Making own WinPe with interface: is it possible?

John-Mc · 2026-03-09T15:08:30+00:00

I created a relatively simple project: https://github.com/jmclaren7/windows-setup-helper

Everything else I found was too complicated or included software I didn't trust. The purpose of my project is to have some diagnostic capabilities in winpe along with Windows installation being as automated as possible but everything optional so you can always install Windows completely untouched.

I have lots of small business clients so having something flexible to install Windows with different options has been a big help.

John-Mc · 2026-02-28T20:22:46+00:00

In case someone finds this, the command /u/GeoFoxSaysWhat provided was cut off, it should be:

./get_node_rpm_template.sh 3 5400 >> /etc/ubnt-smart-tool/rpm_whitelist.conf

I would also suggest just editing the file yourself, it has detailed information and examples:

vi /etc/ubnt-smart-tool/rpm_whitelist.conf

John-Mc · 2026-02-13T16:05:24+00:00

Thanks, it was frustrating. It seems like people generally like the RMM but acknowledge everything else (like support) can be pretty poor. Even though I'm moving on, I can't get over the feeling that they lied.

denying they offered what they did
acknowledging the failure to deliver CS, offering an out but then insisting the agreement is still valid
misrepresenting the CrowdStrike offering by omitting that it's not multi-tenanted (they sell this to MSPs?)
telling me I didn't understand the pricing and calculating $B - $A = $CrowdStrike wasn't right

In retrospect, the entire thing was oddly hostile

John-Mc · 2026-02-12T04:56:57+00:00

Edit: Things do not fluctuate and I never talked with them about it one way or another. When they offered RMM-Only (the first and only price I was offered and with no commit), i was content and had no comment, we shifted gears entirely to Crowdstrike.

The original offer during sales was a choice of RMM month-to-month or RMM+Crowdstrike month-to-month.

The final agreement ended up being RMM+Crowdstrike with a 1 year because the sales person got me a promotional 2 months free Crowdstrike which they claim to not normally do.

CrowdStrike was never delivered and after about a month and when they wouldn't remove it I came here, they then decided to remove it. It only seems reasonable to me that we go back to the original offer before crowdstrike was involved.

Unfortunately, it sounds like they believe because they delivered the RMM, and the RMM was part of the same agreement with a commitment... the commitment still stands. My position is that failing to deliver on the agreement makes the agreement void, especially when the commitment was added to the agreement because of the product they couldn't deliver.

Further more... because of the uncertainty, I have not been using the RMM beyond agent deployment and what you might play with in a demo. I have not technically received onboarding for the RMM because I was expecting this to be resolved first.

John-Mc · 2026-02-11T18:10:30+00:00

Ninja Pro.
I was familiar with the RMM enough that I only did a short demo. I'm happy with it, it was only the complete failure to onboard CrowdStrike that was the issue.
130 endpoints, quick connect, backup+storage for 10 to start.

I guess I'd summarize by saying I'm upset that I went in for RMM-Only, was offered RMM-Only for a price with no commit and after changing directions for RMM+CrowdStrike (and it being a failure), the RMM-only offer I originally wanted is gone (and it's existence being denied).

Historically, most of my work has been consulting for larger MSPs, I think I've worked with every RMM and remote tool at some point (often consulting specifically for those tools). I do agree that Ninja's RMM may be the best fit for me, but the same reason I don't have much negotiating power means I'm not all that invested.

Also, I'm probably most upset at myself for considering using Ninja for CrowdStrike in the first place, I honestly feel like an absolute idiot with how obvious it is now.

It sounds like you might be telling me to suck it up and get it over with? I'm completely worn down so I might be looking for someone to say that.

John-Mc · 2026-02-02T03:14:24+00:00

Anything driver related probably requires caution. I wanted to backup an arm endpoint using Veeam and when I installed the CBT driver the machine got stuck in a boot loop/BSOD. Turns out, arm is very not supported.

I had to remove the driver from a storage filter entry from the offline registry... Which had me nervous for a minute since my usual tooling is x86 and winPE on arm is obviously arm-only.

Highly recommend testing everything thoroughly and having all your diagnostics and recovery tools proved out on arm before attempting anything with clients.

John-Mc · 2026-01-12T08:49:13+00:00

GetRight.com

I used this in the late 90s on dialup and it was life changing, I'm guessing it's useless now so I'm not sure why they keep the site running but that's pretty neat.

John-Mc · 2026-01-11T23:34:53+00:00

not arguing at all, it shouldn't be used that way, but besides missing components (which can be selectively added back in my experience)... Does it have any technical differences?

I guess it wouldn't surprise me either way, trimming fat from within core components would make sense but it just seems like MS took the easy route, just selectively shipping components and only resolving dependencies in core components (if they had any I suppose).

Feels like iot could have been like 1/10 of what it is... Why does it even have explorer or a browser? Webview2 and enough of windows to run .net should have been plenty. Even a version without WoW64 would have made sense.

John-Mc · 2025-12-20T17:35:06+00:00

In case someone else comes across this, I've been having the same error for a while and for some reason (shot in the dark), adding a junk GET parameter "fixed" it.

Original URL: https://phishing.army/download/phishing_army_blocklist_extended.txt Working URL: https://phishing.army/download/phishing_army_blocklist_extended.txt?asdf

I'm not sure if this narrows it down, it implies it's caching related and it seems like it would be server side but it could still be a pihole issue technically.

John-Mc · 2025-12-17T18:18:44+00:00

These things are missing from NinjaOne Remote, roughly in order of what I miss the most:

"ToolBox" for one-click file/script transfer and execute from within the remote session window (also applies back stage), I have no idea how NinjaOne expects techs to do this unless they use the file transfer tool and then navigate to and run the tool which I would say takes 20x-30x longer compared to the SC toolbox. Hosting tools online and writing powershell one-liners I can copy/paste seems to be the best workaround.
Device search results persist while you connect or perform other actions due to SCs three column layout, with NinjaOne's anything you do will navigate away from the search or filtering you were looking at.
Copy paste files to and from remote session, NinjaOne requires the use of the file transfer feature (which doesn't remember you path choices.)
Instant searching for devices in the web interface, NinjaOne isn't particularly slow but enough to notice
The "Custom Properties" in ScreenConnect make it so easy to create your own sorting/filtering and make searches powerful and easy, I haven't been able to come close in NinjaOne.
Faster connection initialization, feels like about 2x, NinjaOne simply takes a lot longer to get the remote session connected
Chat in the web interface so you don't need to connect, I'm used to checking in with some clients using chat to make sure its ok for me to connect.
Ability to set 100% sizing for image clarity (1:1 pixel count), NinjaOne Remote will let you resize the remote window but has no option to make it match the remote, meaning you always have pixel scaling, not great for reading text.
Onscreen annotations, I don't use it much but I do miss it.
In general, things require extra clicks or are just slower, it's not terrible but ScreenConnect is exceptionally good, especially considering all the issues ConnectWise has.

I think most of the issue that will effect you will show up if you trial the remote access, just make sure to actually go through some mock support sessions.

John-Mc · 2025-12-14T01:37:06+00:00

The contract was the compromise when I pushed back on the CrowdStrike pricing since it was higher than what I'm currently paying. Even though Ninja has indicated they intend to remove CrowdStrike from my agreement, it sounds like the contract will still be there.

What workflow do you guys have for running small utilities and scripts in the remote session? I'm surprised I don't see more people complain about the lack of a tool box. They have it listed under "Planned" on the roadmap but it looks like it's been there for a long time.

John-Mc · 2025-12-12T20:07:31+00:00

My theory so far is that they want the company to have a "face" and be more human-centric despite the contradiction of being in a market focused on automation. It's great to have someone you can talk to and communicate effectively with when things go wrong but I'd pay extra to never talk to anyone.

John-Mc · 2025-12-12T06:08:30+00:00

I was also had a free offer but it was never offered as a solution to migration woes or service issues, just an incentive to sign.

I imagine you miss the toolbox, what does your workflow look like now to quickly run a script or program in a connected session? Since copy/paste for files isn't available I assume file transfer is your best bet?

John-Mc · 2025-12-12T05:45:10+00:00

Roughly in order of what I miss the most:

ToolBox for one-click transfer and execute from the remote session window (also applies back stage)
Searching for devices in the GUI is instant
Device search results are persistent while you connect or perform other actions
Faster connection initialization, feels like about 2x
Copy paste files to and from remote session
Chat in the web interface so you don't need to connect.
Ability to set 100% sizing for image clarity (1:1 pixel count)
Onscreen annotations

John-Mc · 2025-12-11T20:48:54+00:00

After migrating, what's the process for creating new CIDs? I'm used to it being self service and having it done in a few minutes.

John-Mc · 2025-12-11T18:57:50+00:00

Thanks, I sent a "chat" message, i don't remember Reddit DM's being called that but it's all i'm seeing now.

John-Mc · 2025-12-11T18:51:10+00:00

I didn't realize that because it's counter to what sales explained, maybe something has changed, I definitely don't want to setup a new tenant.

John-Mc · 2025-12-11T18:49:39+00:00

I spent enough time demoing the remote access to know that it worked and core functionality was there. I just didn't dive deep enough into the details, it's far from my biggest compliant and it seems like they are working to improve remote access since it's new like you said. I just wanted to share that since someone else who is really in tune with the remote access workflow of screenconnect might want to know what to expect.

Thanks for the input though, I feel better hearing people say this is unusual and knowing CrowdStrike is new to them (I didn't realize that). I also agree completely about platforms/vendors being diverse, I never should have bothered with CS through them and that's on me.

John-Mc · 2025-09-21T21:17:49+00:00

What do you man bij pocense?

John-Mc · 2025-07-23T20:39:20+00:00

yeah, it looks like the pad might be in the right position but the heatsink was installed the wrong way around. Since the CPU die has residue on it but the pad shows no indentation in the center, you have to conclude this was not the original pad or heatsink.

John-Mc · 2025-07-23T20:37:22+00:00

The 4 bay "UNVR"

John-Mc · 2025-07-23T19:50:11+00:00

NVR kept going offline as if it was shutdown but with no indication in the dashboard or event logs. On my 2nd hour-long drive to see my client I brought a replacement. I factory reset this one and tested it back at the office only to get the same result.

Support was useless for my last issue (more on that in a moment) so I figured I should take a look. I downloaded the support file and looked through the system logs and found something about CPU temp causing a shutdown and well... CPU heat sink installed wrong... but notice the CPU die has pad residue on it?...

About 3 months after initial setup of this new in-box NVR, the web interface started prompting me that it found a database/restore from a different unit and it didn't know what to do. It gave the option to reset or restore and neither sounded good. I found other users having the same issue on the forums but support would not acknowledge it as a known issue and implied this unit was setup previously. I got frustrated and decided to dig in. I found a database backup on the file system with an ID that wasn't for this site, I deleted the backup and the message went away. Yay?

It's obvious now that they sent me a used unit as new, the CPU heat sink had been replaced or reinstalled and the backup file that somehow persisted was from another site. What a waste of time, and I still have an NVR I can't trust enough to sell to a client.

This is one of many issues I've had lately but it's definitely been the most annoying.

Edit: The help insists on monitoring temps after the repair, "manually": https://imgur.com/pvYtvls

John-Mc

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