Build the USB¶

RECON lives on a Ventoy multiboot USB stick. Ventoy lets you drop bootable ISOs onto a normal drive and pick one at boot — so the RECON image sits alongside anything else you carry.

There are two tracks. Most people want Track B; Track A is a same-day shortcut.

Prerequisites¶

A USB flash drive (16 GB+ recommended).
Ventoy installed to that drive.
For building the custom image (Track B): the Windows ADK and the matching Windows PE add-on (both free from Microsoft), and the .NET SDK if you build the WPF shell.

Track A — fast (Hiren's)¶

Get passwordless file transfer working within an hour:

Install Ventoy to the USB.
Download Hiren's BootCD PE and copy its ISO onto the Ventoy drive.
Boot the target PC from the USB and pick Hiren's.

This gives you a working WinPE with file-transfer tools immediately, while you build the custom RECON image.

Track B — custom RECON image¶

Build your own branded RECON_PE.iso:

Install the Windows ADK + Windows PE add-on.
Stage the free tools (downloads them from their official sources):
```
.\scripts\Get-Tools.ps1
```
Build the image from an elevated PowerShell (DISM image mounting needs administrator):
```
.\scripts\Build-ReconPE.ps1
```
Add -Shell wpf to build the in-development WPF desktop shell instead of the default HTA shell.
Copy the resulting build\RECON_PE.iso onto the Ventoy drive.

See Build from source for the full build details and options.

Next¶

Boot and use →