PE Builder v3 help

Plugin file format

Introduction

This document should help to create or modify PE Builder plugin files. The main .inf file for PE Builder is pebuilder.inf file. Please do not edit this file! If you want to change something use a plugin file. All plugins are located in the plugin directory. Every .inf file in the plugin directory (doesn't matter in which folder) with a "pebuilder" section is considered a valid plugin for PE Builder. Use the Enable/Disable button in the plugin dialog to turn plugins on or off.

Creating a plugin

A plugin .inf file must be an ascii file, not unicode. Lines starting with a ";" (semicolon) are ignored (used for comment).

Every plugin file should start with the lines shown below:

; PE Builder v3 plug-in INF file
; Created by Bart Lagerweij
; http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/
;
; Short description of what the plugin does...

[Version]
Signature= "$Windows NT$"

[PEBuilder]
Name="NiceNameOfPlugin"
Enable=0
Help="pluginhelp.htm"

Please note that you must include the [Version] Signature= "$Windows NT$" information. Otherwise the setupapi functions cannot open the .inf file. Please use the information below to add more sections to your plugins...

PEBuilder section

If you are creating a plugin, your .inf file must have an [PEBuilder] section!

Name	the name for the plugin
Enable	the state of the plugin 0 - Disabled 1 - Enabled
Help	the filename for the plugin helpfile. This can be a text, html, doc, pdf or any other type of file. PE Builder uses the ShellExecute() function to start the document with its default association.
Config	the filename for the configuration file.

WinntDirectories section

Section WinntDirectories is in the following format:
directoryID=dirname[, attribute]

where...

directoryID	is the directory number (id) In plugin .inf files you can use 'a'-'z' for dynamic number assignment...
dirname	is the name of the directory. If the name contains spaces put double quotes "around it".
attribute	numeric value to enable/disable some options value: 1 - Always create this directory (even when empty) 2 - Create directory from (output) root (in `\` and not in `\i386`). Just add the values to combine... Default value for attr is 0.

Example:

[WinntDirectories]
; Always create a folder in the root called "Bart"
a="Bart",3
; Create a folder in the root called "Project\Bart\Source"
b="Project\Bart\Source",3
; Create a folder in the i386 directory called "extra\files"
c="extra\files",1

Here is a list of the (most used) directories ID's:

ID	Directory	Remark
30000	[root]	PE Builder output root
1	\	SystemRoot (on CD this is the \i386 folder, on hd this is the \minint folder)
2	system32
3	system32\config
4	system32\drivers
5	system
17	system32\drivers\etc
20	inf
21	Help
22	Fonts
24	msagent\intl
52	msagent
124	WinSxS
125	WinSxS\Manifests
252	WinSxS\Policies

PE Builder uses directory id's starting from 30000. Where id 30000 is used for the output root directory. 30001 and up are dynamically used by PE Builder.

SourceDisksFiles section

SourceDisksFiles[.build]

This section is used to copy files. If you add a build number after the section name, that section will only be used when the source media is from that build.

Build	Version
2600	Windows XP
3790	Server 2003

The section SourceDisksFiles uses the following format:
filename=directoryID[, filenameRenamed][, attribute]

where...

`filename`	is the file to copy.
`directoryID`	is the target directory number. See WinntDirectories section for a list of standard windows directory id's.
`filenameRenamed`	is the target filename if renaming is needed.
`attribute`	numeric value to enable/disable some options value: 1 - used for pluginCheck(). Make sure that the file exists in the same directory as where the .inf file is located, before enabling or continuing. 2 - do not decompress the file. 4 - only copy the file if it exists. Don't complain when it does not exist. 8 - rename the filename to uppercase. When building an ISO image PE Builder renames the windows filenames to uppercase (required for booting from CD). Default value for attribute is 0.

SourceDisksFolders section

SourceDisksFolders[.build]

This section is used to copy complete folders and files. The section SourceDisksFolders uses the following format:
sourcepath=directoryID

where...

`sourcepath`	is the source path/folder to copy from. This is an exact copy nothing is decompressed or extracted!
`directoryID`	is the target directory number. See WinntDirectories section for a list of standard windows directory id's.

Example:

[WinntDirectories]
a="Programs\openoffice",2

[SourceDisksFolders]
; when openoffice folder is in plugin directory
openoffice=a

[SourceDisksFolders]
; when openoffice folder is at c:\
c:\openoffice=a

Software.AddReg section

Software.AddReg[.build]

Add registry keys to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE.
This section is in the following format:
regType, regKey, regValue, regData

where...

regType	specifies the type of information to be stored as the valueÆs data. This parameter can be one of the following values: 0x0, (REG_NONE) create the key only, no value 0x1, (REG_SZ) string 0x2, (REG_EXPAND_SZ) string (with environment variable references) 0x3, (REG_BINARY) binary data 0x4, (REG_DWORD) 32-bit number 0x7, (REG_MULTI_SZ) multiple strings * Note: must start with "0x" (lowercase)!
regKey	specifies the name of the key as string.
regValue	specfies the name of the value as string.
regData	The actual data.

Example:

0x1, "Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts", "Tahoma (TrueType)","TAHOMA.TTF"
0x2, "Control Panel\desktop", "WallPaper", "%systemroot%\system32\nu2.bmp"
0x3, "ControlSet001\Control\TimeZoneInformation", "DaylightStart",\
	00,00,04,00,00,01,00,02,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00
0x4, "ControlSet001\Control\GraphicsDrivers\DCI", "Timeout", 0x7
0x7, "ControlSet001\Services\VgaSave\Device0", "InstalledDisplayDrivers","vga", "framebuf", "vga256", "vga64k"

SetupReg.AddReg section

SetupReg.AddReg[.build]

Add registry keys to the "SetupReg.hiv" registry hive. Same syntax as Software.AddReg

Default.AddReg section

Default.AddReg[.build]

Add registry keys to HKEY_CURRENT_USER.
Same syntax as Software.AddReg

Software.DelReg section

Software.DelReg[.build]

Delete registry keys from the "Software" registry hive. This section is in the following format: regKey[, regValue]

where...

regKey	specifies the name of the key (including all values) to delete as string.
regValue	specifies the name of the value to delete as string.

Default.DelReg section

Default.DelReg[.build]

Delete registry keys from the "Default" registry hive. Same syntax as Software.DelReg

AddLine section

AddLine[.build]

Adding lines to a section. The lines in the AddLine section have the following format:
Filename,Section,StringToAdd

where...

Filename	is the filename to add a line to.
Section	is the sectionname.
LineToAdd	is the line to add.

Example:
"netmscli.inf", "MSClient.DelReg", "HKLM, Software\Microsoft\Rpc\SecurityService, 9"

DelLine section

DelLine[.build]

Delete lines from file. The lines in the DelLine section have the following format:
Filename,Section,StringToDel

where...

Filename	is the filename to add a line to.
Section	is the sectionname.
StringToDel	is the line to delete. You don't have to match exact, any lines begining with "StringToDel" will be deleted.

Example:
"netmscli.inf", "MSClient.Browser.AddReg", "HKR, Parameters, MaintainServerList,"

SetValue section

SetValue[.build]

Write value to file. The lines in the SetValue section have the following format:
Filename,Section,Key,Value

where...

Filename	is the filename to set a value in.
Section	is the sectionname.
Key	is the key to assign a value to.
Value	is the data.

Example:
"netmscli.inf", "Alerter_Service_Inst", "StartType", "3"

Use Filename,Section,Key to remove a key
Use Filename,Section to remove a complete section

Append section

Append[.build]

Append a file to another file. The lines in the Append section have the following format:
Filename,FilenameToAppend

where...

Filename	is the file where data will be appended.
FilenameToAppend	is the file that contain the data to append.

Example:
nu2menu.xml, penero_nu2menu.xml

Variables

Most string fields in the plugin file can have some special PE-Builder variables:
Syntax: @variable@

where...

variable	expands to...
Program	The name of the builder (PE-Builder by default)
Version	The builder version
IsoFile	Full path and filename of ISO image
OutDir	Full path of output directory
SourcePath	Full path of source directory
PluginDir	Full path of the current plugin directory
PluginFile	Full path and filename of the current plugin file
Language	The current language
Verbose	Verbose mode (0 means off, 1 means on)
Build	The windows build number (2600 means XP, 3790 means server 2003)

Example:
[SourceDisksFiles]
program.exe=2,,3
lang\@language@.lng=2,,3

Where lang\@language@.lng will get expanded to lang\german.lng (when german language is selected).

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