UUP to ISO - Create Bootable ISO from Windows 10 Build Upgrade Files  

I was curious - 7-zip x64 or x86?

DonCuthbert said:

Windows Update isn't trying to create a standard Windows install ISO though. It only needs to successfully upgrade Windows to the new build. We are trying to produce bootable Install media instead.

Index:3 is a version of WindowsPE, but it has additional files and folders compared to Index:2. Plus it is normally the same build as what you are upgrading to. Someone would have to analyze exactly what the differences are between Index:2 and Index:3 and figure out how to add in all of the missing folders and files from the new build files which were created by Windows Update in the UUP process.

That is why the working solution is to simply use a prior build ISO and replace install.wim with the new one. You end up with a mix of builds in the ISO, but what it installs is the new build. But when you run Repair your computer, it uses a prior build's WindowsRE.

Correct. But since the UUP>ISO scripts can be run post-install as well as prior to installing, knowing which files to copy in order to recreate index:3 would allow the script to make a fully-functional .ISO, including the Recovery environment need to fix that build as installed on our machines.

I'm going to take a close look into it later on - I suspect that some of the files may, in fact, be on that hidden partition, which is going to make it a lot harder to copy, but if those files are, instead, located elsewhere, and we can gain access to them, then this script could be taken to a whole new level.

lx07 said:

That makes sense. I've had to increase the (nominal) disk space of empty VMs I upgrade from 20GB to 22GB recently (they take about 7GB space). 15058 asked for another 10GB disk, 15063 didn't.

Me too. On my previous VM, 20 GB VHD made it complain all day long with nothing installed other than the OS and the apps it installed. Even after removing everything I would never use and all the cruft (games, etc.) that the OS installed, it complained that it wanted another 825 MB of space.

johngalt said:

I was curious - 7-zip x64 or x86?

Doesn't matter.

I use Xplorer² as my default file manager in Windows, for a plethora of reasons. In order to test the theory of the .ZIPping of hte {HEX} dir, I decided to copy it first to a new drive.

I ran into a boatload of "Path not found" errors when doing so. OK, no sweat.

I then opened the default Windows Explorer File Manager and attempted the same copy again. And I run into this:



This is copying into the root of another folder, so the path is significantly shorter than the original path of C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Downloads\{HEX} (all of which is now D:\{HEX} lol).

Yeah, not happening. So, it won't matter what Archiver you use, it is going to have issues. Even a direct copy and paste has issues.

So it makes sense that DISM is having issues with it as well.

M4v3r1ck said:

What are your goals for studying the UUP files for build /15063?

Cheers

I compare it with other upgrade files, and also wanna make sure that if I edit any scripts, I have a source to test it on.

As this is related, I'll quote a post from ESD to ISO tutorial here:

Kari said:

   Note

Upgrade from Anniversary Update Build 14393 to Creators Update (latest build being 15063) is now live. An extract from 15063 release notes:


Notice that as build 14393 does not have the UUP mechanism in place, the upgrade will be delivered as an ESD upgrade. ESDtoISO script in this tutorial works without issues in creating a Windows 10 Creators Update ISO image.


Kari

DonCuthbert said:

I tried 7-Zip and also tried DISM. I could copy the files into the archive file, but I could not restore them, even if I tried to do it in a folder at the root of a drive. I'm not 100% sure that every file was captured, as I showed over 53,000 files when I was trying this and there did not seem to be that many in the zip file. I prefer to leave the files unaltered and have always been able to successfully use them, even from Windows.old. Cutting and pasting them elsewhere (on the same drive) also works, as you know. But then you have to put them back, if you want to see Microsoft's process complete.

Yeah - I had similar issues when I was trying to move files - I could not zip them.