing files and writing to local drives. Projector isn't very easy to use nowadays because Macromedia(Adobe) has removed many functions from Flash to allow direct system integration, so you'll need to use an old version of Flash. For example, newer Projector apps won't let you delete files from the hard drive. This is because Flash is typically used as a web application, not as a standalone one. Aside from the one in WinPE, I had also made a DemoShield replacement in the past that launched off an install CD.

Basically, you build your app in Flash, then instead of making an SWF, you publish to a Projector EXE instead. They work perfectly fine in WinPE all by itself, without having to hack it at all.

Alternatively, you could also build a shell using AutoIT I suppose.

[stircwazy]

There is an HTA example in my sig.

As far as the Flash one, I can't provide you with that. I made a demo Projector and loaded it into my winpe.wim. It works fine, being totally capable of managing files and writing to local drives. Projector isn't very easy to use nowadays because Macromedia(Adobe) has removed many functions from Flash to allow direct system integration, so you'll need to use an old version of Flash. For example, newer Projector apps won't let you delete files from the hard drive. This is because Flash is typically used as a web application, not as a standalone one. Aside from the one in WinPE, I had also made a DemoShield replacement in the past that launched off an install CD.

Basically, you build your app in Flash, then instead of making an SWF, you publish to a Projector EXE instead. They work perfectly fine in WinPE all by itself, without having to hack it at all.

Alternatively, you could also build a shell using AutoIT I suppose.

Thanks for the help Tripredacus. Unfortunately your ideas(however neat) will not help in this situation. I've got the PE CD built, a shell up and running, but no progress bar when copying/moving files. I guess my next step is to hack n' slash explorer into the PE CD and see what that gets me.

Again thanks for the suggestions

Chad

[koawmfot]

put shellstyle.dll into the system32 directory of your PE build. hope that helps...