Windows Preinstallation Environment

Windows Preinstallation Environment (also called WinPE or Windows PE) is a minimal version of Windows used to install, deploy and recover Windows versions. The first version of Windows PE was released along with Windows XP RTM and was designed to be a replacement for MS-DOS boot disks. It can be run from a CD, DVD, PXE boot, USB drive or hard disk, and it runs from within the device's physical memory (RAM).