See the WinPE introduction from Microsoft for more details.
![]() Windows PE (WinPE) is a small operating system used to install, deploy, and repair Windows. This article I will introduce the method to install Windows from WinPE.
Does anyone now how to create a bootable usb setup of Windows XP Fundamentals for. Also, you might want to install flat Windows XP on it. Windows FLP (Fundamentals for Legacy PCs) is a Windows Xp edition designed for work on obsolete computers, like on a Pentium II 233mhz with 64mb of ram. Microsoft did this version for big companies that owns thousands of obsolete PCs, and so, they will be 'forced' to migrate to linux (unless they do an huge investment).
Download WinPE
Here I will show you 3 WinPE versions taken from Microsoft:
To make it easier for users to use, I’ve added some of the applications below. Run the corresponding commands from the Command Prompt to open the corresponding applications.
You can also use WinPE 10 built from other tools, but the WinPE version here is lighter, it requires only 512MB of memory and startup time will also be faster. I think this is the most suitable version for network boot. The size of WinPE 8.1 is 135MB for 32-bit and 170MB for 64-bit.
Download all these WinPE versions at Google Drive, Yandex Disk, Mega and Fshare.
AIOCreator.exe also supports running on these WinPE versions. If you are using a 64-bit version, run the 64-bit version of AIOCreator.exe at AIOToolsAIOCreator_x64.exe.
Integration
Once downloaded, you can integrate all versions of WinPE into AIO Boot.
Install Windows using Setup.exe
This is the simplest way to install Windows from an ISO file. You can install Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and Windows 10 with the ISO file on your hard drive or anywhere. This method can be used on the full Windows operating system, but on WinPE, you can delete or reformat the system drive.
To install Windows on a GPT hard disk, you need to boot into WinPE in UEFI mode. To install Windows on the MBR hard disk, you need to boot into WinPE in the Legacy BIOS mode.
Install Windows using DISM
To install Windows, the first thing is to create the partition. Here I will use diskpart to do this. Then use the dism command to apply a Windows version image in sourcesinstall.wim to the drive. This method allows you to install Windows on a GPT disk to boot in UEFI, regardless of whether you are booting into WinPE in Legacy BIOS mode and vice versa.
Personally I only keep the data partitions, I will delete all partitions including boot and system partitions, then recreate them. If you install multiple operating systems on this hard drive, you should consider not deleting these partitions, otherwise you will need to repair the menu, or bootloader.
Delete partitions
Use the diskpart command, then use the list disk command to list all the disks on your computer.
Select disk:
List all partitions on the selected disk:
Select the partition you want to delete, then use the delete part command to delete the partition.
Create partitions
Now just create the partition under the appropriate layout. You can refer to the Microsoft documentation for the recommended partition layout for UEFI/GPT and BIOS/MBR. As in the article, boot partition or EFI partition will be assigned to drive S:. The Windows installation partition will be W:.
Apply image
After you have created the partition for the Windows installation, we will apply the image of a Windows edition to that partition. The sourcesinstall.wim file in the Windows ISO will contain images of the Windows edition.
Use the following command to list all editions:
Output:
From the result above, the file H:sourcesinstall.wim contains 9 editions, I will select the Windows 10 Pro edition (Index : 8) to apply to the W: drive.
Output:
Configure boot files
To continue with the installation process, Windows needs to be booted into the W: partition above. Use BCDBoot to configure boot files. Run the following command:
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Output:
For MBR disks, use the Bootsect command to install Bootmgr and update the MBR.
Now you can reboot to continue the installation process.
Using the dism command is more advanced, it has many features that I have not tested yet. But it is also quite complex, integrating the ISO of Windows into AIO Boot is the best way for me. Wish success!
The Asus EeePC is an awesome little machine. I have the 701 model, which has 4GB of hard drive space (basically a 4GB flash card), and 512MB of RAM.
This model comes with Xandros Linux pre-installed. Xandros is very useable out of the box. By default, the EeePC is in “Beginner mode” but you can switch it to use “Advanced mode” which is a KDE-based Linux desktop.
Linux is just fine for 99% of what you’ll want to do, especially since all the apps (OpenOffice, etc) are preinstalled and preconfigured. There’s no reason for most users to want to change the OS on the EeePC. But we’re going to install Windows on it, just because we can.
This is where Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs comes in. This is an OS that Microsoft put out to its corporate customers to install on Windows 98-Class machines. The requirements are super light — it needs 64MB of RAM, and 700MB or so of hard drive space. I had used Windows FLP before, but mainly on really old hardware or inside VMware virtual machines. It’s basically a very light version of XP SP2.
Windows FLP is only available to corporate customers and you’ll need a corporate volume license serial number for it to work.
The very first requirement for installing Windows FLP on the EeePC is an external USB drive of some sort. A thumb drive, USB hard drive, or USB CD or DVD drive. The Windows FLP installation CD is about 600MB, so you can just image the ISO onto a USB drive and boot from it. The easiest way, though, is just to borrow or buy an external USB CD or DVD drive. It’s a good investment, and you can use it later to install more software on the EeePC.
Anyway, whichever method you choose, you’ll have to go into the EeePC BIOS and change the boot order so that it will boot from USB before the internal drive. Just press F2 when the computer boots to enter setup mode. While you’re in here, make sure the **OS Installation **option is set to “finished.”
Once you’ve saved your BIOS changes, the EeePC should boot into the WindowsFLP installation routine. Pick the default (guided install), put in your windows serial number, and then y0u’ll eventually arrive at the disk partition screen.
You’ll be asked what kind of install you’d like. You can do a minimal install or full install, it’s up to you. I went with a minimal install + IE + Media Player. You’ll need to install Media Player if you want to run any DirectX stuff. I installed IE so I could do Windows update later.
As you can see from the photos, there are multiple partitions on the disk right now. I just wiped them all out and created one 4GB partition. If you have a problem at this point, with an error message about no system disk, then you probably didn’t do the “finished” bit in the BIOS above.
Ok, it should reboot once its done — it may reboot a couple of times, it’s ok. At one point during the plug and play detection, it looked like the installation had frozen, since the progress bar wasn’t moving at all. No worries, go have a coffee, it will be a few more minutes, but it will install.
Seriously, be patient. Don’t abort here. It may reboot a couple of times.
Once Windows FLP is fully installed, you’ll be greeted with a “Press CTRL-ALT-DEL to Login” screen. Go ahead and login. Everything’s installed properly, but you’ll now need the DVD that came with your EeePC. It will have all the necessary drivers for the unknown devices (ethernet, wifi, trackpad, etc). If you’re using an external DVD drive, just pop in the disk. If you’re using a USB thumb drive, you can just copy over the contents using another computer.
There’s a setup program on the DVD, which will install all the drivers. You’ll need to reboot 3 or 4 times for it to finish.
Here’s an important step you’ll need to take at this point: when you first reboot, go into the BIOS and switch the boot order. You don’t want the ASUS EeePC DVD to boot when Windows reboots. By the way, you would use this DVD to restore the Xandros distro back on the EeePC if you get sick of Windows.
That’s it! You’re all done. Now you’ll have to install some software. My advice: download Firefox right away, as well as a virus scanner (I use clamwin). Then run Windows update. There are a bunch of updates — 50 or 60 of them. So while Internet Explorer is downloading updates, you can use Firefox to download other software (such as OpenOffice).
You’ll probably want to download msconfig so that you can turn off some of the unnecessary tray lint. And tweakui to get rid of that annoying login window.
Here’s a video of the EeePC booting Windows FLP. Pretty speedy!
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YteOIg17vzM] Some miscellaneous screenshots of WindowsFLP on the EeePC:
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December 2022
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