-
Notifications
You must be signed in to change notification settings - Fork 2
/
Copy pathREADME.WINDOWS
76 lines (53 loc) · 3.31 KB
/
README.WINDOWS
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
INTRODUCTION
wimlib is free and open source software that is available on both UNIX-like
systems and Windows. This file provides additional information specifically
about the Windows version of wimlib and the command line tool "wimlib-imagex"
that is distributed with it. It does not obsolete the generic README.txt, which
you should read too.
WINDOWS DISTRIBUTION
The Windows distribution of wimlib is a ZIP file containing the following items:
* wimlib-imagex.exe, a command-line tool to deal with WIM (.wim), split WIM
(.swm), and ESD (.esd) files that is inspired by Microsoft's ImageX and
DISM. This is a ready-to-run executable and not an installer.
* Very short batch scripts (e.g. wimapply.cmd) which are shortcuts to the
corresponding wimlib-imagex commands (e.g. `wimlib-imagex apply').
* The documentation, including this file, the generic README.txt, and
PDF documentation for wimlib-imagex in the 'doc' directory.
* The library itself (libwim-15.dll). The C header wimlib.h is not
included; download the source if you want it.
* License files for all software included. These are all free software
licenses.
WIMLIB-IMAGEX
wimlib-imagex supports most features of Microsoft's ImageX as well as some
features that are supported by DISM but not by ImageX. wimlib-imagex also
supports some features that neither ImageX nor DISM support. Some of the
advantages of wimlib-imagex compared to ImageX and DISM are:
* wimlib-imagex provides "extract" and "update" commands which allow
you to quickly work with WIM images without mounting them.
* wimlib-imagex provides an easy-to-use "optimize" command which removes
wasted space from a WIM file and optionally recompresses it with stronger
compression.
* wimlib includes advanced implementations of all compression algorithms used
in WIM files. They usually outperform and outcompress their Microsoft
equivalents.
* wimlib-imagex supports solid WIM files and LZMS compression, for example as
used in ESD (.esd) files. (These are partially supported by recent DISM
versions but not by ImageX.)
* In many cases, wimlib-imagex has simpler command-line syntax than either
ImageX or DISM.
* Whenever possible, wimlib-imagex includes improved documentation and
informational output compared to Microsoft's software.
* wimlib and wimlib-imagex are free software, so you can modify and/or audit
the source code.
However, some limitations of wimlib-imagex compared to ImageX and DISM are:
* On Windows, wimlib-imagex does not support mounting WIM images.
* wimlib-imagex has no awareness of Windows "packages".
ADDITIONAL NOTES
It's recommended to use wimlib-imagex in scripts to avoid having to
interactively enter commands. However, note that wimlib-imagex is largely just
a command-line front-end for wimlib, and it's possible to use wimlib's API in
other front-ends or applications. Currently there is no official graphical user
interface available for wimlib or wimlib-imagex. However, an unofficial, beta,
Windows-only graphical user interface that provides a thin wrapper around
wimlib-imagex can be downloaded at
http://reboot.pro/files/file/485-wimlib-imagex-command-line-compiler/.