VistaPE is a system based on the kernel of the newest operating system Microsoft Windows Vista. VistaPE uses technology and largely resembles WinPE 2.0 at Microsoft, but has a graphical shell, expanded set of supported devices and functions, and can run almost any Windows program. VistaPE is meant to be a universal tool with the flexibility to grow with your needs. VistaPE can be loaded on regular or crashed systems and allows the user to get full access to all disks in order restoring data, checking for viruses, fixing system boot problems, transferring data onto a network or through the Internet.
VistaPE is a project (set of scripts) for WinBuilder, a scripting and built environment for creating bootable Windows based system. You are free to customize VistaPE in any way you want. All you need for creating your own VistaPE system is a licensed Microsoft Windows Vista installation disk (any edition), or the Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK), which is freely available. Please note that some optional parts of VistaPE require files that are only included on the Vista installation media and not in WAIK. Those optional parts are not available when using WAIK as source for building VistaPE.
Main functionality
- Possibility to fully or partially loading VistaPE at startup into memory (boot.wim)
- Support for a big number of SATA/RAID/SCSI/NIC drivers
- Capable to read and write on NTFS/FAT32/FAT/Ext2/Ext3 partitions
- Full networking support
- Automatic hardware detection (PnP)
- Booting from CD/HDD/UFD/Network
- Compatibility with Microsoft Windows Vista
- A wide range of programs and shells (Explorer, LiteStep, BS Explorer ...)
- No limits regarding the maximum number of open processes
- Automatic creation shortcuts for programs
- Ability to remove VistaPE boot media while VistaPE is running (using boot.wim)
- Full multilanguage support
Special thanks to:
Nuno for the great program, NIKZZZZ for wimutil and a lot of helpfull ideas, HighwayStar for Russian localization and a dozen of interesting ideas, TheHive for the logo and beta testing, chival4ry for support with localized versions and beta testing, pomopo3 for this site design and beta testing. Thanks to all people who provide me with their support, good criticism and valuable advices.
History of changes.