Managed code in WinPE

Question

If I want to run a program in windows PE (Vista or 7) am I not allowed to use any level of managed code?

Can I only have c++ code that doesn't reference any dotNet code?

How can I interact with windows? Do I have to use user32.dll type files to carry out various operations?

Answer 1

Edit: See also Can Windows PE 2.0 support the .NET framework?

Windows PE is a very limited bit of windows before windows proper. It stands to reason that vast parts of the windows in the WIN32 subsystem will not be available. However this page discusses coding with PE (though its limited to XP embedded). And this discusses some ui aspects under PE and possibly ways of getting access to the windows libraries.

It may be possible to self host the CLR but I doubt it. Might make an interesting challenge. Let us know how you get on.