VistaPE: manual for a Windows Vista based PE
The page about
Bart's PE explains how to
create a Windows XP based bootable CD.
Similar to BartPE, there is a Preinstalled Environment (PE) for Windows Vista as
well. The current version of this Vista based Preinstalled Environment is
reasonably stable and easy to build.
The advantages of a Windows based bootable CD/DVD
The most important use of a Windows based bootable CD/DVD is getting access
to a NTFS partition to edit and copy files to a safe external location.
Especially when Windows won't boot anymore, a bootable Windows CD/DVD is very
useful to get access to the personal files. Besides the support for NTFS
partitions, it is very easy to extend VistaPE with many useful tools. The needed scripts for plug-ins are
downloaded from the server automatically when the plug-in is activated: a manual
download and configuration is not necessary!
VistaPE compared to BartPE
VistaPE offers some advantages above BartPE where the most important is the
better support for hardware (like the support for many SATA connections and RAID configurations).
The better support is caused by the bigger database of hardware drivers by
Windows Vista. When the SATA or RAID drivers are already available, they don't
have to be added manually at the startup of VistaPE which result in immediate
access to those hard disks! The biggest disadvantage of VistaPE is the
consumption of system resources which results in a long time to boot the PE (especially
on an older computer, and only if the hardware is supported). In those cases, it
is better to use BartPE...
Building VistaPE with WinBuilder
With the free tool WinBuilder (download: www.vistape.net)
and the installation DVD of Windows Vista, it is easy to build VistaPE and burn
it on a CD or DVD. To start WinBuilder, it is necessary to unzip the downloaded RAR archive
first with a free tool like 7-Zip (download:
www.7-zip.org/nl/). After
activation of plug-ins at the tab Scripts, they are downloaded (or
updated) from the server automatically on the tab Download. For a problem
free building of VistaPE, keep the following tips in mind:
- It is not necessary to build VistaPE in Windows Vista, it can also be
done within Windows XP as long as the Windows Vista installation DVD is
available.
- When WinBuilder is run within Windows Vista, start it with additional
administrator rights (by right clicking the shortcut and to select
Run as administrator).
- When the Windows Vista installation files are first copied from the DVD to a
folder on the hard disk, building VistaPE is much quicker and prevents any
damage to the original installation DVD. Don't forget to inform WinBuilder which
location (source directory) the installation files are copied to (tab Scripts,
button Paths).
- By changing the combo box on the tab Download from Recommended
into Complete (or even Beta), VistaPE will be extended with
additional features. After these features are selected, the scripts (and program
files) are downloaded (or updated) from the server by clicking the button Download.
- The tab Scripts shows the downloaded plug-ins, where each plug-in has
it's own script. To add a plug-in to VistaPE, the script has to be selected
first. Clicking the blue arrow (the button Play) runs all activated
scripts/plug-ins at once to add them to the VistaPE project. It is also possible
to run each script individually by clicking the blue arrow of the script itself.
- When all available plug-ins have been selected on the tab Scripts the
ISO file will be too big to burn on a CD (a DVD-R has to be used as alternative).
For this reason, it is better not to activate all scripts at once!
- The last steps for building VistaPE (sub Finalize) are the options to
create the ISO file (7 Create ISO) and to burn in it on CD (8 Burn ISO (Active@ ISO Burner)).
It is better to run these scripts manually by clicking the green arrow after all
other scripts have been executed.
- Be careful testing the tools on VistaPE. Some of them are extremely powerful
and able to damage the installed operating system!
- Adding a new WinBuilder project is done on the sub tab Servers (of
the tab Download). This feature is used to add other bootable CD's, like
the beta version of VistaPE or even BartPE! By activating the BartPE server, it
is very easy to create the bootable CD BartPE and even less work then it would
be with PEBuilder!
ATTENTION:
Sometimes it is hard to download from the website www.vistape.net,
probably because of the limited bandwidth. When the downloading of scripts
results in errors, give it another try later on.
© 2001-2022 - Menno Schoone - SchoonePC - Rotterdam - The Netherlands