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

   Note

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PLEASE NOTICE:

The tool and the method in this tutorial both work without issues with ESD file of the latest Insider Build 15048 released earlier today.

Kari

Hah! Another build. Will have to get to it tonight.

Hi geeks, I just posted this in another tutorial thread. I thought it might interest "heavy duty ISO makers"

Kari said:

The tutorial has been mostly rewritten today to be more up to date with latest changes in Windows 10. Some additional steps required earlier have been removed and instructions somewhat simplified.

An example: Making ISO as told in Part One no longer requires Windows being reset which makes the whole process a lot faster and easier.

To remind you about various options, here's a quote from beginning of tutorial:

   Information

The ISO image made as per instructions in this tutorial will be based on an existing Windows 10 installation. Tutorial shows you three alternative methods to create an ISO image, depending on your needs:

• Part One: Standard Windows 10 ISO install media
  
  • An "Out of the box" ISO, as any standard Windows 10 ISO image you can download from Microsoft. Alternative for ESD to ISO and UUP to ISO methods
  • This ISO will be generalized meaning it is hardware independent and can be used to install Windows on any computer capable of running Windows 10, regardless if the machine is a legacy BIOS machine with MBR partitioning, or a UEFI machine with GPT partitioning
  
  
• Part Two: Custom ISO with pre-installed software & pre-set user accounts
  
  • This option creates a Windows 10 ISO which already contains your preferred user accounts with all their settings, customisations and personalisations, preferred pre-installed software and so on
  • Using this ISO to install Windows is much faster than installing with standard ISO, at the same time making installing your standard software unnecessary as it's already pre-installed
  • Clean install will skip OOBE (Windows Setup) because user accounts and settings already exist
  • As the ISO is not generalized and it contains all existing user accounts and data it should only be used to install Windows on your home computers
  
  
• Part Three: Custom ISO with pre-installed software, no user accounts
  
  • As in Part Two but a generalized ISO image without any pre-set user accounts, with pre-installed software, desktop, File Explorer and Start customisations
  • All customisations and personalisations will automatically be applied to all new user accounts
  • Clean install will perform a normal OOBE, asking for regional settings, initial user and so on
  • This ISO will be generalized meaning it is hardware independent and can be used to install Windows on any computer capable of running Windows 10, regardless if the machine is a legacy BIOS machine with MBR partitioning, or a UEFI machine with GPT partitioning

Select Part One, Two or Three to prepare Windows for image capture according to your needs, continue from Part Four to capture Windows install image and create the ISO image.

ISO images will be bootable on both BIOS / MBR and UEFI / GPT systems.

Tutorial in question shows alternative methods to make an ISO: Windows 10 ISO image - Create from Existing Installation

Kari

Has anyone managed to get 15055 upgrade as ESD? I have one physical machine and two virtual machines set for ESD upgrade (UUP disabled), none of those have found upgrade yet.

Jim Julian said:

I've had severe issues with this process.

Those severe issues are all caused by you.

To start with, if there's no ESD file in C:\$WINDOWS.~BT\Sources folder, it means that you have got the upgrade using UUP method, not ESD method, and this tutorial will not apply to you.

This tutorial only works with ESD files received using ESD upgrade method. The tool does not work with any other ESD files, only the one in C:\$WINDOWS.~BT\Sources folder when upgrade is received as ESD upgrade.

Read more: ESD to ISO - Create Bootable ISO from Windows 10 ESD File

Kari

   Note

Tweet

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PLEASE NOTICE:

The tool and the method in this tutorial both work without issues with ESD file of the latest Insider Build 15058 released earlier today.

Kari

Jim Julian said:

I'll take that to mean you don't know what your app has done, and therefore do not know how to fix the problem.

What? ESD to ISO works, as do UUP to ISO. I know exactly what it does when used as told in tutorial!

If and in your case when you decide to do something else, not follow the instructions, then it's up to you, your own fault. Like in this case, even the simplest logics could have told you that you can not use ESD to ISO tool to make an ISO from a UUP upgrade.

What a strange post!

In Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 15058 for PC I said I was heading here post-install to see if I could recover an ISO (from Windows.old).

Unfortunately, it proved impossible, since any ESD files had been removed during setup:


not to worry - other machines, other installations to try with!