Microsoft has released the updated version of the Community Technical Preview of Windows Embedded Standard 8. It is available for download on the Microsoft Connect website at https://connect.microsoft.com/windowsembedded.

There was a small bug within the latest version that prevented the tool from exporting any driver. Please download the new fixed version.

I have added a new feature to Driver Extractor that allows you to export the device information of your current device to a PMQ file. The file format is identical to the TAP (Target Analyzer Probe) output.
Additionally I have added command line arguments so you can easily export all drivers from the command line.

These two features allow you to export the drivers for a specific system automatically so you can import them either into your Target Designer Component Database or Windows Embedded Standard 8 Catalog and use the exported PMQ file to automatically add the drivers to your image.

Arguments

DriverExtractor.exe [tap] [export] [wes8|xp|copy] [path <path>]

tap – will export the device information to devices.pmq in the current working directory. If path is specified it will be stored in this location.

export – will export all drivers in the format specified (wes8/xp/copy)

wes8 – Windows Embedded Standard 8 CTP1 Module

xp – XP Embedded / Windows Embedded Standard 2009 Component

copy – copy drivers only

path – specifies the output path

I have created a new version of my tool Driver Extractor which is now capable of creating Modules for Windows Embedded Standard 8 CTP1. The tool allows you to extract already installed drivers from your system with just a few clicks.
For the export you can also choose to package the driver into a Module (EMD) for Windows Embedded Standard 8 CTP1, a Component (SLD) for Windows XP Embedded & Windows Embedded Standard 2009 or you can just export the files.

The tool can be very helpful if you just have a system that has all the drivers pre-installed and you don’t have the driver CD at hand. It also saves you a lot of time because you don’t need to work with Module Designer or Component Designer to create your packages.

With the new version you can also import an INF file to create a component out of it – so the driver must not be installed on the system to extract it.

Also there are enhancements and bugfixes for the extraction routine.

Usage

Run the tool and select the devices of which you want to extract the drivers from.

Double-click a device to see which files are installed for the current device.

In the toolbar you can select the output format:

• Windows Embedded Standard 8 CTP1 Module (EMD)
• Windows XP Embedded / Windows Embedded Standard 2009 Component (SLD)
• Export only

Click the Export button and select an output directory.

This will export all drivers to the selected format in the specified output folder.

If you want to convert a driver to a module or component you can select File / Import INF and select the INF file of the driver.

Then again select an output folder. Driver Extractor will create the package there.

This is a minor release that contains only bug fixes for the following functions:

• Dependency Tree Viewer in WES7 & POSReady 7
• Integration into POSReady 7 with /integrate switch
• Language Pack installation only when needed
• minor fixes

The new version of DISMUI received many updates including support for the current Windows Embedded Standard 8 CTP1. One major change is the support of Modules which are the new way of adding features in Windows Embedded Standard 8 CTP1.
A module is not only a combination of features of the OS itself – a Module can also contain custom files, drivers and custom commands that are executed when installed. This way you are again able to easily add your own application to your image.

Because Microsoft supports Modules only with Windows Embedded Standard 8 – DISMUI has an additional feature that brings Modules also to Windows Embedded Standard 7 and POSReady 7!

At the moment there is still the need to create the Module for Windows Embedded Standard 7 and POSReady 7 manually but it uses the exact same format as the Windows Embedded Standard 8 CTP1 Modules.

I will publish a short manual soon how to create a Module and how to install it with DISMUI.

New Features

• Support for Windows Embedded Standard 8 CTP1
• Module Installation in Windows Embedded Standard 7 and Windows Embedded POSReady 7
• Advanced OS detection and DS/Catalog Version detection
• Additional security checks
• Much faster detection of installed feature packages
• Option to switch the view between tree and list view
• Enhanced dependency and conflict checking

Feature Overview

• Online & Offline Servicing of
• Windows Embedded Standard 7
• Windows Embedded Standard 8 CTP1
• Windows Embedded POSReady 7
• Online Configuration of Windows Embedded POSReady 7 and automated offline servicing
  (Important feature for POSReady 7 to stay supported)
• Integration into POSReady 7 – easy UI to service OS – even by the End Customer!
• Module Installation for Windows Embedded Standard 7 & POSReady 7
• Driver Installation
• Dependency Tree Viewer
• Dependency Checking
• Conflict Checking
• Footprint impact calculation
• Minimum Requirements Check
• and many more!

Our new tool "Windows Offline Configurator” is now available to download as an evaluation version from our website.

The tool allows you to build images offline on your development machine for

• Windows Embedded Standard 7
• Windows Embedded Standard 8 (CTP)
• Windows Embedded POSReady 7

The tool can be very helpful in the following scenarios:

• You have a slow target device where building take a very long time
• You want to fully customize POSReady 7 prior installation
  You can add and remove feature packages before installing the image
• You want to fully customize your image prior installation
  Including Out-Of-Box experience (Username, Computername, Product Key, Timezone, etc.)
• Install an image directly to a VHD file for easy deployment
• Have a footprint calculation during feature package and module selection (also for Windows Embedded Standard 8 CTP!)
• Would like an easy to use and fast setup with many additional features
• Install Windows Embedded Standard 8 CTP with dependency and conflict check and all feature listed above

More details are on the product site.

The Community Technical Preview 1 of Windows Embedded Standard 8 is now available for download.

With the new version Microsoft has introduced many great new features such as:

• Modules
  With modules you can build components for you own applications and drivers allowing you to easily add them to you embedded images – also after the image has been built via DISM!
• Branding
  You can add a customer boot screen and replace the Windows Logon and shutdown screens images so you can completely hide Windows from the end-user.
• Unified Write Filter
  Microsoft has created a new write filter – the Unified Write Filter which combines the best of Enhanced Write Filer, File Based Write Filer and Registry Filter.
• Enhanced Componentization
  Microsoft has nearly doubled the feature packages that are available so you can build an even more customized version of Windows.
• WinRT
  Build Metro-Style applications for Windows Embedded Standard 8 that make use of the new powerful WinRT framework which replaces the Win32 API. Even if you don’t want the new Metro UI to show up WinRT makes building your applications more easy because the new framework is available for C++, .NET and also HTML5 applications!

To find out more about Windows Embedded Standard 8 or to download the CTP please click here.