Diagnostic and Recovery Tools V6: Why no XP support?

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We got an email today that asked:

"...I just downloaded the new version of MDOP and wanted to install ERD. My problem now is I’m presented with two different versions, version 5 for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 and version 6 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. Is the supported versions for the operating system I’m installing ERD on OR for the OS versions I want to boot and repair?..."

 

Good question.

The support is in reference to the operating systems it can support, AND the machine you prepared it on. The support is actually a bit more granular than the above actually:

The reason Ive split out two lots of DaRT 6 is that for each of these you need to create a separate ERD disk. This is because the boot.wim file is x86/x64 specific along with the debugging tools that you need on the machine. Each of these needs to be prepared on the correct SKU bit version.

This leads to the next question. Why does DaRT 6 have no XP support?

There were some fundamental changes in the way System Restore works between Windows XP and Windows Vista. There were also core changes to the bootloader, servicing stack and the way components are described and authored that meant a complete change in the approach to fixing startup issues.

You will notice when you start DaRT 6's ERD that its really quite different. We now use WinRE to manage the System Restore components and then launch our UI after the WinRE components have found the Windows instance (of the correct SKU bit version).

In DaRT 5 we used WinPE and fired our UI straight away.

 

For those of you that are interested, there will be a DaRT 6.5 that Im currently working on the planning for. I have some early thoughts for it though I cant share them right now. Once I have an indication whether one of my ideas is even possible, Ill ask how many people would even want it :) More to come on that!