We’d like to demonstrate how to install additional plug-ins into BartPE by using the open-source anti-virus program ClamAV as an example. Download the file clamwin-2.6.7z and save it in the Rescue-Disk\Plugins directory. Open the Archive and extract the clamwin folder inside it to Rescue-System\PEBuilder\plugin. Now start PEBuilder.exe and open the plug-in management.

Make sure that the entries "[Sherpya] ClamWin Plugin (v0.91.2) - v2.6" and "[Sherpya] ClamWin Plugin (v0.91.2) - v2.6 (Autounpack at startup)" are present. If you wish, you can activate the "Autounpack at Startup" feature, which is the second entry from the top. This will automatically copy the ClamWin AV definitions to the Ramdisk after the system boots, allowing you to start scanning for viruses immediately. You can find ClamWin in the Start Menu under Programs\ClamWin.

Conclusion – Building your own Rescue CD in a few simple Steps

PEBuilder represents a simple and quick method to create rescue media adapted to your individual needs. Although BartPE offers only very limited functionality in its basic configuration, its plug-in system allows you to integrate a wide variety of data-recovery applications and system tools – albeit not very comfortably. Just finding the right plug-ins means a good deal of searching and hunting around, and the plug-in system is nor especially transparent to the user at first blush. Usually, the installation requires the user to make some changes manually, and you can quickly get lost in the details – and the mess of files. A clear and organized folder structure can help you keep a view. The XPE plug-in is especially hard to master, requiring a lot of manual copying that can quickly confuse you and leave you with a broken XPE ISO file.

The effort is worth it, though. Thanks to the XPE plug-in, we can use familiar OS interface, allowing us to concentrate on the important tasks, namely saving your files and repairing your system. Additionally, the plug-in concept allows us to integrate tools and applications into our Rescue CD that we are familiar with and whose functionality we need. We can also expand the existing driver support for hardware, allowing us to adapt BartPE with XPE to any hardware environment. In addition to installing the Rescue System to CD, you can just as easily write BartPE to an external hard drive or a USB stick and boot from there – assuming your BIOS supports this feature. This is a topic we will be covering in an upcoming article.