How to install a WinPE-based OS to an internal hard drive -- persistent

Okay, somehow this is dead-easy, once you get the hang of it, and using the right tools.

There is DISM++, a truly awesome universal deployment tool that can directly "apply" (i.e. install) a bootable system from an image file to a hard drive:

For example, using a .wim file from a bootable WinPE USB stick. I tried this with Sergei Strelec's Win10PE system, and it instantly worked -- after making the SSD (where I installed the WinPE to using DISM++) bootable with EasyBCD. The latter should not even be necessary because DISM++ should be able to do this itself, but for some reason it didn't in my case.

In other words, Dism++ allows going directly from a WinPE's .wim image to the flat-installed bootable HD system without having to boot the WinPE into RAM first and then pulling an image from the RAM drive as described here; same goes for bootable ISO images like for example all sorts of Windows installation disk images.

Anyway, Sergei Strelec's WinPE then booted straight from the hard drive, assigning itself the X: drive letter, however not to the usual RAM drive, but to the hard drive it was installed to.

I then installed a couple of drivers, for example for a Wifi card which instantly worked. Unfortunately, the system however wouldn't accept GPU drivers. Also, it wouldn't reboot afterwards but give a bluescreen. Anyway, proof of concept almost complete here.

Then, using the same approach ("Apply Image" by DISM++), I installed a Win7 ISO directly on that internal SSD, going from Dism++'s install command to a running Windows 7 in like five minutes. No need for EasyBCD here, DISM++ does it all by itself.

Similar with Windows 11. From clicking "Apply Image" in DISM++ to a running Win11 system in about five minutes.