618 replies to this topic

[samotc]

Hello everyone, I finally finished the guide, I hope it will be useful for everyone who wants to build a Windows PE Audiophile, both 11 and 10, it is valid for both.

I have tried to make it easy to read and I intend that anyone with a little computer knowledge and who is not an expert, can build their own audiophile Windows PE.

Why windows PE as audio OS?

First of all, it takes up very little space, just over 1GB.

Second, it runs on RAM and only needs 2GB to run

Third, it runs with very few active processes and services, so most of the optimizations that are described in this, and other forums, already have them done, so the pending tasks are much less.

And a quarter; It sounds great, it has a great sound, even without tuning.

I encourage everyone to build one, 10, 11 or both, tune it up, and compare with what you have, and finally stick with the one you like best.

At the end of the day, what it is about is trying, experimenting and advancing in the achievement of our goals, neither more nor less than learning and enjoying music, and also learning.

I believe that all doubts and questions regarding the guide should be channeled through this thread, not through private messages, so we all learn.

A hug to all.

 

Attached Files

•  Windows 11 PE Audio Creation Guide SE.pdf   3.67MB   669 downloads

[Kuni]

Great stuff ! I will try it right now and share later experiences. 

[samotc]

I forgot to comment:

Automatic Minority Clean start:

mount VHD or USB Pen as drive X :, create shortcut of MinorityCleanxx.exe, copy to X:\Users \Default \AppData \Roaming \Microsoft \Windows \Start Menu \Programs \Startup, and it will start automatically, no need to install Sexe.exe.

It works on both Win11PE and Win10PE.

[internethandle]

Very good job, thank you! I will be trying to create my own and compare with my stripped W10 soon.

Do you have an opinion on if Win11PE or Win10PE sounds better in your system?

[samotc]

Personally, Win10XPE sounds better to me, it seems more musical to me, the 11 is colder and more analytical, it has less relief in the sound scene, it is like comparing a tube amp with an SS.

I like valves, I have a 320B XLS SE triode. In SS I have a Nelson Pass F5 + Nelson Pass BA3 Preamp, I think you will get an idea of the sound I like.

But, as I always say, do the 2 and compare, it does not take more than 2 hours, and with some practice 1 hour.

Stripping Windows PE is easier, there are fewer "clothes" to remove.

[internethandle]

Thank you!

My system is currently all SS but for a number of years prior I was running tubes, so that is helpful. In truth, my stripped W10 is sounding a little too analytical with sharp transients and occasional harshness, so I may well play with W10PE to balance things out.

[samotc]

Boot iso file Windows PE from system BCD:

 

Extract iso to a folder,

Copy boot.sdi file to a folder (SDI, NST .... or any other name) at the root of drive C:

Open Bootice.exe

Open "BCD" tab

Open tab "Easy Mode"

Create new entry "New WIM boot entry"

Select disk, partition where boot.wim is located

File: full path to boot.wim

SDI File: Full path to boot.sdi

Save Changes.

Get out,

 

 boot_iso_from_BCD system.jpg   98.78KB   68 downloads

[internethandle]

Am working on a stripped PE build thanks to samotc’s guide mixed in with some of my own methods. Stripping the flatboot has been a bit slow going (especially disabling services and drivers via the offline registry hives contained in the flatboot’s VHD and then testing to see what if anything breaks- it also took me some time to understand which files were missing that were causing TIDAL app to not playback in exclusive mode, but I managed to get it working after finding the missing files and migrating them from another non-PE host OS install) but PE sounds very good even “out of the box” and its ability to run with less (you can kill lsass.exe without issue, for instance!) has been very exciting.

About done stripping/disabling at this point and will post more thorough observations once I’m about finished and have things going.

Thank you to samotc!

[internethandle]

samotc or others, would appreciate some help troubleshooting this issue:

- using samotc’s guide, I have successfully created a bootable Win10PE USB stick by creating an ISO with Win10XPE and then burning it to a USB thumb drive with Rufus. This USB stick boots into WinPE just fine.
- afterward, I’ve spent some time with a flatboot VHD, also with samotc’s guide, which also booted successfully after being added to my host OS’s boot menu and I’ve been able to edit registry settings and add programs etc. to my liking via this method, as samotc indicated in his guide.
- here is where I am running into trouble: using samotc’s guide’s method, I have converted the edited VHD’s contents back into a WIM format with DISM++, then replaced the original Win10XPE ISO’s boot.wim with the newly created WIM via UltraISO as samotc instructs, saving the new ISO, and loading it with Rufus onto a USB drive. However, when I reboot, the “Loading files” screen goes by with no issue, as well as the Windows logo and loading icon screen, but instead of proceeding to the configuration screen as it did in the original USB drive boot or in flatboot, it simply reboots back to POST.
- surprisingly, this does not seem to be due to something I did during editing the flatboot. I can have a completely unedited VHD with the contents of the originally created Win10XPE’s boot.WIM in it, convert that unedited VHD back to WIM, place that back into the ISO, load to USB, and the USB stick will still not load WinPE and instead reboot endlessly, so there seems to be something I am doing or not doing in the conversion between USB RAM disk boot to VHD and back that is causing the problem and not any edits I have made to the flatboot/VHD contents.

A user on the Win10XPE thread on tenforums seemed to think I needed to copy the original Win10XPE ISO file’s boot and efi folders back into the VHD contents before converting them back to WIM, but that did not resolve the issue. I am curious about whether they are right and it has something to do with the boot stores, but I have tried various combinations in Bootice with no resolution.

Thanks for any suggestions!

[samotc]

When doing VHD >> WIM conversion with DISM ++ is the "bootable" box checked?

If not, check it.

Have you tried booting the WIM from the BCD System?

 

 

Boot iso file Windows PE from system BCD:

 

Extract iso to a folder,

Copy boot.sdi file to a folder (SDI, NST .... or any other name) at the root of drive C:

Open Bootice.exe

Open "BCD" tab

Open tab "Easy Mode"

Create new entry "New WIM boot entry"

Select disk, partition where boot.wim is located

File: full path to boot.wim

SDI File: Full path to boot.sdi

Save Changes.

Get out,

 

boot_iso_from_BCD system.jpg

 

[nik.d]

Aside incorrect statements, please note that writing in upper case letters on forums means shouting. There's no reason to shout on anyone here. 

[internethandle]

Well that sure was all something. 

 

Anyway,

 

 

When doing VHD >> WIM conversion with DISM ++ is the "bootable" box checked?

If not, check it.

Have you tried booting the WIM from the BCD System?

 

 

This worked! I knew it would be something minor I was overlooking. Thanks so much, was really giving me a headache.

 

To save others trouble, you need to have DISM++ in "Expert Mode" for the "Bootable" checkbox to be functional, apparently. It was greyed out before (unable to be checked or unchecked), but its default was checked so I assumed that it was being applied to the resultant WIM file outside of "expert mode," but it was not. You can tell if it is properly being applied because your WIM file will be significantly larger if it is not (e.g. a base Win10XPE created ISO for me was ~475MB, one with a boot.wim reconverted back with DISM++ without the "Bootable" box checked was ~600MB).

 

Thanks again!

[BernieK]

 

 

Given your highly objectionable posts which contribute nothing of value to this discussion and apparently are intended only to create discord, the posts in question have been deleted and your ability to post on this Forum has been disabled.

[samotc]

Well that sure was all something. 

 

Anyway,

 

 

This worked! I knew it would be something minor I was overlooking. Thanks so much, was really giving me a headache.

 

To save others trouble, you need to have DISM++ in "Expert Mode" for the "Bootable" checkbox to be functional, apparently. It was greyed out before (unable to be checked or unchecked), but its default was checked so I assumed that it was being applied to the resultant WIM file outside of "expert mode," but it was not. You can tell if it is properly being applied because your WIM file will be significantly larger if it is not (e.g. a base Win10XPE created ISO for me was ~475MB, one with a boot.wim reconverted back with DISM++ without the "Bootable" box checked was ~600MB).

 

Thanks again!

 

In the end how does it boot, from usb or from bcd?

I do it from BCD, for me it is more comfortable than booting from the BIOS start menu, and faster.

Tell us what you think about the sound of WinPE compared to Windows 10 stripped down.

The most interesting would be Win10 without stripping against Win10XPE under the same conditions, the comparison will be more equitable.

 

 

[samotc]

I apologize for having overlooked in the guide, the detail that DISM ++ must always run in EXPERT MODE, I have been using it like this for so long that I had not realized the matter.

It is possible that Bobo's problem was that.

[Marcin_gps]

Guys, markoliver is banned.

 

Regards, 

Marcin

[internethandle]

At the moment I’m booting it from USB. Part of my goal would be to disconnect all of my SATA drives and disable the SATA ports in BIOS (even with a SOtM SATA filter and a Paul Pang SATA cable, SATA drives are pretty noisy, plus of course the higher latency vs RAM).

I still am stripping/playing with registry edits and disabling for the Win10PE build, but I am pretty close. Last night, for instance, I discovered I could disable and delete “vdrvroot” and “storahci” for USB boot (but not flatboot, these are related to both VHD and SATA AHCI mode), so now I’m looking to see what else USB boot will allow vs flatboot and vice versa. Also, I noticed that programs such as Process Hacker will allow you to set processor and I/o priority and affinity for processes that normal W10 would give you a access denied error for (e.g. csrss.exe and services.exe) - very cool!

I will report back!

[kalaha777]

Thank you very much for your hard work and the opportunity to get in touch with win10pe audio. I was fascinated by the ability to edit win10-11 for myself. I have been looking for this information for a long time. I am not in an English-speaking country, I apologize for the mistakes in the letter. With win10PE, the first experience, so you have to collect everything by kerpichek. Faced such a difficulty: 1) When creating a flat boot, you need the main 3-programs: WinNTSetup; Dism ++ (not a working link, maybe in my country; Bootice all of them (contained in Windows PE Strelec); How to make WinPE Strelec work on a created and running win10 pro image. Perhaps WinPE Strelec can be edited too, but I don't know how to do it . WinPE Strelec do you recommend as a source of these programs, how to make it work with edited win10pro? I tried to pull these programs out of the WinPE Strelec image but DISM ++ refused to work correctly. 2) How to return brightness control to a laptop, it is hard to work when it is on maximum? 3) After creating the win10pro image, I lost the Internet (via the cable), and I wanted to return the system simple sounds. Correct if something is wrong.

[internethandle]

Hello kalaha777,

i have just finished making a custom WinPE ISO of my own using samotc's guide primarily and am very much enjoying the sound. Because I just finished, I am pretty familiar with the process and will try to help you:

The WinPE Strelec is a pre-made customized WinPE ISO made by another person that contains a lot of recovery software and other software. I did not use it, I just downloaded the programs that samotc recommended from the internet (WinNTSetup, DISM++, Bootice, Rufus, RegistryChangesView, UltraISO, and others). The only program that is not available elsewhere that is included in the WinPE Strelec is "Remote Registry," but you can use another registry editor program on another running Windows 10 Pro image, load the hives from the VHD of the flatboot of WinPE (located in Windows\system32\config -- the two relevant hives are "SOFTWARE" and "SYSTEM") and then unload them when done editing the VHD flatboot registry. If you want to use the WinPE Strelec instead, you would need to load it onto a USB drive or its own VHD/flatboot, and boot from it, then work on the VHD flatboot by mounting it from within WinPE Strelec. I am unsure why DISM++ is not able to extract the programs from within the images files for WinPE Strelec, but WinPE Strelec is so heavily modified that may be the reason.

For the brightness control, I am unsure, it would be dependent on whether it is a setting in your laptop's hardware or not. Unfortunately, "PeCMD.exe" and "FixScreen.exe," which are related to display settings, have limited functionality in WinPE vs. Win10’s full display settings, so if the brightness control is located in Windows, you may have some trouble. You could try adding your normal graphics drivers (Intel or NVIDIA or whatever is your normal GPU drivers) to WinPE in the Win10XPE program before making the WinPE ISO. For the system simple sounds and ethernet settings, the same would apply -- there are checkboxes in Win10XPE for including system sounds, as well as for network drivers. If the "PENetwork" software included does not work for your ethernet connection, you can try the option to "add host network drivers" in Win10XPE, which is what I did to allow my JCAT FEMTO Ethernet card to work. This way, I do not have to use the PENetwork software, and do not include it in my Win10XPE created ISO.

I hope this helps.

I will be following up this post with a more detailed impressions post as well as some more thoughts about the process of creating the ISO.

[samotc]

If the link referring to DISM ++ does not work for you, do a search in google and many will appear, I suppose that some will be functional.

I only use Strelec for the Remote Registry, the rest of the programs I use from my main OS (Windows Server 2019)

Ultraiso I have it registered, I don't know if in demo mode it will work completely.

Regarding the brightness of the screen, from what I have seen in the file "pecmd.ini" it only contemplates the screen resolution, I am afraid that it will not help you there.

Strelec is very difficult to edit since its structure is heavily modified, in fact it contains several .wim files referred to in its BCD, you can see it by editing the Strelec BCD with Bootice >> Easy Mode.

I think with the above programs installed on your host you should have no problem getting a Win10XPE Audio or any other, greetings.