Archive for October 2009
Driver Extractor for XP Embedded and Windows Embedded Standard
Download is available on the Elbacom Techblog (v0.9)
Driver Extractor is a tool which makes creating SLD components for drivers very easy.
All you need to do is to run the tool on the target machine with XP, Vista or Windows 7 and all device drivers installed.
Then you just need to select the devices for which the drivers should be exported into an SLD file and click export.
Driver Extractor will then copy all the needed files and creates a component for XPe/WES with Repository for you.
After importing the component to the database you can easily create your image.
Requirements
- .NET Framework 3.5 SP1
- Windows Operating system with all needed device drivers installed
- WMI Support (if running on an embedded OS)
- Windows must be installed on C:Windows in the current version
How To Use
- Run DriverExtractor.exe on the target device. The Windows version should be XP as the exported drivers are taken from the current installation. If you use Vista it will take Vista driver which might not work under XP!
- Check the devices for which you want to export the drivers.
- Click Actions / Export Selected.
- Choose an output directory. The tool will create a separate folder for each component named by the devices name.
- Import the component (located in the output directoryDevicenamesld directory) into the Database by using the Component Database Manager
- Add the component to your configuration
Description
Menus
| File / End | Ends the program |
| Actions / Export Selected | Exports the drivers for the selected devices |
| Actions / Select All | Selects all devices |
| Actions / Deselect All | Deselects all devices |
| Actions / Refresh | Refreshes the device list |
| View / Files of selected device Contextmenu / Show Driver Files |
Shows the needed driver files for the current selected device |
| View / Properties Contextmenu / Properties |
Opens the Windows properties for the current selected device |
| ? / About | Displays information about the tool |
Toolbar
Refreshes the device list
Shows the needed driver files for the current selected device
Exports the drivers for the selected devices
Opens the Windows properties for the current selected device
VMLauncher and Virtual PC RTM (Advanced Integration of XP Mode)
Today Windows Virtual PC RTM has been released to MSDN subscribers. I just upgraded my RC version to the RTM and tested VMLauncher.
The Result: VMLauncher will also work with the final version of Windows Virtual PC.
You can download the free tool here and find more information about it here.
BootVHD
Download (v.0.9)
I wrote a command-line tool which allows you to easily add, remove or update your bootmanager configuration to use VHD files.
The tool will only work if you have a system with only VHD boot (no Win7 system installed directly!)
How to use it
The tool uses the following command line arguments:
BootVHD.exe –Install –VHD Win7Emb.vhd
No Argument Displays all installed VHDs
-Install Installs the VHD specified with the -VHD switch.")
-Name Sets the name for the bootentry.")
Works only together with the -Install switch.")
-Delete Deletes the VHD specified with the -VHD switch.")
-VHD Filename of the VHD file.")
Can be located in the working directory of this program.")
Can be located in the root directory of the boot partition."
-Default Sets the specified VHD as the default bootentry.")
VHD can be specified via the -VHD switch or ")
use this switch together with the -Install switch.")
-Replace Replaces the default bootentry with the specified VHD.")
VHD can be specified via the -VHD switch or ")
use this switch together with the -Install switch.")
Easy Deployment
The tool can be used as well for the easy deployment or update of new image versions in Windows Embedded Standard 2011 (Windows 7 Embedded).
For example if you have installed the Embedded OS in a VHD file (as shown in my previous post) you can easily upgrade your application or the whole image and then put the modified VHD file to an USB drive. The installation is then really easy. All you need to do is run a batchfile.
The BootVHD tool will copy the new VHD over to the bootpartition and can update the bootmanager to boot the new image by default.
Batchsample
BootVHD.exe –Install –VHD NewVersion.vhd –Name “Version 2.0” -default
With this call the NewVersion.vhd gets copied to the boot partition and an bootmanager entry with the name “Version 2.0” is being created.
The new entry is also the default boot entry.
This way you can do an easy deployment of a new version and in case something is wrong with it you can go back to the previous version by just selecting it in the bootmenu.
Download (v.0.9)
Windows Embedded Blog 