My_7PE is a batch script that allows you to create a Windows 7-based Windows PE 3.0 boot CD or USB flash drive (UFD) without requiring the Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK). My_7PE can either use the install.wim file from the Windows 7 installation DVD or Windows RE that is available on every PC where Windows 7 is installed.

My_7PE comes as a self-extractable RAR file that contains the batch script and a couple of tools. To create a bootable Windows 7 PE CD or UFD, you have to launch My_7PE.cmd with administrator privileges. The script guides you through several self-explanatory steps. If you want to know what the script is doing in more detail, look at the My_7PE readme.

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In this article you will learn how to use Windows tool regedit as an offline registry editor. All you need is a second Windows installation or a Windows PE boot stick.

If a computer no longer boots up, often a rogue Registry setting is the culprit. In these cases you need an offline Registry editor, that is you have to edit the Registry from a second installation.  Although there are third party offline Registry editors, you can use regedit as an offline Registry editor. The procedure described here also works with Windows PE (Windows Preinstallation Environment) or Windows RE (Windows Recovery Environment).

Prepare Windows RE or Windows PE

• Windows RE: You only need a Windows 7 or Windows Vista installation DVD. After you boot from the DVD, click “Next,” then click “Repair your computer,” then click “Next” (Use recovery tools), and then “Command Prompt.”

• Windows PE: You can also use Windows PE to launch an offline Registry editor. Check out my article about creating a bootable WinPE USB flash drive for more information.

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7-zip is probably the most popular free unzip software even though IZArc might be a better zip utilty. I think on every bootable Windows PE flash drive belongs an unzip software. If you have to download tools to solve your troubleshooting problem, then you will often need an unzip software to extract the utility from the downloaded archive. This is the only feature an unzip software for a rescue stick really needs. This is why I have tried 7-Zip Portable on Windows PE 3.0.

7-Zip doesn’t offer a portable version, but PortableApps.com provides a version of 7-Zip that works without installation. Actually, you have to install 7-Zip Portable once on your USB flash drive. But then you can launch the unzip software from Windows systems where 7-Zip hasn’t been installed.

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In my last post, I described how you can view the Windows Error Reporting (.wer) files through the Action Center. Today, I will review the free portable tool AppCrashView that has essentially the same purpose as the Windows Error Reporting tool. However, the freeware utility has a few advantages.

First of all, Windows Error Reporting does not show all available information. Whereas AppCrashView shows you the exact content of the .wer files, the Windows Error Reporting applet displays only the most relevant data. For example, you can’t see the DLLs that have been loaded by the corresponding application when it crashed. Thus, if you want to know exactly what information is sent to Microsoft, you should use AppCrashView.

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NirLauncher is a free launcher from NirSoft that allows you to start portable applications from a USB drive. The launcher program already comes with more than 100 useful tools for Windows admins. With a few mouse clicks, you can add the Sysinternals Suite tools or your own portable applications.

NirLauncher is a real contender to PStart, which I chose in my tutorial for creating a bootable rescue USB flash drive. NirLauncher’s main advantage is that it already comes with a ton of nifty free admin tools.

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If you boot from a Windows PE stick or DVD you can use the free tool NTPWEdit to access the Windows SAM database to reset the Windows 7 password.

NTPWEdit is a free tool that allows you to reset a Windows password without knowing the administrator password. Of course, this only works if you access the Windows installation offline and boot from a second Windows system. NTPWEdit officially supports Windows 2000, XP, and Vista, but I have used the tool to reset the password of a Windows 7 installation.

After you launch the tool, you have to specify the path to the SAM file that contains the local passwords. On most systems this is C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SAM. The tool displays the available accounts when the SAM file is opened. After you reset the Windows password of a certain user, you have to save the changes.

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Microsoft’s Sysinternals Autoruns is a free portable tool that allows you to manage Windows startup programs. It is certainly the most comprehensive startup manager for Windows 7, Vista, and Windows XP.

I added the tool to the 4sysops database of free admin utilities almost three years ago. Since Autoruns 10, which was released yesterday, is a major update I had a look at the new features. For those who don’t know this essential admin tool yet, here is the revised introduction of my original review:

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In my last post, I explained how you can create a bootable USB drive with Windows PE 3.0. Today, I will show you how to add your own tools to your USB drive and launch them conveniently after you boot Windows PE.

Most descriptions on the web will recommend mounting the wim file with imageX and then copying your tools to the Windows PE installation before creating your boot media. Although this makes sense for a rescue DVD, I wouldn’t recommend this procedure for a thumb drive. It is just too cumbersome to create your Windows PE installation from scratch whenever you want to add a new tool.

Windows PE automatically mounts your USB drive. Therefore, you can simply copy all your tools to your thumb drive in a separate folder that is independent from Windows PE. Its advantage is that you can update your tools or add new ones without starting from scratch every time. However, with this procedure, you always have to find the drive letter of your USB stick first, and then navigate to the tool you want to launch on the command prompt. Real Windows geeks want more convenience.

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It appears to me that hard disks are more reliable than in former times. However, hard drives still crash. The best way to rescue the data from a damaged disk is to create a raw image on a second disk. The longer you mess with a damaged disk drive, the more likely it becomes that you lose even more data. Once you have a raw image of your data, you can check out what is valuable.

Raw Copy is a portable Windows tool that copies data directly at the individual byte level instead of through the file system. This means less stress for the damaged disk and ensures that no more data will be destroyed while you try to rescue what is still readable. If important parts of the file system have been damaged, it can be the only way to access a disk.

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Learn how to create a bootable Windows PE 3.0 USB drive. First you you create the bootable USB stick, then you copy the WinPE 3.0 files to the drive.

For Windows PE 1.0, the minimalist Windows based on Windows 2003/XP, you needed an SA (Software Assurance), OEM, or ISV license. When Windows Vista was released everyone had access to Windows PE 2.0. This also applies to the Windows 7-based edition, Windows PE 3.0. Windows PE (Preinstallation Environment) was originally designed to deploy Windows. However, it is also useful in creating your own customized rescue boot media. In this article, I will describe how you can create a bootable Windows PE 3.0 (WinPE) USB stick, and, in my next post, I will show how to add your own rescue tools and how to keep your rescue stick up-to-date without much hassle. You will see that the procedure described here is much more convenient than most solutions you’ll find on the web.

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This post explains why the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool (WUDT) is unable to copy the install files to the USB drive in some cases. The tools allows you to create a copy of your Windows 7 ISO file on a USB flash drive.

You might have heard of the stir that Microsoft’s Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool (WUDT) caused last year when some Open Source watchmen recognized that the tool contained code that violated the GPL. Microsoft was then “forced” to release WUDT under GPLv2. Considering the upset in the media about this incident, I expected a luxurious tool that comes with lots of customization features. I was somewhat disappointed to discover it does nothing else but copy the contents of a Windows 7 install DVD to a USB stick and make it bootable.

The funny thing is that WUDT even failed to perform this simple task with my no-name USB stick. This message was the only thing that the Open Source tool could do for me:

We were unable to copy your files. Please check your USB device and the selected ISO file and try again.

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A few days ago, I blogged about BartPE, a well known tool for creating a Windows PE based rescue boot CD. Some readers recommended checking out UBCD4Win, which is an offspring of BartPE. The main difference between the two is that the UBCD4Win project is still alive while BartPE seems to have been discontinued. There is also no doubt that UBCD4Win is the far more advanced tool. The number of rescue utilities is impressive. And best of all – its Windows PE installation didn’t crash on my Dell Precision laptop, unlike BartPE.

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I was quite surprised when I checked the 4sysops list of free admin tools lately and found that BartPE is still not listed. BartPE’s PE Builder allows you to create a bootable Windows PE CD that contains various useful repair tools (file manager, disk management, check disk, etc.). BartPE is a great utility if you have to repair a non-bootable Windows installation or if you want to get access to the operating system while it is offline.

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The Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset (MSDaRT or DaRT) is tool set to recover Windows which is only available for Volume license customers.

In my view, the Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset (MSDaRT or DaRT) is one of the best tools when it comes to repairing a non-bootable Windows installation, or when you have to perform repair tasks which can’t be done on a running system. The toolset comes with an ISO file which contains the ERD Commander. You have to burn it on CD and then boot into Windows PE. You will have the following tools available:

• ERD Registry editor: edit Windows registry
• Locksmith: reset a password (without knowing the administrator’s password)
• Crash Analyzer: analyze crash dumps
• File Restore: Restore deleted files
• Disk Commander: Repair volumes, MBR, partitions
• Disk Wipe: Erase data from hard disk
• Computer Management: System Information, Autoruns (configure autostarting applications), Event Viewer, Disk Management (format, manage partitions, etc.), Services and Drivers (enable, disable, etc.)
• Explorer: Browse the hard drive

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AdapterWatch is a standalone tool that can help troubleshoot network problems. It displays all the information you can think of about network adapters.

There are four tabs: Network Adapters, TCP/UDP Statistics, IP Statistics, ICMP Statistics and General. I tested AdapterWatch v1.04.

The Network Adapters’ tab mostly displays configuration settings such as: the GUID, MAC address, DHCP lease, interface speed or MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit). You will also find some statistical information including: received/sent data, calculated speed and discarded packets. The list is quite comprehensive. Please check out the screenshot for other parameters. What I like about AdapterWatch is that it displays all network adapters in a table. This makes it easy to compare all settings. That’s not possible with the network settings tools in Windows because you can’t open the controls of different network adapters, simultaneously.

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