WIMLIB
-This is wimlib version 1.2.5 (February 2013). wimlib can be used to read,
-write, and mount files in the Windows Imaging Format (WIM files). These files
-are normally created by using the `imagex.exe' utility on Windows, but this
-library provides a free implementation of imagex for UNIX-based systems.
+This is wimlib version 1.3.2 (March 2013). wimlib can be used to read, write,
+and mount files in the Windows Imaging Format (WIM files). These files are
+normally created by using the `imagex.exe' utility on Windows, but this library
+provides a free implementation of ImageX for UNIX-based systems.
+
+wimlib 1.3.0 has added experimental support for Windows. See the file
+"README.WINDOWS" for more details.
WIM FILES
and headers for libntfs-3g version 2011-4-12 or later to be installed.
Versions dated 2010-3-6 and earlier do not work because they are missing
the header xattrs.h (and the file xattrs.c, which contains functions we
- need).
+ need). libntfs-3g version 2013-1-13 is compatible only with wimlib
+ 1.2.4 and later.
* OpenSSL / libcrypto (optional)
wimlib can use the SHA1 message digest code from OpenSSL instead of
The code pays attention to endianness, so it should work on big-endian
architectures, but I've never tested this so do not expect it to work.
-There are no plans to port wimlib to Windows since the programming interface on
-Windows is very different and Microsoft's imagex.exe is already available.
+As of wimlib 1.3.0, there is experimental support for Microsoft Windows. I
+expect it to work on Windows Vista and later, although I have only tested it on
+Windows 7. See README.WINDOWS for more information.
REFERENCES
file format. 7-zip is able to extract and create WIMs (as well as files in many
other archive formats). However, wimlib is designed specifically to handle WIM
files and provides features previously only available in Microsoft's imagex.exe,
-such as the ability to mount WIMs read-write as well as read-only, and the
-ability to create LZX or XPRESS compressed WIMs.
+such as the ability to mount WIMs read-write as well as read-only, the ability
+to create LZX or XPRESS compressed WIMs, and the correct handling of security
+descriptors and hard links.
An earlier version of wimlib is being used to deploy Windows 7 from the Ultimate
Deployment Appliance. For more information see