Should I include WinRE in LastOS installs?

Discussion in 'Misc Discussion' started by Glenn, Jun 5, 2023.

?

Remove it to make the install.esd smaller and faster to install?

Poll closed Jun 12, 2023.
  1. Yes - Kill it

    50.0%
  2. Keep it in as any Recovery is better than none.

    50.0%
  1. Glenn

    Glenn Administrator Staff Member

    Messages:
    1,601
    C:\Recovery\WindowsRE\WinRE.wim

    it's 591mb and doesn't compress. it is what allows you to do a startup repair or System Restore etc.... The thing is I disable System Restore in LastOS tweaks, is this file wasting time installing and taking up HDD space on C: that could otherwise be used for other things?

    I have used it myself about 7 times since windows 8.0 and it was only successful twice, apart from that I use my SavePE's to do the tasks better.

    I am just curious if others use it often and if it would be missed if I fully remove it from Last11's future releases.

    Please let me know as I personally don't ever use it so can't make the decision uninformed.


    -EDIT-

    I was thinking maybe I could replace it with a Full SavePE instead, but is that just weird?
     
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  2. Glenn

    Glenn Administrator Staff Member

    Messages:
    1,601
    I am also asking if I should do this on PC's I install for other people? would you leave it out to save time/space?
     
  3. Glenn

    Glenn Administrator Staff Member

    Messages:
    1,601
    BTW, another way to kill it post install is to open a admin cmd and type "reagentc /disable", this will move it to C:\Windows\System32\Recovery (hidden) but accessible for Admin - unlike when it's enabled in C:\Recovery\WindowsRE, there it's untouchable (except during sysprep).

    On another note, if you replace the winre.wim with a LastOS boot.wim (renamed), it'll copy the new PE when you run "reagentc /enable" to re-enable it again once replaced :)
     
  4. Glenn

    Glenn Administrator Staff Member

    Messages:
    1,601
    Maybe this will work as a solution if I did remove it?

    This is it's description:

    This will scan your Disks of your computer for X:\sources\boot.wim and replace the Default Windows Recovery Environment with it, make sure to only have a LastOS installation disk inserted (not even a Standard Windows ISO/DVD) or it will only install a Windows Setup OS and not a recovery environment at all.

    -EDIT-

    Keep in mind, LastOS PE's actually come with Windows Recovery Environment in the - System menu in the PE, so it still does what the default one can.
     

    Attached Files:

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  5. pacav69

    pacav69 Live long and prosper Staff Member

    Messages:
    468
    My thoughts are as follows:
    The day that you remove something the next day you need it.
    If you have a winre on an external usb chamces are that you can't find it.

    There was an instance that i did an win update and when it rebooted it got into an infinite loop and failed to restart correctly the only way was to go into a recovery mode and restore the OS to the last known good restore point.

    If people reinstall win on a regular basis on the same computer then removing winre will make little difference.

    With modern day computers having large capicity hdd/ssd the saving is insignificant but on lower capicity computers where space is at a preimium then every kilobyte counts.

    So it is all about the size of the hdd/ssd and if you spend a lot of time installing windows on other peoples computers then time is money as they say.
     
  6. Glenn

    Glenn Administrator Staff Member

    Messages:
    1,601
    Yeah, I am thinking of leaving it in and it would only take up to 2 minutes to install, I can manually remove it if ever I need to and after I made the way to put my LivePE in it's place, I think it would be good to have access to my toolset for repairs - without me needing to cart my USB sticks with me :)
     
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  7. Glenn

    Glenn Administrator Staff Member

    Messages:
    1,601
    I'll release one build without it as I have also removed most UWP apps etc to make this build very light to install. I'll include the ability to install my PE and hopefully it all goes to plan, I am not sure I'll get feedback or if anyone else actually uses my OS Full time anymore- or if they just install it out of interest in VM's or old hardware, but don't daily drive it or what.

    I am quite happy with all the changes in the Last11_v4 build I am making, but I can understand people who work different to me may prefer to keep a more vanilla OS. So in that vein I will give a new release a go with all my personal preferences and any feedback will change my future releases. I mean, anybody with access to LastOS's has a LivePE to boot to if they choose to use it, so hopefully the default menu and safe mode will work for 99% of peoples problems anyway as I stated, I don't enable System Restore in ANY OS beginning with Windows 7. so not much use having Recovery menu's if not backups were performed.
     
  8. Glenn

    Glenn Administrator Staff Member

    Messages:
    1,601
    New PE and Default Wallpaper I am including, with the optional Empty one at the very bottom. I quite like it - even if it is my own art and I can only see the defects

    PEBackground.jpg Wallpaper-Wide.jpg Wallpaper-Wide-Empty.jpg
     
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  9. chevy350

    chevy350 New Member

    Messages:
    6
    voted but installs usually go pretty fast anymore, wallpaper looks awesome as well :emoji_100:
     

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