Create Windows 10 ISO image from Existing Installation  

Thanks guys and gals! Tried to make steps so easy to follow that everyone can follow them, interested in hearing when you test this.

I am going to have to continue this later. I have bigger issues with my machine right now. Much bigger.

BSODs with tcpip.sys, MB3 reverted to free version, and my 256 GB SSD drive where I move my \Users tree to says it has 144 GB used - impossible, there is nothing there - yesterday it was barely 30 GB used.

Something is up....

Thanks Kari.

Great tut Kari!

fdegrove said:

Hi, Anyone used one of these templates yet ?

Those answer file generators are really bad. My recommendation is to never use them. I've tested them, they leave you with an answer file which needs a lot of manual editing before you can use it.

I wholeheartedly recommend you do (generate) your own answer files in case the example ones in tutorial are not what you want to use, tool for it Windows SIM (System Image Manager) was installed on your computer when you installed Windows ADK in Part Five of this tutorial, assuming that you installed the parts I recommended in step 5.3.

Take a look of Part Five in this tutorial, it shows the basics in generating your first answer file with Windows SIM: Windows 10 Image - Customize in Audit Mode with Sysprep - Windows 10 Tutorials

Check Windows SIM, I'm here ready to answer your questions about generating a working, valid and personal answer file. I do not claim to be an answer file authority, I am just saying I know enough in order to be able to assist in most cases.

 What is an answer file?

Might be a good idea to talk a little bit more about answer file (also called unattended answer file) and its role in customisation. To start with, an answer file is a set of instructions in XML file format. These instructions are given with so called components, set to be run in various phases of Windows setup. There are 7 of these phases, called settings pass (screenshot from SIM):

Windows setup goes through each of the 7 settings passes, starting of course with settings pass 1 WindowsPE. I say of course because when clean installing Windows, there is no OS yet but an OS is needed to get Windows installed, a dilemma which is resolved by loading a mini OS (WinPE) to RAM disk and running it from there.

When Sysprep is run and it finds a valid answer file, it does everything the file tells it to do, running each included component in answer file in appropriate settings pass. Sysprep keeps record of the setup phase and tells setup to do what's told in answer file.

An example, the simple answer file in step 3.8 in this tutorial, We use Shell-Setup > CopyProfile component, setting its value to TRUE. CopyProfile must be added in settings pass 4 Specialize as in our example answer file:

(Click to enlarge.)

Answer file structure and syntax are clear, you can write them manually, too, but using Windows SIM makes it easy. In above example we have set command CopyProfile with value TRUE (blue highlight in above screenshot) in component Shell-Setup tags (green), placing it in correct settings pass (yellow).

Now when Windows setup arrives to settings pass 4 it get's this command to copy the built-in admin's user profile with all customisations and personalisations to default user profile (hidden profile folder C:\Users\Default). That's what CopyProfile do. Now whenever a new user account will be created and new user signs in first time, the default settings, customisations and personalisations will be copied from default profile to user profile.

There are loads of components to be used in answer file, each component containing several commands, the above was just a simple example.

Kari

Hi,

Those answer file generators are really bad. My recommendation is to never use them. I've tested them, they leave you with an answer file which needs a lot of manual editing before you can use it.

I thought as much.
I'll get back to this if you don't mind but basically this is what I'd like to do:

I have an OEM DL layer DVD that I'd like to update using the current RTM AU version. The old version contains some updates for 10240 which are no longer pertinent to AU etc.

I've already done some basic stuff which seems to work alright but I'd like to understand all this better.

Either way, thanks a bunch for the kind reply.

Cheers,

fdegrove said:

I have an OEM DL layer DVD that I'd like to update using the current RTM AU version. The old version contains some updates for 10240 which are no longer pertinent to AU etc.

I've already done some basic stuff but which seems to work alright but I'd like to understand all this better.

I am not sure if I understood you correctly? You have OEM Windows 10 version 1507 build 10240 on dual layer DVD, you would like to update it with version 1607 build 14393?

If so, you can do it easily, and quite fast because you can skip the excruciatingly slow Part Four; you don't have to create 14393 install.wim because that is already freely available.

Steps involved:

1. Copy the full content of the 10240 dual layer DVD to a new folder on any hard disk, internal or external. Let's say you copy it to X:\ISO_Files
   
2. Mount 14393 ISO, copy the Sources\install.wim file to X:\ISO_Files\Sources, replacing the original 10240 install.wim
3. Create new ISO as told in Part Five in this tutorial

No answer file needed. Really easy, really fast. You will get an updated 14393 ISO image, with full content of your old 10240 DVD.

Kari

Hi,

It is a DL DVD because it contains an awful lot of language packs. I updated most of them to current versions just for peace of mind.


[QUOTE]Copy the full content of the 10240 dual layer DVD to a new folder on any hard disk, internal or external. Let's say you copy it to X:\ISO_Files[/QUOTE]

That's what I did.

Mount 14393 ISO, copy the Sources\install.wim file to X:\ISO_Files\Sources, replacing the original 10240 install.wim

I actually replaced all files, not just the install.wim

Create new ISO as told in Part Five in this tutorial

I replaced some of the updates that are intended for 10240 with new ones.
I'll check in a minute what I did exactly and get back to you.
Those are the bits I don't understand because I can't seem to find any trace of all that in the answer file and I fail to see what calls these to execute.

I'll reread that but here's what I've done : I created a new ISO file using Imgburn, mounted that and copied the contents to a USB stick which I used to do a test install. Seems to work OK but I'd like to understand the finer details of the OEM stuff.

No answer file needed.

There is none on the original OEM DVD.

I'll hook up the external disk and get back asap.

Thanks,

Frank.