wimboot: Windows Imaging Format bootloader

wimboot is a boot loader for Windows Imaging Format .wim files. It enables you to boot into a Windows PE (WinPE) deployment or recovery environment.

You can use wimboot with iPXE to boot Windows PE via HTTP. With a Gigabit Ethernet network, a typical WinPE image should download in just a few seconds.

Demo

This animation shows an HTTP network boot into the Windows 10 installer. The total elapsed time from power on to reaching the Windows installer screen is 17 seconds.

Advantages

Speed

wimboot can download images at the full speed supported by your network, since it can use HTTP rather than TFTP.

Ease of use

wimboot works directly with .wim image files; there is no need to wrap your .wim into an ISO or FAT filesystem image.

BIOS/UEFI compatibility

wimboot allows you to use a single configuration and set of files to boot under both BIOS and UEFI environments.

License

wimboot is free software licensed under the GNU General Public License.

Quickstart

See https://ipxe.org/wimboot for instructions.