1MKWINPEIMG(1) User Commands MKWINPEIMG(1)
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6 mkwinpeimg - Make a customized bootable image of Windows PE
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9 mkwinpeimg [OPTIONS] IMAGE
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12 mkwinpeimg is able to make a bootable image of Windows PE by taking
13 files from a mounted Windows installation ISO image (Vista or later) or
14 the mounted ISO image for the Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK)
15 or the WAIK supplement. The --windows-dir and --waik-dir options are
16 used to specify the locations of these mounted ISOs. You only need one
17 or the other. The files that mkwinpeimg will retrieve are boot.wim,
18 bootmgr, boot.sdi, and bcd. If making an ISO image, the file etfs‐
19 boot.com is also retrieved. Microsoft owns the rights to these files
20 and they are not distributed with wimlib.
21 mkwinpeimg can make two types of bootable images. The default is to
23 make a bootable disk image. The image is not partitioned and is for‐
24 matted into a FAT filesystem. syslinux(1) is required to make this
25 type of image, as it is used to chainload bootmgr. Also, mtools(1) is
26 required so that the FAT filesystem can be created without root privi‐
27 leges.
28 The other type of bootable image that mkwinpeimg can make is a bootable
30 ISO image. To make this type of image, give the --iso option. mk‐
31 isofs(1) is required to make this type of image. In --iso mode, you
32 can specify IMAGE as "-" to write the ISO image to standard output.
33 If you make a disk image, you could put it on a USB drive, and if you
35 make an ISO image, you could put it on a CD. In addition, both types
36 of images can be loaded by the SYSLINUX or PXELINUX bootloaders using
37 the MEMDISK module.
38 Windows PE itself is contained in the boot.wim file. mkwinpeimg can
40 modify this file before embedding it in a bootable image. The most
41 useful modification is to specify an executable or batch file for Win‐
42 dows PE to execute as soon as it starts up. Use the --start-script
43 FILE option to specify such a file. You may also add arbitrary files
44 to boot.wim by putting them in a directory, then specifying the --over‐
45 lay DIR option. However, for more extensive modifications, consider
46 modifying the boot.wim file separately using wimmountrw(1) or wimup‐
47 date(1), then providing it to mkwinpeimg using the --wim option.
48 mkwinpeimg can also make only a modified boot.wim, rather than a
50 bootable ISO or disk image, if the --only-wim option is given.
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53 -i, --iso
54 Make an ISO image instead of a disk image.
55 -o, --only-wim
57 Make neither a disk image nor an ISO image; instead, only make a
58 modified boot.wim file.
59 -W, --windows-dir=DIR
61 Use DIR as the location of the mounted Windows installation ISO
62 image. If neither --windows-dir nor --waik-dir is specified,
63 then the script looks for the mounted ISO in the following de‐
64 fault locations: /mnt/windows, /mnt/windows7, /mnt/windows8, and
65 /mnt/windows10.
66 -A, --waik-dir=DIR
68 Get the boot files and boot.wim from the ISO of the Windows Auto‐
69 mated Installation Kit mounted on DIR instead of from a Windows
70 installation ISO. This also works if the mounted ISO is for the
71 WAIK supplement rather than the WAIK itself.
72 -s, --start-script=FILE
74 Add FILE to the root directory of Windows PE image and adjust
75 \Windows\System32\winpeshl.ini to execute FILE when Windows PE
76 starts up.
77 -w, --wim=WIM
79 Use WIM as the "boot.wim" file. This defaults to the appropriate
80 WIM file from the Windows ISO, WAIK, or WAIK supplement.
81 -O, --overlay=DIR
83 Adds all the files in DIR to the Windows PE image.
84 -t, --tmp-dir=DIR
86 Use DIR for temporary files. Defaults to a directory made using
87 "mktemp -d".
88 -a, --arch=ARCH
90 Use the Windows PE version from the Windows Automated Installa‐
91 tion Kit (or the WAIK supplement) that has the CPU architecture
92 ARCH. Only valid with --waik-dir. Possible values: "x86" or
93 "amd64". Default is "x86". Note: the WAIK also contains a Win‐
94 dows PE image for the ia64 (Itanium) architecture; however, this
95 is not supported by this script.
96 -h, --help
98 Display help.
99 -v, --version
101 Show version information.
102
104 Create a bootable disk image of Windows PE from the Windows (Vista or
105 later) installation media mounted on /media/windows:
106 mkwinpeimg --windows-dir=/media/windows winpe.img
108 Create a bootable ISO of Windows PE from the WAIK (or WAIK supplement)
110 mounted on /media/waik, and add all the files in "winpe_overlay" to
111 Windows PE's filesystem:
112 mkwinpeimg --iso --waik-dir=/media/waik --overlay=winpe_overlay
114 winpe.iso
115 Create a bootable image of Windows PE from the Windows installation me‐
117 dia mounted on /media/windows, add and make it execute "install.cmd"
118 when it starts up. In this example the image is created in the root
119 directory of the TFTP server for network booting.
120 mkwinpeimg --start-script=install.cmd --windows-dir=/media/win‐
122 dows /var/tftpboot/winpe.img
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125 Microsoft's licenses may limit the things that Windows PE can be used
126 for, and they may limit your rights to redistribute customized versions
127 of Windows PE.
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130 Report bugs to https://wimlib.net/forums/.
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133 wimlib-imagex(1)
134wimlib 1.13.4 April 2021 MKWINPEIMG(1)