How to develop a GUI program that runs before Windows boots?

Question

I need to develop a software that runs before Windows boots. For example Acronis TrueImage or other imaging or partition manipulating software allow to boot to alternative environment, and they support quite nice graphical interface.

I know that one can develop a bootkit - but developing nice UI for it will require an enormous amount of work. Another approach is NT native app, but that doesn't support any kind of GUI too, besides has limited colors. Any ideas how Acronis or similar solutions work? Thank you

Answer 1

Acronis actually boots into a Linux environment that runs from memory. The GUI is provided by some version of XWindows using most likely a frame buffer device. The UI toolkit they use was Fox Toolkit last time I checked.

When you exit it, it warm boots the machine to boot back into Windows. So it's just another boot option, not a pre-boot option. You could do the same, but creating a live Linux system isn't exactly easy. You could also look at WinPE as someone suggested above, but there is a lot of licensing that comes with that.

Answer 2

Sounds like what you need is a bootloader.

How to develop your own Boot Loader : http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/36907/How-to-develop-your-own-Boot-Loader