new to the group / not so new to PE

Hello all,

I hope some notice and remember me from other forums. I think I rarely go about creating accounts so that might be a stretch.

I'm playing around with the WinBuilder, as forums have stated it has come to terms with being more robust than Make_PE. So far, I have to agree for features. Of course, that means I'm jumping ship and trying to find the square pegs and round holes all over again.

In the past I've been doing my own edits, mainly via batch files and manual edits by using the PE3_Mod folders. Most of what I do just needs to run during lunch and stay pretty light from a modular design stand point. So that leads me to my point...

I am assuming (oh God help us):
The folder Custom is for scripts to create edits/tweaks. Should I wish to simply move/copy/dump my previous edits from Make_PE3 I would need to use the "C:\Win7PE\Target" folder. Either by interrupting the winbuilder or by post/pre-editing the source wim.

Next assumption, others have tried and succeeded in cramming .Net Framework into their builds and having things work. Yes, I know you have all heard this before, and I have read it before. However, I'm particular and thus far my sledge hammer approach of putting .Net from WinPE 4.0 has not been pleasantly received by WinPE 3.1.

Another assumption, x64 bit and SysWOW64 should be as easy to manipulate as it was in Make_PE. The purpose of my builds have been around a Windows 7x64 Enterprise environment where I can keep the PE light by yanking in the driverstore, hives, and other bits from the host machine. If it fails in the PE, good bet it was the registry, driver, etc to begin with. I'd like to keep this approach as possible.

Any suggestion, questions, or criticisms welcome. No seriously, evil grins aside.

Welcome 

 MakePE3 is a good builder, wimb prefer working now on VHD_XP VHD_W7, his choice.
I believe, if I'm not mistaken, that Wow64 basic (support for running 32bit programs in a 64bit environment) was developed by  JFX in MakePE3 too.

About The custom folder, yes you can use it to add things to your building.
But look also to "Additional Files" in Components folder.
Other thing, there is also, if needed "Put files in ISO root" in Create ISO or Copy to USB plugin.

And after an initial building, you can add files/folders in Target directory
or make changes in the registry (Regedit script in Utils folder).
Then use the button "Create new Target Image and ISO" to simply recreate boot.wim and a new Iso.

Have fun 

Thanks for the heads up. I'm still poking around at some of the "locations" and oddly, I may have stumbled upon an interesting step in the process..

Looking at:
C:\Win7PE\Temp\Win7PESE\HostOSTools\1HostOSCopy.cmd

I see a general copy batch set being used to copy cmd.exe... through attrib.exe.mui

Was wondering if anyone knew off hand what step this is getting called in the build process. :) Looking to find a simple place to dump in my own custom sources to add to the build for SysWOW64, Program Files, Program Files (x86), System32, and the users folders.

Probably would be easier to just pop the .wim open as mounted and paste them in, but myeh. Looking to just interrupt the process as is without damaging it.

Ah, such fun.

I have managed to answer all of my assumptions, thank you to all who chimed in or sent me a nudge/shove in the right direction.

Now to clean up more of the "custom" elements I've dragged from Make_PE3 into WinBuilder.

.Net, VB, C++ Runtime, and just about all my custom edits of Windows sources have been shoved into the new build method. (First run through actually blue screened my virtual machine I was building in)

Second was a keeper. I guess its true, nothing beats careful planning before execution.

I do not know how it should be read, my poor English.
My free time does not allowed me to help you more, it's a bit complicated at the moment and it is not my job, such is life.

Looking at:
C:\Win7PE\Temp\Win7PESE\HostOSTools\1HostOSCopy.cmd

HostOSTools is used to prevent redirection on an x64 system and because winbuilder is 32 bit application.

Probably would be easier to just pop the .wim open as mounted and paste them in, but myeh. Looking to just interrupt the process as is without damaging it.

You seem to have answered your interrogations, alone but otherwise you can use this:

After an initial building, you can add files/folders in Target directory
or make changes in the registry (Regedit script in Utils folder).
Then use the button "Create new Target Image and ISO" to simply recreate boot.wim and a new Iso.

You can also add a small script like this one

Code: [Select]

[Main]
Title=Pause
Type=script
Author=MaskedMarauder
Description=Interrupt the process with registry Hive open and with TargetDir available. Moves the script where you want (do not forget Level=1-8) taccording to your needs.
Credits=
Version=001
Download_Level=2
Level=3
Selected=True
Mandatory=False
NoWarning=False
Contact=
Date=2013.09.25
Depend=
Disable=
CertifiedBy=
Certification=

[Process]
Echo,"Processing %ScriptTitle% ..."
RegHiveLoad,Tmp_software,%BootSRC%\Windows\System32\config\Software
RegHiveLoad,Tmp_System,%BootSRC%\Windows\System32\config\System
RegHiveLoad,Tmp_Default,%BootSRC%\Windows\System32\config\Default
RegHiveLoad,Tmp_Components,%BootSRC%\Windows\System32\config\Components
//-
Message,"The process is Interrupted with the registry loaded and with TargetDir available"
//-
RegHiveUnLoad,Tmp_Components
RegHiveUnLoad,Tmp_Default
RegHiveUnLoad,Tmp_System
RegHiveUnLoad,Tmp_software

good continuation 

ChrisR, thank you so much for your time as is.

Besides, a little quiet and slow response did me well.
"I am thankful for all those who said no to me. Its' because of them, I did it myself" - Albert Einstein.

Just tinkering around with this, I managed to get out of it what I wanted. In the next few iterations, I will attempt to incorporate more of what you have suggested.

Although, putting in what I wanted has landed this WinPE3.1 at a whopping 688MB in size. Starting to bloat into the size of other projects like ISOW.

Besides, a little quiet and slow response did me well.
"I am thankful for all those who said no to me. Its' because of them, I did it myself" - Albert Einstein.

Yep, has you did
We could add also the cliché, we Learn more by our Mistakes than by our Successes.
by adding when we corrected the mistake for making it a success.

There are also people who are so caught up in their certainty, their knowledges, that they do not learn nor failures or successes!

What mean ISOW? ISO weight.

ISOW was a multiboot project that was created around the time Windows Vista came out.

It had Hiren's Boot CD, SAW + KDE, VistaPE, NTDetect Repair, Auto PC Check, Memtest86, Best Buy Geek Squad tools including MRI, and a ton of small DOS based utilities. The small build of it was about 1.7GB.

OK, a nice toolkit for PC tech