d7 with WinPE

UPDATE 7-29-14:  Use the guide here:  Creating a WinPE 5.1 Bootable and NONE of the steps below are necessary.  

Let me start by saying that only features on the Offline Operations page are designed to work from WinPE or on slaved hard drives to another machine. That being said…

First, you need to know that d7 cannot run properly from read-only or write-protected media.  So putting d7 on a CD/DVD or write-protected flash drive is a no-no.  Always keep d7 on a flash drive or copy it to the offline OS partition before attempting usage.

Next, when running from certain builds of WinPE, you may be missing several key windows components required in order to function properly.  Side effects of missing components vary depending on the component, and can be certain functions not working as expected or at all, d7 crashes on startup or during operation, or d7 failing to start at all or getting stuck on the “Loading…” splash screen.

• You may require the VB6 SP6 Runtimes from Microsoft – most all systems have these already, but some WinPE based environments may not have the proper files. These files are MSVBVM60.DLL, OLEAUT32.DLL, OLEPRO32.DLL, ASYCFILT.DLL, STDOLE2.TLB, COMCAT.DLL.
• You may need is SCRRUN.DLL from the Script 5.6 (or 5.7) files from Microsoft.
• You may need MFC42.DLL
• You may need IESHIMS.DLL
• There may be other files depending on your specific WinPE build.  To determine which files are missing, you can typically run Dependency Walker and from within, open d7.exe or one of the codejock*.ocx files within the d7 directory while booted into your WinPE build.  Note not every .DLL file it claims is missing actually is, (or even exists) but it is a great starting point, and when in doubt post in the support forums.

Getting everything where it needs to be:

1. You can usually pluck all of these files from any WindowsSystem32 directory – preferably of the same OS version / architecture  as the WinPE version you are creating.
2. Place all of these files in the d7 directory.
3. These files may need to be registered (via regsvr32) in your WinPE environment. Additionally other .DLL or .OCX files may need to be registered which are included within d7.  A simple batch script is available for this below (download and place the batch file in your d7 directory and launch it to run d7 – note you must first rename it to .CMD as it is currently a .TXT and not executable.)

Many people ask me about getting d7 on a WinPE based boot CD. My answer is usually, “just boot any WinPE based disk with your flash drive plugged in.”  There are many pre-made disks out there, such as “The Ultimate Boot CD for Windows” or UBCD, and “Hirens” builds.

But yes, there is an easy way to have d7 on the PE disk itself if you don’t have a flash drive handy. For one, you could edit the ISO and just drop d7 in there and save.  You can also build your own WinPE based disk using your own methods, or the dated “BartPE” or perhaps the easiest and most current method is to use a project called “Winbuilder” which has some pre-made scripts to create certain WinPE builds.  I recommend Win7SE.  I have detailed the process previously, but software and methods keep changing faster than I’m willing to keep an instructional updated so it has been removed to avoid confusion.