Adding a PuTTY Plugin to BartPE

To add PuTTY, which is a free telnet/ssh client to a Bart's Preinstalled Environment (BartPE) bootable live windows CD/DVD, take the following steps:

Download the zip file containing all of the binaries for PuTTY.
Extract the contents of that zip file to the plugin\putty directory, which is within the directory where you installed Bart's PE Builder.
Start PE Builder as you normally would, selecting the source location for your Windows installation files, and whether you wish to burn a CD, create an ISO file, etc.
Click on the Plugins button.
Locate PuTTY on the list of plugins. By default it will not be enabled as a plugin. Click on it to select it.
With PuTTY selected, click on the Enable/Disable button to change the "enable" value to "yes".
Click on the Close button to return to the main PE Builder window.
Click on the Build button.

When you boot from the Bart's Preinstalled Environment (BartPE) bootable live windows CD/DVD disc you create, you can then click on Go, select Programs, and then Putty (SSH).

If you wish to use the PSFTP program that comes with PuTTY, you will need to modify the putty.inf and putty_nu2menu.xml files that you will find in the plugin\putty directory before you build the ISO file or burn a disc.

The default entries in putty.inf are as follows:

; putty.inf
; PE Builder v3 plug-in INF file for Putty
; Created by Bart Lagerweij

[Version]
Signature= "$Windows NT$"

[PEBuilder]
Name="PuTTY"
Enable=0
Help="putty.htm"

[WinntDirectories]
a="Programs\putty",2

[SourceDisksFiles]
putty.exe=a,,1

[Append]
nu2menu.xml, putty_nu2menu.xml

In the PEBuilder section change Enable=0 to Enable=1 to enable the use of PuTTY as a plugin on the disc you will create. In the SourceDisksFiles directory, you need to add psftp.exe=a,,1 and similar lines for plink and pscp, so that the section is as follows:

[SourceDisksFiles]
putty.exe=a,,1
psftp.exe=a,,1
plink.exe=a,,1
pscp.exe=a,,1

For an explanation of the syntax, you can refer to the pluginformat.htm file that you will find in the help directory within the directory where you installed PE Builder, Plugin file format or Create or Modify PE Builder plugins.

You also need to modify putty_nu2menu.xml, which is in the same directory as putty.inf. The default entries in that file are as follows:

<!-- Nu2Menu entry for putty -->
<NU2MENU>
	<MENU ID="Programs">	   		
		<MITEM TYPE="ITEM" DISABLED="@Not(@FileExists(@GetProgramDrive()\Programs\putty\putty.exe))" CMD="RUN" FUNC="@GetProgramDrive()\Programs\putty\putty.exe">Putty (SSH)</MITEM>
	</MENU>
</NU2MENU>

You need to add an MITEM line for PSFTP. The new version of the file should be as follows:

<NU2MENU>
	<MENU ID="Programs">	   		
		<MITEM TYPE="ITEM" DISABLED="@Not(@FileExists(@GetProgramDrive()\Programs\putty\putty.exe))" CMD="RUN" FUNC="@GetProgramDrive()\Programs\putty\putty.exe">Putty (SSH)</MITEM>
		<MITEM TYPE="ITEM" DISABLED="@Not(@FileExists(@GetProgramDrive()\Programs\putty\psftp.exe))" CMD="RUN" FUNC="@GetProgramDrive()\Programs\putty\psftp.exe">Putty (SFTP)</MITEM>
	</MENU>
</NU2MENU>

Once the putty.inf and putty_nu2menu.xml files have been modified you can build a BartPE boot disc that will allow you to use both PuTTY for SSH connections and PSFTP for SFTP connections by selecting them from the BartPE menu.

The pscp and plink programs are command line programs, so I don't add them to the BartPE menu. They will be located in the Programs\putty directory on the BartPE disc you build and can be run from a command prompt.

References: