I do not need a solution (just sharing information)
After a few weeks of tinkering, I managed to get Altiris to work with WinPE 4 as a pre-boot environment. Thus far, this method only works for x64 winPE images, but I haven't run into any issues with any of the machines I've imaged with it.
Benefits of winPE 4:
- Embedded Powershell support (!)
- DISM support for TRUE hardware-independent imaging
I'm including basic instructions below -- please bear in mind that these instructions imply that you have already created your custom winPE 4 .wim (there are plenty of instructions online as to how to do this):
1. On each PXE server, you must change a line in \\<Package Server>\Deployment\Task Handler\bootwiz\oem\DS\winpe2\default.bdc
There's a line in this file entitled
[Application]
Compress=True
This must be changed to False or it will not work.
2. In addition you must navigate to \\<Package Server>\Deployment\Task Handler\WAIK\Tools\PETools\amd64
Here, you must replace winpe.wim with your winPE 4 .wim file. I HIGHLY recommend backing up the original in case you want to switch back to winPE 2.1
Once these steps are complete, hit Recreate Preboot Environment in Create Preboot Configurations under Settings -> Deployment on the specific x64 PE you'd like to turn into winPE 4.
I'd love to see how anyone else has fared attempting this. I wanted to share my success and am open to any comments.
Thanks for your time,
Will