Build Engines

The MistyPE project is compatible with two different build engines, both of which are included in the project download -


WinBuilder

Based upon information in the WinBuilder wiki, WinBuilder was developed by Nuno Brito, Peter Schlang and Robert Kochem between 2005 to 2011.

MistyPE has been coded to use the WinBuilder scripting language, a language developed specifically for the WinBuilder build engine. WinBuilder.exe version 82.0.1.0 is included in the project download and the project has been extensively tested in WinBuilder.

WinBuilder runs on the Windows XP and newer operating systems and does not require any additional dependencies. It has a relatively small footprint and has been around for long enough to have extensive documentation covering supported commands - see here for example.

WinBuilder version 82.0.1.0 was released around 2011. Whilst there are some bugs these are fairly well known and it's possible to work around them as a consequence. Unfortunately WinBuilder is no longer in development and there do not appear to be any plans to update it in the future.

Screenshot of Mini-WinFE running in WinBuilder -


PEBakery

This Mini-WinFE project has been designed for use with PEBakery - the PEBakery 0.9.5.1 beta build is included in the project download. The project has been tested on more recent builds including PEBakery 1.0.0, however tests were limited to running on a Windows 10 host operating system. Build 1.0.0 failed to run during a brief test on Windows 8.1. NOTE - .Net Framework 4.7.1 and Windows 7 or newer is required to run PEBakery 0.9.5.1 beta.

PEBakery is in development as a WinBuilder replacement and can be used as an alternative to WinBuilder for some projects. PEBakery has been developed by Hajin Jang (aka ied206 and joveler) and is in active development.

PEBakery is a very promising open source project with a similar User Interface to WinBuilder. In the PEBakery developers own words (from here) -

"...What is PEBakery?
PEBakery is a builder specialized in customizing Windows PE.
It is intended to be used with Win10PESE, MistyPE project.

Why PEBakery was written?
PEBakery is compatible with WinBuilder 082.
Projects like Win10PESE are dependent on WinBuilder 082, but WB082's development went discontinued.
PEBakery works as a drop-in replacement of WB082, while providing much improved envrionment..."

PEBakery is open source software, licensed under GPLv3. Please note that some elements of PEBakery are covered under different licenses - please refer to the PEBakery license file. Some links -

Screenshot of the Mini-WinFE project running in PEBakery -

Document date - 18th June 2022