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

Microsoft has created an interface for the Windows Management Instrumentation for the Enhanced Write Filter and File Based Write Filter. This feature is available for Windows Embedded Standard 2009 and Windows XP Embedded SP3. With it you can control the state and poll settings and other values through WMI. Also the goal of this is to have full control over the filters with the Windows Scripting Host.

The new features are contained in the March 2011 Update and can be found here:

Windows Embedded Standard 2009
Windows XP Embedded SP3

The newest version of Windows Embedded Compact has been released and can already be evaluated.
To download the evaluation version visit the new Windows Embedded website:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsembedded/en-us/downloads/download-windows-embedded-compact-ce.aspx

Windows Embedded Compact 7 is a small footprint, realtime OS for consumer and enterprise devices.
For details about the new version visit:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsembedded/en-us/develop/windows-embedded-compact-7-for-developers.aspx

Internet Explorer 9 introduced a new feature called Site Pinning which allows users to pin websites directly to the taskbar.

The Elbacom website also supports this feature now. The jumplist of the pinned site contains the most important links to specific places on our websites.

To enable the new feature just drag the tab of www.elbacom.com in IE9 to your Windows 7 taskbar.

The Driver Injector tool allows you to find suitable drivers for your target device automatically. The tool can be a great help if you have previously extracted all driver with Driver Extractor and want to inject them again automatically. Or if you have a driver CD/DVD and want to inject all drivers automatically to the image without having to install every device manually. Driver Injector needs a Target Analyzer Output file which contains all the device information from the target device and a driver search path. Then the tool will find all matches and allows to inject them with one click.

Scenarios

Scenario #1

You have a bunch of drivers on the driver CD and need to install every driver one by one. In this case just run TAP to get the device information.

Then specify the driver search path – which is your driver CD. And click Next. Driver Injector will find the matching drivers and inject them to the image.

Scenario #2

Sometimes there are missing files but Windows will not tell you why.

When this happens you just open the INF file with the tool and it will show you all missing files.

How it works

1. Run TAP.exe from your Windows Embedded Toolkit
2. Run Driver Injector with Administrator permissions
   
3. Click Browse to select the “Target Analyzer Output (devices.pmq)” file
4. Click Browse and select a the directory which contains the drivers for you device
   Driver Injector will use all subdirectories automatically – it must not be a flat structure.
5. Select if you want to inject the drivers to the current running operating system (Online) or if you wish to inject the drivers to an image in a folder (offline).
6. Click Next
7. Driver Injector will now parse the devices.pmq file to get all the needed devices and it will parse all INF files for suitable drivers.
   
8. After the search has completed the tool will show a detailed list of devices which can be mapped with a driver.
   
   There are additional details which are being displayed for each device match:
   
   
   - [ExactMatch] means that the device driver is a 1:1 match with the device ID.
   - [CompatibleMatch] means that the device driver does not match the exact device ID – however it matches with one of its compatible IDs. Therefore it can be used without any problem.
   
   The second information within the brackets shows the hardware architecture of the device driver. You cannot select a device driver if the hardware architecture does not match the operating systems architecture.
9. Select all device drivers which you want to inject into your image. Driver Injector already preselected the best matches.
10. Click Next.
    
11. Driver Injector will now copy all the needed driver files to the appropriate directories.
    In case you have specified another Windows\inf directory as a search directory the directory will not contain the needed driver files. In this case Driver Injector will ask you if it should extract the drivers from installed Windows directory.
    Please note that this feature can not ensure that the correct files are being used. This is because some driver files are renamed during the installation process. It can happen during the extraction routine that some files are the wrong files because the source Windows directory had another device driver component installed which has the same filename (Example: hal.inf contains multiple hal.dll files. All of them are named hal.dll during the installation. However the original names are different from device to device, e.g. halacpi.dll, halapic.dll,…).
12. After the process has completed you will get a detailed summary.
    

Additional Features

Explore INF File

Driver Injector also allows to explore the content of an INF file. This feature will also display all missing files which are needed to install the driver properly. Missing files can happen on a Windows Embedded system in case not all components are installed but the driver depends on them. Missing files are being highlighted automatically by the tool.

How it works

1. Start Driver Injector and select “Explore INF File”.
   
2. Click “Next”.
3. Browse for the INF file which you would like to explore.
   
4. Driver Injector will now display all devices which are contained in the INF file.
   The tool will show all related files, registry entries, services and compatible IDs that are needed by a device.
   To display these items just expand the device node.
   The device items description shows additional information between brackets:
   - The first information shows the device ID – compatible IDs (if there are any) are shown in the Compatible node.
   - The second information shows the architecture of the device.
5. Highlighted items display missing but required files to install a device properly.
   

Add additional information during driver selection

During the driver selection screen you can also add additional information to the selected device.
For this just select the device and click “Load Details”. Drive Injector will then add information about files, registry entries and services that are installed by the device. It will also highlight missing files.

To explore the whole INF file of an selected device driver just click “Explore INF”. Driver Injector will the open a new window displaying the whole content of an inf file. For more information read the “Explore INF File” section.

Command Line Arguments

Driver Injector can run unattended with the following parameters:

DriverInjector.exe <devices.pmq> <DriverSearchPath> [OfflineImagePath]

If the [OfflineImagePath] is omitted then the current running OS will be modified.

Driver Injector can also be started to explore an INF file by using the following parameter:

DriverInjector.exe <INFFile.inf>

 

DISMUI also works with the Windows Embedded POSReady 7 Community Technical Preview. So you can easily use the tool as a graphical wrapper to activate and deactivate Windows Features. However there are a few things needed to make it work.

Here is a description which things need to be changed and why:

• Creating a Distribution Share directory structure
  The current version DISMUI only searches for packages in a valid distribution share folder structure.
  This means that there should be specific subfolders in which the packages are located.
  However the POSReady 7 CTP DVD contains all feature packages in a flat DS folder.
  To make it work with DISMUI create a new “DS” folder for example on a USB drive. Then create a subfolder named “Packages”. In it create the following subfolders “FeaturePack”, “Product” and “LanguagePack”. Copy all cab files from the DS folder of the POSReady 7 CTP DVD to the “FeaturePack” folder.
  After that DISMUI will recognize all the packages and will work properly.
  
• Removing the Windows Boot Environment component
  Unfortunately the POSReady 7 CTP has both boot environments included in the image which will cause DISMUI to show a conflict between those two feature packages. The reason for this is that there must be only one boot environment included in the image as they are marked as conflict in the base image. Therefore DISMUI is correct in showing a conflict.
  
  To resolve this issue remove the “Windows Boot Environment” component from the distribution share. To do this just delete the file named “winemb-bootenv.cab” from the DS\Packages\FeaturePack folder. After that DISMUI will only display the “Enhanced Write Filter Boot Environment” and it will not display a collision because the colliding component is not there and can therefore not be modified.

Microsoft just released a tool for Windows Embedded Standard 7 (but also interesting for the upcoming POSReady 7) called CBS Package Inspector.

The tool allows opening and inspecting Feature Packages, Updates, etc. These packages are delivered as CBS packages (Component-Based Servicing) and can be applied via DISM.

Why is this tool useful?

• See the whole content of a package including possible sub-packages
• Check the dependencies of packages
• See which files and registry entries are created or modified

To download the tool and for more information please visit the Microsoft Code Gallery page.

The installation of the yesterday released CTP version of POSReady 7 is very easy and straight forward.

Here is a tutorial about the whole setup procedure.

1. After burning the ISO file boot your target device directly from the POSReady 7 CTP DVD.
2. Click on “Install now”
   
3. Accept the EULA and click “Next”
   
4. Click on “Custom” to do a fresh installation of POSReady 7 CTP.
   Please note:
   An Upgrade from POSReady 2009 and/or POSReady 7 CTP is not possible! Only the “Custom” installation works.
   
   
5. Select your target disk drive and click “Next”
   
6. The setup now installs POSReady 7 CTP to the specified drive.
   Wait until setup finishes and the OOBE screen shows up.
   
7. Enter a computer name and user name for your device and click “Next”.
   
8. Specify a password and password hint and click “Next”.
   
9. Enter the provided CTP product key and click “Next”.
   
10. Click your desired option on how to protect and update your device.
    
11. Select your time zone, time and date and click “Next”.
    
12. Select your desired network location.
    
13. Enter information for you Home Group or skip the screen.
14. Wait until OOBE finishes configuring your system.
    

POSReady 7 CTP is now ready to use. The system contains very much functionality including AppLocker, BitLocker, Enhanced Write Filter, File Based Write Filter, Registry Filter, Message Box Auto Reply, Dialog Filter, Keyboard Filter and many other features known from Windows 7 and Windows Embedded Standard 7.

Additional documents about POSReady 7 CTP are available at the Connect Downloads website.