Make_PE3 Program to Create Portable Windows 7 PE

[wimb]

What do you use as Source ?

DVD or fresh Installed 32-bits Win7

SP0 or SP1 and if Installed did you add any updates ?

The source can be the cause of some unforeseen but hidden problems.

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=23931&view=findpost&p=170837

In general I prefer not to use 7 PE but to use Portable or Mini Windows 7

so that the relationship between registry and file versions is as good as in the Installed Windows 7 Source VHD.

It prevents a lot of problems that easily can occur with 7 PE

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=23553

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=24424

Also the keyboard problem is not present in Portable Windows 7.

I have no detailed solution available for your present problem with setting German keyboard in 7 PE,

but I think you can manage to find a working solution

Edited July 8, 2012 by wimb

[click-click]

I used my live windows 7 SP1 system. which includes June Patch-Tuesday security fixes. I thought I was making a portable Win7. As far as the keyboard goes, I checked the reg entry after booting the iso and the preload key was still 409 and not 407 like in the plugin. It seems that the keyboard plugin reg entries are reset when you later run dism /set inputlocale:en-us. in Make_Pe3.exe

I can change the cmd file to modify the inputlocale dism entry to de-de, but I can't do that with the exe file.

I'm a bit confused now as to what you mean by portable or mini Win7. So does 7pe_x86.iso=portable Win7?

Sorry for the noob questions.....

Edited July 8, 2012 by click-click

[wimb]

But you can set System Locale = German

Does that help to solve your problem ?

Portable and Mini 7 are quite different.

They are build by VHD_W7_Compact.exe and use the full registry of 32-bits Win 7 Installed to VHD and used as Source.

Only those files mostly used in desired functionality are copied from the Source and can be considered as the core of Windows 7.

In this way you get a small sized OS in VHD and which behaves as normal Windows 7

The reduction in number of files is also inspired by what was found to be working in 7 PE

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=23553

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=24424

:cheers:

[click-click]

But you can set System Locale = German

Does that help to solve your problem ?

I wanted to only change the inputlocale to de-de and leave the rest as en-us.

If I understand correctly, make_pe3 does not create a portable or mini win7 and will produce a pe iso that may be error prone. Is that correct?

The reason I wanted to use Make_PE3 was because of the small iso size. If I use the VHD method, won't that make the iso much bigger?

My goal is a small W7 recovery cd to replace my aging BartPE boot CD.

Edited July 8, 2012 by click-click

[wimb]

I wanted to only change the inputlocale to de-de and leave the rest as en-us.

May be it is easier to use System Locale = German and then tweak the rest to en-US

A good working 7PE is of course also handy,

but in any case it might be interesting for you to make the Portable and Mini 7 VHD

These days I mostly use Portable USB-harddisk and booting from USB for rescue and Install purpose.

[click-click]

I have a bootable usb drive with XP installed on it for my own recovery purposes. I need a decent 7PE iso that I can use when my friends call me for help. I will give Make_PE3 another try using a fresh installed W7 SP1 with no updates and see if that solves the problems I am seeing. Two more questions:

Does MAKE_PE3.cmd do everything that MAKE_PE3.exe does?

I assume the created iso file should be the same either way right?

If so, I will just change the dism /set inputlocale statement in the cmd file and that will take care of the default keyboard layout for me. I guess this could be a option in the GUI if you ever decide to update it. Maybe have make_pe3 allow for additional dism commands at the end from a txt file before committing and unmounting.

Ciao....

Edited July 9, 2012 by click-click

[wimb]

Does MAKE_PE3.cmd do everything that MAKE_PE3.exe does?

I assume the created iso file should be the same either way right?

Yes, the result is equal

Succes

Edited July 9, 2012 by wimb

[click-click]

Okay, MAKE_PE3 with a vanilla Win7 SP1 install as input seems to be the solution to my previous problems.

IE8 is working now and I no longer get an error message opening Control Panel. One minor thing is that

the Ethernet Network Icon still shows Authentication Failure (with ?) even though the Ethernet network connection

is working and I am able to use the Internet. If you have an idea what that might be let me know.

[wimb]

Using Win7 SP1 without adding Updates also worked for me.

Good to hear that this solution is OK for you.

No idea about Ethernet Icon .....

Did you let driver_fix.cmd do the job as scheduled or did you use PENetwork ?

[click-click]

Yes, I let driver_fix.cmd run and did not cancel it. I'll cancel and see what PENetwork does.

Ciao ...

Edit: Same result

Edited July 10, 2012 by click-click

[click-click]

Well looks like I'm going to have to give up on MAKE_PE3. I can't seem to get certain user reg entries to work. I.e Using [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\PE3-USER\ for [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run]. When I check the registry after the desktop appears the Run entry is missing. Also, if I do a build with objects in the Startup Folder for the default user, those entries do not run after winpe initializes the desktop. The Quick Launch toolbar doesn't show up either. I think this has something to do with the user account. There doesn't seem to be one. Basically, I can only customize the system after it is booted.

Am I missing something here or is this a limitation of MAKE_PE3?

Edited July 10, 2012 by click-click

[wimb]

In file PE3-SOFTWARE_CUSTOM.reg the user is defined as Users\Default

; set the system profile to X:\Users\Default instead of \system32\config\systemprofile

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\PE3-SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\S-1-5-18]
"ProfileImagePath"="X:\\Users\\Default"

Desktop icons appear as defined in Make_PE3\PE3_mod\PE3_add\x86\Users\Default\Desktop

And User Pinned\Start Menu is working

Make_PE3\PE3_mod\PE3_add\x86\Users\Default\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\StartMenu

In file PE3-USER.reg we have working

; Safely Remove Hardware - HotSwap - Thanks to JFX

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\PE3-USER\Software\HotSwap!]
"AutoRun"=dword:00000001
"DisplayPDO"=dword:00000000
"SpinDown"=dword:00000001
"DFlags"=dword:10000003
"LangID"=dword:00000409

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\PE3-USER\Software\HotSwap!\NonHotSwap]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\PE3-USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run]
"HotSwap! Applet"="\"X:\\Windows\\system32\\HotSwap!.EXE\""

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\PE3-USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce]
"HotSwap"="HotSwap!"

Edited July 11, 2012 by wimb

[click-click]

Wimb, THANK YOU for convincing me to give MAKE_PE3 another try.

I had some problems in the way I was trying to define my reg entries. I kept getting

a BSOD when I tried to set my environment variables using CurrentControlSet. I changed it

to ControlSet001 and that worked.

You are correct in saying that User Pinned\Start Menu is working. I was trying to add

a new toolbar (Quick Launch) to the taskbar. I added a few objects to the default

user Quick Launch Folder, but the folder does not show up on the taskbar. I can manually

add the folder as a new toolbar when booted.

As far as reg entry Run goes, I added a 2nd program called regscanner from Nirsoft and

that did not autostart either. I ran Autoruns and I see three run entries. Hotswap is

the only one that started. Maybe this has to do with the AutoRun=1 entry for that SW.

Statbar Applet

RegScanner Applet

HotSwap! Applet

From the plugins folder (defined like the hotswap run):

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\PE3-USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run]
"StatBar Applet"="\"X:\\Toolbx\\Statbar.EXE\""

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\PE3-USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run]
"RegScan Applet"="\"X:\\Toolbx\\RegScanner.EXE\""

Statbar is an old VB program that still works well on a Win7 system. It works in PE too,

but it takes over 1 minute to appear on the screen. I have to start it manually. All other

programs start instantly.

Aside from that, I'm happy with the results so far. No need to give up. If you have any ideas why

entries in the Startup Folder or Run Key do let get launched, I'd be interested.

I really appreciate you taking the time to help me out with my PE problems. I'm starting

to get a better feel for Make_PE3 now, so hopefully, I will no longer need to bother

you. Again, thanks ...

[click-click]

After doing more testing, the only way I've found to Auto-Start something in the MAKE_PE3 environment is to use the [RunOnce] key. [Run] and (RunOnceEx] do not get executed during the WinPE startup. The reg keys that I set for RunOneEx are still there after the system is up, so Win7PE is ignoring them for some reason. Anyway, RunOnce works great for me and that makes things very flexible by being able to use files (RegTweaks for the active system) outside of Make_PE3.

This leads me to another question for Wimb. Would it be possible to add an option to not delete and reuse the already collected files to rebuild the iso?

Basically, you would be starting at the point where winre.wim is used and continue from there. This would save time copying the same Win7 files over and over again every time you do a build and you would not have to keep a live vanilla Win7 SP1 system around for that purpose. One could then make changes to PE3_add, PE3_reg, Win7_Drivers, etc. without starting from scratch. Does this make sense?

Ciao....,

Edited July 13, 2012 by click-click

[wimb]

This leads me to another question for Wimb. Would it be possible to add an option to not delete and reuse the already collected files to rebuild the iso?

It used to be that way, but with all different versions and sources it is easier and more reliable to collect the files each time

and besides it does not take so much time .....