What is Windows 10 PE and why was it needed?

What is Windows 10 PE, and why was it needed to be made when there was Windows 7 PE?

The answer is simple. Windows 7 was released back in the day when there was no USB 3.0 let alone 3.1 and no UEFI systems.  (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface). So, Windows 7 PE would not boot on a UEFI system. For this, we needed sighted help to install Windows or disable UEFI and go back to legacy bios mode (which was a waste of system feature and did not provide some kind of security against rootkits).

Windows 10 PE (Preinstallation Environment) is made so that it can be bootable on a UEFI and secure boot enabled system also.  Of course you can boot a Windows 10 PE on a non UEFI system.
 
There is a misconception that if you have Windows 7 or Windows 10 PE you can only install Windows 10 or Windows 7. No, you can install Windows as old as XP. Please note: Windows older than XP are not tested for installation.

Ok now let’s get a bit technical shall we? The step 4 of this guide is for people who have a UEFI system only. People who don’t have a UEFI system please don’t try any steps in this guide.

Preparing a boot disk

Now let’s prepare our boot disk. For that, take any external hard disk or USB flash drive. Note the hard drive will be cleaned to be converted to gpt. So, after the hard drive is connected to the computer, open command prompt as admin.

1.         Press Windows and the R key.

2.         Type cmd.exe

3.         Hold right Shift and press Enter

Now in the command prompt type the following commands and press Enter after each.

Diskpart

List disk

Select disk x replace the number of the disk that disk part shows you in your previous command (mostly on most systems internal disk is 0 and

external disk is 1). Make sure you select the right disk number and then type clean. (This will remove any partition table from the disk including volumes).

Then type convert gpt

Then type create partition primary.

Now all command prompt work is over.


So, close the command prompt and open disk management. For this do the following:

1.         Press the Windows key + the letter  R

2.         Type control and press Enter.

3.         Find administration tools and press Enter... then find computer management and press Enter.

4.         Now computer management mmc will open.

5.         Go to storage and find disk management.

6.         Press Enter and then Tab.

7.         Now find some partition called the following: type basic, file system raw.

8.         Right click on it and format it.

9.         Format the drive with ntfs filing system.

Writing (the ISO image) to your hard drive, booting to it, and starting independent installation

Now open the Windows 10 PE x86 or x64 exe files. Leave all options as the defaults and then select your hard drive and start writing to it.

Once the iso is written to it, start booting to it and start install Windows again on your own without sighted help.

5.         Ok, now everyone UEFI or non UEFI please read the following:

The download links for the isos are http://opopanax.net/download/

From this link you will get the following:

1.         An exe file having Windows 10 x64 image.

2.         An exe file having Windows 10 x86 image.

3.         An exe file with Windows 7 x64 image (Windows 7 PE is updated with updates to new programs and addition of some more programs).

4.         Updated version of Windows 7 x86 PE.

Known issues of Windows 10 PE

1.         For security net PE is not set to run at startup. You have to run it from the Windows 10 PE desktop.

(Network PE is a program which helps the PE to connect to the internet as it loads, and initialises network drivers).

2.         On Windows 10 64 bit PE even if the wireless card drivers are detected the notifications area will show no wireless connections are

available. To solve this, please do the following:

1.         Open control panel

2.         Open network and sharing centre.

3.         Select setup a new connection.

4.         Manually connect to a wireless network.

5.         Ethernet connection works fine.

Contact details for Windows 10 PE

If you have any questions or find any bugs you can contact me and I will report them to Carlos.

If some Ethernet card or wireless card drivers are not found, we require the following info:

1.         Card manufacturer

2.         Card model number.

My contact details (so the information can be passed on to Carlos) is Austin Pinto austinpinto.xaviers@gmail.com

Thanks for reading this long guide.



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