Do we know what will happen with users who have a WIMBoot Installation (aka compressed) installation of Windows 8.1 Update on their system?
Will they get the update like the others or will they have to create their own Windows 10 WIMBootinstallation?
edit: typo
Last edited by Ben Hastings; 31 May 2015 at 03:36.
I get the impression from this Twitter exchange that, as of early May, it was supposed to work but it wasn't exactly working smoothly (if you click on the link and look at the replies).
Tweet
— Twitter API (@user) View on Twitter
It may be better in the more recent builds though.
I have a WimBoot tablet but I haven't risked attempting Win10 upgrade yet. When I do, before I even start it, I think my plan will include:
- Switch off the device encryption that some of these Win8.1 devices have by default (including mine) and leave it a while until everything is decrypted
- Turn off Secure Boot (NB this requires Step 1 to be completed first) so I can get in again if things go wrong
- Make sure I can boot from a USB - change other BIOS settings if needed
- Make a full image with Macrium Reflect Free or similar
- Free up as much disk space as I can- the installer will presumably try to keep a copy of Windows in Windows.old, and also have the old recovery partition, and want to create Win10 equivalents.
Worth noting that Microsoft seem to have already ditched WimBoot and moved to an alternative method of compressed operating systems. I suspect that installing from an ISO it won't be trivial to set this up to make it install Windows 10 in a compressed way on a clean install; it's possible that upgrading via Windows Update may be easier in this instance as it might know how to compress it.
Last edited by DavidY; 31 May 2015 at 10:43. Reason: Added link
I was saying I found this
https://blogs.windows.com/bloggingwi...act-footprint/Windows 10’s compaction is the evolution of WIMBOOT
Prior to Windows 10, Windows 8.1 achieved significant footprint reduction via a special deployment configuration called Windows Image Boot (WIMBOOT). If you are interested, here is a link to a little blog post about WIMBOOT from last year.
WIMBOOT enabled specially prepared Windows 8.1 devices to have all the goodness of an efficient compression algorithm without compromise to responsiveness. “Specially prepared” means manufacturers had to use a different install process. The result was only a small subset of Windows 8.1 devices enjoy the goodness of WIMBOOT’s capacity savings. Windows 10 has the compression algorithm seamlessly integrated with the rest of the OS so that the install process is minimally impacted. As noted earlier, Windows 10 can even compress the OS upon upgrade, if a device is suitable and should it need compression.
Last edited by Ben Hastings; 31 May 2015 at 13:44. Reason: screw up
double post
They're still weighing they options but I went through a WMIboot deployment and it is a tedious process but now it looks like you'd install in <32 GB devices just as you normally would and Windows will detect this device class and start self-compressing. That's what I take away from that blog.
I am marking this a s solved and add a an upgrade experience that I'd like to share:
On my HP Stream 11, I had Win 8.1 WIM Boot when I got it. After the Windows 10 upgrade, the Push Button partition was gone and I had basically the entire 32 GB for the Windows partition (growing from 21 GB to 28 GB) :-).
Windows 8.1 WIM Boot (before)
Windows 10 Home (after)
Is WIM Boot dead then? It is still there in the Windows 10 build of DISM:
C:\Windows\system32>dism /Capture-Image /?
Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.10240.16384
/Capture-Image /ImageFile:<path_to_image_file> /CaptureDir:<source_directory>
/Name:<Name>
[/Description:Description] [/ConfigFile:<wimscript.ini>]
{[/Compress:{fast|max|none}] [/Bootable] | [/WIMBoot]} [/CheckIntegrity]
[/Verify] [/NoRpFix]
Captures an image of a drive to a new WIM file. Captured directories include
all subfolders and data. You cannot capture an empty directory.
Use /ConfigFile to specify the location of a configuration file that lists
exclusions for image capture and compress commands.
Use /Compress to specify the type of compression used for the initial capture
operation.
Use /Bootable to mark a Windows PE volume image as able to be booted.
Use /WIMBoot to capture the image that can be applied with WIMBoot
configuration.
Use /CheckIntegrity to detect and track WIM file corruption.
Use /Verify to check for errors and file duplication.
Use /NoRpFix to disable the reparse point tag fix.
Example:
DISM.exe /Capture-Image /ImageFile:install.wim /CaptureDir:D:\
/Name:Drive-D
C:\Windows\system32>
I think WIMBoot is 'deprecated' - the command will still be there (which for one thing means you can still use the same version of DISM to work with Windows 8.1), but it isn't the preferred route for Windows 10.I am marking this a s solved and add a an upgrade experience that I'd like to share:
On my HP Stream 11, I had Win 8.1 WIM Boot when I got it. After the Windows 10 upgrade, the Push Button partition was gone and I had basically the entire 32 GB for the Windows partition (growing from 21 GB to 28 GB).
Is WIM Boot dead then? It is still there in the Windows 10 build of DISM:
If you go to an elevated command prompt, and type this command, what does it say?:
I'd expect it to say 'The system is in the compact state'Code:compact /compactos:query
I believe that instead of WIMBoot, in Windows 10 there are two technologies for compression:
- Compact OS (as per the command I mentioned above) - which is about the OS
- 'Single-instancing' your applications, so that applications are run from a 'Provisioning Package' which has been created for use with Reset and Recovery Drives
The compactOS setting should be determined automatically when you install. When I tried to upgrade my tablet it set the CompactOS flag as expected, but when I tried a clean-install later, probably because it was missing some key drivers, it didn't figure out that it could compact it. However I think you can switch it on and off with these commands:
orCode:compact /CompactOs:always
The single-instancing of applications is done with DISM, and I have to admit I've not been brave enough to try it yet. I don't think it happens automatically when you upgrade from 8.1 to 10.Code:compact /CompactOs:never
I'm also not sure whether you can do it on a running installation or if it needs to be done before first use. I know how to create a Provisioning Package but it's not clear to me if "DISM /Apply-CustomDataImage" creates a new Provisioning Package itself or if I need to create it first. Also I'm not sure how it works when you subsequently update applications (eg. applications like Firefox frequently update themselves), if they are stored in a .ppkg file.
I'll get round to doing some playing with single-instancing in a Virtual Machine at some point.
Further reading if you're interested:
Compact OS, single-instancing, and image optimization
How Windows 10 achieves its compact footprint
I think the same happened here. I upgraded, then re-installed from scratch and now apparently have an uncompressed OS.
This is strange because Windows takes about half of the drive :) which is 32 GB, immediately post-install. After a year of updates or so, go figure. Either Setup is not very good at determining whether compression is needed or it concluded that the eMMC drive is too slow for compression? ("Windows is able to assess if a device can use compression without reducing human-perceivable responsiveness.")C:\>compact/CompactOs:query
Thesystem is not in the Compact state because Windows has determined that, it
is notbeneficial for this system.
C:\>
I'll still have to look into Provisioning Packaging and Single Instancing. Very informative!
Apparently it was not possible earlier releases
Microsoft Explains OS Compression in Windows 10 - Thurrott.com
But from what this guy says here it works now.
WIMBoot and Windows 10
I am trying to confirm if this is so now. Can someone verify that this works now?
I've installed compressed Windows 10 on two computers now with 32 GB eMMC memories - one NextBook tablet and an Azulle Stick computer with no issues:
Important precautions to take before upgrading to Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums
When Windows setup detects the limited memory for installation, it will automatically install in the compressed state. You can also enable the compressed state on any computer:
Windows 10 Feature Focus: CompactOS
Quote
