There have been whispers and rumors making the rounds all over the internet for the past few months regarding the licensing of WinPE. The rumors are, in fact, true: as of January 2012, Microsoft has no longer been renewing any Windows Pre Installation Environment licensing agreements with any partner companies; all of whom are now required to find alternative means of meeting their bootable environment requirements.
As many of you are aware, NeoSmart Technologies is one of the companies licensing Windows PE from Microsoft Corp. Back in August of last year, we revealed that we’d struck a deal with Microsoft wherein we’d be licensing Windows PE for use in our system recovery CDs, making them legally available for download for our users. Unfortunately, that agreement will not be in place for much longer, and the recovery and repair CDs in their current form will soon no longer be available for purchase.
Fortunately, we’ve taken advantage of the advance notice provided by Microsoft to research and develop an alternative for the steady stream of visitors who come to our site in search of a bootable CD to repair their non-booting Windows, having access to neither installation media nor backups.
While working on the next generation of our repair CDs, we investigated the most common points of operating system failure and designed our software to detect, target, and repair these problems. Our goal was simple: make the next version of our system repair CDs in every way better: find more problems, fix more problems, and do so with speed, accuracy, and precision.
The next version of our system repair CDs is not just a replacement for the current WinPE-based repair CDs, but rather a whole new software written from the ground up with the express intent of fixing whatever it may be that stops your PC from booting. Windows Recovery Essentials (WinRE for short) will be a one-stop shop PC repair, fixing common and uncommon problems alike, including those that the Windows installation DVD can’t or won’t fix.
WinRE is currently in private beta and will be available soon. In the meantime, here’s a short peek of WinRE Beta in action:
Make sure to view in high-definition and in full-screen!
If you’re interested in taking it for a test drive, be one of the first to leave a comment saying why you’d like a copy, and if you make it good (don’t forget to follow us on twitter @NeoSmart), we can send one your way.
UPDATE
The current status of WinRE is soft-released. They are available for early adoption, testing, and download from http://systemdiscs.com/ and have been renamed to Easy Recovery Essentials (EasyRE for short). More details forthcoming. (May 19
i just want a copy,can i have one?
I certainly could use this as much modding and testing as I do on my laptop. Not to mention I love new and useful tools.
Could an oldie like me try this out?
Repair Windows is often a pain, with WinPE it will be a pleasure. But before to say this, I need to test it. Thanks to send it me.
Best Regards from France.
Looks like it will be very helpful. Do you have a list of the bugs? I would like to test drive and provide feedback. Also would like to have a current list of know bugs.
Have been a long time fan of EasyBCD and provided a few bugs too. Had beed looking forward to the WinPE based app and this sounds like a great alternative for adding/repairing BCD in a recovery environment. Would love to add to my utilities for off line repair. Neosmart you can depend on.
Since I am considered somewhat of a comuter expert in the family, I recently had to recover a few operating systems. It’s great that you are working on this wonderful solution. I would certainly appreciate getting my hands on a copy of this new recovery cd.
Thanks
I guess I’m a bit late to the party, but I’d love one.
I’d also love for microsoft to make it a easy for partners to do our jobs well.
I’d love one to if you have any left.
Maybe you could load a copy up online and commenters could be sent a link – it would save your disk supply at least.
I’m sometimes called to check PCs, this would most definitely be a handy tool to have! Thank you!
Since WINTERNALS Administrator’s Pak went down the swannee, & got buried among MDOP, there hasn’t really been anything much, of a corporate release, that Win_x boot troubleshooter SysAdmins were allowed to use – never mind COULD use – on corporate systems ..
For home systems, the situation is somewhat better, with Linux-based Recovery CD/DVDs. A custom- built recovery boot disc, would, by far, be the best of all possible worlds.
Will M$ let you do this ? My own experience of them, is that they are, at best, in the position of the non-discursives ( cf. Foucault ). If they do, it will be a major breakthrough for all of us ..
There is Bart’s PE, UBCD, & UBCD4Win, but these are not too well resourced, as they are a labour of love ( a commodity getting rarer by the month ).
I’d be glad to try your brand-new shiny NEOSMART Win RE to see how – and if – it could cope with the usual Registry screw-ups, lost hives, corrupted boot sectors ( we all used to sys C; in Win 98 SE – long gone, alas ! ), & misplaced other essentials needed to bring up a desktop for the Admin user to begin to recreate user desktops etc. on a non-networked home m/c, users being mightily twitchy at what has happened to their little box of trix ..
Please let me get my ( not so grubby today: posted from home ! ) hands on a beta copy, & will test on a dinky little screwed-up VISTA OS – the one we all love to ** hate ** ( 7 being what Vista should have become )
Perhaps one might rename to Universal Boot & Fix Recovery disc ( UBFR ) ?
Good day to all @ NEOSMART
L
The recovery CDs have been soft-released and are available for download from http://systemdiscs.com/
Feedback most welcome.
I have a constant curiosity habit of ‘lets fiddle under the hood’, without knowing exactly what is always going on and of trying lots of free dodgy utlities software. This has caused me to break my systems on a regular basis over the years with much resultant grief , wailing and then thumbing through pages of downloaded ‘how to recover from my stupidity’ etc. I would give your software a good test . I loved the demo!
looks interesting but no disrespect, what makes your product better than say ‘Spotmau’ or even Ultimate Boot CD 4 windows ? (working in the IT industry I use UBCD4 windows extensively..) both allow you to achieve similar results with the tools supplied. Admitedly not always successfuly. I’d like to give your product a go tho, be nice to recommend to my customers if it does what you say (or maybe as a affilliate if your thinking of that ? ) … glenn
I hope somedays we’ll have a azerty command-lines
should be easyer for a french user
Given the chance I would like to try your repair disk beta .like a lot of people I do a lot of repairs for family & friends at no cost & this disk would make my job easier
I SPEND ALOT OF MY OF TIME HELPING THE ELDERLY REPAIR THEIR WINDOWS OPERATING SYSTEMS,WITH THIS DISK I COULD HAVE MORE TIME ENJOYING TEA AND THEIR LASTEST BAKED GOODS WHICH IS MY ONLY PAYMENT.
Would love give it a try. I fix computer for a living an have a boot flash drive with 65 ISOs. But looks as if I will have to make changes soon.
its stuck on some sending discover for me with a linux penguin in the top corner. no clue how to remedy this.
@Glen: Where did you get your copy from? This is a very well-known issue in stolen copies of EasyRE circulating around the internet. I can also see from your email address that you did not purchase a copy of EasyRE.