How to change Windows PE registry values from within Windows PE

Question

I have a Windows PE (Win7) image which I can boot but the hostname is randomly set. I know I can change that behavior by setting the following registry keys:

SOFTWARE\ControlSet001\Control\ComputerName\ComputerName\ComputerName  = computername

and

SYSTEM\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\WinPE\SetComputerName  = 0

It works if I mount the WIM image on a second computer, mount the hives, edit the keys and unmount everything again and then apply the WIM file.

But what I need is to make these changes within a running Windows PE instance. I already tried to mount the hives there, but it only works for the SYSTEM hive and not the SOFTWARE hive.

Answer 1

You could try PE Network Configurator :

PE Network Configurator or PENetCfg is a stand-alone utility that allows you to start and configure networking in Microsoft WinPE and BartPE.

With PENetCfg you can do the following:

• Enable and start networking support if it's not started yet.
• List all Ethernet adapters on the running machine and set TCP/IP properties (IP Addresses, Default Gateways, DNS Servers, WINS Servers
  • any number of them) and switch between using static and dynamic (DHCP) TCP/IP settings at any time.
• Select Link Speed/Duplex Mode of a broad range of Ethernet adapters.
• Add any Domain, workgroup, or Server to browse its resources and map and disconnect network drives.
• Change computer name and join workgroup.
• Release and renew the IP address of any Ethernet adapter.
• Change the MAC address of any Ethernet adapter on the fly.
• Use network profiles to automate configuring network settings. For more information about using the network profiles, see the included readme.txt in the downloaded package.

The computer name can be preset in the file PNETCFG.INI under [NetID]. For example :

[NetID]
ComputerName=the-name
Workgroup=workgroup

I have never used this application and cannot guarantee that it still works with the latest Windows builds.