ESD to ISO - Create Bootable ISO from Windows 10 ESD File  

Kyhi said:

WOW..

Wow wow.

The idea of this tutorial is to give every user, newbies and geeks alike a method and simple instructions which work every time. The idea is not to tell a geeky way to do things in ideal conditions.

I can reproduce at will a scenario where the C:\$Windows.~BT\Sources folder only contains a subfolder Panther and nothing else, no install.esd file. At the same time the files in C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\DeliveryOptimization are from an earlier upgrade as the time difference shows, not the last one. C:\Recoveryimage folder at this point contains even older ESD:

Screenshot from my tests earlier, made just after the files disappeared from the C:\$Windows.~BT\Sources, at about 90% into "Preparing to install updates".

So, for instance in this case it's No, you can't wait until the upgrade is done and pending restart and only then take the ESD from C:\$Windows.~BT\Sources. Again, No you can't just grab the .default_ext file from the C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\DeliveryOptimization because it's from the previous upgrade.

I really do not understand this. If it is wrong to try to write a tutorial which explains a method and provides tools which work every time (also when the upgrade download works but upgrade itself fails), instead of making more geeky instructions which work on most cases but not always, then yes, I am guilty.

Kyhi said:

Enjoy!

Kari

Kyhi said:

it's July and my screen shots where from today..

That comment, my fellow geek, really shows a certain grade of ignorance.

One reason why I like to put my Taskbar at left is that I want to have as much information on it as possible visible all the time. A somewhat wider vertical Taskbar gives me that for instance showing the full date and time. Are you telling me that this screenshot is actually from February:

Or do you mean that my Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 10159 expired on 10th of February, almost 5 months ago:

Really! Thinking is although not obligatory but strongly recommended.

Irwin Mainway said:

The latest build (10162) is on the Insider download page - faster to download than via Windows Update for sure.
My question - what are the options for installing it?
USB, DVD, image mounting program or simply mount it in Windows 10 and run it.
The last option went a bit slow last time.

If you mount the iso on desktop of an earlier build of Windows 10, Windows 7 SP1 or Windows 8.1 Update 1, you can run the in-place upgrade from there, no need to create the install media.

For clean install create the install media (DVD or Flash drive) and boot with it.

So now why can't this be the procedure for any user wanting the RTM. Why can't the RTM installation process itself, create the iso or stick itself with the user's own unique product key, embedded? And during that step, either pause to have the user create the media, guiding him step by step, or at least telling him 'look here' (folder on his disk) for the iso which during download, got slipstreamed with his own key, embedded? So it would be unique. So it would be traceable.

That way MSFT is protected from piracy (or at least can chase down the culprit), and the user doesn't have to learn a bunch of arcane stuff he has no time for. Look at all the time you guys sacrifice here. I'm so grateful to the seven-tenforums I can't begin to repay it (and no one accepts donations, I'm told).

Seems to me that MSFT could spare the customer and itself a lot of headaches by following the old procedure of interactive download preceded by the initial steps of creating the media, keyed to THAT user's installation. So the user can keep it, so that MSFT can trace it, so that many wasted hours of installation 'help' time are spared everyone?

I tried to convey the same request in Ed Bott's reference to this tenforums thread, here.

Yell at me if I seem unclear or wrong. I'm always (and only ) disappointed in the update process and interface changes MSFT makes in its products, because they are always so disruptive and thoughtless. But I don't want to leave Windows. So here, am trying to offer an old, tried, used-to-be-download installation pre-step, which we all used to follow back in the early-Win, late DOS days, as downloading became cheaper than mailing media and manuals.

Thank you for your time!

Honestly, I have no idea why that happened. Might be a damaged ESD file, might be anything else.

Where did you get the ESD file?