Windows 7 / Getting Started

Removing the Build Environment

When DISM installs features, it can modify the access control lists (ACLs) of the Windows PE build files and folders, making it difficult to remove them in the future. You can work around this by using the Windows Server 2008 tool Takeown.exe to take ownership of the affected resources.

To remove the Windows PE build environment, perform the following steps:

  1. Take ownership of the folder structure using the Takeown command.

    takeown /F c:\winpe_x86\* /R

  2. Use the Change ACLs (cacls) command to give yourself permission to remove the folders (user is your user account).

    cacls c:\winpe_x86\* /T /G user:F

  3. Remove the folder.

    rd /s /q c:\winpe_x86\

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In this tutorial:

  1. Preparing Windows PE
  2. Exploring Windows PE
  3. Capabilities
  4. Limitations
  5. New Features of Windows PE 3.0
  6. Setting Up the Environment
  7. Installing the Windows AIK 2.0
  8. Configuring the Build Environment
  9. Removing the Build Environment
  10. Windows 7 Working with PE
  11. Creating Bootable Media
  12. Booting from a Hard Disk Drive
  13. Customizing Windows PE
  14. Automating Windows PE
  15. Automating with Unattend.xml
  16. Adding Images to Windows Deployment Services
  17. Using Windows PE with Microsoft Deployment Toolkit