As mentioned already by a sibling commenter, installers for NT4 through XP/2003 were all based off earlier NT installers with text mode and all. WinPE has its

As mentioned already by a sibling commenter, installers for NT4 through XP/2003 were all based off earlier NT installers with text mode and all. WinPE has its roots in NT5.1 (XP), but it was from NT6.0 (Vista) that we got the "modern" installer, and it last saw a UI overhaul during NT6.1 (7). Throughout 8 through 11 so far, the first part of the installer was and is basically Windows 7. The screenshot[1] of WinPE 10.0 on that Wikipedia article showcases the Windows Basic[2] theme in all its glory, including even the Windows 7 and prior Task Manager. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Windows_PE_screenshot.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Windows_PE_screenshot.png [2]: https://betawiki.net/wiki/Windows_Basic https://betawiki.net/wiki/Windows_Basic