Eurosoft & Microsoft WindowsPE

Microsoft MS-DOS End-of-Life

For many years the only operating system that was available for the initial boot of a system was MS-DOS. Suitable for it's time, it is now no longer viable for a few good reasons. Operating systems were installed using xcopy, networks were slow and they used IPX. An operating system was then in the region of 10Mbytes with the variety of network cards limited. Today, images can be several Gigabytes so obvious conflicts arise.

From Eurosoft's perspective, an operating system based diagnostic cannot test memory where the operating system is residing - it will corrupt (i.e. blue screen!). Additionally, the continual rebuilding of DOS-based test disks for each new hardware driver had become overwhelming (picture a house of cards tumbling down or the joke of "52 card pick up"). Combine all these issues with the lack of availability of DOS drivers and the industry has a problem.

Microsoft Windows Preinstallation Environment

Today, for Eurosoft and their customers, the major move forward from Microsoft to introduce Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE) is proving to be very exciting and successful. WinPE overcomes many of the MS-DOS challenges, providing a way forward into the future.

WinPE brings an effective change to the traditional method of testing and deploying images to manufactured systems. WinPE offers a reduced command line version of the Microsoft Windows Operating system, providing an environment where standard Windows drivers can be used during manufacturing. It also offers the opportunity to test devices that were not possible under MS-DOS. Image transfers are also a lot faster, which is now absolutely necessary due to the size of imaged operating systems and applications.

WinPE functions as a standalone operating system that can boot from a CD, USB Flash Drive (Eurosoft Boot2Test UFD). For centralization of test resources and images: WinPE can be deployed across the network via PXE boot to a Remote Installation Server (RIS). In all cases, it can run independent of the hard drive.

Although it may look a daunting task to configure WinPE, adding drivers and command files, Eurosoft include a version of the WinPE operating system together with specialist scripts to make the task easier.

WinPE is ready now; it is updated regularly and is part of Microsoft's Longhorn plan, and Eurosoft's plans too. More information on WinPE can be found on the Microsoft site:

>>> www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/winpreinst/WindowsPE_over.mspx

Longhorn

Longhorn is due to be released by Microsoft in 2006, and looks set to be the consumer operating system of choice.

Expanding on all the features and benefits you gain by using WinPE in your production process, Longhorn will offer greater flexibility and ease of use. New facilities available when using Eurosoft's PC Builder Test Mangement suite will help to make image creation and deployment quicker, while saving network bandwidth. And the number of SKUs, HALs, and languages that you need can be reduced by using a single imaging file to help you reduce manufacturing and services costs. With the rich features of Longhorn and WinPE, Eurosoft's diagnostic software and PC Builder Test Management Suite are able to test hardware such as SATA, Hyperthreading and EFI more effectively than ever before due to the added driver support.

Eurosofts' experience and expertise in the manufacturing areana will help you to ease through the transition from MS-DOS, to WinPE and Longhorn in the future. More information on Longhorn can be found at….

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/longhorn/default.mspx

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