Overview
This post contains a WinPE version list including the WinPE version, the Windows version, and the numeric Windows version string that it was built from. It covers all versions of WinPE from the initial Windows XP versions to the latest Windows 10 versions.
Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE or WinPE) is a lightweight version of Windows that is commonly used as part of Windows Deployment. Originally it was only available to large OEMs but is now publically available as part of the Windows Deployment kits like the Windows Automated Installation Kit (Windows AIK). The most recent version at the time of writing is available in the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (Windows ADK) for Windows 10.
When working in deployment with boot WIM files in MDT and ConfigMgr you will see many boot images on your travels. Usually these tools only show the Windows version string which that version of WinPE was built from. This doesn’t make it immediately apparent which version of Windows it is optimised to deploy or which drivers you are able to inject into that boot image.
WinPE Version List (Updated March 19, 2019)
The table below shows the main versions of WinPE that you will see in the wild, along with their WinPE version, the Windows version name, and the numeric Windows version string that it was built from.
| WinPE | Windows | Windows Version | Notes |
| 1.0 | Windows XP | 5.1.2600.x | First version of WinPE. |
| 1.1 | Windows XP SP1 | 5.1.2600.x | |
| 1.2 | Windows Server 2003 | 5.2.3790.x | |
| 1.5 | Windows XP SP2 | 5.1.2600.x | Windows PE 2004. |
| 1.6 | Windows Server 2003 SP1 | 5.2.3790.x | Windows PE 2005. |
| 2.0 | Windows Vista | 6.0.6000.x | |
| 2.1 | Windows Server 2008 | 6.0.6001.x | |
| 2.2 | Windows Server 2008 SP2 | 6.0.6002.x | |
| 3.0 | Windows 7 | 6.1.7600.x | Windows AIK 2.0. |
| 3.1 | Windows 7 SP1 | 6.1.7601.x | Windows AIK Supplement for Windows 7 SP1. |
| 4.0 | Windows 8 | 6.2.9200.x | Windows ADK (Windows Kits 8.0). |
| 5.0 | Windows 8.1 | 6.3.9300.x | Windows ADK (Windows Kits 8.1). |
| 5.1 | Windows 8.1 Update 1 | 6.3.9600.x | Windows ADK (Windows Kits 8.1 Update). |
| 10 (1507) | Windows 10 1507 | 10.0.10240.16384 | Windows ADK (Windows Kits 10.0) 1507 |
| 10 (1511) | Windows 10 1511 | 10.0.10586.0 | Windows ADK (Windows Kits 10.0) 1511 |
| 10 (1607) | Windows 10 1607 | 10.0.14393.0 | Windows ADK (Windows Kits 10.0) 1607 |
| 10 (1703) | Windows 10 1703 | 10.0.15063.0 | Windows ADK (Windows Kits 10.0) 1703 |
| 10 (1709) | Windows 10 1709 | 10.0.16299.15 | Windows ADK (Windows Kits 10.0) 1709 |
| 10 (1803) | Windows 10 1803 | 10.0.17134.1 | Windows ADK (Windows Kits 10.0) 1803 |
| 10 (1809) | Windows 10 1809 | 10.0.17763.1 | Windows ADK (Windows Kits 10.0) 1809 |
