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.

The script halts at critical points, which allows you to add your own files during the Windows 7 PE creation process. For instance, you could add some drivers to the WIM file or some tools to the boot medium.

At the end of the process, you have to decide whether you want to create an ISO file, which you can burn on a CD or a UFD. My_7PE can format the flash drive either with FAT32 or NTFS, or it can just leave the file system and its contents intact. The Windows PE creator tool can also add a boot manager (Grub4Dos or PloP) to the UFD.

The Windows 7 PE that My_7PE creates has a full-blown Windows desktop. You probably know that the Windows PE 3 from the WAIK only has a command line interface. The My_7PE version comes with a Start Menu, a taskbar, Windows Explorer, Internet Explorer, Control Panel tools, and a few utilities. As such, it is a modern version of UBCD4Win. As mentioned above, you can also add your own tools during the creation process.

The network only worked after I launched the PE Network Manager that comes with My_7PE. In theory, you can also configure WiFi with this tool, but Windows PE didn’t detect my WIFI network card. I suppose it was a driver issue.

The nice thing about My_7PE is that if you launch it from a UFD you can just add new rescue tools on the fly. This is comparable to my rescue disk solution, although My_7PE is certainly much more sophisticated and the Windows PE installation it creates is almost as comfortable as Windows 7.

If you realize that you need a new tool during your rescue mission, you can download it with Internet Explorer and add it to your UFD by dragging it to PStart, which comes with My_7PE. This allows you to use these tools also from a common Windows installation when you insert your rescue stick.

Note that at Boot Land there is a discussion going on whether My_7PE contains viruses because some scan engines at VirusTotal triggered an alarm. As far as I could see, the alarms were based on heuristics, which makes it quite likely that they were false positives.

Also note that at the time of this writing My_7PE only works on Windows 7 x86; that is, you can’t create a 64-bit Windows 7 PE with it.

My_7PE (Update: The download link is no longer valid. Please let me know if you found the new link.)

Disclaimer: Readers have posted download links to My_7PE in the comment section.  I cannot guarantee that the files are virus free.

• Regedit as offline Registry editor (15)
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• Free Windows Error Reporting (WER) viewing tool – AppCrashView (0)
• Free launcher for portable applications – NirLauncher (6)
• FREE: NTPWEdit – Reset Windows 7 password (15)

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.

Use regedit as offline Registry editor

1. Launch regedit on the command prompt.
2. Click HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
3. In the File menu, click “Load Hive.”
4. Open the database file that contains the Registry hive you need:
   • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \SAM = %windir%\system32\config\SAM
   • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \SYSTEM = %windir%\system32\config\SYSTEM
   • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \SOFTWARE = %windir%\system32\config\SOFTWARE
   • HKEY_USERS \.Default = %windir%\system32\config\DEFAULT
   • HKEY_CURRENT_USER = %userprofile%\ntuser.dat
5. Enter an arbitrary key name when prompted. A new node with your key name appears under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. 
6. Edit the Registry entries in the new node. 
7. Click the root folder of your node, and then click “Unload hive” in the File menu. Your changes will be written to the offline Registry.

Note that you can import and export .reg files to the offline Registry edtior. This allows you to use Registry settings from another machine for troubleshooting purposes.

Also note that this procedure can be used to edit the settings of a user profile without logging on with the corresponding user account. In one of my next posts, I will show you how you can—through offline Registry editor—access a computer where you have forgotten the administrator password, without requiring third-party software.

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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.

This also works on Windows PE 3.0. However, I had one problem with the free unzip software. You can only extract archives to the same drive from where you opened the ZIP file. In most cases this should not be a problem, though. If you want to unzip the archive to a different drive, you only have to copy the zip file to this disk first.

7-Zip Portable

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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.

This free tool automatically collects all .wer files and displays them in a table with configurable columns. You can move the columns and sort the list according to each column. The Windows Error Reporting applet also allows you to sort the .wer entries, but it only offers four different columns. What I am missing in AppCrashView is the ability to group error reports.

Another advantage of AppCrashView is that it displays the contents of the .wer file in the lower pane, enabling you to easily skim over multiple .wer files by scrolling through the list. Conversely, with the built-in WER applet you always have to move back and forth between the technical details view and the listing.

AppCrashView also works under Windows PE 3.0. To view the Windows error reports of an offline Windows installation, you have to tell AppCrashView where it can find the user profiles folder and the ProgramData folder when you launch the tool from the command line:

appcrashview /ProfilesFolder c:\Users /ProgramData c:\ProgramData

Last but not least, AppCrashView comes with a reporting feature that allows you to export all or some selected error reports into a text or HTML file. You can also use the tool in scripts to collect the information of all .wer files in your network.

In my next post, I will discuss the question of whether it makes sense to disable Windows Error Reporting or not.

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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.

The only downside of this free launcher is that adding and removing tools is a bit cumbersome because you have to edit a text file (nirlauncher.nlp). With PStart, you can just drag new apps to the user interface and remove them with a mouse click.

What I like about NirLauncher is that the tool categories are separated by tabs. If you have many tools on your rescue stick, you will like this feature. What I am missing here is the search function. If you forget the exact name of a tool, you have to scroll through all the entries.

Perhaps the coolest feature of NirLauncher is that you can add all Sysinternal tools in one go. NirSoft provides a configuration file for this purpose. All you have to do is to copy all the Sysinternal tools to a separate folder on your flash drive together with sysinternals.nlp. Then you have to drag sysinternals.nlp from the Sysinternals folder to the NirLauncher user interface.

You’ll find the Sysinternals Suite in the Packages menu. You can also switch between packages by using the F3 and F4 key, or Ctrl-1 and Ctrl-2. Each package has its own user interface with its own tabs. This makes this free launcher the perfect utility for tool suites.

There are three things you have to consider when you prepare your rescue stick for NirLauncher. First, some of the NirSoft apps might trigger false alarms in your antivirus software. This is because system tools sometimes show similar characteristics to malware or hacking tools, which lead the heuristics modules of virus scanners to the wrong conclusion.

Second, I recommend extracting the NirLauncher folder directly to your flash drive and not to your hard drive. It might cause problems if you run NirLauncher first from the hard drive and then copy it to your USB drive.

Third, even though all of the NirSoft tools are portable apps, not all of them will work under Windows PE.

I have tried NirLauncher under Windows 7 and Windows PE 3.0. Hence, you could use the free launcher as an alternative to PStart in step 2 in my tutorial for creating a rescue stick and launch NirLauncher automatically whenever you boot up from your USB stick. Another option would be to launch both PStart and NirLauncher at startup. Yet another way would be to simply add NirLauncher to the PStart menu. This is my choice. And if you want a geekier looking free launcher, you should check out RocketDock.

I will skim over all the tools that come with NirLauncher these days to see which tools are still missing in the 4sysops free admin utility list. If you would like to review one of the tools for 4sysops, please let me know.

NirLauncher

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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.

NTPWEdit also allows you to unlock the built-in administrator account. This can be useful if you don’t know which of the accounts on the system where you want to reset the password has admin privileges. I recommend disabling the local administrator account once you have access to the system. I covered the abilities of the built-in administrator account in detail awhile back.

I think NTPWEdit belongs in every admin’s tool box. Resetting Windows passwords on user laptops is a common task. I have tested NTPWEdit on Windows PE 3.0, and it worked without problems. The other famous password reset tool, Windows Password Renew, appears not to work on Windows PE 3.0.

As mentioned above you have to launch NTPWEdit from a second Windows installation. If you have not yet built your own rescue stick please read my instructions for how to boot Windows PE 3.0 from a USB drive. Also check out my article of how to reset the administrator password.

NTPWEdit

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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:

Autoruns is the most comprehensive auto startup managing tool. Windows offers many options to auto-start applications, and Autoruns knows them all. Whenever I install a new application, the first thing I do when the setup program is finished is to launch Autoruns to see what startup programs have been added. Often they only eat resources and slow down the computer without being really useful. With Autoruns you can easily disable these startup programs and, if you realize later that you want to activate them again, it only costs you a mouse click.

I also launch Autoruns if I suspect that a computer has been infected with spyware. Many spyware programs are not smart enough to hide from Autoruns and can be easily removed with the tool.

The only disadvantage of Autoruns is its complexity. It displays so many different entries in numerous different locations that you easily lose track of things. However, in most cases it is enough to check the first five folders in the Everything tab, the Winlogon tab, the Scheduled Tasks tab, and the Services tab. The majority of startup programs can be found there.

Autoruns not only allows you to manage startup programs but also all kinds of additions that third-party applications have added to Windows. For example you can get an overview of Explorer extensions, codecs, and Sidebar gadgets. Since some startup program options are user dependent, you can switch the user account easily through the User menu.

Autoruns 10 on Windows PE 3.0

The most interesting new feature of Autoruns 10 is the ability to run the tool on Windows PE and scan startup programs of an offline Windows installation. I have tried Autoruns with Windows PE 3.0 and I just have one complaint. The default screen resolution of Windows PE is 800×600, and Autoruns is not really prepared for that. That is, even the smallest window size doesn’t fit completely on the screen. I recommend maximizing the Autoruns window because otherwise it is difficult to use the tool.

In most cases you don’t want to manage the startup programs of Windows PE but of the Windows version that is installed on the PC. You’ll find the new feature that allows you to scan an offline Windows installation in the File menu. All you have to do is specify the system root folder of the Windows installation and the profile path of the user account you want to examine.

Unfortunately, in my test the browse-to-folder function that enables you to navigate to the system root folder and user profile did not work in my test on Windows PE 3.0. I had to add the path manually. This feature worked flawlessly under Windows 7.

Another change in Autoruns 10 is that Windows entries are not displayed by default. In version 9 this feature was disabled by default. This certainly makes sense because in most cases you don’t want to mess with Windows startup programs.

The Sysinternals blog also mentions that .exe and .cmd extension handlers have been added. I suppose the author didn’t mean that Autoruns adds new handlers but that the tool is able to detect modifications by third-party applications. But since I am not sure exactly what this new feature does, and before I write something wrong, I am asking 4sysops readers for help.

Autoruns

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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.

In the following three steps, you will learn how to configure your bootable USB drive with your own rescue tools. Steps 1 and 2 have to be performed only once. Step 3 is for adding new tools to your USB drive and has to be followed every time you add new tools.

1. Install and configure PStart

Since Windows PE doesn’t have a graphical user interface like Windows, you have to launch your tools from the command prompt, which is much too inconvenient for stressed admins. This is why I have created this simple solution so you can easily launch your tools from a GUI. For this purpose, I will use the free tool PStart which I reviewed a while back.

When the installation wizard of PStart asks you about the setup type, you should choose Portable Setup (see screenshot). Select your USB drive and tell the wizard to copy PStart to the root folder. Next, you can launch PStart from your USB drive with Windows Explorer.

To try this procedure, you can copy the free file manager Q-Dir to your USB drive. I recommend creating a special folder for all of your tools. Then, navigate to the Q-Dir folder and drag Q-Dir’s exe file to the PStart window. You should see now a new menu point (see screenshot). You can now exit PStart.

2. Launch PStart automatically when WinPE boots up

In the next step, we have to make sure that PStart will automatically launch when you boot up Windows PE. For this, you have to mount the wim file on your USB stick with imageX. ImageX belongs to WAIK, which you already downloaded and installed in our last session. Launch the Deployment Tools Command Prompt from the Windows Start Menu and type:

mkdir c:\img
imagex /mountrw F:\sources\boot.wim 1 c:\img

I assume here that your USB drive has the drive letter "F:". Now launch Notepad with admin privileges (right-click and select "Run as administrator") and then open:

c:\img\windows\system32\startnet.cmd

The problem is that the drive letter for your USB drive won’t always be the same because the number of drives in the computer may vary. The following batch script will automatically find your USB drive and launch PStart:

@echo off
for %%p in (a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z) do if exist %%p:\PStart\ set w=%%p
%w%:\PStart\PStart.exe

Add these lines to startnet.cmd after the wpeinit command (see screenshot). I am assuming here that you copied PStart in a folder named "\PStart" on your USB drive. Please note that PStart stores its configuration in an XML file in the same folder.

Save startnet.cmd and then issue this command to unmount boot.wim:

imagex /unmount /commit c:\img

That’s it. You can now boot Windows PE from your USB stick. PStart should be automatically launched and you can then run Q-Dir from PStart’s GUI with just a mouse click.

3. Add your own rescue tools

If you want to add additional tools, you only have to copy them to the tools folder of your USB drive and add them to PStart by dragging their exe files to its GUI. You can do this on your Windows 7 machine like I described in my example with Q-Dir. Thus, adding a new tool to your rescue stick will only costs you a couple of seconds once your USB drive is bootable. That is, in the future only step 3 is required. No more messing with imageX.

Note that not every portable app works under Windows PE 3.0. Raw Copy and Bart’s Stuff Test 5, which I reviewed this week, work fine. If you know of other good tools that work with Windows PE, please post a comment below or send me a note. I have created a new category in the 4sysops list of free administration tools for free Windows PE compatible tools.

• FREE: My_7PE – Build Windows 7 PE without WAIK (45)
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• Free launcher for portable applications – NirLauncher (6)

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.

Raw Copy doesn’t have many options, but it has all the features such a tool needs. All you have to do is select the source disk and the target disk where the raw image will be created. Everything on this destination disk will be erased, so be careful to choose the correct one. The target disk can be a raw disk, that is – it doesn’t have to be formatted. The size of the target disk should be at least equal to the size of the source drive. Raw Copy won’t complain if the destination disk is smaller, but the drive will appear as unformatted after all bytes have been copied. If the target disk is at least as large as the source, you will get an exact clone of the source disk including the file system. I recommend rebooting after the cloning process.

You can also choose where you want Raw Copy to start, whether at the end of the disk or at the beginning. In most cases, it makes sense to start with the end because valuable data is more likely to be found there. If your disk finally dies during the copy process, then you have saved at least some of the data.

Raw Copy was originally designed for NT/XP/2000 but it also appears to work on Vista and Windows 7. I also tried Raw Copy 1.2 on Windows PE 3.0.

Raw Copy

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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.

1. Create a bootable USB drive

Before you get started, you have to make your flash drive bootable. I have already described this procedure in my post about the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool. For your convenience here is the command sequence, which you should run on a command prompt with admin rights:

1. diskpart
2. list disk
3. select disk #
4. clean
5. create partition primary
6. select partition 1
7. active
8. format quick fs=fat32
9. assign
10. exit

Replace ‘#’ with the drive number of your USB drive. Be careful to choose the right disk in 3 because this procedure will erase the whole drive!

2. Copy the WinPE 3.0 files to the USB drive

WinPE 3.0 is part of the Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) for Windows 7, which you can download here. Once you have installed the WAIK, you’ll find a folder of the Windows AIK on the Windows Start Menu. Launch the Deployment Tools Command Prompt and enter this command:

1. copype.cmd x86 c:\winpe_x86
2. Then, copy winpe.wim to the correct folder:
3. copy c:\winpe_x86\winpe.wim c:\winpe_x86\ISO\sources\boot.wim
4. Now, copy WinPE to your USB drive:
5. xcopy C:\winpe_x86\iso\*.* /e G:\

In this example, ‘G:’ is the drive letter of your flash drive.

Now you should be able to boot from your WinPE 3.0 USB drive. In my next post, I will outline the interesting part—that is, how to prepare your USB drive so that you can add new tools without starting again from scratch.

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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.

At least, my cheap stick wasn’t the cause because everything worked perfectly when I manually did the job (hopefully without violating any Open Source laws). So, I thought, I would write this post for those who might run into the same problems and think they need to buy another USB stick. After all, this is Microsoft software and there are not many options to integrate bugs in such a simple tool.

Anyway, here is what you have to do. Launch a command prompt with admin rights and run the diskpart tool:

diskpart
list disk
select disk #
clean
create partition primary
select partition 1
active
format quick fs=fat32
assign
exit

The “list disk” command will show you the connected drives and with “select disk”, you can choose your USB stick. Be careful to select the right drive or else your day won’t have a happy end. The crucial step here is the “clean” command. It overwrites the MBR and the partition table (thereby, deleting everything on the stick). My guess is that WUDT misses this step and only formats the flash drive. It appears my memory stick had some odd partitions (which is not uncommon). When I tried WUDT again with this prepared stick, the Open Source tool mastered its task without further murmur.

By the way, this is also the reason why you shouldn’t use the Windows Disk Management applet to prepare the USB stick. This GUI doesn’t offer a clean command.

After you prepare the stick, you have to copy the contents of your Windows 7 DVD to the thumb drive, and you are done. If you only have an ISO file, you can use Virtual CloneDrive to mount the Windows 7 install DVD first.

Instead of formatting the partition with FAT32, you can also use NTFS (like WUDT does), but then you need an extra step to make the drive bootable:

Bootsect.exe /nt60 X:

“X:” is the drive letter of your USB stick. Bootsect.exe can be found on the Windows 7 DVD in the boot folder. However, I can’t really recommend using NTFS. My USB stick, at least, appeared to be slower with NTFS.

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The Windows PE builder looks pretty much the same as the one from BartPE. You also need a Windows XP or Windows 2003 installation CD. Vista is not yet supported as a source. Benjamin Burrows, the author of this project, writes that “dramatic changes” have prevented him so far from adapting the PE builder to create a Vista-based Windows PE boot CD. You can run the PE builder on Vista though. It is also possible to repair a Vista installation with a UBCD4Win rescue disk. However, you must not use a Windows Server 2003 CD as source for creating Windows PE. Read the FAQ for more information on this issue.

By the way, just in case you are worried if it is legal to create a Windows PE installation with UBCD4Win, then you should check out Benjamin’s notes about this topic. It appears that this project has Microsoft’s blessings.

UBCD4Win comes with quite a few plug-ins from third parties. Most of them are enabled by default. So if you want to create a slim Windows PE installation, you can disable a few. I suppose one file explorer is enough. UBCD4Win includes six by default. The number of available tools is impressive. You will find everything from anti-malware, to cloning, to recovery.

When you start up UBCD4Win, a DOS-based boot menu is loaded first. There are a few other systems you can boot from here. For example, there is FreeDOS, Windows Recovery Console, and an offline NT Password & Registry tool. The latter is useful if you have to reset the administrator password on a machine where you can’t log on anymore.

Booting up the Ultimate Boot CD for Windows takes quite some time. This is certainly a downside of the tool. If you are anxious to get an unbootable Windows installation working again, then every second counts. Sometimes your first attempt to repair a machine will fail, then you have to boot UBCD4Win again. Furthermore, I definitely prefer a Vista-based Windows PE. Considering that Windows 7 will be released soon, there will probably never be a Vista-based UBCD4Win version.

Thus, Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset (MSDaRT) is still my first choice whenever I have to repair a non-bootable system. However, it is not free and not available to everyone. Moreover, MSDaRT is no match for UBCD4Win when it comes to the available rescue tools. I think UBCD4Win belongs in every Windows administrator’s toolbox.

Update: I just saw that this tool was already submitted a year ago. I copied all ratings to this new post.

UBCD4Win

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The BartPE download doesn’t come with Windows PE. You will need a Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 CD to create BartPE. The PE Builder is a very simple tool: you only have to tell it the path to the Windows installation files, folders or files you want to include, and the output directory for the ISO file. It is also possible to burn the BartPE CD with the PE Builder.

The files you include will be in the root directory of the Windows PE CD. You can use this feature to add your favorite tools to your rescue CD. Most standalone tools also run under Windows PE. BartPE is delivered with some useful utilities that are added as plugins. There are quite a few third-party publishers that offer plugins for BartPE. Some of the plugins that come with BartPE are not enabled by default, but you can change that with the PE Builder before you create the CD. When you boot up BartPE, you will be asked if you would like to enable network support. Network access can be useful if you want to access additional tools or files from a network share.

Unfortunately, the project seems to be dead. The last update was released in February 2006. The PE Builder runs on Vista, but you can’t create a Vista-based BartPE CD. I haven’t used BartPE for quite some time now because I usually work with Microsoft’s ERD Commander if I have to repair a non-bootable Windows installation.

It was interesting to see that the XP-based Windows PE has quite a few problems in a modern environment. Even though I used a Windows XP SP3 source to create the BartPE CD, Windows PE crashed with a bluescreen on my Dell Precision M6400 laptop. I guess I could have made it work by integrating the latest Dell drivers, but I think this case shows that it is more likely now to run into hardware compatibility issues with Windows XP than with Vista.

BartPE

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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
• Solution Wizard : Choose the proper repair tool
• TCP/IP Config: Display and set TCP/IP configuration
• Hotfix Uninstall: uninstall hotfixes
• SFC Scan: System file repair
• Search: Search disk for files
• Standalone System Sweeper: Scan your system for malware, rootkits, and potentially unwanted software

The TCP/IP configuration is not for repairing the host system, but for setting up networking on Windows PE. This allows you to access other utilities on the network. You can also start tools from the hard drive using the Explorer. Of course, not all Windows programs will work on Windows PE.

Additionally, MSDaRT 6.0 has the following recovery options, which you might already know from the Windows Vista recovery disc:

• Startup Repair: Automatically fix problems that are preventing Windows from starting
• System Restore: Restore Windows to an earlier point in time
• Windows Complete PC Restore: Restore your entire computer from a backup
• Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool: Check your computer for memory hardware errors
• Command Prompt: Open a command prompt window

Unfortunately, DaRT is not free. What’s even worse is that not everyone can buy it. It is part of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP), which is only available for volume-licensed customers (and for Technet/MSDN subscribers). However, anyone can download the 30-day evaluation version of MSDaRT 5.0. I am not sure what happens after 30 days. I’ve never tried it, but I somehow think that it will still work after that period. Note that MSDaRT 5.0 only works for Windows XP, and MSDaRT 6.0 only on Vista. Both versions come with the same tools, though. MSDaRT 6.0 is part of MDOP 2008 R2. I was unable to find a public download of MDOP or MSDaRT 6.0.

In my opinion, bundling MSDaRT with MDOP is not really a good idea. These tools are not only of interest to enterprise customers; even home users could use them sometimes. The worst thing that can happen to any Windows user is that the system is no longer bootable. These are the most frustrating moments. Therefore, I think that MSDaRT belongs with the Sysinternals suite and should be free for everyone. This would certainly be helpful in moments when the customer experience reaches the lowest possible level.

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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.

The three statistics tabs display detailed information about the data transmitted. That is something for TCP/IP experts. You will be able to access data such as: number of active/passive opens, failed connection attempts, number of errors received, etc. Check out the screenshots for more.

Unfortunately, AdapterWatch doesn’t distinguish between different adapters. In most cases, the more general statistics data in the Network Adapter tab will be sufficient for troubleshooting adapter-related issues. But sometimes, it might turn out to be useful to have more specific TCP/IP statistics for each adapter, separately. The General tab displays common information, such as, when routing or DNS is enabled on this machine.

AdapterWatch

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Windows PE 2.0 is based on Windows Vista and like its predecessor Windows PE 1.0 , it is a subset of Windows. The primary purpose of Windows PE certainly is to deploy Windows Vista, but you can also use it for troubleshooting, for example, when essential system files of a Vista installation are corrupted.

We’ve been using Windows PE for a while to install Windows XP using the Operating System Deployment Feature Pack of Systems Management Server 2003. All in all, we were quite content with it. Prior to that, we’ve been using a third party imaging solution. Instead of Windows PE, we had to work with MS DOS for bare-metal installations. The main problem with this solution was getting MS DOS network drivers for new Computers.

In my view, the biggest advantage of Windows PE over the MS DOS solution is that you can use the usual Windows network drivers. Another plus might be its capability for scripting.

Windows PE 2.0 has two new interesting features compared to Windows PE 1.0. For one, since it is based on Windows Vista, you can take advantage of its improved security features like Windows Firewall. Don’t underestimate this point. If you want to get a clean installation you should be concerned about security from the very first moment of the deployment process.

The second improvement of Windows PE 2.0 is its driver injection feature. This means that you can load new drivers from removable media before or after Windows PE has been launched. As one uses Windows PE quite often on a new hardware, this feature is a real improvement.

By the way, Windows PE 2.0 is available for all corporate Microsoft customers. You can only use Windows PE 1.0 if you have a Microsoft Software Assurance agreement.

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