To make lasting changes, see WinPE: Mount and Customize.

All changes are lost when Windows PE reboots, including changes to drivers, drive letters, and the Windows PE registry.

Automatically stops running the shell and restarts after 72 hours of continuous use.

To prevent its use as a production operating system, Windows PE: Microsoft makes other products, such as Validation OS and Windows IoT Enterprise, which may be used for these purposes. It shouldn't be used for hardware validation, as a thin client, or an embedded operating system. It may not be used for any purpose other than deployment and recovery. Windows PE isn't a general-purpose operating system.

The 64-bit version of Windows PE can boot 64-bit UEFI and BIOS PCs.

The 32-bit version of Windows PE can boot 32-bit UEFI and BIOS PCs, and 64-bit BIOS PCs.

To optimize memory use, manufacturers should ensure that their firmware reserves memory locations either at the beginning or at the end of the physical memory address space.

In order to boot Windows PE directly from memory (also known as RAM disk boot), a contiguous portion of physical memory (RAM) which can hold the entire Windows PE (WIM) image must be available.

(If you add drivers, packages, or apps, you'll need more memory.)

The base version requires only 512MB of memory.

You can run Windows PE entirely from memory.

Windows PE has the same requirements as Windows with these exceptions: Hyper-V, including VHD files, mouse integration, mass storage and network drivers that allow Windows PE to run in a hypervisor.Security tools, including optional support for BitLocker and the Trusted Platform Module (TPM), Secure Boot, and other tools.

Storage, including NTFS, DiskPart, and BCDBoot.Networking, including connecting to file servers using TCP/IP and NetBIOS over TCP/IP via LAN.Image capturing and servicing, including Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM).

Drivers, including a generic set of drivers that can run networking, graphics, and mass storage devices.Applications, including Win32 application programming interfaces (APIs) and optional support for HTML Applications (HTA).Batch files and scripts, including support for Windows Script Host (WSH), and ActiveX Data Objects (ADO), and optional support for PowerShell.Windows PE runs the Windows command line environment, and supports these Windows features: See Create bootable WinPE media for more information. You can boot WinPE from USB, CD/DVD/ISO, or a virtual hard drive. Prior to Windows 10, version 1809, WinPE was included in the ADK and wasn't an add-on.

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