Windows Embedded Standard 7supports booting from a VHD file. Installing the OS into a VHD can be very easy.

• Boot IBW (Image Building Wizard)
• Before starting the setup process press Shift+F10
• Run diskpart
• Type in the following commands
  in this sample the file is located on drive C:
  with the filename win7emb.vhd
  and a size of 5GB

create vdisk file=C:\win7emb.vhd maximum=5210 type=fixed
select vdisk file=C:\win7emb.vhd
attach vdisk
exit

• Start the setup and create the configuration you need
• IMPORTANT: VHD Boot needs the following component

System Services
- File System
- - Advanced File System

• Finish the setup

IBW will now install the OS into the VHD file and setup the correct boot settings.

If you receive a BSOD with error code 0X00000012F then check if you have included the Advanced File System component!

The video below will show you the installation process on a VHD.

If you like to use BGInfo on POSReady you will notice that the Gateway information and other network information is missing from the output.
The lack of this information is caused by a missing DLL file which is not included in POSReady 2009.
To enable this output copy over the "inetmib1.dll" file from an English XP Pro SP3 installation to the POSReady system.
The file is located in the Windows\system32 directory. If you refresh the information now using BGInfo all information is displayed.

Windows Embedded Standard 7 allows you to add and remove features on your existing image.

This can be done very easily by using the Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) tool. The tool allows you to either online or offline edit your image. The online option enables you to add or remove features while the image is running. The offline version lets you add or remove features from an image which is currently not booted.

The basic command line to add feature packages to your image looks like this:

DISM /online /add-package /packagepath:<PathToThePackageDirectory>

The packages are located on the Windows Embedded Standard Runtime DVD – also known as the Image Building Wizard (IBW) in the following directory:

[Drive]:\DS\Packages\FeaturePack\

To add for example the Internet Explorer to your existing image you can use the following command:

DISM /online /add-package /packagepath:”e:\ds\packages\featurespack\x86~winemb-ie-explorer~~~~6.1.7600.16385~1.0”

To remove a package use the following command:

DISM /online /remove-package /packagepath:<PathToThePackageCABFile>

In this case you will have to specify the CAB file of the package which is located in the packages folder. Using the package folder itself does not always work.

DISM /online /remove-package /packagepath:”e:\ds\packages\featurespack\x86~winemb-ie-explorer~~~~6.1.7600.16385~1.0\WinEmb-IE-Explorer.cab”

After each command you should restart the operating system.

The video below shows you the whole process described above.

This video demonstrates you the usage of imagex together with either Windows Vista AIK or Windows 7 AIK.
A detailed command description can be found here.

The video shows the capturing of an installed “ready-to-clone” image where it will be saved to an external harddrive.
The second part will show the deployment to a fresh system where the target disk still needs to be prepared.

Easy installation

The setup (IBW - Image Build Wizard) can be run directly on the target device with an easy to use setup environment.
If you would like to create unattended setup templates for your machine you can use the  Image Configuration Editor (ICE) tool.

Componentized

Windows Embedded Standard 7 will be componentized, meaning as in the previous Embedded versions,
you can choose which features you´ll need and leave out those you don’t need.
This way you can create very lightweight images with smaller footprint than the full version of Windows 7.

SATA driver support

Easier installation on SATA drives as the driver does not need to be componentized, etc.
Either the setup recognized the drive per default or you can choose to load the driver from a disk.

VHD Boot

One of the best new features is the ability to boot from VHD files.
If you choose this configuration, your whole image lies in one single VHD file.
The biggest advantage for this scenario is that you can easily upgrade the whole image and still have a fallback image on the pc in case something is wrong with the new version.
Also you can do a fully automated image update by downloading the new VHD image and install it as default boot entry in the bootmanager. 
For example you can use the free BootVHD batch command tool to automate the process.

MultiTouch Support with Windows API

As Windows 7 has the support for multitouch integrated you can use this feature also in the Embedded version.
The Windows implementation allows you to create multitouch capable programs very easily.

Embedded Features

WES 7 has all the Embedded Features known from XP Embedded and Windows Embedded Standard 2009:
- File Based Write Filter
- Enhanced Write Filter
- Registry Filter
- Hibernate Once Resume Many
- Custom Shell
- Unbranded Boot and Logonscreens
- etc.

Advanced Power Management

Use the new Windows 7 Power Management Stack to build power efficient “Green” devices.

Driver Extractor is a tool which makes creating SLD components for drivers very easy.
All you need to do is to run the tool on the target machine with XP, Vista or Windows 7 and all device drivers installed.
Then you just need to select the devices for which the drivers should be exported into an SLD file and click export.
Driver Extractor will then copy all the needed files and creates a component for XPe/WES with Repository for you.
After importing the component to the database you can easily create your image.

Requirements

• .NET Framework 3.5 SP1
• Windows Operating system with all needed device drivers installed
• WMI Support (if running on an embedded OS)
• Windows must be installed on C:\Windows in the current version

How To Use

1. Run DriverExtractor.exe on the target device. The Windows version should be XP as the exported drivers are taken from the current installation. If you use Vista it will take Vista driver which might not work under XP!
2. Check the devices for which you want to export the drivers.
   
3. Click Actions / Export Selected.
   
4. Choose an output directory. The tool will create a separate folder for each component named by the devices name.
   
5. Import the component (located in the output directory\Devicename\sld directory) into the Database by using the Component Database Manager
    
6. Add the component to your configuration

Description

Menus

Toolbar

Refreshes the device list

  Shows the needed driver files for the current selected device

Exports the drivers for the selected devices

Opens the Windows properties for the current selected device

There are two ways how you can remove these messages in Windows.

1. Use Minlogon
  Minlogon will remove all the status messages and the logon window and logs the system on using the SYSTEM account.
  Normally this works fine but if you need to access domains this solution will not work for you.
  Also there are some other things (Cardspace,..) which will not work with Minlogon as it’s a minimum implementation of Windows Logon.

If you cannot use Minlogon you can go with the default Windows Logon and set the following Registry Key:

2. Windows Logon with hidden status windows

  Create the following registry entry in the runtime image or add the following key to your Target Designer Image Configuration:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]
"DisableStatusMessages"= dword:00000001

  After this key has been set all the status windows will disappear.

Try to repair the MSDN Library with the installation disc.

If this doesn’t solve the problem, than repair the installation of „Microsoft Document Explorer 2005”. You can do this by navigating to Start Menu Control Panel Programs and Features. Here you have to click to the „Microsoft Document Explorer 2005” and click UninstallChange and than select repair option.

Otherwise you should check, whether the following entries are in the registry:

 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\8.0\Helpx0409\{E589AA14-E52E-4f7c-88CF-E4E3C1260EEE}]

" (Default)"="MSDN Library for Visual Studio 2005" "Filename"="ms-help://MS.MSDNQTR.V80.en" "VS_Docs"="8.0"

If these entries are missing, than you have a problem with the MSDN Library installation.

When you get the XP Professional for Embedded Systems OPK you will receive two important CDs to set up your embedded device.

These CDs are called

• SW CD Windows XPSPx English #1 OPK Tools OEM
• SW CD Windows XP Professional SPx English #1 ProdAct OEM

The OPK Tools CD will install a tool called Setup Manager whereas the other CD is the normal XP Pro setup as you know from standard pc installations.

Setup Manager

With the setup manager you can create unattended setups very easily.

The installation of the setup manager will create a share on your pc which will contain all the files needed to deploy XP onto your devices.

To create a new unattended setup template run the Setup Manager utility.

You can follow these steps to create a sample configuration:

• Create a new configuration
• Click Add to add XP SP3 to the list of the supported operating systems.
  • Insert the SW CD Windows XP Professional SPx English #1 ProdAct OEM CD into your CD Rom drive.
  • Select your CD Rom drive which contains the setup CD
  • Click OK
  • Now all the files are being copied over to your distribution share
• Select Windows XP Professional … from the list and click Next
• You can set up Windows that it runs sysprep immediately after deploying – for this sample just click Next
• Enter the Manufacturer information into this dialog (e.g. Manufacturer: Your company, Model: Test, Support information: Call us at <your number>)
• Click next
• Enter the product key which should be used for the installation – there is a Pre-Installation key coming with the OPK which you should use here. After running Sysprep on the finished system you need to enter the real Product Key.
• Click next
• Here you can specify programs which should be installed automatically during the unattended setup. Please note that these programs should have an unattended setup as well.
• Click Next
• …

You can create a floppy disk containing all the unattended setup information. If you choose this option you can boot your target device from Windows Preinstallation environment with the floppy in the floppy drive. WinPE will then automatically prepare your target disk and run the XP setup unattended via the network share on your development pc.

…

You can also watch this video:

You can import any existing project you created in the XP Embedded Target Designer into the Windows Embedded Standard Target Designer.

To do this follow these steps:

• Start Windows Embedded Standard Target Designer
• Click File / Open
• Select the XP Embedded Target Designer project
• After loading is done click Configuration / Upgrade Configuration
• Click Yes
• Run Dependency Check

Your image is now upgraded to Windows Embedded Standard.

Important!

Update the product key in the image settings – the XP Embedded key will no longer work here!