Creating a WinPE 5.1 Bootable

Note: The latest version of WinPE (for Windows 10) is now available from Microsoft.  See this page for all the details, and this page for a modern tutorial.

Creating a WinPE 5.1 Bootable (outdated)

When you need to create a WinPE disk for usage with d7, d7II, d7x, our free dBug, or any other 3rd party tools designed to work from WinPE on ‘offline’ Windows OS partitions, you can do so by following the simple steps below:

1. Download the complete Win8.1SE  package here:  http://win81se.cwcodes.net/Compressed/index.php
2. Extract and run Win81SE82_Builder.exe
3. Click the Source button at the top, and set the Source, Target, and ISO directories to real directories, just create any 3 new directories for this purpose.
4. Extract your Windows 8.1 32bit* DVD/ISO to the “source” directory you created and set in the last step.
   1. * a 32bit Windows edition should ALWAYS be used.  People have reported several major issues with the 64bit editions, including build issues and d7II not starting at all even on a successful build; additionally it is also recommended in many places to always create/use 32bit WinPE distributions due to issues with other applications that you may use from WinPE. Note that running 32bit WinPE will NOT affect your ability to use d7II/d7x or other tools on 64bit systems.  There is no disadvantage to using 32bit WinPE at all, and it may run faster.
5. Click the Play button and wait.  After some time when the app completes, your Win8.1SE_xxx.ISO file can be found in the ISO directory.
   1. The resulting ISO can be burned to disk or copied to a flash drive with the appropriate tool, along with adding the Foolish IT software.
   2. You can create a bootable USB flash drive with one of many tools out there like Rufus or ISO to USB.
   3. If you need to stick the ISO of this on a USB flash drive with other ISOs for convenience, check out the utility XBoot.

The resulting WinPE build was tested with both d7II and dBug with no issues.

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