WinPE . iVentoy

About WinPE

1. Background

There are many types of WinPE.
Some support networking, some do not. Some can run offline (i.e., fully loaded into RAM), others cannot.
Some come with a relatively complete set of system components, while others are very stripped down.
For full-built-in WinPE (commonly referred to as "offline-capable" or "RAM‑boot"), the entire system is loaded into memory during startup. This type of WinPE works fine with iVentoy.
For WinPE that relies on external tools, after booting, it must map the ISO file as a local drive letter over the network in order to load these external tools properly. For this type of WinPE, network functionality is mandatory to boot successfully with iVentoy; otherwise, the external tools cannot be loaded. Therefore, iVentoy's support for WinPE varies depending on the PE type.
Attention: this article is for iVentoy 1.0.41+.

2. Support

iVentoy make simple support strategy for WinPE.
iVentoy will not mount the ISO file through network automatically after boot, but inject information and script into the WinPE.
If the WinPE must mount the ISO file, then it can mount it as follows.

3. Information

iVentoy will inject iventoy_env.bat and iventoy_env.ini to X:\ after boot WinPE.
Both files contain the same content, just in different formats. You can choose either one to read from based on your needs.
Besides, iVentoy will inject a VTOYMNT.BAT file for convince.

4. Mount directly with VTOYMNT.BAT

You can directly call the X:\VTOYMNT.BAT script to complete the mount, passing a drive letter as a parameter (note: only the letter, without a colon), for example:

X:\VTOYMNT.BAT Y

This script will first attempt to mount the ISO using the system's built-in functionality.
If that fails, it will then try to use ImDisk. If ImDisk is not present in the current PE, it will attempt to install this ImDisk driver.
If you are concerned about this and do not want it to install ImDisk driver, pass a 2nd parameter noimdisk when calling the script.

X:\VTOYMNT.BAT Y noimdisk

If you would like to understand the specific mounting steps, or prefer not to use the VTOYMNT.BAT script and instead mount manually, please continue to the instructions in Chapter 5 below.

5. Manual Mounting Steps

1. Mount iVentoy Server

Mount the entire ISO file from the iVentoy Server side locally, for example as drive Z:. After mounting, the file Z:\iventoy.iso will appear, which is the ISO file for this boot.
The iVentoy Server side integrates a simple SMB server, which can be mounted in PE using the net use command.
But there is a small issue: net use by default can only use the standard port 445, while the SMB port number on the iVentoy Server side may not be 445 (to avoid conflicts with a formal SMB server).
In this case, port mapping is needed. For newer Windows 11 versions, the net use command itself supports the /TCPPORT parameter, which can directly specify the port. For earlier versions, net use does not support this parameter, and you can use portproxy or other third‑party tool to set up port mapping.
To summarize:
1. If the SMB port used by the iVentoy Server side is exactly 445, then just use the net use command, for example:

net use Z: \\%vtoy_server_ip%\riso%vtoy_img_id%

2. If the SMB port used by the iVentoy Server side is not 445, but the net use command supports the /TCPPORT parameter, then:

net use Z: \\%vtoy_server_ip%\riso%vtoy_img_id%  /TCPPORT:%vtoy_smb_port%

3. If the SMB port used by the iVentoy Server side is not 445, and the net use command does not support the /TCPPORT parameter, then:

netsh interface portproxy add v4tov4 listenaddress=127.0.0.1 listenport=445 connectaddress=%vtoy_server_ip% connectport=%vtoy_smb_port%
net use Z: \\127.0.0.1\riso%vtoy_smb_port%

Note: The above parameters such as vtoy_server_ip, vtoy_smb_port can be obtained from the X:\iventoy_env.bat or X:\iventoy_env.ini files.

2. Mount the ISO File

In this step, just mount Z:\iventoy.iso.
If the current PE corresponds to Windows 8+ system, it has built‑in ability to mount ISO files via right‑click.
If it corresponds to Windows 7, you need a third‑party tool such as imdisk.

imdisk.exe -a -f Z:\iventoy.iso -o cd -m Y: