WIN11 PE AUDIOPHILE "ULTRALITE" QUICK START GUIDE:
Until now, for the creation of Win11PE audiophile had used winRe.wim either with the Win10XPE app or without it, obtaining in the latter case, a smaller final .wim file size (in my case 377 MB against 427 MB for the Win10XPE app).
The novelty is that instead of starting from Winre.wim (430 MB), I started from the file "a6296c5a6eec9ca02b431ed0461b952d.cab" located in the
"22000.1.210604-1628.co_release_amd64fre_adkwinpeaddons.iso" from Microsoft, which can be downloaded from here:
The size of this file is only 283 MB, which will make a difference, not only in size, but also in operation, since there is no "pecmd.exe" file.
The first thing I have to say is that it is not at all easy to implement a working Win11PE like this, but it can be done and there is also a significant sonic improvement, at least on my system, I think it will be extrapolated to others.
PREREQUISITE:
1. Have a working WIN11XPE (22000.194) with drivers and apps (that cannot be portable) installed and exported to the registry (.reg files) and then do the import.
2. We can only install 64-bit apps and drivers, I still haven't managed to get 32-bit apps to work.
3. Have experience in the creation of WinXPE, otherwise refrain, as it is very difficult and long to implement.
CREATION:
Step 1.
Download the file "a6296c5a6eec9ca02b431ed0461b952d.cab"
from the above addresses.
Step 2.
Extract (with 7zip, etc...) the file "filad61cf00c94775125d186add4ac43371" and rename it to "winpe.wim"
Step 3.
We create a 2GB vhd (with diskpart, WinNTSetup, ...) and mount the .wim image with DISM, or DISM++ to create the FLATBOOT VHD.
Step 4.
We edit the BCD of the host OS where we have mounted the vhd (with Bootice) and restart the PC to check that the flatboot boots.
We restart the PC again to return to the host OS and continue working on the creation of winpe.
Step 5.
In host OS mount flatboot vhd.
Mount win11XPE .wim image to a folder on host OS.
Copy the files:
comctl32.dll
DataExchange.dll
explorer.exe
ExplorerFrame.dll
msacm32.dll
structuredquery.dll
twinapi.appcore.dll
Windows.Storage.Search.dll
from "folder image.wim" mounted"\windows\system32\ to flatboot vhd \windows\system32
Step 6. DRIVER INSTALLATION:
A. run the corresponding driver installation program, if it works, follow the same steps as in the creation guide attached in the first post of the thread.
B. Otherwise, the most normal, thing is to copy all the driver folders, from the mounted image of Win11XPE Audio to the flatboot vhd.
Also copy all the .sys files, corresponding to the driver, from \windows\system32\drivers (from the mounted Win11XPE audio .wim image) to \windows\system32\drivers from the flatboot vhd. Once this is done, now proceed to import the .reg file that we created when installing the audio driver(s) into the flatboot vhd registry.
Step 7. AUDIOAPPS INSTALATION:
A. If possible, better portable, otherwise, proceed with the installation in the same way as in the creation of Win11XPE audio described in the guide at the beginning of the thread.
B. If what is stated in A is not possible, there will be no choice but to copy all the folders created by the installation of the Win11XPE Audio audioapp to the flatboot vhd, and then import the corresponding .reg files that we created when doing it.
At this point, what proceeds now is to restart the PC and start the flatboot vhd and check that everything works.
In case something does not work, you will have to go through the missing files, checking all the folders copied from the Win11XPE Audio.wim image mounted on the host OS to the flatboot vhd also mounted on the host OS, and also windows\system32 , windows\system32\drivers, windows\inf from both sites.
You can also check, with Processhacker, the files used by each application (right click on the selected app>properties>modules>filename>select all>copy filename>paste to .txt file and save as save.txt)
Then review if among the save.txt files we are missing any, and in that case copy it to flatboot vhd.
REDUCTION OF SIZE:
Step 1.
Delete folder "SysWoW64"
Step 2.
shrink the winsxs folder leaving only the following folders:
amd64_microsoft.windows.common-controls_6595b64144ccf1df_5.82.22000.1_none_271a8fad6a2d1b1e
amd64_microsoft.windows.common-controls_6595b64144ccf1df_6.0.22000.120_none_9d947278b86cc467
amd64_microsoft.windows.gdiplus_6595b64144ccf1df_1.0.22000.71_none_b636e470520ada89
amd64_microsoft.windows.gdiplus_6595b64144ccf1df_1.1.22000.71_none_a5885354eb10b430
amd64_microsoft.windows.i..utomation.proxystub_6595b64144ccf1df_1.0.22000.1_none_ff5cb20bf269f1f7
amd64_microsoft.windows.isolationautomation_6595b64144ccf1df_1.0.22000.1_none_55e560d8935fd7e3
manifests
They are enough for everything to work, the size remains at 6.84 MB.
Step 3.
Delete all language folders except (en-US) from "\windows\system32", "\windows\boot\EFI"; "\windows\boot\PCAT"; and "\windows\boot\PXE"
Now we have a Win11 PE Audio Ultralite, in my case with only iFiHDUSBAudio, and DIYINHKusbaudio drivers, and Bug Head Emperor and Foobar2000 2.0 x64 beta16 apps, with only 263 MB in size, but without a graphical interface, it can be left like that, which is uncomfortable, or create a "winpeshl.ini" file that launches the applications that we want at startup.
Step 4. Winpeshl.ini creation:
We open a text file with notepad with the following lines:
[LaunchApp]
[LaunchApps]
The "[LaunchApp]" line only supports .exe commands with no switches or options. You must put the full path to the exe that we want to start.
The "[LaunchApps]" line supports .exe commands with switches.
Winpeshl.ini example:
[LaunchApp]
%SYSTEMDRIVE%\Program Files\APP1\app.exe
[LaunchApps]
%SYSTEMDRIVE%\Program Files\APP2\app2.exe,-switch1,-switch2,...
Now when we start the flatboot the apps that are in winpeshl.ini will start. being more usable.
ADD GRAPHICAL INTERFACE:
For convenience and ease of use I add WinXShell, which also takes up only 3 MB of space.
There are 2 ways to do it.
1. Copy the WinXShell folder located in \Program Files of the Win11XPE Audio .wim image.
2. Download it from here:
Unzip the file "WinXShell_RC4.6.3.7z" and then copy the \WinXShell folder contained in \WinXshell\X-PF\ to the flatboot vhd \Program Files.
Once this is done, delete the files "WinXShell_x86.exe" and "wxsStub32.dll", and rename "WinXShell_x64.exe" to "WinXShell.exe"
Copy Explorer++.exe version 1.3.5_x64 to the WinXShell folder of the flatboot vhd, newer versions don't work well here.
Download it from here:
3. Edit "winpeshl.ini" with notepad and add the following line to the [LaunchApps] section
%SYSTEMDRIVE%\Program Files\WinXShell\WinXShell.exe,-regist,-winpe,
Now the flatboot vhd will boot with GUI and desktop
4. Add shortcuts to desktop:
To do this, we start the flatboot vhd with the graphical interface already installed and run explorer++.exe, navigate to the folders where the apps we want to create links are, select the corresponding .exe file and choose to create a shortcut.
Once this is done, we copy the shortcut to the desktop folder of the explorer++ navigation panel using the CTRL+C and CTRL+V keys.
Keep in mind that the system does not have drag and drop capability.
We already have a very small Win11PE Audio GUI at about 265MB, working and sounding a little better than the Win11XPE built in the usual way, and also better than the one built from winre.wim. for me it has been the maximum in sound, since from the start it only works with 19 processes by default, making it easier to tune it up to 12 or 11 than in the other WinPE (the one created with Win10XPE).
It only has 3 small drawbacks:
1. There is no drag and drop capability
2. Processhacker does not work well and cannot kill processes, nor stop or suspend services, it must be done with "pskill64.exe, "psservices64.exe" and "pssuspend64.exe", although it is useful for everything else such as viewing services and active processes, establish priority and affinity of apps, etc.
These utilities can be downloaded from here:
3. I have not been able to save the screen resolution setting, default 1024x768, but it can be changed after starting the system with the right mouse button on start from the taskbar>settings>display.
I hope that some experienced forum partner tries it and gives us their opinion, personally it is the best I have heard in audio OS.
on audioasylum. This closes the circle ,)
, oh well), I just was initially overwhelmed with the amount of folders residing there in the .1 build compared to the RTM .194 before typing my reply here)
