I had a few mails between the author of PE Network Manager (Holger) and me and this is the result in a nutshell.
Here's what he has sent me, translated from German:
Holger's right, I also tested this and the network stack seems to be down after WinPE booted up, ping doesn't work etc.
Then he tested further and was able to fix this with an updated ISO:
I also asked him about the error message that is thrown on first start. Here's his answer:
So HBS seems to open PE Network Manager twice which causes the problems.
So additionally to the GUI fix that HBS should get, there might be an updated version of PENM to fix that, too.
Awesome support from Holger, he was so incredible fast with his testing and responses. Almost like a German copy of Hasleo support
@admin: Hope that helps and let me know if you need further infos!
Here's what he has sent me, translated from German:
Quote:I've made a bit of progress regarding the issue with it not starting.
Of course, I don't know exactly how the boot image for the ISO is created internally, but the Win1125H2 July update definitely included an update to the SMB 2.0 driver/service.
PENM doesn't start because it keeps trying to start the network for the following reason:
- The LanmanWorkstation service isn't running; it's supposed to start, but it depends, among other things, on MrxSMB2.0, which in turn depends on MrxSMB.
- Without LanmanWorkstation, there's no connection to network resources.
- Mrxsmb won't start and returns error 127… some specified procedure could not be found. Although Mrxsmb depends on Rdbsss, the latter is running and has been started.
- Since, according to CFFexplorer, Mrxsmb also depends on TDI.sys, ksecdd.sys, Netio.sys, msrpc.sys, and FWPKCLNT.SYS, it may be necessary to ensure that all these files are up to date.
- In the Boot.wim, at least mrxsmb.sys and tdi.sys are still from 2024. It's quite possible that there are a few other dependencies here that were updated with the July update and would need to be updated in PE.
Holger's right, I also tested this and the network stack seems to be down after WinPE booted up, ping doesn't work etc.
Then he tested further and was able to fix this with an updated ISO:
Quote:As a test, I manually integrated a few updated Windows files into the Boot.wim using DISM, including mrxsmb.sys, tdi.ys, ksecdd.sys, nwifi.sys, and a few others that weren't up to date yet and looked like they were related to "network" to me. With this, the LanmanWorkstation service starts without any problems and the GUI opens.
The necessary files need to be updated by Hasleo; a few files are copied into Boot.wim, but others are missing or are still from 2024.
I also asked him about the error message that is thrown on first start. Here's his answer:
Quote:Regarding the error with the Tcpipreg service. Yes, that's more or less a bug in the Hasleo Backup Suite.
I enabled debugging in the PENetwork.ini file as a test. When I start the program, I see in the logs that there's an overlap here.
That is, when I launch PENM via the Hasleo interface, the program launches twice, even if I only click on it once. This essentially affects the initial launch of PENM.
If I open the program directly via the Explorer-like interface or CMD, there's no error because there's no simultaneous launch of two PENM instances.
So HBS seems to open PE Network Manager twice which causes the problems.
Quote:I'm still trying to incorporate a fix for the dual process, because I've noticed that if you start PENM too quickly - for example, via a shell interface - and possibly twice, graphical overlaps can occur, which of course shouldn't happen.
So additionally to the GUI fix that HBS should get, there might be an updated version of PENM to fix that, too.
Awesome support from Holger, he was so incredible fast with his testing and responses. Almost like a German copy of Hasleo support
@admin: Hope that helps and let me know if you need further infos!