Most interesting part of the whole thing for me! The later WinPE environments are some of the most overlooked computer environments out there but they were absolutely everywhere. EPOS, ATMs, digital signage, vending machines.
>The later WinPE environments are some of the most overlooked computer environments out there but they were absolutely everywhere. EPOS, ATMs, digital signage, vending machines.
If there was a BSoD involved, it was probably one of the NT-based Windows Embedded versions (NT 4.0 Embedded, XP Embedded, …).
WinPE is the Windows Preinstallation Environment, used as the basis for Windows installation and recovery, and available for custom builds as an add-on to the Windows ADK[1], but AFAIK not intended or licensed for embedded use.
Unrelated to WinCE, WinPE is the version of the NT kernel that the Windows setup DVD or netboot installer uses, since Vista and higher.
You could probably build a really nice UI atop of it if one were so inclined. To prevent people from doing this as a way to bypass Windows licensing, there is a timer that will cause WinPE to periodically reboot itself if you leave it running.
Nope. Windows CE was more in the old school “smartphone” (pre iPhone) and PDA, marketed along with a baseline hardware profile and called Pocket PC. Also used in a number of industrial PDAs (think postal service and warehouse scanners), set top boxes.
And then various and sundry embedded devices, but usually these tended to be smaller, often battery form factor and/or headless. While x86 a target more often than not, ARM or MIPS. Windows CE was early on pushed for video games on the Sega Dreamcast and a short lived smart car OS called Auto PC.
Signage, ATMs (if they weren’t OS/2), and test equipment more often ran bonafide Windows NT on commodity x86.
And of course the subject of so many BSOD photos…