How can I programmatically install the windows recovery console, without using a CD?
Note that I suspect most of the steps would probably be unneeded if the windows recovery console was redistributable, but I doubt it is redistributable.
Examining http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/combofix/how-to-use-combofix#manual_recovery leads me to suspect that their strategy for doing the automatic WRC install is to do something along the lines of:
- Check for Windows Recovery Console.
- If not present, detect OS and from Microsoft, by using the URLs found on the appropriate page (e.g. for XP visit http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310994). Obviously one would go to the underlying URLs and download them manually.
- Extract the installer from the images or otherwise run the software that is in the disk images.
This whole sequence of steps seems really stupid. Is there a better way to do it? If not, any suggestions for how to do step 1 or step 3 would be appreciated.