Capturing and Deploying Your Own Custom .wim File
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- Опубліковано 7 сер 2024
- *** Update with Windows 11 you will now find Microsoft is using an install.wim file on the original USB drive created from using the iso available on their site downloads page so there is no longer a need to convert your custom install.wim to an install.esd file. This step found toward the end of the video can be skipped over assuming you are attempting to make a Windows 11 custom image.
What is this video?
This video is a full guide on creating a basic windows flash drive and replacing the default install.esd file with your own custom .wim file.
What is the point of doing that?
You would do this if you have software and other items that you typically install on a PC after you image it. By putting the software on a PC and capturing its wim and using that wim to deploy saves time during PC deployment and set up going forward.
This video covers the following in order:
1. Creating a basic windows usb.
2. Creating a windows pe disk.
3. Using sys prep to prepare a PC to have its image captured once you have customized it.
4. Using the appropriate command to capture your image and write it to a directory in the windows pe environment.
5. Converting your custom .wim file to a .esd file which you can then use to replace the default install.esd file on the windows usb device.
What you need:
1. A windows PC or VM to prep and take an image of.
2. A usb flash drive to put windows on. I should recommend 32gb or greater since the wim we capture can be large.
3. A 2nd usb flash drive to be used as a windows PE disk. This USB can be any size for the most part as this does not require much space.
Links:
windows iso download: www.microsoft.com/en-us/softw...
rufus download: rufus.ie/en/
windows adk and pe add on download: learn.microsoft.com/en-us/win...
CHAPTERS
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0:00 Intro
3:13 Creating a Basic Windows USB Disk
8:54 Creating a Windows PE Disk
14:08 Using Sysprep
16:40 Running Capture Image Command in Windows PE
20:03 Converting Your Install.wim to Install.esd
Consider supporting if this video helped you: paypal.me/paulmoesher
Thank you for making a detail guide on this. Really helpful. Cheers!
The whole UA-cam. i found only this video is clear and smiple to capture the install.wim....Thank you
Great job Paul, very helpful information, well done
Thanks for the guide you're extremely underrated!
Thanks for the tutorial...very easy to follow and works like a charm!
Thanks for the detailed video. Much appreciated.
Very helpful for my project. Thank you!
Thank you very much!
20:04 since we already captured the entire windows instance into a .wim file we can just put it into a usb flash drive with ventoy preinstalled and boot into that wim file, save a little hassle there imo
Thanks so much
Thank you
@21:49 - index 1 is very large 26GB
Can you look to see what's in that file?
before sysprep the OS disk used ~40GB, maybe do a cleanup before you sysprep
and do compression when moving from WIM to ESD.
bro, u are a GOD!
Thanks bro, this was really useful. Question though, after booting into WinPE is it possible to just export the .wim file directly into the \sources folder of the USB iso? (I did this with Win11 and it looks like they no longer create .esd files, just the install.wim)
In that case just then yes I would just import directly.
Thanks for that great tutorial!
One Q: in the block with Windows Media Creation tool you select the ISO file option and then using Rufus to create the flash drive from the ISO. I don't understand why not to just select The USB drive from the beginning?
Rufus gives the option to skip/predetermine responses to the Windows user experience questions which saves a lot of time when imaging several units.
hi
I am try wim image making but file install to server deploying no working
Great video! Can this be used to perform an in place upgrade? If for example you have windows srv 2016 wim and iso, after doing thw whole procedure, can this iso be used to perform an in place upgrade on a win srv 2012? Or it needs to be a clean install? Thanks in advance
It should be a clean install.
Please make a video on, how to skip questions while fresh install of windows 10/11, and remove bloatware and telemetry using unattend.xml answer file
Hello Paul, helpful so far, the latest version of the copype Command is CopyDandI and was wondering if you have seen and chnges to the parameters (I have a core i7-8650U CPU x64-based processor, but none of the parameters work with the command ( CopyDandI x64, amd64, arm,amd64 none of them work : all say : the follow processor architecture was not found. i also tried x64.). would really help us. TY amazing so far.
What options do you see if you open Deployment and Imaging Tools Environment and run copype? It looks like there is a way to apply updates to the Windows PE add on. Could be worth a try? learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/winpe-create-usb-bootable-drive?view=windows-11
in this procedure, after you deploy your image into machine, does bitlocker work?
This should not really have any effect on bitlocker. That being said if you have Bitlocker enabled I would recommend having the key stored on a flash drive before reimaging the pc.
Question, If i am using diffrent machines, but it is still the same device. is generalize necessary? I have to image 30 laptops, all the same.
In that case no, but even then I don't really see any downside to generalizing.
@@paulmoesher the only problem is I am getting an error in the log file in the panther file pertaining to the generalize.xml file. Sysprep is a headache 😭
Hi, thank you for your help! when trying to capture, it went super fast, so I figured something was up. I rand Diskpart, and my OS Drive is not showing on the list? So nothing is being captured essentially.. any suggestions? TIA
I would triple-check that when you boot the winpe disk you are entering that command in correctly. Normally if it goes super fast for me it's because I had a typo. Next time if it goes fast it should just go to the next line and you can try entering it again.
So I think I figured this out, the computer is set to RAID - when I set it to AHCI, and ran WinPE it was able to find the disk. But wouldn't this cause onflict when deploying?
@@Texasdope11 I would think so since its a disk image and not a disk clone.
Is there a way to circumvent the USB key and directly inject the insall.wim to an ISO so I can then put it on Ventoy ? Because, as you may know, you can mount an ISO in File Manager but you cannot directly replace the install.wim/esd directly as the ISO file is locked, meaning you can't modify it in any ways. I could use Anyburn but I wish I could use a command line tool to directly replace/inject my custom install.wim without having to go through a USB key, then re-iso it so I can put it in Ventoy...
I am sorry but I am not sure. That is not something I have ever looked into.
@@paulmoesher Just tried Anyburn in it's freeware version, and it does just that. Thanks!
I'm using an older version of winpe for windows 7? What the command be different? I can't get a dism command to work.
I don't see why it would not. What is the exact error you are getting?
@@paulmoesher capture-image is unknown command. I ended using the windows 7 with imagex pe. I couldn't get the copy pe to work for windows 10 pe. I then used hirens boot CD and the command in your video worked on my main PC. But the computer I was trying to capture couldn't boot into hirens CD. That is why I went back to the windows 7 pe and the imagex command worked.
Can one capture a Win 11 Pro wim, export it to esd and then place it onto a Windows 10 installation disk?
No the versions of windows need to match.
There is no need to convert install.wim to install.esd because with the default windows 10 iso there is install.wim file on there ......correct me if im wrong
Refer to the video description
To deploy the image to other computers are you installing and clicking on setup.exe or install.esd?
You would use the boot key when the PC is booting up and you would choose to boot from the USB.
@@paulmoesher can you not install the image like a regular exe? If not do I need to install from USB on all new computers?
@@MiguelHernandez-jb9ml For a clean install you should be booting from the usb
Great video! I am so close to getting this to work. I had a previous captured .wim that was working through PXE and wanted to get it onto a USB for convenience. After using this method, I get "windows cannot open the required file D:\sources\install.wim". It seems after patiently waiting all day for the export, which was 100% successful, the.wim files opens to a .xml file :(
If you have not already I would deploy the pxe wim to a PC and run all of the Windows updates, capture the wim at that point, then make a new bootable Windows flash drive and put it on there. Maybe there is an issue with your older pxe wim not matching up with the Windows version of the USB?
@@paulmoesherI ended up making a fresh bootable USB with Rufus...maybe I had chosen FAT32 instead of NTFS. It runs perfectly now - I'm on my 3rd copy. This is great, you have no idea the time this will save! Thank you.
Once we use Sysprep are we not removing the Windows license assocaited with that image? Won't we need to add another license to any device we deploy using this method?
The license is tied to the device hardware not the image
@@paulmoesher Thanks for the response. I must be doing something wrong... When I replace the .esd and boot from that USB and choose windows10 pro it downloads a fresh copy without any installed software/updates. No idea why or how. I know for a fact my esd replaced the original install.esd
Ignore my previous comment.. I must have been using another usb. It worked perfectly thank you. I am attemping to integrate a unattent.xml into the setup to skip OOBE using this method until I can set up WDS/MDT
@@navr1111111111111111 do you click on setup or install.esd to deploy the image?
My windows install disk for windows 11 has an install.wim not an install.esd. Did this change recently? If so what do you do to make that work? Do I make a .wim file instead?
At the 20:03 point of the video, it describes how to convert the install.win to install.esd
@@paulmoesherthanks for getting back to me. On my windows install disk there is not an .esd to overwrite. There is an install.wim however. So so I just not need to convert? Did windows change its install media?
Maybe I should try to clarify more. I am talking about the install media that is created from Microsoft. When I got into the sources folder there isn't an .esd file, there is a .wim. On your's there is a .esd file and you convert your ,wim to an .esd and overwrite it. My install disk only has a .wim so do I not convert it to a .esd and just use the .wim? Or is there something else going on here? This is a great video, just need clarification on this! Thanks!
@@user-qm3xz8oc9g If that is the case then you just need to deploy that original basic .wim on a PC. Customize it however you like for your image then capture the .wim and replace the original install.wim with your updated one. You can skip the conversion step.
Thanks but sysprem doesn't work on updated windows for some reason
There is a log file inside of the sysprep folder that will tell you why it may be failing. Could be a pending update, an app that needs removed/updated, hard to say but the logs will point you in the right direction.
@@paulmoesher Yes I got to have a look to see why, ive been busy it just comes up with it can't system prep upgraded version of windows, even though it's not upgraded but the wim image without sysprep went fine without errors
Let's say you have apps on your computer where you have a license to activate them, like word or adobe. Will the license carry over when you install the image on the new computer?
I feel like best practice would be to not capture the image with the software keys but in theory, if it is a machine-wide install the keys would still be there when you go to deploy if they were there when you captured.
@@paulmoesher Thanks! What is that the best practice? I’m curious.
@@luddman77 It is basically just a term to describe the agreed upon best way to do something in the IT community.
@@paulmoesher I’m sorry that was a typo. Why would it be considered the best practice to do it before you install the apps?
@@luddman77 It would be best practice to enter any license keys after installing the image and to not make it part of the image. I believe this to be the case due to some licensing keys not all working the same, some are per user some are per machine. You also do not want software licensed for users who don't need it and should only use the keys on a need-to basis. I like keeping the base image to the essentials and using other solutions to deploy the case-to-case stuff after the PC is joined.
is there any windows 11 please
Do you have a email just in case I have questions? Going to try this
Does it work with win 11?
Yes
@@paulmoesher Thanks
sir plz give custom windose drive link on the discaption plz plz plz
18:40 dism capture image
Note: At mark 18:40 when dism capture image is used, the Windows partition is not always C:\. On my install, C:\ was the 500MB System reserved partition and Windows partition ended up being F:\. It's a good idea to check with diskpart what is the allocated drive letter.
Cheers!
By the way, many thanks for the excellent instructions.