Wimboot

| Term | Definition | |------|-------------| | | A file-based disk image format that stores compressed (LZX or XPRESS) Windows system files. | | WIMBoot | A method where the OS accesses files directly from the WIM via pointer files, without full extraction. | | Pointer File | A small placeholder file (e.g., notepad.exe → 1 KB) on the boot volume that redirects reads to the corresponding file inside the WIM. | | WIMBoot.wim | The compressed system image file (usually named WIMBoot.wim or install.wim ) stored on a separate recovery partition or the main partition. | | Overlay Files | Files that are modified after boot (e.g., registry hives, logs) stored on the writable system partition; they overlay the read-only WIM. |

: It allows for the loading of a Windows environment over a network without needing to extract the entire contents of a WIM file to a local drive first. wimboot