OSDeploy Boot: Add Out-of-Box Drivers to WinPE

Add extracted third-party WinPE drivers to the shared OSDeploy Boot-Assets library.

Add storage, network, or platform drivers when the built-in OSDeploy driver catalog does not cover the target hardware. OSDeploy adds drivers recursively from architecture-specific folders while Build-OSDeployBoot services the mounted image.

Use drivers intended for Windows PE and the architecture of the boot image. Do not mix amd64 and arm64 drivers in the same folder. Test custom drivers on representative hardware before distributing the image.

Prepare the Driver Files

Extract the vendor package until the driver files are visible. The folder must contain at least one .inf file; do not copy only an .exe, .msi, .cab, or .zip installer.

Confirm the extracted package contains INF files:

$Source = 'C:\Drivers\Contoso-WinPE'

Get-ChildItem -Path $Source -Filter '*.inf' -File -Recurse |
    Select-Object FullName

If this command returns nothing, extract the package again or obtain the vendor's raw WinPE driver pack.

Add Drivers to the Shared Library

Choose the root that matches the boot-image architecture:

C:\ProgramData\OSDeployCore\boot-assets\winpedrivers-amd64
C:\ProgramData\OSDeployCore\boot-assets\winpedrivers-arm64

Copy an extracted AMD64 package into its own descriptive subfolder:

$Source = 'C:\Drivers\Contoso-WinPE'
$Destination = Join-Path $env:ProgramData `
    'OSDeployCore\boot-assets\winpedrivers-amd64\Contoso-Model'

New-Item -Path $Destination -ItemType Directory -Force | Out-Null
Copy-Item -Path (Join-Path $Source '*') -Destination $Destination -Recurse -Force

Verify that OSDeploy can discover the INF files:

Get-ChildItem -Path $Destination -Filter '*.inf' -File -Recurse |
    Select-Object FullName

Select and Build

Start an interactive build:

Build-OSDeployBoot

Select the new folder when the WinPE driver picker appears. OSDeploy displays only the shared driver root that matches the selected boot-image architecture and adds the selected folder recursively. ADK-sourced WinPE builds exclude Wi-Fi selections because that source does not support wireless networking.

Verify the Build

Review the build output for driver-addition errors and confirm that boot.wim was created. Boot the ISO on representative hardware and use the following error-only diagnostic to identify devices that did not load successfully:

Get-PnpDevice |
    Where-Object Status -ne 'OK' |
    Format-Table Status, Class, FriendlyName, InstanceId

See OSDeployCore Boot-Assets for discovery and precedence details, and OSDeploy Core: Removing Unused WinPE Drivers when old versions are no longer needed.