DISM - Create Bootable ISO with Multiple Windows 10 Images  

1) Is there something special I need to do with sysprep images?

Kari[/QUOTE]

If you could help a newbie here :P , I would like to know how I apply this to a Captured Sysprep image if Im doing this for the first time. The original instructions were fabulous, but im finding it to be a bit confusing as its not exactly my situation.

Essentially, I am doing the following:
[LIST=1][*]I image my machine with a clean install of windows

1. I customize my image in audit mode
2. I sysprep it with a custom unattend xml file that i have created
3. I capture the image via DISM in PE CMD

From here i have been looking for a way to package the captured image so that my team can deploy machines a lot quicker.
Any help is greatly appreciated!

I just wanted to provide another possible way of doing this. For some reason, Kari's procedure wasn't working for me on every machine. It may simply be my systems, but when I noticed that Microsoft dual architecture media boots fine on those same machines I started wondering if I could emulate what was done on those images. The below procedure is the result.

There is no way that I would have ever come with this entirely on my own. I borrow heavily from various pieces of information provided on TenForums by Kari, cereberus, and Brink.

I would suggest at the very least familiarizing yourself with the following materials as well as Kari's tutorial in this thread so that you can refer back to them if you should need to do so:

Create media for automated unattended install of Windows 10

Create bootable USB installer if install.wim is greater than 4GB


*******************************************
Bootable Image

Multiple Windows Editions in One Image
Bootable from BIOS and UEFI
Created Using Only Native Windows Tools

Includes Info on Configuring a Multi
Edition Image for Unattended Install
*******************************************

This procedure will allow you to create an ISO image from which multiple editions of Windows can be installed. This can include both x86 and x64 versions of Windows. As an example, you might create a single ISO image that allows installation of all the following Windows editions:

Windows 10 Pro x86 (Original)
Windows 10 Pro x86 with the Latest Updates
Windows 10 Pro x64 (Original)
Windows 10 Pro x64 with the Latest Updates
Windows 10 Home x64 (Original)
Windows 10 Home x64 with the Latest Updates
Windows 10 Pro x64 with a customized Sysprep installation
etc.

You can include syspreped images and unattended installation can be setup easily.

Before starting, please note that all Windows ISO images should be of the type that contain a \sources\install.wim rather than a \sources\install.esd. The one exception is the dual architecture Windows ISO image which contains both x86 and x64 versions of Windows. This image has install.esd files rather than install.wim files. This image can be used to create a base image for this project and the install.esd files are not needed.

Create the following folders:

• C:\ISO_Files < Used to store base image
• C:\WIM_x64 < Will hold WIM with all x64 editions of Windows in image
• C:\WIM_x86 < Will hold WIM with all x86 editions of Windows in image

NOTE: You can use any folder names you want, just be sure to change them in the commands below as well.

If you plan to create a drive or ISO image with both x86 and x64 versions of Windows (also known as a dual architecture disk or image), then you should obtain a copy of Windows 10 that holds BOTH x86 and x64 Windows installations. You will make use of this for your base image. You can download this from the Windows Media Creation Tool Web Site located here:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/soft...load/windows10

• Select "Download tool now" and run it.
• When the tool runs, accept the license terms.
• Choose "Create installation media (USB flash drive, DVD, or ISO file) for another PC" and then click on "Next".
• Uncheck the checkbox for "Use the recommended options for this PC".
• Select the appropriate language.
• For "Architecture" make certain to select "Both".
• Click on "Next".
• Select "ISO file" and then "Next".
• Save the downloaded image.

*** End of Procedure for Obtaining the dual architecture ISO image ***

Create a Base Image

For a single architecture project (just x64 or x86, NOT both):

• Extract the contents of an x64 or x86 image to the C:\ISO_Files folder.
• Delete the C:\ISO_Files\Sources\install.wim file.

This is your base image.

To create a dual architecture image, use a dual architecture image from Microsoft as described above:

• Copy the entire contents of that image to C:\ISO_Files.
• From C:\ISO_Files\x64\Sources, delete the install.esd file.
• From C:\ISO_Files\x86\Sources, delete the install.esd file.

This is your base image.

Extracting Windows editions

You will now extract all x64 Windows editions and copy them into a single install.wim file located in C:\WIM_x64. You will do the same for the x86 images, but they will reside in C:\WIM_x86.

Mount an ISO image that contains one of the Windows editions that you want to add to this compilation. In this example, I've mounted the ISO image to drive E:.

Run the following command to get a list of editions in this ISO image:

Code:

dism /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:E:\Sources\install.wim

Note the index number associated with the edition of Windows you want to use. As an example, on the Windows 10 1909 MSDN ISO images, index #6 corresponds to the Windows 10 Pro edition. I'm going to assume index #6 in my example.

Run the following command:

Code:

dism /Export-Image /SourceImageFile:E:\Sources\install.wim /SourceIndex:6 /DestinationImageFile:C:\WIM_x64\install.wim /DestinationName:"W10 PRO version 1909 x64 (original)"

NOTES: This example assumes a 64-bit version of Windows, thus the reference to the "C:\WIM_x64" folder name as the destination. If you are using an x86 ISO image, replace this with "C:\WIM_x86".

"DestinationName" in the above command (shown as "Name" in the below command), is the name displayed on the boot menu for this image. The "Description" appears below the menu for the currently highlighted image name in the menu.

Both the NAME and DESCRIPTION are MANDATORY for the multi boot disk to work! You can omit "/DestinationName:" option above and the already existing name will then be kept. The above command does not have an option to change the DESCRIPTION so if one needs to be added or changed you will need to run the ImageX command below.

If a DISM /Get-Wiminfo (as shown just above) indicates that DESCRIPTION is not defined, then you must add one! To do so, extract the contents of the ISO image (you should have already done this with the dism /Export-Image command above), then run the following ImageX command:

Code:

ImageX /info <path to install.wim> <index_number> "Name" "Description" /check

Again, you can run the dism /Get-WimInfo command at any time to see the info for the WIM file.

Remember, both NAME and DESCRIPTION are necessary!

Usage Suggestion: You can just leave off the "DestinationName:" option in the "dism /Export-Image" command and then set both the NAME and DESCRIPTION with the ImageX command.

You can keep exporting additional Windows editions. They do not all need to come from the same image file. Use of multiple different ISO images is perfectly fine. Continue until all desired editions are exported.

You should now end up with all x86 editions of Windows in the C:\WIM_x86\install.wim file and all x64 editions in C:\WIM_x64\install.wim.

When done, if you have only an x86 or x64 install.wim file but not both, copy it to C:\ISO_Files\sources, overwriting any install.wim file located there. This is a single architecture image.

If you have both x86 and x64 install.wim files, then copy the "install.wim" file from the C:\WIM_x64 folder to C:\ISO_Files\x64\Sources folder. Copy the "install.wim" file from the C:\WIM_x86 folder to C:\ISO_Files\x86\Sources folder. This is dual architecture image.

Final Preparations

Create a text file called ei.cfg. Place the following two lines in that file:

Code:

[Channel]
Retail

Place a copy in each sources folder present in your project (C:\ISO_Files\sources, C:\ISO_Files\x64\sources, C:\ISO_Files\x86\sources).

Notes about ei.cfg: Let's say that you have a computer that shipped with Windows 10 Home, but you upgraded to Pro. You may find that when you try to perform a clean install, Windows simply starts installing Home and doesn't even show you the menu from which you can select other editions. By placing this file in the sources folder, we prevent that from happening.

Note that when doing an unattended install, this file is not needed because the autounattend.xml specifies the edition of Windows to install, but you leave the ei.cfg in place as it won't hurt anything.

Creating the Final ISO image

Open "Deployment and Imaging Tools" in elevated mode from the Windows ADK.

Run the following command to create the final ISO image:

Code:

oscdimg.exe -m -o -u2 -udfver102 -l"VolumeName" -bootdata:2#p0,e,b"c:\iso_files\boot\etfsboot.com"#pEF,e,b"c:\iso_files\efi\microsoft\boot\efisys.bin" "c:\iso_files" "C:\ISO Images\My Image.iso"

NOTES: In the above example, "VolumeName" is the optional name to give the volume. Just specify "" if you want no volume name.


Creating a Bootable Thumb Drive Using Only Native MS Tools)

There are several ways to create a bootable thumb drive, but please be aware that some of these methods may not work on both BIOS and UEFI based systems. The whole idea of this project is to be able to create a bootable image or media that can boot on x86 or x64 based systems, using either BIOS or UEFI so I suggest using this procedure.

1) Run diskpart.

2) From the diskpart> prompt, run this command:

Code:

list disk

3) From the size of the disks, try to determine which disk ID is your thumb drive. If that is not enough information, run these commands to get more detail on the disk. In this example, I want more info on disk 4:

Code:

select disk 4
detail disk

Here is some sample output:

Code:

DISKPART> list disk
  Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  Disk 0    Online          476 GB      0 B        *
  Disk 1    Online         3726 GB      0 B        *
  Disk 2    Online          465 GB  1024 KB        *
  Disk 3    Online         7452 GB      0 B        *
  Disk 4    Online          238 GB      0 B

DISKPART> select disk 4

Disk 4 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> detail disk

SanDisk Extreme Pro USB Device
Disk ID: DC727760
Type   : USB
Status : Online
Path   : 0
Target : 0
LUN ID : 0
Location Path : UNAVAILABLE
Current Read-only State : No
Read-only  : No
Boot Disk  : No
Pagefile Disk  : No
Hibernation File Disk  : No
Crashdump Disk  : No
Clustered Disk  : No

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
  Volume 7     Z   My Software  NTFS   Removable    238 GB  Healthy
    C:\MountPoints\My Software\

4) When you determine the correct disk, run these commands. I am assuming disk 5 in the following example:

Code:

select disk 5
clean
convert mbr
create partition primary size=2000
active
format fs=fat32 quick
assign
create partition primary
format fs=ntfs quick
assign
exit

NOTE: The "assign" commands will assign a drive letter. If you want to assign specific drives letters, for example E:, use the command "assign letter=E".

In the commands that follow I am referencing the the ISO_Files folder where we created the base image. If you created an image file, you can simply substitute the root of the mounted ISO image for C:\ISO_Files. In all the sample robocopy commands I am assuming that I have a dual architecture image, Q: is the FAT32 partition on the thumb drive, R: is the NTFS partition.

5) Copy all files and folders EXCEPT sources, x86, and x64 from C:\ISO_Files to the FAT32 partition. Note that not all of these folders will exist in C:\ISO_Files. You will have either a sources folder (for a single architecture image) or x64 and x86 folders for dual architecture. Don't panic when you don't find them all there!

Example:

Code:

robocopy c:\iso_files q:\ /mir /xd sources x86 x64

6) If you have a C:\ISO_Files\sources folder then copy C:\ISO_Files\sources\boot.wim to \sources on the FAT32 partition. Otherwise, copy C:\ISO_Files\x64\sources\boot.wim to \x64\sources and C:\ISO_Files\x86\sources\boot.wim to \x86\sources on the FAT32 partition.

Example:

Code:

Robocopy c:\iso_files\x64\sources q:\x64\sources boot.wim
Robocopy c:\iso_files\x86\sources q:\x86\sources boot.wim

7) If you have a C:\ISO_Files\sources folder, then copy all files and folders from C:\ISO_Files\sources EXCEPT boot.wim to \sources on the NTFS partition. Otherwise copy all files and folders from C:\ISO_Files\x64\sources EXCEPT boot.wim to \x64\sources on the NTFS partition AND copy all files and folders from C:\ISO_Files\x86\sources EXCEPT boot.wim to \x86\sources on the NTFS partition.

Example:

Code:

robocopy c:\iso_files\x64\sources r:\x64\sources /mir /xf boot.wim
robocopy c:\iso_files\x86\sources r:\x86\sources /mir /xf boot.wim

9) If using an autounattend.xml you can put it in the root of the NTFS partition only. TIP: It will work on the FAT32 partition as well. More about unattended installation later.

At this point, you should have a bootable thumb drive that can contain both x86 and x64 editions of Windows and can be booted from both BIOS and UEFI based systems.

NOTE: When booting on a UEFI based system, you may be presented with an option to boot either the FAT32 or the NTFS partition. Choose the FAT32 partition.

Performing an Unattended Setup with the Dual Architecture Media

How Windows Behaves When Booting from a Dual Architecture Image

If you have followed my procedure above and you have both x64 and x86 editions of Windows, then you will have a boot image that initially boots to a menu asking you to choose whether to install an x64 or x86 version of Windows.

Assume that you choose x64.

Windows will now display all the x64 Editions available and you pick the one to install.

Now let's suppose that you place an autounattend.xml answer file on the root of the image or boot media. In this instance, let's assume that the answer file was made for Windows 10 Pro. When you boot, the behavior will be same EXCEPT that only Windows 10 Pro editions of will be shown in the menu. This can include editions with Sysprep images. If there is only one edition that is based upon Windows 10 Pro, that edition will begin installing without you having to select it from the menu. If there is more than one Windows 10 Pro edition, simply select the one you want, and it will install unattended from here on. However, you can completely automate the installation with no user intervention required at all by following the steps below.

Automating Installation for a Multi Architecture Boot

Load your autounattend.xml answer file in WSIM (Windows System Image Manager). In the Windows Image pane, expand the following tree:

Windows-Setup > ImageInstall > OSImage > InstallFrom

Right click on MetaData and select Add Setting to Pass1 windowsPE

In the Answer File pane, click on InstallFrom in the tree.

In the InstallFrom Properties pane, set the following value:

Path \install.wim

In the Answer File pane, click on MetaData in the tree.

Set the following values:

Key /IMAGE/INDEX
Value <the index number of the Edition you want to install>

NOTE: Each x64 Windows edition will have a unique index number: 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. Likewise, the x86 Editions will have index numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.

To determine the index number associated with the Edition that you want to install, run this command (assuming the image is mount as E: in this example):

Code:

dism /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:E:\Sources\install.wim

Example:

If you want to install the edition of Windows that corresponds to index 6, you would set these values:

Key /IMAGE/INDEX
Value 6

Note that you can also choose the edition of Windows by specifying the NAME or DESCRIPTION of the Windows edition like this rather than the index number:

/IMAGE/NAME

or

/IMAGE/DESCRIPTION

The same command shown above that lists the index also shows the NAME and DESCRIPTION for each Windows edition.

As always, perform a validity check on your answer file, and save it as autounattend.xml on the root of your media. NOTE: If you are installing to a VM, see the note below called "Special Considerations for Virtual Machines" that can make things much easier for you.

This gets you part of the way there. Now when you boot, you will still need to select x64 or x86 from the boot menu, but then installation will be automatic. If you want to automate this as well, then perform the following steps:

In the example that follows, assume my Windows media is drive E:. Run this command:

Code:

bcdedit /store "E:\boot\bcd" /enum

NOTE: The above path references the location of the boot store for bootup on BIOS based systems. To work with the settings for UEFI based systems, change the path to "E:\efi\microsoft\boot\bcd". You can apply the changes to the items below to either or both and can make different settings to each if you wish.

You should see output resembling this:

Code:

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier              {bootmgr}
description             Windows Boot Manager
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {globalsettings}
default                 {default}
displayorder            {default}
                        {21f3fac8-05c4-11ea-824f-001583eeba66}
toolsdisplayorder       {memdiag}
timeout                 30

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier              {default}
device                  ramdisk=[boot]\x64\sources\boot.wim,{7619dcc8-fafe-11d9-b411-000476eba25f}
path                    \windows\system32\boot\winload.exe
description             Windows 10 Setup (64-bit)
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {bootloadersettings}
osdevice                ramdisk=[boot]\x64\sources\boot.wim,{7619dcc8-fafe-11d9-b411-000476eba25f}
systemroot              \windows
bootmenupolicy          Legacy
detecthal               Yes
winpe                   Yes
ems                     No

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier              {21f3fac8-05c4-11ea-824f-001583eeba66}
device                  ramdisk=[boot]\x86\sources\boot.wim,{7619dcc8-fafe-11d9-b411-000476eba25f}
path                    \windows\system32\boot\winload.exe
description             Windows 10 Setup (32-bit)
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {bootloadersettings}
osdevice                ramdisk=[boot]\x86\sources\boot.wim,{7619dcc8-fafe-11d9-b411-000476eba25f}
systemroot              \windows
bootmenupolicy          Legacy
detecthal               Yes
winpe                   Yes
ems                     No

From the output above, observe the following:

There are 2 Windows Boot Loader sections. One has a description of Windows 10 Setup (64-bit) with an identifier of {default}, the other, with the description of Windows 10 Setup (32-bit) has a GUID as the identifier, in this case {21f3fac8-05c4-11ea-824f-001583eeba66}.

You will also note that in the Windows Boot Manager section, a timeout of 30 seconds is specified.

To fully automate Windows setup, set the timeout to 0 (meaning, don't display the menu, proceed immediately) and set the appropriate architecture type to be the default.

To change the timeout to 0, run this command from an elevated command prompt:

Code:

bcdedit /store "E:\boot\bcd" /timeout 0

Don't forget to modify the path for the UEFI boot store!

To change the default architecture type from x64 to x86, use this command:

Code:

bcdedit /store "E:\ISO_Files\boot\bcd" /default <GUID>

In my example, it would look like this:

Code:

bcdedit /store "E:\ISO_Files\boot\bcd" /default {21f3fac8-05c4-11ea-824f-001583eeba66}

If you again run bcdedit /store "E:\boot\bcd" /enum, you should see that the timeout is now 0 and the x86 entry shows as {default} and that a GUID is displayed for the x64 entry.

NOTE: If you want to set the boot manager screen to have no timeout at all, meaning that it will wait forever for the user to make a selection, set the timeout to 4294967295. In case you are curious, that number is the equivalent of FFFF FFFF in hexadecimal.

Special Considerations for Virtual Machines

The above steps are super easy to accomplish on writable media such as a thumb drive, but for an ISO image, you probably don't want to have to recreate the image every time to automate installation of different Windows editions.

I can't do much about the boot store (unless someone has ideas on this that they can share!), but for the answer file, consider creating a separate small ISO file with nothing but that answer file. Creating that ISO can take only seconds. Simply attach it as a second DVD-ROM drive to your VM when you want to perform an unattended install. This works because Windows will search each drive for an answer file when starting up.

Kari,

It's been several months since I last tried the steps outlined by you. I may go ahead and do so again so that I can refresh my memory on exactly the circumstances around the issues I was encountering.

What I do know for sure was that my main goal was to try and have a method that I could boot and install both x86 and x64 images from. As you noted, this requires a 32-bit base image which presents problems for UEFI based systems so even if that was the only issue, I was still wanting a workaround for that.

I discovered that by emulating what Microsoft is doing on their dual architecture images and using it as a base I could have full universal compatibility. I can boot that same media on x86 BIOS, x64 BIOS, and x64 UEFI systems, and I can easily drop in in an answer file to automate installation of any edition of my choosing.

I'll go back and test this again sometime so I can better tell you exactly what I was encountering. I do know that there were some user errors on my part that contributed to the problems. It may well be that in the end that if you take away my mistakes, the only problem may be the known issue that you pointed out of booting dual architecture media on UEFI based systems.

As you know from our previous discussions, I was spending a lot of time automating these tasks. I finished that whole process within the last week. I can now install updates or drivers to an unlimited number of images all in one go, I can automatically create multi architecture bootable media in mere minutes, I can reorder the images in a compilation and so much more.

In any case, it was your tutorial that inspired me to keep looking for a truely universal install media, and at least so far, this has been working for me on every system I throw at it, although admittedly that's still only a handful of systems. I simply don't have a huge number of systems available to me.

Thanks again for all the fantastic information that you provide!

Is there any gui edition?

Or any other gui program that i can combine more than 1 edition

I want to combine all 32bit & 64bit of English and Greek win 10 Multi VL 2004 20H1 19041.208.200416-2050.

How i can do that?

Kari said:

This morning, I got a PM from a fellow Ten Forums member, telling me that "Sorry, but the instructions in tutorial to create a multi-architecture single WIM file do not work. I can state with 100% confidence that the procedure as written simply does not work for dual architecture scenarios.".

As I know for sure that it will work, I did some new tests today to further validate the instructions given in this tutorial. I created a multi-architecture single WIM file, adding both x86 and x64 versions of Windows 10 Version 1909 Pro, Enterprise and Education editions on it.

I had no issues in using the ISO image created, with this multi-architecture custom install.wim file, in installing any bit version or edition on both a physical, BIOS based machine, as well as Hyper-V Generation 1 virtual machine.

Some basics about why booting from multi-architecture ISO fails:

Most common reason is that user has used a 64-bit Windows WIM file as base media. No 32-bit machine can boot from 64-bit install media.

As told in tutorial, when creating a multi-architecture WIM file, the base WIM used must be 32-bit. This, of course, makes it almost impossible to be used on UEFI systems, because most of UEFI systems can only boot from 64-bit media.

Summarize the above, the multi-architecture WIM must be based on 32-bit Windows install files, including install.wim file. It can be used as such on any BIOS machine, but to use it on UEFI machine, the machine should be switched to legacy BIOS mode.

OK, todays test. I created a multi-architecture WIM file exactly as told in this tutorial, with Pro, Enterprise and Education editions of Windows 10 Version 1909. Indexes 1 to 3 are x86, indexes 4 to 6 the same but x64:
Attachment 251857
(Click to enlarge.)

Let's compare Pro editions, index 1 being the x86 version (yellow highlight in next screenshot), and index 4 the x64 version (green highlight):
Attachment 251858

Installing on a BIOS machine, there are no issues, OS selection screen showing available editions and their bit versions:
Attachment 251859

I've now done 12 clean installs from this media today, installing each of three editions in both bit versions on a physical machine, and on a virtual machine. Absolutely no issues.

I just want to say that a multi-architecture install media with a single WIM file works exactly as it should work.

Kari

Sir can i request for ISO with installer for Windows 7 Professional x86 and x64 with Windows 7 Pro x86 and x64 like this installer, i have fail creating from your step to step. Thank you.

Sigh. Microsoft's broken patches lately are really putting a damper in my work flow. I keep building a single ISO image that includes all the consumer x64 and x86 editions of Windows plus several syspreped editions - 25 editions of Windows all rolled up into a single image with the latest patches. The problem is that I need to toss those images because within a few days there always seems to be some big flaw found in the Microsoft patches.

I long for a day when fixes don't keep breaking new things

balubeto said:

The procedure described in this tutorial is also applicable to merge the isos of the Windows 11 2022 Update multi edition and of the Windows 11 Enterprise 22H2.

In other words, I would like to create a single ISO with all editions of Windows 11 Update.

Thanks


Bye

That is correct. You can use Kari's procedure to as many different editions to a single ISO image as needed.

As an example, when patch Tuesday arrives each month, I inject the updates into all the retail editions of Windows 10, and combine them back into a single ISO image again. Same for Windows 11.