WinPE: Mount and Customize

WinPE ships as a .wim file. Mounting and customizing a WinPE image is the same process as any other Windows image. WinPE also has some customizations that are specific to it. This topic covers the common ways to customize a WinPE image.

Common customizations:

• Device drivers (.inf files). You can customize device drivers, such as drivers that support network cards or storage devices.
• Packages (.cab files, also known as WinPE optional components) Add languages, hotfixes, or support for features like PowerShell and the HTML Application Language (HTA).
• Languages. To run WinPE in multiple languages, add the packages (optional components) for those languages.
• Add files and folders. These can be added directly to the WinPE image.
• DISM: Use a newer version. When new versions of Windows require features from the latest version of DISM, you can add DISM directly into WinPE.
• Startup scripts. Examples include setting up a network connection, or adding a custom application, such as diagnostic software.
• Apps. Note, WinPE only supports legacy apps.
• Temporary storage (scratch space). If your application requires temporary file storage, you can reserve extra memory space in RAM.
• Background image
• Power scheme
• WinPE settings
• Windows updates

Get the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit with Windows PE tools

• Install the WindowsВ Assessment and Deployment Kit (WindowsВ ADK) Technical Reference, with WindowsВ Preinstallation Environment. If you’re using the ADK for Windows 10, version 1809, you’ll have to download and install the WinPE addon after you install the ADK. Previous versions of the ADK include Windows Preinstallation Environment in the ADK installer.

Create a set of either 32-bit or 64-bit Windows PE files

Before you can customize WinPE, you need to have a WinPE image to work with. If you need to get a WinPE image, see WinPE: Create USB bootable drive to learn how.

Mount the Windows PE boot image

Use DISM to mount the WinPE image into a temporary location on your technician PC:

Add customizations

Add device drivers (.inf files)

Use DISM /add-driver to add a device driver to your WinPE image.

You can add multiple drivers to an image by using one command, but it’s often easier to troubleshoot problems if you add each driver package individually.

To learn more about drivers, see Add device drivers (.inf files). To see all available DISM driver servicing options, see DISM driver servicing command-line options.

Add packages/languages/optional components/.cab files

WinPE has packages that you can add with DISM to enable additional features and languages. Use DISM /add-package to add optional components to your image. When you add a WinPE optional component, make sure that you add both the optional component and its associated language packs.

To learn more about available optional components and languages, see WinPE: Add packages (Optional Components Reference).

Add files and folders

Copy files and folders into the C:\WinPE_amd64\mount folder. These files will show up in the X:\ folder in WinPE.

Don’t add too many files, as these will slow down WinPE and can fill up the available memory in the default RAMDisk environment.

Add a startup script

Modify Startnet.cmd to include your customized commands. This file is located in your mounted image at C:\WinPE_amd64\mount\Windows\System32\Startnet.cmd .

You can also call other batch files or command line scripts from this file.

For Plug and Play or networking support, make sure that you include a call to wpeinit in your customized Startnet.cmd script. For more info, see Wpeinit and Startnet.cmd: Using WinPE Startup Scripts.

Add an app

Create an app directory inside the mounted WinPE image.

Copy the necessary app files to the local WinPE directory.

Test the app later by booting WinPE and running the application from the X: directory.

If your app requires temporary storage, or if WinPE becomes unresponsive when it runs an app, you may need to increase the amount of temporary storage (scratch space) allocated to WinPE.

To automatically launch a shell or application that runs when WinPE starts, add the path location to the Winpeshl.ini file. For more info, see Winpeshl.ini Reference: Launching an app when WinPE starts.

Add temporary storage (scratch space)

WinPE reserves memory on the X: drive to unpack the WinPE files, plus additional temporary file storage, known as scratch space, that can be used by your applications. By default, this is 512MB for PCs with more than 1GB of RAM, otherwise the default is 32MB. Valid values are 32, 64, 128, 256, or 512.

Replace the background image

If you’ve got multiple versions of WinPE, you can set the background image so you can instantly tell which version of WinPE is running.

Change the security permissions of the WinPE background image file ( \windows\system32\winpe.jpg ). This allows you to modify or delete the file.

In Windows Explorer, navigate to C:\WinPE_amd64\mount\windows\system32 .

Right-click the C:\WinPE_amd64\mount\windows\system32\winpe.jpg file, and select Properties > Security tab > Advanced.

Next to Owner, select Change. Change the owner to Administrators.

Apply the changes, and exit the Properties window to save changes.

Right-click the C:\WinPE_amd64\mount\windows\system32\winpe.jpg file, and select Properties > Security tab > Advanced.

Modify the permissions for Administrators to allow full access.

Apply the changes, and exit the Properties window to save changes.

Replace the winpe.jpg file with your own image file.

Set the power scheme to high performance

Note: Using the high performance power scheme can make the device run hotter than usual.

In Notepad, edit the file: C:\WinPE_amd64\mount\windows\system32\startnet.cmd , adding a command to set the power scheme to High Performance.

Add answer file settings

• Some WinPE settings can be managed by using an answer file, such as firewall, network, and display settings. Create an answer file, name it unattend.xml, and add it to the root of the WinPE media to process these settings. For more information, see Wpeinit and Startnet.cmd: Using WinPE Startup Scripts.

Add updates to WinPE (if needed)

You can apply updates to your WinPE image, but you’ll only need to for certain situations.

If you’ve been instructed to apply an update to your WinPE image, you’ll have to first download the latest update for your WinPE version from the Microsoft update catalog. Updates for WinPE are included in updates for the matching version of Windows 10. You can find information about the latest available updates for Windows 10 at Windows 10 update history.

Download the latest update.

Apply the update to your mounted WinPE image.

Where Windows10.0-kbxxxxx.msu is the name of the update file

Lock in the update:

Unmount the Windows PE image and create media

Unmount the WinPE image, committing changes.

Create bootable media, such as a USB flash drive.

Boot the media. WinPE starts automatically. After the WinPE window appears, the wpeinit command runs automatically. This may take a few minutes. Verify your customizations.

Troubleshooting

• WinPE won’t boot? See the troubleshooting tips at the end of the topic: WinPE: Create USB Bootable drive
• For tips on connecting to a network, see WinPE Network Drivers: Initializing and adding drivers.
• If the WinPE image becomes unserviceable, you may need to clean up the images before you can mount the image again. For information, see Repair a Windows Image.

To delete a working directory:

In some cases, you may not be able to recover the mounted image. DISM protects you from accidentally deleting the working directory, so you may have to try the following steps to get access to delete the mounted directory. Try each of the following steps:

Try remounting the image:

Try unmounting the image, discarding the changes:

Try cleaning up the resources associated with the mounted image:

How to mount ISO images on Windows 10

Source: Windows Central

An ISO image is a container format designed to store the contents of a physical disk (CD, DVD, or Blu-ray). Software companies usually use this file format as a medium to distribute the applications and tools without the need to ship physical media, which can be costly and time-consuming. For example, Microsoft uses this format to distribute previews of Windows 10 to testers and many other products.

Although you can find a lot of tools to work with images, Windows 10 includes the ability to mount and mount ISO files natively without the need for extra software.

In this Windows 10 guide, we’ll walk you through the steps to mount and unmount the ISO images using File Explorer as well as PowerShell commands.

How to mount ISO image with File Explorer

On Windows 10, you can access the content of an image in at least three different ways using File explorer. You can double-click the file, you can use the content menu option, or the option available in the ribbon menu.

Mount image with double-click

To quickly mount an ISO file on Windows 10, use these steps:

1. Open File Explorer.
2. Browse to the folder with the ISO image.

Double-click the .iso file file to mount it.

Source: Windows Central

Once you complete these steps, the ISO file will open like any other folder, allowing you to access and extract the contents as necessary.

Mount image from context menu

To mount an ISO image with the File Explorer context menu, use these steps:

1. Open File Explorer.
2. Browse to the folder with the ISO image.

Right-click the .iso file and select the Mount option.

Source: Windows Central

Once you complete the steps, you can access the contents of the image by selecting the virtual drive from the left navigation pane.

Mount image from ribbon menu

To mount an image with the ribbon menu, use these steps:

1. Open File Explorer.
2. Browse to the folder with the ISO image.
3. Select the .iso file.
4. Click the Disk Image Tools tab.

Click the Mount button.

Source: Windows Central

If you have a third-party tool to open compressed files (such as .zip, .tar, .rar, etc.), it’s possible the tool may also be configured as the default application to open ISO images. When this happens, you won’t see an option to mount images. However, you can still right-click, select the Open with submenu, and select the Windows Explorer option to mount the ISO.

Unmount image

Once you are no longer using the image, you can quickly unmount the file by right-clicking the virtual drive under This PC in File Explorer and selecting the Eject option.

1. Open File Explorer.
2. Expand This PC from the left navigation pane.

Right-click the virtual drive and select the Eject option.

Source: Windows Central

After you complete these steps, the image will no longer be accessible until you mount it again.

How to mount ISO image with PowerShell

It’s also possible to mount and unmount an image using commands with PowerShell.

Mount ISO image command

To mount an ISO image using a PowerShell command, use these steps:

1. Open Start.
2. Search for PowerShell, right-click the top result, and select the Run as administrator option.

Type the following command to mount an ISO image and press Enter:

Mount-DiskImage -ImagePath «PATH\TO\ISOFILE»

In the command, make sure to replace the «PATH\TO\ISOFILE» with the actual path of the .iso file.

For example, this command mounts an image in the «E:\» virtual drive:

Mount-DiskImage -ImagePath «E:\Windows10.iso»

Source: Windows Central

Once you complete the steps, the ISO image will mount, and you will be able to access the contents to install the application or extract the image contents from the newly-available drive letter.

Unmount ISO image command

To unmount an image with PowerShell, use these steps:

1. Open Start.
2. Search for PowerShell, right-click the top result, and select the Run as administrator option.

Type the following command to mount an ISO image and press Enter:

Dismount-DiskImage -ImagePath «PATH\TO\ISOFILE»

In the command, make sure to replace the «PATH\TO\ISOFILE» with the actual path of the .iso file.

For example, this command removes the mount for an image in the «E:\» virtual drive:

Dismount-DiskImage -ImagePath «E:\Windows10.iso»

Source: Windows Central

After you complete the steps, the virtual drive will be removed, and the image will no longer be accessible until you mount it again.

More Windows 10 resources

For more helpful articles, coverage, and answers to common questions about Windows 10, visit the following resources:

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