Q. How can I create a Windows 7-based Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE) that's compatible with System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM)?

A. SCCM 2007 comes with two PE images—one 32-bit and one 64-bit—that are used to capture and deploy OSs. You can create our own WinPE environments with additional utilities and configuration and use them with SCCM, you just need to make sure you add the scripting and WMI packages.

            Below are the instructions I used to create a new amd64 (64-bit) WinPE environment on a machine that has the latest Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) installed. Make sure you open the WAIK command prompt to run the commands below that are in bold. In my example, I'm creating the image in the folder d:tempwinpe_amd64, so if you use a different path, update your commands appropriately.

 C:Program FilesWindows AIKToolsPETools> copype.cmd amd64 d:tempwinpe_amd64
 ==============================================

Creating Windows PE customization working directory
    d:tempwinpe_amd64

=========================================

        1 file(s) copied.
        1 file(s) copied.
C:Program FilesWindows AIKToolsPEToolsamd64EFImicrosoftbootfontswgl4_b
oot.ttf
7 File(s) copied
        1 file(s) copied.
Success
Updating path to include peimg, cdimage, imagex
   C:Program FilesWindows AIKToolsPETools
   C:Program FilesWindows AIKToolsPETools..AMD64
d:tempwinpe_amd64> dism /mount-wim /wimfile:d:tempwinpe_amd64winpe.wim /index:1 /mountdir:d:tempwinpe_amd64mount
Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 6.1.7600.16385
Mounting image
\[

================

100.0%

================

\]
The operation completed successfully.
d:tempwinpe_amd64> dism /image:d:tempwinpe_amd64mount /add-package /packagepath:"c:Program FilesWindows AIKtoolspetoolsamd64winpe_fpswinpe-scripting.cab"
Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 6.1.7600.16385
Image Version: 6.1.7600.16385
Processing 1 of 1 - Adding package WinPE-Scripting-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd6
4~~6.1.7600.16385
\[

================

100.0%

================

\]
The operation completed successfully.
d:tempwinpe_amd64> dism /image:d:tempwinpe_amd64mount /add-package /packagepath:"c:Program FilesWindows AIKtoolspetoolsamd64winpe_fpswinpe-wmi.cab"
Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 6.1.7600.16385
Image Version: 6.1.7600.16385
Processing 1 of 1 - Adding package WinPE-WMI-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.1
.7600.16385
\[

================

100.0%

================

\]
The operation completed successfully.
d:tempwinpe_amd64> dism /unmount-wim /mountdir:d:tempwinpe_amd64mount /commit
Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 6.1.7600.16385
Image File : d:tempwinpe_amd64winpe.wim
Image Index : 1
Saving image
\[

================

100.0%

================

\]
Unmounting image
\[

================

100.0%

=====================\] 
 The operation completed successfully.