Customs WindowsPE Images for ramdisk boot (and saving the changes)

[MadScientist565]

Hello Folks!

I have been recently exploring the possibility of using a Ramdisk as a bootable drive. "simply" put. I would like to load an image of windows, with all appropriate (cad, cam, & simulation) software pre-installed, to the ramdisk, before boot. I would like to have the ramdisk based c drive addressed, image loaded and ready to boot. hopefully doing this will completely negate any issues with handles, or virtual machines, etc and the software/pc wont have the slightest clue its running on a ream disk. i have read this is commom and completely doable in linux, but never even thought to do it it with windows.

Doing some research i have found that Using windows PE i can create a custom image of window, and using a pre-boot environment i can load this into ramdisk. apparently windows has been doing this for years! (who knew??) what i cant findout, is if you can run this os just like normal, install software, make resigtry changes...etc... and then save that image back for reuse on your next boot. also, apparently windows PE forces the drive letter of the boot medium (ramdisk in this case) to be X. instead of C. i think this might pose issuses, but not completely sure.

I have been following the guides at these two links below, but honestly, i'm lost. and i dont really know how to go about completing this task. if anyone could give me a push in the right direction, i may be a bit better off! the system this will be running on is a xeon 1650-3 equipped machine with 256gb of ddr4 ram on a gigabyte server board. for testing however, im just using my workstation/laptop. not enough ram on this one to use windows 10 i think, but i still have yet to create the image regardless... i just need some help and direction.

anyone have any knowlege they can share with me?

creating a custom pe image (windows 7)

Booting windows PE