Windows Live Session

Table of Contents

• What is Windows PE
• Obtaining media
  • r/Techsupport Windows PE
• Creating bootable media
  • Windows
  • MacOS
  • Linux
• Boot the live media

What is Windows PE

Windows PE is small bootable Windows environment made for r/Techsupport. This PE has a full GUI and select tools for basic troubleshooting or data recovery in a UI more familiar to users than Linux.

Obtaining media

r/Techsupport Windows PE

Download

Source files for rTS_WinPE

Creating bootable media

This will require a USB that is at least the size of the ISO you downloaded.

All methods of creating boot media are destructive and will WIPE the USB flash drive or external disk.

Windows

1. Download and run Rufus
2. Select “ISO Image” and then browse for the ISO image.
3. Select which flash drive you want to put the installer on.
4. Select the target system type, GPT/UEFI or MBR/BIOS
   • For modern systems GPT/UEFI is preferred. For legacy systems use MBR/BIOS
5. Click “Start” and wait for it to finish.

MacOS

1. Download and run Etcher
2. Select your downloaded ISO
3. Select your target drive
4. Click “Flash” and wait for it to finish.

Linux

1. Run lsblk to list all disks in your system, identify your flash drive by size. It will look something like /dev/sd[letter]

The following command is dangerous. Ensure it is run against the correct disk

1. Use dd if=/path/to/image.iso of=/dev/sd[letter] to create a bootable drive from the ISO.
2. Wait until dd finishes. dd does not display progress, but when it finishes, the terminal will display the next prompt.

Boot the live media

1. Press your ‘Boot menu’ key when you power on the machine to access your boot options.
   • You may need to go through BIOS and change boot priority if you cannot find or hit the boot options key during boot.
2. Choose your USB