This post is part of our “How-To’s” section and covers Windows PE 3.0 which is most commonly used by those that repair computers or install Windows in enterprise environments.  This post may be expanded on in the future to help those that frequently work with Windows PE.

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