Five Windows PE rescue environments for repair and maintenance

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windowspe 1 1000x600.jpg
windowspe 1 1000x600.jpg

Windows PE (Windows Preinstallation Environment) is UA light version of Windows 10 that Microsoft offers to help install, implement, deploy, repair and maintain in the best conditions of use the complete editions of the desktop Windows and also the versions for servers, Windows Server.

Although Windows PE is a fully operational version, it should be noted that it cannot be used as a client system for day-to-day use. In fact, to prevent such usage, Windows PE automatically stops shell execution and restarts after 72 hours of continuous use in a period that cannot be extended or customized. Also, when it restarts, all changes made to drive letters, drivers, applications, and the entire environment are lost. However, it is very useful as a maintenance and recovery solution.

If most rescue disks (including those that work on Microsoft systems) use a Linux environment (Live CD or Live USB), this one is created from Windows. And it is very complete. TOSupports all Windows applications, drivers, network tools, partitions, managers, Hyper-V virtualizer, and others, plus free and open source tools for maintenance, troubleshooting, and malware security solutions can be added .

Five Windows PE environments

Although there are ways to create this type of disc and customize it as we will see below, there are developers that do the work for us, we just have to download an image and burn it on an optical or USB medium. From there we can use it to recover, restore, maintain or analyze our PC for errors. Some of the ones we like are:

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Hiren’s BootCD PE

One of the legendary all-in-one rescue disks packed with tools to help users fix operating system crashes, malware, password recovery, account management, and much more. Although the original Hiren BootCD was a Linux environment it stopped receiving updates years ago and in 2018 it was revitalized as a Windows PE rescue disk. It features a ton of free and open source tools within a familiar Windows environment.

Windows PE

Bob.Omb’s Modified Win10PEx64

Another modified Windows PE environment with a long list of tools for analysis and recovery, against infections with Malwarebytes Antimalware or for data recovery with EaseUS Data Recovery. Unlike other rescue disks, it includes several ransomware “decryptors”, which can scan the system for this type of malware, remove it and restore encrypted files as long as it is available, since many types of Ransomware have not been decrypted .

Gandalf’s Windows 10PE x64

Surely the most complete of these environments by adding 200 tools. There is a bit of everything, hardware and software diagnostics, backup programs, anti-malware applications, network analysis and much more. It also stands out for its updates, every few months.

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Kyhi’s Recovery Drive. It is one of the most powerful against failures in Windows, disk and partition repair, backup and recovery, although it has antivirus, administration tools and many others. The developer stopped updating it, but older versions can still be used.

Sergei Streclec’s WinPE

Another solution that, like the previous ones, includes a large number of Windows maintenance and recovery applications, but that stands out for its organization. All the tools are organized into handy categories that help you find what you need.

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Custom Windows PE as you like

The solutions above work very well, have almost everything you need, and make it easy to create these rescue disks without any knowledge beyond “burning” an image. The point is that they do not allow the customization of the applications to be included in the medium. If you want to create a solution adjusted to the maximum of your needs you can do it from scratch.

In these cases, it is best to use Win10XPE, a complete Windows PE environment developed by renowned customizer ChrisR. The project provides a good base to build this type of environment using Windows 10 and has a second, lighter Win10PESE variant with the minimum necessary applications.

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Supports 32-bit and 64-bit architectures, cIt comes with a wide range of core Windows features, plus the ability to add a wide variety of custom applications. If you want to create it yourself, an ISO image of Windows 10 is also necessary, which you can download from the official page.