If you receive Error 50, DISM does not support servicing Windows PE with the /online option message in Windows 11/10; then this post may help you fix the DISM error. Windows PE stands for Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE) or Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE).
The DISM tool lets you mount a Windows PE image and add or remove packages, drivers, and language packs in the same way you would any Windows 10 or Windows 11 image using the appropriate driver, package, or international-servicing commands. However, the Windows PE feature has been removed now, but DISM ‘thinks’ that Windows PE is still present, and hence the error occurs.
So when you run DISM in Windows PE environment with the /online option i.e.
- Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
- Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
- Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
It gives an error – DISM tool does not support servicing Windows PE with the online option.
DISM does not support servicing Windows PE with the online option, Error 50
As we said that Windows PE is a preinstallation environment that is used to prepare an image, and then deploy it across multiple computers. That image deploys Windows to computers, but it cannot be used as a standard OS. There are two ways to fix it:
- Deleting the registry key related to Windows PE
- Use revertpendingactions with DISM
Remember this will only work if you genuinely have Windows 11/10, but it is being misunderstood as Windows PE.
1] Deleting Registry key related with Windows PE
In Windows PE, there is a specific registry key that can identify Windows PE. When the DISM tool runs, it checks for that registry key. The Key is located at
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\MiniNT
To fix the error, we will need to delete the key if they are available in the Registry.
- Open Registry Editor by typing regedit in the Run Prompt, followed by hitting the Enter key.
- Navigate to either of the key path mentioned above.
- Right-click on WinPE or MiniNT and delete it.
- Now execute the DISM tool with the online option, and see if it works.
It will work, but only if your system is not truly Windows PE. The error occurs on a full-fledge OS because of the presence of the Registry key. If you genuinely have Windows PE, you should consider installing a full-fledged OS.
2] Use revertpendingactions with DISM
- Create another local admin user account.
- Boot into Advanced Recovery Mode, and locate the Command Prompt option
- Enter the following command: dism.exe /image:C:\ /cleanup-image /revertpendingactions
- After that, reboot your machine into Safe Mode.
- In Safe Mode, open an elevated Command Prompt and run the SFC/ scannow command
- Again reboot the computer in normal mode, and execute the DISM with /online option.
The revert option will start rolling back the changes any update was attempting to apply. When you enable this command and reboot, you should see a blue splash screen that shows the updates being reverted.
We hope these steps helped you resolve the Windows PE issue and you were able to run the DISM tool with the online option issue.
