Microsoft has released the License Assessment Tool which helps you to find the correct license depending on which features you have included in your Windows Embedded Standard 7 image.

The tool can be downloaded on ECE:
Download

After you have installed and started the tool it will ask you to select a configuration file:

Select your answer file by using the “Browse” button.

Now select the SKU which you would like to use (e.g. WES7E).
Then click on “Assess”.
A notification windows will appear if your configuration includes Feature Packages which are not allowed with the selected SKU.
You can then deselect these Feature Packages to continue the check or click cancel to select a different SKU.
After the check finishes the tool will display a detailed summary if the configuration fulfills the license requirements for this SKU.

Microsoft has released 9 additional languages for Windows Embedded Standard 7 which can be downloaded from the Microsoft Embedded Communications Extranet (ECE).

32-Bit: https://ece.partners.extranet.microsoft.com/NR/exeres/FBC11F0B-4346-4FD9-97BB-5ED166148321,frameless.htm

64-Bit: https://ece.partners.extranet.microsoft.com/ece/Embedded/…/OEMDist-MultilglUsrIntrfceMUIPk1forWinEmbdStnd764bit.htm

Microsoft has released it Windows Embedded Developer Update tool which updates the tools of several Windows Embedded Toolkits.
For now only Windows Embedded Standard 7 is supported but support for Compact 7 has already been announced.

To download the free tool visit the Microsoft WEDU site:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsembedded/en-us/products/westandard/developer-update.mspx

After installing the tool it will search for installed and supported toolkits.

You must first link all available products to a Live ID by selecting the product and clicking “Register Product”.

Please note that you must select “Yes, I Agree” that you may be contacted by Microsoft.
If you do not select this the Product stays unregistered without any error message!

After you have registered your product check if it needs additional settings.

In case of Windows Embedded Standard 7 you will need to specify the path to your Distribution Share(s).
The default path to the Distribution Share is: C:\Program Files\Windows Embedded Standard 7\DS

After adding the path select the “Registered Products” node and click “Check for Updates”.

The tool will show applicable updates for each product. Select the product and click “Download and Install” to apply the updates.

All installed updates will appear in the “Update History” – it is also possible to hide updates if you do not want to install them.

The Deployment Image Servicing and Management Tool User Interface (DISMUI) allows you to modify your Windows Embedded Standard 7 image by using an easy to use graphical user interface. By using DISMUI you can add and/or remove Feature Packages at any time by just selecting the packages. The software will take care of the rest. A dependency check ensures that all needed Feature Packages are selected.

With DISMUI there is no need to use the DISM.exe command line anymore!

UPDATE
DISMUI has been updated to work with the RTM version of Windows Embedded Standard 7.

UPDATE 2
A problem has been fixed which prevented DISMUI to work on other languages than English.

Version History

DISMUI v1.2

DISMUI v1.3

DISMUI v1.3.1 – Mono Support added

DISMUI v1.4 – Conflict Checking, Baseimage requirements & POSReady 7 CTP1 Support added

DISMUI v1.4.1 – POSReady 7 CTP2 Support added

DISMUI v1.4.2 – POSReady 7 RTM Language Pack support added

DISMUI v1.4.2.1 – ScratchDir handling and Windows PE detection

DISMUI v2.0 – see page for detailed information

DISMUI v3.0 - see page for detailled information

DISMUI v3.0.1 - small bug fixes

How it works

1. Run DISMUI.exe with Administrator permissions.

2. Specify the location of the Distribution Share.

3. Specify the target image
     - Online: This will service the current running Windows version
     - Offline: To service a Windows installation that is currently not running select the offline option and specify the image path.

4. Click Next.

DISMUI will now retrieve all available Feature Packages and preselects all installed Packages.

5. Select all the Feature Packages you want to install and unselect the Feature Packages which you want to remove.

    If “Highlight dependencies of selected Feature” is checked then DISMUI will highlight
    all the needed dependencies of the current selected Feature Pack.

6. Click Resolve Dependencies.

7. Click Next.

8. Please review all changes. 
    Important: DISMUI will not check for conflicts!
    Note: DISMUI will always reapply all language packs if Feature Packages change.
            This will ensure that all needed language files are in the image.

9. Click Next.

10. Finished. If you changed your image online please reboot your system.

Installation of DISMUI

• Extract DISMUI to any folder
• Download WiX from http://sourceforge.net/projects/wix/ 
• Install WiX
• Goto the installation folder of WiX and copy the following files from the SDK folder (Program Files\Windows Installer XML v3\SDK) to the DISMUI folder:
•   Microsoft.Deployment.Compression.dll
•   Microsoft.Deployment.Compression.Cab.dll
• Run DISMUI.exe

Additional Notes

The program is provided as is without any guarantees or warranty.
Although the author has attempted to find and correct any bugs in the software program, the author is not responsible for any damage or losses of any kind caused by the use or misuse of the program.
The author is under no obligation to provide support, service, corrections, or upgrades to the free software program.

The current version is still Beta but works already without any problems.
Author: Wolfgang Unger

If you load pptx files using PowerPoint Viewer 2007 on XP Embedded or Windows Embedded Standard 2009 you will get the following error message:

“This file requires the Compatibility Pack for the 2007 Office system to view its contents”

The reason for this error message is that PowerPoint Viewer 2007 needs the t2embed.dll located in the Windows\system32 directory.

To solve the error copy the t2embed.dll from a XP Professional system to your embedded system.

The free Microsoft utility Windows SteadyState can be used on Windows XP Professional for Embedded Systems to prevent the OS from any changes.

It offers a write filter which will redirect all writes to a cache file which can be reset on a reboot. This will generate a fresh system on every boot.

Windows Updates can be installed even when the write protection is on. Additional security policies can be applied on the system using SteadyState.

Download a manual for the installation and configuration from our website

Windows Server 2008 allows you to brand the OOBE and Server Manager.

To brand both you can use the following:

• Install the x64 Compiler for Visual Studio 2008
• Run Visual Studio 2008
• Create a Visual C++ / Win32 Project
• Select DLL
• Click Finish
• Create a new Resource
• Add a String Table Resource
• Enter all the needed texts for you branding
• Add a Bitmap to your resources
• Open the Project Properties
• Open Configuration Manager
• Select Release and Click New in the Platform dropdown
• Select x64 as Platform
• Click OK
• Click OK
• Compile the project
• Copy the output file to the target system into the Windows\system32 directory.
• Use the following XML sample and adapt the filename to your dll filename:

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
  <ServerUIExtension ResourceDllPath="%SystemRoot%\system32\OOBERes.dll">
      <Extension Name="InitConfig" HeaderTitleId="101" HeaderDescriptionId="101">
      <Section Id="1">
          <Task Id="TimeZone" Hide="true" />
      </Section>
          <Section TitleId="106" BrandingImageId="#102">
              <Task Url="http://www.elbacom.com" LinkId="102" ToolTipId="103" />
              <Task LinkId="104" Command="notepad.exe" ToolTipId="105" StatusLabelId="105" />
          </Section>
      </Extension>
      <Extension Name="ServerManagerHome" HeaderTitleId="101" HeaderDescriptionId="101">
          <Section TitleId="106">
              <Task Url="http://www.elbacom.com" LinkId="102" ToolTipId="103" />
              <Task LinkId="104" Command="notepad.exe" ToolTipId="105" StatusLabelId="105" />
          </Section>
      </Extension>
      <Extension Name="FileServerRole" HeaderTitleId="101" HeaderDescriptionId="101">
          <Section TitleId="101">
              <Task LinkId="107" Command="mmc.exe" ToolTipId="107" StatusLabelId="107" />
              <Task Url="http://www.elbacom.com" LinkId="102" ToolTipId="103" />
          </Section>
      </Extension>
  </ServerUIExtension>

• Copy the XML file to the Windows\system32 directory
• Open regedit and navigate to the following registry key:
  
• Enter the full path to the XML file as value (e.g.: C:\\Windows\\system32\\Branding.xml)
• Close all OOBE and Server Managers
• Start OOBE or Server Manager
• If the Branding has been applied you are done - if not see check the log file located in
     C:\Users\<User>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\ServerManager

Possible Error codes:

Failed to load Extensible resources. The resource dll C:\Windows\system32\OOBERes.dll could not be loaded. Last error = 193

   The dll is not compiled for the target systems architecture. e.g. Windows is x64 and the dll is x86
   Solution: Compile the dll according the systems architecture

Failed to load Extensible resources. The resource dll C:\Windows\system32\OOBERes.dll could not be loaded. Last error = 14001

   The dll needs additional dependencies. e.g. it has been compiled using VS2008.
   Solution: Install the VC9 Redistributable package. If this does not resolve the issue check dependencies using Dependency Walker.

A video showing the whole branding process:

Windows Storage Server 2008 ships with Single Instance Storage – this will enable Storage Server to save space because it will save duplicate files only once. SIS will check all the files on the harddisk for duplicate ones – if they are found it will be saved only once in the Common Store. All files will only link to the physical file in the common store. If one of the duplicate files changes it will be automatically saved phyiscally as new files - no files or content gets lost.

To enable SIS use the following command:

sisadmin /i D:

Note: SIS cannot be enabled on the system drive!

To enable SIS on the drive enter the following command:

sisadmin /e D:

To start checking for duplicate files run the following command:

sisadmin /r

To list the current files which are stored only once use the following command:

sisadmin /l D:

To uninstall SIS use the following command – this will convert all links back to files!

sisadmin /u D:

Here is a video demonstrating SIS: