The Windows Embedded Standard 2009 May 2011 Feature Update adds two additional applications “Enahnced Write Filter Management Tool” and “File Based Write Filter Management Tool” which allow you to monitor the status and configure the filter drivers in you images. The applications will start on the system start and appear in the systray also showing notifications when the overlays runs full. However the tools can be configured to deactivate the automatic startup too.

The new features can be downloaded from the Microsoft ECE:
Window Embedded Standard 2009 May 2011 Feature Update

The two tools have a dependency on the Write Filter WMI Providers which were released in February 2011.

Elbacom is working together with Coder for Life to provide you the Windows 7 Boot Updater tool that allows you to fully customize your Windows Embedded Standard 7 Bootlogo!
With the tool you can easily update your devices bootlogo so that the end user does not recognize that it is Windows that is running on the device.

The Windows 7 Boot Updater enables you to do the following customizations:

• Change the bootanimation
• Use a static image as bootlogo either as a fullscreen image or instead of the animation
• Change the texts and their positions
• Change the colors

The tool updates the bootscreen and also the resume animation when the device is resuming from hibernation.

Several checks assure that the update process of the customization was successful.

The tool works with the Standard Boot Environment and also with the Enhanced Write Filter Boot Environment of Windows Embedded Standard 7.

For more information and pricing please go to the Coder for Life website:

www.coderforlife.com/projects/win7boot/elbacom

Please note that the tool is modifying system files. So after a Windows Update there is a possibility that the bootlogo reverts to the original version.
The customization of the files is allowed in the ALTs of you Windows Embedded Standard product. However Microsoft will not support this change.
Elbacom and Coder for Life are not responsible for any damages - there is no warranty and no liability for any damages!

DISMUI was updated to work with the CTP2 of Windows Embedded POSReady 7. The tool allows you easily add and remove Feature Packages in POSReady 7 CTP2 via a graphical user interface.

The new version fixes minor issues when using a POSReady 7 CTP Distribution Share.

Changes:

• Fixes when using a POSReady 7 CTP Distribution Share
• Suppresses Conflict Dialog when no packages are available to select
• Permanent Packages check in Conflict Dialog

Microsoft has published the second CTP for Windows Embedded POSReady 7.
It can be obtained from the Windows Embedded POSReady 7 Connect site.

The new release includes some new features, such as:

• Increased componentization
• Native VHD boot support
• Write Filter Management Graphical User Interface
• Write Filter Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) Provider
• 36 Language Packs

Download: https://connect.microsoft.com/posready/POSReady7CTP

The new Windows Embedded Device Manager 2011 enables you to manage all your embedded devices with a single tool.
This new tool integrates into Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 and it not only allows you to deploy and update images – you can differentiate between device types. This way updates can be deployed, e.g. only to Thin Clients but not to kiosks however both device types run Windows Embedded Standard 7.

Another great feature is that Windows Embedded Device Manager 2011 is able to control the write filters which might be enabled on your devices. Normally when a system has a write filter enabled and updates are applied the updates are gone again after a reboot – this is because the filter drivers redirect all changes made to the disk into a RAM overlay which gets reset on reboot.
When deploying updates via the Device Manager the system will handle this case properly by deactivating and reactivating the filter drivers automatically.

The tool works with all Windows Embedded Standard and Ready operating systems such as:

• Windows XP Embedded
• Windows Embedded Standard 2009
• Windows Embedded Standard 7
• Windows Embedded for Point of Service
• Windows Embedded POSReady 2009

and because it is based on System Center Configuration Manager 2007 it can handle all Windows Embedded Enterprise systems as well.

More information about the tool can be found here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsembedded/en-us/evaluate/windows-embedded-device-manager.aspx

The latest update for Windows Embedded Standard 7 Service Pack 1 is now ready to be downloaded from the ECE.

Toolkit Update via ECE:
https://ece.partners.extranet.microsoft.com/ece/Embedded/Products/ProductSupplements/Embedded/EmbeddedStandard7/DisOEM-WES7MnthlyUpdsandFeatures.htm

Apart from the Service Pack 1 for the operating system the package also adds new features such as WMI layer for filter drivers, SKU Compliance packages, etc. For a full list and more details have a look at the previous Service Pack 1 feature post.

The new version introduces a new feature to display all the dependencies of a selected Feature Package. This will help you to find out why certain components are pulled into the image.

Show Dependencies

To display the dependencies just double click on a Feature Package or select it and click “Show dependencies”.
The following dialog will display all Feature Packages that are needed by the selected Feature Package.
DISMUI will also try to load Driver Packages from the Distribution Share to display them properly in the dialog.
If a dependency could not be located it will be displayed in the “Not Found” section.

Dependencies of Media Center:

Additional fixes

• Checks if the WiX dependencies are located in the DISMUI directory.
  See here for more information
• The POSReady 7 (CTP) Distribution Share and all other flat Distribution Shares will now work with the tool.
  No additional changes to the DS are required anymore.
• Minor fixes

Matthew Tundo from the Microsoft Embedded Team has created an excellent how-to for recreating an answer file from an already deployed Windows Embedded Standard 7 image.

This can be very useful in case you have only created the image with Image Build Wizard or in case you have created the image with Image Configuration Editor but lost the answer file.

The tutorial makes use of two tools:

• PkgScan
• TAP

With these two tools it is possible to retrieve the feature package and hardware information from the deployed file.
Using the created output files you are able to recreate your answer file in Image Configuration Editor.

For the complete how-to please visit the Microsoft Blog:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/embedded/archive/2011/03/10/regenerating-answer-file-from-an-existing-device-using-pkgscn-and-tap.aspx

Microsoft has released the Service Pack 1 for Windows Embedded Standard 7. This includes all updates from Windows 7 Service Pack 1 plus additional benefits for the Embedded version of the operating system.

Features which are new to the SP1 version Windows Embedded Standard 7 are:

• SKU Compliance Packages
  These packages allow you to make sure that only features which are licensed for a specific SKU (e.g. WS7E) can be executed on the system - a special licensing service in Windows ensures this. This way you can build a full image with a WS7E SKU Compliance package but only the features which are licensed in WS7E will work. However you can still make use of packages which are allowed in WS7E but which contained also WS7P features in the past!
  
• SDBoot
  Windows Embedded Standard 7 can now be booted directly from an SD card!
  
• PMQ Mapping to Out of Box Drivers
  This new feature allows out of box drivers in the distribution share to be mapped automatically during the installation process. This was not possible in the RTM version.

The Service Pack 1 in available in two different forms:

• Windows Embedded Standard 7 Service Pack 1 Toolkit
  The toolkit version allows you to build images that already include all the Service Pack 1 updates. It will create a new distribution share for the Image Configuration editor and it is also available as an Image Build Wizard DVD for 32-Bit and 64-Bit.
  
• Service Pack 1 CAB
  The CAB version allows you to update finished images to Service Pack 1. This can be done by applying the SP1.cab file with DISM.
  There are different cabs available for 32-Bit and 64-Bit.

A detailed description of all updates in Service Pack 1 can be found here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff817622(WS.10).aspx

The download is available on the Microsoft MSDN Download Center (Evaluation):
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=6eb1cf27-c93e-4269-aaa6-770023c07b92

Toolkit Update via ECE:
https://ece.partners.extranet.microsoft.com/ece/Embedded/Products/ProductSupplements/Embedded/EmbeddedStandard7/DisOEM-WES7MnthlyUpdsandFeatures.htm