NightOwl

Here is another free WinPE that looks worthwhile. I downloaded it last night.

http://technomixer.blogspot.com/2011/08/wondershare-live-boot-2012-v701-license....

http://www.wondershare.com/topic/giveaway-liveboot2012.html

snowdude

snowdude wrote on Aug 9^th, 2011 at 11:16am:


Interesting. I'd like to try that. Would you mind sharing your batch file?

snowdude

Quote:

Just wondering, did you notice this reference, How to create a bootable Windows PE 3.0 USB drive--Part 2 , from my reply #52.  Would that coding help identify your USB flash drive drive letter?

Quote:

I'm afraid I don't recognize your short-hand--could you translate that into something a little more basic?

I thought you wanted to create an automated restore--why are you now wanting to create a UI  and/or *command prompt* window for user interactions?  Have your *goals* changed?

Brain has been reporting *automated restores* that apparently do not need any *user inputs*--have you been unable to do the same?

NightOwl

NightOwl wrote on Aug 10^th, 2011 at 10:15am:


I made a WinPE from that reference. It loaded very slowly on my computer and wouldn't load at all if networking was disabled.

my full batch file is no longer in one segment, the startnet.cmd simply contains wpeinit then code to search for my HTA, which by the way is a form of html that can be run on the local computer with all the same functionality as a html page plus some. Here is how i searched for my HTA:
Code:

set drv=NONE
:loopstart
for %%a in (C D E F G H I J) do (
		if exist %%a:\UI\AutoGhost.hta (
			set drv=%%a
			goto :loopend
		)
	)
if %drv%==NONE goto :loopstart
:loopend 

It then launches the HTA which is a screen with the company logo and a few buttons which allow for automated imaging and rebooting of the computer. As well as a funny little clipart image of a ghost in a car for fun.

The HTA then uses VBScript coding to use the buttons to launch my new batch script "image.cmd" which has the same for loop but searches for base.gho instead, and then launches ghost32.exe to set the osdriveblinds, it then searches for base.gho again as the drive letter has now changed with the new system partition, then launches ghost32.exe to do the full image.

Originally my plan was an automated restore, and that is still the overall effect of this flash drive. However I felt it was a good idea to throw in a GUI for our inexperienced users and some failsafe abilities. My "Image" button on the HTA GUI screen launches a vbscript "msgbox" which prompts the user with a yes or no box that asks if they have backed up their data, if they answer yes it prompts the user again telling them that this process is unreversable, which if they click yes to continue it then launches the batch script which begins imaging with no further interaction needed. This gives the user some information so that we can send them the flash drive and simply let them boot from it and understand if they are ready to go through with the process or not.

The overall goal of an automated restore is still there, the user can simply click Image and Yes twice and they will end up with a freshly restored machine, while previously they would've have to have booted off a disc, then used the Ghost UI to navigate to the image file located on the flash drive and choose the correct partition to image to etc.  My GUI and scripts simplifly the process to a point where our users will be able to complete it themselves with virtually no need to contact us other then requesting the flash drive and likely backing up their data.

The flash drive is now working 100% on the hardware I have tested it on, I got HTA compatibility by building a fresh WinPE image using Microsoft WAIK and adding the HTA package to it.  Very easy process. Let me know if your interested in any of the UI or scripts related to it.

The pros of WinPE I found to outweigh the cons in comparison to DOS, the pros of DOS were the loading speed, from the time you select it as the boot device to the point where you initiate the image is considerably faster then WinPE, however when booting into WinPE you have a lot more options as far as tools and utilities and the such, for example, mine loads up with a command prompt that displays "Loading AutoGhost... Please Wait...", it then loads wpeinit and my hta which takes a decent amount of time, most of which is spent loading wpeinit, however as soon as it is loaded i run a utility i downloaded that hides the command prompt, the hta then launches the ui then after the user clicks image it launches in a hidden process a command prompt that launches ghost, which is then displayed to the user so they can see the time remained etc. None of that would have been doable in DOS which is why I found WinPE to be more versatile.

I believe that at one time I removed wpeinit from my startnet.cmd but when I did that it was no longer able to find my flash drive I think, I will look more into it but that was my experience.