Windows PE is one of the most valuable tools for a computer technician. It allows them to be able to work on a Windows operating system while it is off-line. One of the utilities that benefits from this the most is Defrag. The problem is that Defrag is not available by default within Windows PE.

This is how you can add it to your personal copy of Windows PE. Granted this is technically more involved than most people want to get with WinPE and at least in this tutorial I am going to skip the formalities and basics with adding it.

Registry Keys To Add To WinPE:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\EXTERNALSOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{80EE4901-33A8-11d1-A213-0080C88593A5}] @=”Defrag NTFS engine”

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\EXTERNALSOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{80EE4901-33A8-11d1-A213-0080C88593A5}\LocalServer32] @=hex(2):25,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,72,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,\ 00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,44,00,66,00,\ 72,00,67,00,4e,00,74,00,66,00,73,00,2e,00,65,00,78,00,65,00,00,00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\EXTERNALSOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{80EE4902-33A8-11d1-A213-0080C88593A5}] @=”Defrag FAT engine”

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\EXTERNALSOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{80EE4902-33A8-11d1-A213-0080C88593A5}\LocalServer32] @=hex(2):25,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,72,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,\ 00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,44,00,66,00,\ 72,00,67,00,46,00,61,00,74,00,2e,00,65,00,78,00,65,00,00,00

For these files you can copy them from a Vista machine but make sure that the Vista service pack version matches the WinPE service pack version. Make sure to place them in the same locations as they are located on Vista.

Files To Add:
Windows\System32\Defrag.exe
Windows\System32\dfrgfat.exe
Windows\System32\DfrgNtfs.exe
Windows\System32\DfrgRes.dll
Windows\System32\en-US\Defrag.exe.mui
Windows\System32\en-US\DfrgFat.exe.mui
Windows\System32\en-US\DfrgNtfs.exe.mui
Windows\System32\en-US\DfrgRes.dll.mui

Once you have added these files and registry keys to the Windows PE WIM you can then use Defrag via the Windows PE Command Prompt.

Windows 7 deployment is about to be a very big topic for IT guys and as with every new OS, it doesn’t get much easier. There are always new things to learn and old things to cut out of the upgrading process and this tends to just make things more complicated.

Thankfully the guides are starting to roll out to help prepare you for the task ahead. The first guide that I am going to plug is Orbit One’s. It is a well written guide that covers creating a Windows PE image and then using it to deploy Windows 7. It is focused primarily on the Release Candidate of Windows 7 and as long as there are no major changes to the final build of Windows PE (or 7), can be relied upon to guide you through the upgrade process.

One of the reasons that this particular guide came to my attention (thanks to my friend Rob) is that they reference OS Attack for some of the commands to build Windows PE. If you are looking for more information on Windows PE make sure you check out our Windows PE section which will greatly be increasing in size as the Windows 7 release gets closer.

Check It Out> Orbit One, Download The Guide

Windows 7 is not the only Microsoft operating system that is in the Release Candidate stage, Windows PE which is based on Windows 7, is also being finalized.  Windows PE tends to be more of a niche market as it is intended for OEM’s and PC Technicians but it is also included on every Windows 7 disk.

There have not been any major changes since the last beta release but if you are looking for additional information on this version you can also download the documentation or check out the OS Attack Guide for working with Windows PE.

Check It Out> Download WAIK, WAIK Documentation,

This is a list of commands for the new Windows PE 3.0 based on Windows 7.  There have been many changes to PE including the addition of a new application called DISM.exe or the Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool.  ImageX can still be used for some commands such as mounting and unmounting the wim and more importantly compressing the wim.  DISM does normal compression by default but does not have an option for you to change the compression level (that I am aware of).

At the time of writing this Windows PE 3.0 is still in the beta phase but is more than stable for typical usage.  To create Windows PE you need to download and install the Windows Automated Installation Kit or WAIK.  You can get this from Microsoft.

To start create a directory in “C:\” called “PE” so that it looks like “C:\PE”

You can then create batch files from the following commands by simply copying the text and pasting it into a notepad document then saving it according to the format “MountWIM.bat “.  An important note with these commands is they must be executed as an administrator.  If you are on either Windows Vista or Windows 7 you either have to elevate a command prompt or create batch files and then right click the file and select “Run as administrator”.

Create winpe_x86 directory in C:\PE (this WILL delete it if the directory already exists):

rd /s/q C:\PE\winpe_x86

cd “c:\Program files\windows aik\tools\petools”
call copype.cmd x86 C:\PE\winpe_x86

Mount the WIM image:

cd “C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\x86\Servicing”

DISM.exe /Mount-Wim /WimFile:C:\PE\winpe_x86\ISO\sources\boot.wim /index:1 /MountDir:C:\PE\winpe_x86\mount

UnMount the WIM image commiting changes:

cd “C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\x86\Servicing”

DISM.exe /unmount-Wim /MountDir:C:\PE\winpe_x86\mount /Commit

Add packages into your WIM, this can be edited to only add in what you need to reduce the size of the WIM:

cd “C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\x86\Servicing\”

dism /image:C:\PE\winpe_x86\mount /Add-Package /PackagePath:”C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\PETools\x86\WinPE_OCs\winpe.cab”

dism /image:C:\PE\winpe_x86\mount /Add-Package /PackagePath:”C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\PETools\x86\WinPE_OCs\winpe-wmi.cab”

dism /image:C:\PE\winpe_x86\mount /Add-Package /PackagePath:”C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\PETools\x86\WinPE_OCs\winpe-hta.cab”

dism /image:C:\PE\winpe_x86\mount /Add-Package /PackagePath:”C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\PETools\x86\WinPE_OCs\winpe-legacysetup.cab”

dism /image:C:\PE\winpe_x86\mount /Add-Package /PackagePath:”C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\PETools\x86\WinPE_OCs\winpe-mdac.cab”

dism /image:C:\PE\winpe_x86\mount /Add-Package /PackagePath:”C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\PETools\x86\WinPE_OCs\winpe-scripting.cab”

dism /image:C:\PE\winpe_x86\mount /Add-Package /PackagePath:”C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\PETools\x86\WinPE_OCs\winpe-setup.cab”

dism /image:C:\PE\winpe_x86\mount /Add-Package /PackagePath:”C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\PETools\x86\WinPE_OCs\winpe-wds-tools.cab”

Check what packages are installed:

cd “C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\x86\Servicing\”

dism /image:c:\PE\winpe_x86\mount\ /Get-Packages

UnMount the WIM image discarding changes:

cd “C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\x86\Servicing”

DISM.exe /unmount-Wim /MountDir:C:\PE\winpe_x86\mount /discard

Create Windows PE ISO:

cd “C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\x86″

oscdimg -n -bc:\PE\winpe_x86\etfsboot.com c:\PE\winpe_x86\ISO c:\PE\winpe_x86\winpe_x86.iso

Here are a few additional details regarding the Windows PE 3.0.

• The installation package includes the files for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2
• Both 32-bit and 64-bit packages are included
• UpdateBootInfo command is now functional and includes new options.  This lets a shell check what device the PE booted from and then execute other programs from that drive letter.
• WaitForRemoveableStorage has also been added.  This delays the startup of the shell or applications until devices such as USB drives are fully loaded. This command will more than likely now allow for booting off of USB devices such as pendrives and hard drives.
• The command Shutdown has also been added. Previously the user needed to use the command “wpeutil shutdown” to shutdown the computer and PE.
• The ability to save a custom user profile has been added
• WinPE-SRT-Package (available only on the Windows OPK) adds in the tools needed to repair an off-line Windows installation.  With the previous version of PE this version was available in the Beta and then removed from the final release.  The same thing may occur with this release as well.
• WinPE-Setup is a package that allows you to add in the setup files need to install Windows 7 either locally or via a server.
• WinPE-LegacySetup-Package adds legacy support to PE.  What exactly this means I am not sure but will find out.
• BCDboot has also been added both to PE and Windows 7 which repairs the BCD files (these are the menus you see when you select an OS to boot).  There is a lot more to this tool which I will expand on at a later time.
• Includes the SDK for ImageX

If you are into Windows PE or just want to check it out you can download it from Microsoft.  I will be posting a How-To for the new Windows PE in the next week.  If you have any specific questions please feel free to ask.