Where is HAL.DLL (WinPE 2.1)

[gangan_2000]

Hi,

I just created WinPE ISO (WinPE 2.1 based) and booted into it. I noticed there is no HAL.DLL under x:\windows\system32. I found halacpi.dll and halmacpi.dll and there is NO hal.dll. Are they get rid of hal.dll in WinPE 2.1 (Windows Vista/Server 2008 based)? If so, how this works? Anyone please explain this?

Thanks in advance.

[Tripredacus]

Win PE only supports Uni and Multiprocessor ACPI enabled environments.

[gangan_2000]

Hi Tripredacus,

Thanks for your reply.

I heard about there is only one universal HAL is being used in Vista and later operating systems. Is this true? If so, which HAL.DLL it is using (latest WinPE 2.1, Vista/2008 based)?

I need to detect the MP/UP of the machine booted from the WinPE. In older version of WinPE (1.5, 2003 SP1 based), we know this details from the following registry entry.

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\ACPI_HAL\0000\HardwareID

ACPIAPIC_UP - for Uni processor

ACPIAPIC_MP - for Multi processor

But, in the new version of WinPE the HardwareID is always ACPIAPIC for UP and MP machines.

Thanks

[Tripredacus]

What is the purpose of this information? What does your application need to do with the different information, such as if it is MP or UP? With Vista, this information isn't needed at all, since you need to generalize an image before it can be redeployed.

[gangan_2000]

Hi Tripredacus,

Understood. Thank you.