部署Vista（10）——认识 Windows PE

The unattended install from DVD method (sometimes called the boot from DVD method) is fine if you have .ly a few computers to install, but what if you have dozens of computers and you want to install them in .e shot instead of .e after another? Aha, now we’re moving into something different - deployment over a network - and we’ll need additional tools to make this work. The first new tool we’re going to need is called the Windows Preinstallation Environment or Windows PE, and that’s what we’ll begin looking at in this article. Then .ce we’re familiar with WinPE and how we can use it to perform network installs of Vista, we’ll learn how to use Windows Deployment Services to make our network installs even simpler.
如果你只有少量计算机需要安装Vista，那么从DVD进行无人安装没有任何问题。但如果你需要在短时间内同时安装呢？现在我们把目光转移到另一种部署方式，从网络进行部署，这需要其他一些工具来完成这项工作。第一个需要的工具是Windows PE。一旦我们熟悉了，就会使用她来进行网络安装Vista。我们将会学习如何用WDS来让网络安装更简单。

What is Windows PE?
什么是Windows PE?

Basically, Windows PE is a minimal version of Windows you can use to boot a bare-metal system (a computer with no operating system installed) and then connect to a network share, download the installation files for the full version of Windows, launch Setup.exe, and install Windows . the computer. Why do we need Windows PE to do this? Well, it’s simple: you’ve got a file server over there with a shared folder . it that contains the Windows installation files, and you’ve got a bare-metal system over here with no operating system . it, and you’ve got them both connected to the network, so you turn . your bare-metal system and…well, how is a computer with no operating system . it supposed to be able to connect to a shared folder over the network and launch Setup.exe from that folder?
Windows PE是一个Windows的最小化版本，可以从一个裸系统上进行引导、连接网络共下载安装文件、启动Setup.exe进行Windows安装。为什么我们要用PE来做这件事？理由十分简单：你需要通过PE连接网络上的文件服务器来获取你需要的文件。好吧，如果仅仅只有裸系统，你怎么启动setup.exe？

In the old days, we used a network boot floppy to make this happen. This was a bootable floppy disk from which you could run a network-aware version of MS-DOS, and to install, say, Windows 95, you would stick the floppy in your bare-metal system, turn the computer ., boot to DOS, and then manually (or automatically by launching a .) connect to the installation share . the network and run Setup.exe to begin the process of downloading the Windows installation files to the computer and running Setup . it to install Windows. Unfortunately, network boot floppies are no longer viable for a variety of reasons including lack of support for the NTFS file system, lack of support for 32- or 64-bit Windows device drivers, limited TCP/IP networking capabilities, and other reasons. What worked fine for installing Windows 95 or Windows 98 .to computers just doesn’t cut it anymore with Windows Vista.
在以亲，我们使用软盘启动网络来启动setup.exe，这张启动软盘里包含了网络驱动，我们可以用它引导到dos，连接网络共享运行setup.exe启动安装。不幸的是，启动软盘因为不支持ntfs，也不能存储太多的驱动，以及受限制的网络能力等等原因而被淘汰。适用于windows 95、98的方法不再适用于vista。

By contrast, using the Windows AIK you can now create Windows PE boot media that supports NTFS, supports 32- and 64-bit Windows drivers, has full TCP/IP capabilities and which can be booted from a CD, a DVD, or even a USB flash drive. Then .ce you have booted your bare-metal system, you can manually (or automatically by using a .) connect to a network share that has the Windows Vista installation files stored . it and launch Setup.exe to install Vista .to the computer in completely unattended fashion using an answer file you created using Windows SIM.
用Windows AIK创建的Windows PE引导镜像可以支持NTFS、32位和64位的windows驱动以及完整的tcp/ip能力，可以从CD、DVD或者USB闪存引导。

Limitations of Windows PE
Windows PE的局限

This doesn’t mean Windows PE can do everything however. For example, while Windows PE is a stripped-down version of the Windows operating system and provides you with a command prompt and can do networking and has a registry and so ., you can’t use it as your daily operating system for the simple reason that it automatically stops working and automatically after 72 hours of use. Windows PE also doesn’t support installing applications that use Windows Installer (.msi) files, and it doesn’t include the .NET Framework or the Common Language Runtime (CLR), so you really can’t run any office productivity applications . it. Windows PE also supports .ly a limited subset of the full Win32 application programming interfaces (APIs) so you really can’t develop useful applications to run . it either. So while Window PE is indeed Windows itself, it’s a very stripped-down version of Windows, not the full-blown version you’re used to working with each day.
虽然Windows PE功能强大，但他并不是万能的。为了防止长期使用，PE只能使用72小时，超过时限后会自动停止工作。Windows PE也不支持使用MSI文件进行安装，也不包含.net架构和CLR，因而你不能运行Office产品。Windows PE仅支持Win32 API的一个有限的子集，故而你不能开发太多东西。故而Windows PE就是一个精简版的Windows，作用仅限于作为基本的工具使用。

All these limitations mean that Windows PE is really .ly useful for two things: to boot bare-metal systems so you can install Windows . them, and to boot into the Windows Recover Environment (WinRE) in order to troubleshoot a computer that has problems with its Windows installation. Actaully, Windows PE is used for .e additional thing: each time you install Windows Vista (or Windows Server 2008) . a system, the very first phase of Setup is actually Windows PE at work.
这些Windows PE的限制意味着PE仅能用于两方面：从裸系统引导来安装Windows和启动Windows Recovery Environment（WinRE）对系统问题进行排错。事实上，当你用光盘安装Vista时，安装程序就是在PE上运行的。

Examining Windows PE Tools
Windows PE的工具

As you can see from Figure 1 below, when Windows PE initializes it displays a command prompt.
当PE完成初始化后，会提供一个命令行窗口



This command prompt is the .ly user-interface that Windows PE provides—there is no desktop and no GUI tools in Windows PE. There are a number of command-line tools available in Windows PE however, and these include the following:
这个命令行是PE仅提供的用户界面，没有桌面，没有gui工具。Windows PE提供了一些命令行工具。

BCDedit - This tool can be used to edit the boot configuration data (BCD) store, a store that describes boot applications and boot application settings. The BCD store in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2003 replaces the Boot.ini used by earlier versions of Windows.
用于修改BCD数据，BCD用于取代之前版本的Boot.ini文件，存储了启动设置。

Bootsect - Used to restore your computer’s boot sector (replaces FixFAT and FixNTFS used by previous versions of Windows)
用于保存计算机的引导区，取代之前的FixFAT和FixNTFS

DiskPart – Used to create and format partitions and volumes and perform other disk management tasks.
用于创建、格式化等磁盘操作

Drvload - Used for adding out-of-box drivers to a booted Windows PE image.
用于为PE添加驱动

Oscdimg - Used for creating an .iso image of Windows PE so you can burn the operating system .to CD or DVD media to create a customized, bootable Windows PE CD or DVD.
用于创建PE的ISO镜像

PEImg - Used to create or modify a Windows PE image by adding drivers, importing packages, and so ..
用于创建修改PE镜像，添加驱动、导入包等

In addition to the above tools there are others that are built into Windows PE. Plus you can add additional command-line tools to your customized Windows PE CD or DVD. For example, in the next article of this series we’ll walk through the steps of creating a bootable Windows PE CD that includes the ImageX.exe tool . it, and later . I’ll show you how you can use this tool . a Windows PE CD to capture an image of a sysprepped master computer so you can deploy the captured image .to bare-metal destination computers—a deployment scenario called image-based deployment that is popular with OEMs and large enterprises. But that is for next time.
除了上述工具，PE中还内置了其他工具，你也可以自己添加需要的工具。例如，我们下章会提到的ImageX，在下篇文章里我们会谈到如何用imageX工具来抓取经过Sysprep的磁盘镜像并分发到裸系统上。