How to add custom drivers to WinPE WIM for Active@ Boot Disk?

This article explains how to add to WinPE hardware drivers (storage devices, video cards, motherboards, etc..) to the BOOT.WIM image of your Windows 10\11 image via DISM.

Step 1: Install Windows ADK

Download the latest Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK) here: Windows Assessment Deployment Kit.

Make sure "Deployment Tools" ADK component is selected while installing ADK.

Step 2: Download the WinPE driver pack

Active@ Boot Disk 24 comes with pre-installed driver packs for HP, Dell & Lenovo devices. You need to go to your hardware device manufacturer's web site and download proper drivers for Windows 10/11 (64-bit). The latest driver pack, for example, for Dell you can download from Dell's web site. In case if driver pack comes as a CAB file, extract CAB content to a folder, for example, to C:\Temp\Dell\

Step 3: Mount the boot.wim file

Copy original Active@ Boot Disk's WIM file locally, for example, to C:\Temp\boot.wim

Original WIM file location is X:\sources\boot.wim, assuming X: is a volume of Active@ Boot Disk on inserted USB media).

Create an empty folder that will be used for WIM mounting, for example, C:\Temp\Mount\

From Windows Start menu, start the "Deployment and Imaging Tools Environment" with “Run as Administrator” rights.

Mount WIM using DISM mount-image command, like:

DISM /Mount-Image /ImageFile:"C:\Temp\boot.wim" /index:1 /MountDir:"C:\Temp\Mount"

Step 4: Inject the WinPE drivers into boot.wim

Add the WinPE drivers to the mounted boot image (use the recourse switch to loop through all driver subfolders), like:

DISM /Image:C:\Temp\Mount /Add-Driver /Driver:C:\Temp\Dell /recurse

Step 5: Unmount boot.wim

Unmount mounted boot.wim and commit the changes, like:

DISM /UnMount-Image /MountDir:"C:\Temp\Mount" /Commit

Step 6: Start deploying your new WIM file with custom hardware drivers

Copy unmounted C:\Temp\boot.wim file containing new hardware drivers to your deployment media (back to to X:\sources\boot.wim, assuming X: is a volume of Active@ Boot Disk on inserted USB Drive and media is writable) and start deploying your Active@ Boot Disk that supports all the latest hardware drivers.