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

An interesting tip from @AndreTen is to disable Defender temporarily when running UUPtoIso, as he says it runs a lot faster. I have yet to try it but will do tomorrow.

cereberus said:

An interesting tip from @AndreTen is to disable Defender temporarily when running UUPtoIso, as he says it runs a lot faster. I have yet to try it but will do tomorrow.

Yep, do that, or just configure Defender to ignore all folders UUP2ISO uses.

Wow - just tested using uuptoiso with Defender on or off. I cleared all files between each case. Timings are to nearest minute +/- 10 seconds.

Defender Off
Preparings ESDs - 2 mins
Creating Boot.wim - 2 mins
Creating Insta.ll.win -10 mins

Defender On
Preparings ESDs - 16 mins
Creating Boot.wim - 2 mins
Creating Insta.ll.win -10 mins

All the time difference 2 vs 16 minutes was in the preparing ESD phase

Time saving overall turning Defender off was almost exactly 50%!

cereberus said:

Wow - just tested using uuptoiso with Defender on or off. I cleared all files between each case. Timings are to nearest minute +/- 10 seconds.

Defender Off
Preparings ESDs - 2 mins
Creating Boot.wim - 2 mins
Creating Insta.ll.win -10 mins

Defender Off
Preparings ESDs - 16 mins
Creating Boot.wim - 2 mins
Creating Insta.ll.win -10 mins

All the time difference 2 vs 16 minutes was in the preparing ESD phase

Time saving overall turning Defender off was almost exactly 50%!

guess second try was with defender on

AndreTen said:

guess second try was with defender on

Yeah - post amended.

This a phenomenal difference in first stage - you are deserving of GURU status imo.

Cheers

cereberus said:

Yeah - post amended.

This a phenomenal difference in first stage - you are deserving of GURU status imo.

Cheers

Good, now I just have to remember to actually DO IT !!!

cereberus said:

Wow - just tested using uuptoiso with Defender on or off. I cleared all files between each case. Timings are to nearest minute +/- 10 seconds.

Defender Off
Preparings ESDs - 2 mins
Creating Boot.wim - 2 mins
Creating Insta.ll.win -10 mins

Defender On
Preparings ESDs - 16 mins
Creating Boot.wim - 2 mins
Creating Insta.ll.win -10 mins

All the time difference 2 vs 16 minutes was in the preparing ESD phase

Time saving overall turning Defender off was almost exactly 50%!

Yep, it has all to do with file access times. Checking each and every ~250k files with Defender, during Windows upgrade or .esd preparation, takes a really long time. Thanks for clocking this.

Second time ever I was not able to create ISO from Windows.old (W10 PRO x64 EN-US, upgrade from 16362). Required ESD file simply isn't there. Although this really should not happen, in most cases you can still make the ISO after the upgrade if you for any reason didn't do it before hitting Restart now button, I think it's a good idea to post this note from tutorial once again:

   Warning

Notice please: When Windows Update has finished downloading the UUP upgrade, the files needed to make the ISO are stored in a subfolder in C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download.

These files will in some cases be removed when upgrade is done. If you want to make an ISO for future needs, you have to do it before starting the upgrade process itself, after downloading the upgrade files but before clicking Restart now button!

Kari

Kari said:

Second time ever I was not able to create ISO from Windows.old (W10 PRO x64 EN-US, upgrade from 16362). Required ESD file simply isn't there. Although this really should not happen, in most cases you can still make the ISO after the upgrade if you for any reason didn't do it before hitting Restart now button, I think it's a good idea to post this note from tutorial once again:

   Warning

Notice please: When Windows Update has finished downloading the UUP upgrade, the files needed to make the ISO are stored in a subfolder in C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download.

These files will in some cases be removed when upgrade is done. If you want to make an ISO for future needs, you have to do it before starting the upgrade process itself, after downloading the upgrade files but before clicking Restart now button!

Kari

When I did the uuptoiso tests above (before doing restart now), the first case (Defender off) failed at last hurdle creating the iso with an error about output not being possible or something like that. When I did it with Defender on, it worked fine. I do not think Defender has anything to do with it, but I think there is a random bug occurring as I have encountered that before (with Defender on).