WinBuilder is a free application designed to build and customize boot disks (Live CDs) based on Microsoft Windows. The main advantage of WinBuilder is the relative ease of use, friendly GUI, and the ongoing community effort to further automate and develop the customization of these boot disks. Boot disks are based on projects and scripts that can produce very different results, depending on the expected result from the end user.

WinBuilder itself is a very flexible program to which a lot of talented people have devoted time to create and publish projects that can be downloaded from the internal download center.

Some projects like LiveXP will create you a XP based boot disk from a Windows XP SP2 Install CD and produce a very small CD image sized around 31Mb~100Mb that can include a lot of features, freeware programs and combine support to SATA drives and Network connections.

Also includes free tools to create bootable USB pendisks with easy to follow instructions. Another very popular project is VistaPE which is based on the Windows PE 2.0 edition that comes included inside every Windows Vista Install DVD. Our goals are simple - create truly efficient boot disk using only legal and freeware tools. If you like these works, you're invited to drop a quick visit to our community forums and say hello - your comments and requests are really welcome so that we can know what needs to be done next.

Hwo to create VistaPE Boot Disk Containing Image for Windows:
Step 1: Download and install WinBuilder
The WinBuilder download will be in the form of a zip file containing one file (WinBuilder.exe). Extract this file to the folder where you want to run WinBuilder from. It is recommended that you create a new folder in the root of a drive, such as C:\WinBuilder, D:\WinBuilder, etc., and extract WinBuilder.exe there. It is also recommended that the path to the folder and folder name itself do NOT contain any spaces, as this can cause problems under some circumstances.

Step 2: Start WinBuilder and download VistaPE
Start WinBuilder by executing WinBuilder.exe. If running from Windows Vista, WinBuilder will need to be run as administrator by right clicking WinBuilder.exe and choosing Run As Administrator.
Since no projects yet exist in the WinBuilder folder, it should go immediately to the Download Center screen as shown below.
Select updates.boot-land.net and vistape.net/project in the bottom-right section. For the first try, it is recommended that you leave "Recommended" selected in the drop down list, and leave all other items as they are by default. Select the Download button to start downloading VistaPE. The screenshot below shows the download in progress:

Step 3: Install the IFW files in VistaPE
IFW comes with a utility (bartpe.exe) that will install the files required to include IFW on the VistaPE boot disk. This file is located in the IFW installation folder (C:\Program Files\TeraByte Unlimited\Image for Windows\V2 by default). Successfully using this utility requires that the VistaPE project has already been downloaded into WinBuilder, as outlined in Step 2 above.
Start the utility and select the VistaPE radio button. In the PE Builder Location field, browse to the WinBuilder folder and select that folder. For example, if WinBuilder is installed in the C:\WinBuilder folder, then the PEBuilder Location field should contain C:\WinBuilder. In the Product Key fields, type in (or copy/paste) your registered name and IFW product key. To start IFW automatically on boot, select the "Run Image for Windows automatically" check box. This option can be also be selected (or unselected) later from within WinBuilder.

From the WinBuilder program, you will now be able to select the Image for Windows script under App/TeraByte, and then be able to select or unselect the 3 check box options available there (start IFW automatically, desktop shortcut, quick launch shortcut). These options can be changed for each build of the boot disk. If you don't see the TeraByte/Image for Windows item in WinBuilder (as shown below), exit WinBuilder, and then start it up again.

Step 4: Install Windows AIK
Windows AIK will be required to build the VistaPE boot disk, regardless of whether or not you use it as the source.

Step 5: Configure VistaPE before building the boot disk
Start up WinBuilder to the initial screen, which should show the VistaPE project available. Note again that if running from Windows Vista, WinBuilder needs to be run as administrator by right clicking WinBuilder.exe and choosing Run As Administrator.

Step 6: Configure IFW
To ensure that IFW will be included on the boot disk, expand the App/TeraByte section in the left pane, and verify that the Image for Windows item is checked (it should be by default). When the Image for Windows item is highlighted, the IFW configuration screen will be displayed in the right pane. These 3 options can be set to your preferences for each build.

Step 7: Additional VistaPE configuration recommendations
The configuration items in this section are not required, but they are suggested for the purpose of creating a better working boot disk.
For the first item, expand the Drivers section in the left pane, and then uncheck (disable) Standard VGA Graphics Adapter + Monitors, as shown in the screenshot below. On some systems, the boot disk may hang during the initialization process if this item is left enabled.

Step 8: Build the VistaPE boot disk (the ISO file)
This step will build the boot disk and create the VistaPE ISO file, which will be created (by default) in the ISO folder under WinBuilder, and will be named VistaPE-Core.iso. Please note that creating VistaPE on a USB flash drive will require some additional steps after this one.

Step 9 (optional): Create the VistaPE boot disk as a USB Flash Drive (UFD)
Once you have completed Steps 1 through 7 above, you are now ready to create a bootable UFD. Expand the Finalize section in the left pane, and then highlight the Create ISO/CD/USB item.

Some of the features to expect from WinBuilder
- Friendly User Interface
- Users can freely select, download, and update new scripts from the internet
- Scripts can be configured without needing to edit any code in most cases
- Most scripts already come included with freeware applications
- Customizable projects, everything can be customized and improved.
- Many built-in tools to edit and create new scripts inside wb
- Much smaller/efficient boot-disks and more flexibility to add changes.
- Tool specially targeted for boot method challenges.
- Last but not least - A very active community

Starting up is easy and you can do it in 3 steps
1.Start WinBuilder.exe from an empty folder.
2.Get your fresh projects using the Download Center.
3.Select the project you want to build and click play.

The license of this software is Free Trial Software, you can free download and get a free trial.